Hypertension
Your Hypertension Care Healthcare Provider in Rio Rancho
What is Hypertension?
Each time your heart beats, it pumps blood into your arteries. Blood pressure is the force of your blood pushing against the walls of your arteries. Your blood pressure is highest when your heart beats and pumps blood, which is known as systolic pressure. When your heart is at rest between beats, your blood pressure falls. This is called diastolic pressure. Your blood pressure reading uses these two numbers as a ratio of systolic over diastolic. For example, a reading of 110/75 would be normal. If your reading is 140/90 or higher, you have a condition known as high blood pressure or hypertension.
How Hypertension Affects You
When your top number (systolic) reads between 120 and 139, or the bottom number (diastolic) is between 80 and 89, you have prehypertension. That means that you could end up with high blood pressure unless you take steps to prevent it. Although hypertension usually has no symptoms, over time it can cause significant health problems like heart attack, heart failure, stroke, and kidney failure. The good news is that you can control high blood pressure through healthy lifestyle habits like the DASH diet, exercise, and taking medicine. At Torres Family Care, our hypertension care services include prevention, education, blood pressure monitoring, and medication management.