High blood pressure can damage your health in many ways.
Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of your arteries, which carry blood from your heart to other parts of your body. Typically, your blood pressure rises and falls throughout the day. But if it stays high for a long time, it can damage your heart and lead to health problems. This raises your risk for heart disease and stroke, which are leading causes of death in the United States.1
There are no warning signs or symptoms, and many people do not know they have it. The only way to know if you have it is to measure your blood pressure. Then, you can take steps to control it if it is too high.
It can seriously hurt important organs like your heart and brain. Fortunately, you can control your blood pressure to lower your risk for serious health problems.
Decreased Blood Flow to the Heart
High blood pressure can harden your arteries, which decreases the flow of blood and oxygen to your heart and lead to heart disease. In addition, decreased blood flow to the heart can cause:
- Chest pain, also called angina.
- Heart failure, a condition when your heart can’t pump enough blood and oxygen to your other organs.
- Heart attack, which occurs when the blood supply to your heart is blocked and heart muscle begins to die without enough oxygen. The longer the blood flow is blocked, the greater the damage to the heart.
The Brain
The condition can also burst or block arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the brain, causing a stroke. Brain cells die during a stroke because they do not get enough oxygen. Stroke can cause serious disabilities in speech, movement, and other basic activities, and a stroke can kill you.
The Kidneys
Adults with diabetes, high blood pressure, or both have a higher risk of developing chronic kidney disease than those without these diseases. Approximately 1 of 3 adults with diabetes and 1 of 5 adults with high blood pressure have chronic kidney disease.
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