High Blood Pressure

What is high blood pressure?

Caption "Did you know? More than 1 in 3 American adults with high blood pressure don't know they have it." With three black stick figure people, one of which is read and has a broken heart.

High blood pressure is also known as hypertension. It happens when the force of your blood pushing against the walls of your blood vessels is too high.

High blood pressure can lead to serious problems including kidney failure, vision loss, sexual dysfunction, heart disease, and even heart attack and stroke.

As of 2021, the United Health Foundation reports that 34.3% of Kansas adults have been diagnosed with hypertension; the national average is 32.4%.

Know your numbers:

Checking your blood pressure is the only way to know if you have hypertension.

Blood pressure categories rainbow chartOnly a doctor or other medical professional can confirm a high blood pressure diagnosis. They also can check if your blood pressure is too low.

How to manage blood pressure:

Hypertension is a disease that can be managed with medications and lifestyle changes, which includes:

  • Reducing sodium intake.
  • Increasing physical activity.
  • Eating more nutrient dense foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains) and heart healthy fats (olive oil, unsalted almonds, wanuts, fish, salmon, tuna and more).
  • Eating fewer calorically dense foods (cake, cookies, pies and similar).
  • Quitting smoking.
  • Taking blood pressure medication as prescribed by a health care provider.
  • Checking your blood pressure routinely.

Learn more:

 

A medical professional checking blood pressure

A free 4-month hypertension self-measured blood pressure and management program.

Blood Pressure kits at the library

Check out a blood pressure monitor at Wichita, Mount Hope, and Clearwater libraries.

For questions, please contact:

Sara Sawer, MPH, RD, LD

sarasawer@ksu.edu

316-660-0118