Daily HealthBeat Tip

How's your blood pressure?

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

High blood pressure sneaks up on you � you can have it without knowing it, unless you have your blood pressure tested. High blood pressure can lead to a heart attack or stroke, among other conditions. And, because high blood pressure often affects older people, the National Institutes of Health has a guide on its SeniorHealth Web site.

The guide helps people understand what blood pressure readings mean, how high blood pressure can be treated, and what people can do to prevent and control high blood pressure.

The NIH's Dr. Ed Roccella tells us about some of them:

"Walking 30 minutes a day most days of the week is pretty good advice for most Americans, not only for blood pressure, but to just get up and around and burn calories. Cutting back on excessive calories would be helpful." (12 seconds)

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: December 27, 2006

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