Each heart beat pushes blood through your arteries. Arteries are the blood vessels that carry blood from your heart to your body. Blood pressure is the pressure of blood in your arteries. Without blood pressure, blood wouldn’t flow through your blood vessels and you’d die. But blood pressure that’s too high stresses your heart and damages your arteries and other organs.

  • After many years, high blood pressure causes serious problems, such as heart attack, heart failure, stroke, or kidney damage
  • High blood pressure is called the silent killer because it usually doesn’t cause symptoms until it’s too late
  • High blood pressure causes more deaths and serious problems than almost any other condition, but most complications can be prevented by proper treatment
  • Exercising, eating less salt, losing weight, quitting smoking, and drinking less alcohol help lower blood pressure