High blood pressure and high cholesterol are two factors that contribute to heart disease – the leading cause of death in the United States.

What is blood pressure?
What do the numbers mean?
What are the risks of high blood pressure?
What factors contribute to high blood pressure?
How is hypertension treated?
What is cholesterol?
Why is high cholesterol dangerous?
What is considered a high cholesterol measurement?
What causes high cholesterol?
How is high cholesterol treated?

Blood Pressure

What is blood pressure?

Blood pressure is the force created by the heart as it pumps blood into the arteries through 60,000 miles of blood vessels inside the body.

What do the numbers of a blood pressure reading mean?

Your blood pressure reading includes two numbers, for example 120/80. The top number (systolic pressure) is the pressure when the heart contracts and sends out blood. The bottom number (diastolic pressure) is the pressure when the blood flows into the heart, which is resting.

While your blood pressure may vary at times, if it is repeatedly at 140/85 or higher, you have hypertension, or chronic high blood pressure. That means your heart has to work harder than normal to pump blood in and out, putting your heart and arteries under a greater strain.

What are the risks of having high blood pressure?

If you have high blood pressure and it goes untreated, it puts you at increased risk for developing kidney disease, coronary heart disease (which leads to heart attack) and stroke (brain attack).

Because high blood pressure doesn't have any symptoms, many people don't know they have it. It's important to have your blood pressure checked by a doctor every six months or more often if you have a family history of hypertension, stroke or heart attack.

What other factors contribute to high blood pressure?

The factors below can raise your risk of hypertension:

• family history
• race (African-Americans are at greater risk)
• gender (male)
• obesity
• high-salt and high-fat diet
• stress
• physical inactivity
• oral contraceptives
• too much alcohol
• smoking

How is hypertension treated?

In cases of mild hypertension, you may be able to control your high blood pressure by making changes in your lifestyle, including diet and exercise. Patients with moderate to severe hypertension may also need medication to help keep the disease under control.

Cholesterol

What is cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a soft, waxy substance that circulates throughout the bloodstream. It comes from two sources: your liver and the foods you eat.

Cholesterol from your liver is used by all parts of the body to help form cell membranes, hormones and vitamin D. Cholesterol from your diet comes from fat and foods that come from animals.

There are two types of cholesterol: low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad”) cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good”) cholesterol.

Why is high cholesterol dangerous?

High blood cholesterol is a major risk factor for heart disease. When you have too much LDL cholesterol in your blood, it forms plaque on the walls of the arteries that carry blood to the heart. 

The buildup of plaque, known as atherosclerosis (or hardening of the arteries), reduces the blood flow to the heart, which leads to a heart attack or another cardiac event.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, killing nearly a half million people each year.

What is considered a high cholesterol measurement?

Your doctor checks your cholesterol level by taking a blood sample and having it sent to a laboratory for analysis. This chart serves as a general guideline for total blood cholesterol measurements:

Total blood cholesterol
200 or below: good
200 to 239: borderline high
240 or above: high

The good news about high cholesterol is that it can be lowered. You can help to prevent or stop the buildup of plaque inside your artery walls by keeping your total cholesterol level near 200 mg/dl or lower.

What causes high cholesterol?

Your cholesterol level is determined by the amount of cholesterol made by your liver and by the foods you eat.

Some people have a family history of high cholesterol. For unknown reasons, their liver makes too much. Others have high cholesterol because their diet contains too many fat and animal products (meat, cheese, milk, ice cream, eggs, etc.).

How is high cholesterol treated?

You may be able to lower your cholesterol by limiting your intake of animal products and fatty foods, eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly.

If your cholesterol is high and you have a family history of high cholesterol, your doctor may prescribe drugs to help lower it, and may also recommend other lifestyle changes.