Blood pressure is a measure of the force against the walls of your arteries when your heart pumps blood through your body. Hypertension is another term used to describe high blood pressure. This common illness increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, two leading causes of death among Americans. High blood pressure contributed to more than 362,895 deaths in the United States in 2010. In the United States, approximately 67 million people have high blood pressure, and only half of them have their condition under control. An estimated 46,000 deaths could be avoided each year if 70% of patients with high blood pressure were treated according to published guidelines (Patel, Datu, Roman, Barton, Ritchey, Wall, Loustalot; 2014). High blood pressure is called the “silent killer.” » because it often has no warning signs or symptoms, and many people do not know they have it. For most patients, high blood pressure is detected when they see their healthcare provider or have it checked elsewhere. Since there are no symptoms, people can develop heart disease or kidney problems without knowing they have hypertension. Some people may experience: severe headache, mild dizziness and blurred vision. Traditionally, the diagnosis of high blood pressure (BP) was based on consecutive clinic BP checks over a 2-3 month period, with hypertension confirmed if BP remained persistently elevated above 140/90 mmHg . This diagnostic method has important limitations because the blood pressure measured for an individual patient in a clinical setting may not reflect their daily blood pressure. The main concern is that due to “white coat syndrome,” hypertension may be overdiagnosed when verified in a clinical setting; resulting ...... middle of paper ...... potassium level is above 4.5 mmol/liters. If additional diuretic therapy is not tolerated, contraindicated, or ineffective, it may be prudent to consider an alpha- or beta-blocker. If blood pressure remains uncontrolled with optimal or maximum tolerated doses of four medications, the next and final step would be to seek expert advice (Williams, 2013).HYPERTENSION 6Blood pressure tends to increase with age . Following a healthy lifestyle can delay or prevent this increase in blood pressure. People with RAP can take steps to control it and reduce their risk of related health problems. Key steps include adopting a healthy lifestyle, exercising most days of the week, avoiding alcohol, quitting smoking, and getting ongoing medical care..