How Do You Know If You Have High Blood Pressure?
May 2nd, 2006 (High Blood Pressure)
As you know from doing your research, high blood pressure is serious business. But for all of the problems it can cause, you probably wouldn’t even know you have it unless your doctor tells you so. You might get a few unexpected headaches. But other than that, hypertension has no symptoms in its early stages.
So it’s not surprising that as many as 30 percent of people with high blood pressure are completely unaware that they have the problem. This means almost 15 million Americans could be getting treatment right now that could improve or even save their lives, but they’re not. Many of them will not seek help until they’ve had hypertension for years and it starts to create other problems - chest pain, stroke, heart attack, heart failure, or kidney disease.
The good news is that it isn’t hard to get checked for high blood pressure right now. Usually, it’s as simple as sitting down, sticking out your arm, and waiting while a doctor or nurse runs a painless test. This small amount of time could save your life.