Health Lines Newsletter by Tina Schoenfelder, Pharm. T his month we are going to talk about hypertension or high blood pressure. It is often called the silent killer because you can not physically feel high blood pressure. In this issue, we will focus on what high blood pressure is, how it is diagnosed and treated, and what you can do to maintain a normal blood pressure. Let s start off by establishing what blood pressure is and how it is measured.
Blood pressure is the amount of force exerted by the blood against the walls of the arteries.
This is because the pressure the blood exerts on your arteries is not always the same. The highest pressure is reached when your heart is beating and is referred to as systolic pressure. The lowest pressure, on the other hand, is found in between beats and is referred to as diastolic pressure. In Table 1, you will find a classification of blood pressure developed by the Joint National Committee on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. Usually, in order for your doctor to establish a diagnosis of high blood pressure, he must obtain three high readings on separate occasions.