Understanding Blood Pressure
8:00 AM
Everyone knows that high blood pressure is bad for your health, but do you understand what it means and why it's harmful?
The American Heart Association has set the following blood pressure ranges for identifying your health risk:
The reason blood pressure monitoring is so important is because hypertension has been deemed "the silent killer" - it generally is a symptomless disease, but the extra pressure on your arteries can lead to the following health consequences, when left untreated:
- Heart attack, heart disease, congestive heart failure
- Stroke
- Kidney damage
- Vision loss
- Memory loss
- Fluid in the lungs
- Angina
- Peripheral artery disease
There are ways to manage your blood pressure through diet, exercise and stress reduction. If you are interested in receiving help to lower your blood pressure, or if you would just like to have your blood pressure taken, please contact Lauren at ext. 2137 or lauren_almdale@fwymca.org.
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