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Almost 120 million adults have high blood pressure — about half of the adult population! Unfortunately, 33% of those people aren’t even aware they have high blood pressure. That’s because high blood pressure doesn’t typically cause noticeable symptoms.
Many people don’t realize they have it until it leads to serious health problems like heart disease, stroke, or kidney damage. The American Heart Association calls hypertension the “silent killer” for this reason.
Here at Maniya Health, you don’t have to wait until a serious complication arises before taking action. Our primary care team regularly diagnoses and manages high blood pressure in our three New Jersey locations.
Why you might not even realize you have high blood pressure
High blood pressure is sneaky. You may feel completely fine and still have high blood pressure. Unlike other conditions that cause noticeable discomfort, hypertension develops quietly — often for years. You may even have elevated blood pressure levels before you ever reach official hypertension status.
In other words, it gradually strains your heart and blood vessels. Without regular monitoring, you might not know there's a problem until complications arise.
Undiagnosed high blood pressure is dangerous
Left untreated, high blood pressure increases your risk of heart attack, stroke, vision loss, and kidney failure. It forces your heart to work harder and damages your arteries. In other words, high blood pressure affects your entire body.
Unfortunately, nearly 700,000 deaths each year are attributed to hypertension.
Regularly checking your blood pressure—and addressing it if it’s routinely high—can help you avoid damaged arteries and an increased risk of heart attacks.
Can high blood pressure ever cause symptoms?
In most cases, no.
However, if your blood pressure skyrockets quickly to 180+/120+ mmHg, don’t brush it off. A blood pressure reading this high is considered a hypertensive crisis, a medical emergency.
Symptoms of hypertensive crisis include severe headache, blurry vision, stroke-like symptoms, nausea, chest pain, and shortness of breath.
How do you know if you have hypertension?
The best way to combat damage from undiagnosed hypertension is to know your numbers.
Because high blood pressure doesn’t cause symptoms, the only way to know if you have high blood pressure is to check your blood pressure. Your Maniya Health provider can measure it during routine visits, or you can monitor it at home with a blood pressure cuff.
Blood pressure screenings are done with a sphygmomanometer — a cuff that measures the pressure inside your blood vessels.
Readings that are consistently above 130/80 mmHg are considered stage 1 hypertension. Stage 1 hypertension requires treatments to help safely lower your levels and reduce your risk of serious complications.
Readings that are 120-129/80 mmHg are considered elevated, but these readings also require action on your part. Addressing elevated blood pressure levels as soon as possible can help you avoid a full-blown hypertension diagnosis.
How to treat high blood pressure
Although hypertension is serious, the good news is that it’s treatable. If you have high blood pressure, lifestyle changes like a healthy diet, regular exercise, stress management, and medication (if needed) can help bring it under control.
Our team can help you tackle chronic conditions like high blood pressure through nutritional counseling, exercise recommendations, weight loss guidance, and medications like diuretics and beta blockers.
As a bonus, many of the lifestyle changes that you use to manage hypertension can also help you manage other conditions like diabetes and high cholesterol.
If you’re concerned about your blood pressure levels, call the location of your choice (Hamilton, Robbinsville, or Hopewell, New Jersey) or use our online scheduling system.