Top tips for reducing heart attack and stroke risk | Health

Aiming to maintain a healthy weight is important, but it also is important to be aware of other numbers, especially your blood pressure and cholesterol.

The biggest challenge is that there are generally no symptoms associated with high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, which is why it’s often called the silent killer. Having high blood pressure long term can cause many serious health problems, such as heart disease and stroke, so it’s vital to keep blood pressure numbers down.

High blood pressure is determined by the amount of blood your heart pumps and the amount of resistance to blood flow in your arteries. The more blood your heart pumps and the narrower your arteries, the higher your blood pressure.

Ideally, a normal blood pressure is below 120/80 mmHg. You are said to have prehypertension if your top number ranges from 120 to 139 mmHg or your lower number ranges from 80 to 89 mmHg. Prehypertension tends to worsen over time. And anything over 140/90 mmHg is considered hypertensive.

You should check your blood pressure two to three times a week because you don’t know if it’s high or if it’s at goal unless you check it.

Talk with your health care provider about also getting a baseline cholesterol check, especially given your family history. Cholesterol is a waxy substance that’s found in the fats in your blood. When you have too much cholesterol, you can develop fatty deposits, or lipids, in your blood vessels that can make it difficult for blood to flow through your arteries. An estimated 29 million adults in the U.S. have high cholesterol.