Skip to content
- Did you know that one in three American adults has high blood pressure?
- High blood pressure is a leading cause of kidney disease, heart attacks, and strokes.
- Most people with high blood pressure do not have any symptoms. You can have high blood pressure for years without knowing it. For this reason, it is often called a “silent killer.” The only way to find out if you have high blood pressure is to have it measured.
- The exact causes of high blood pressure are not known. However, some things may play a role in its development, including:
- Smoking
- Being overweight
- Lack of physical activity
- Too much salt in the diet
- Drinking too much alcohol (more than 1 to 2 drinks per day)
- Older age
- Family history of high blood pressure (heredity)
- Having chronic kidney disease.
