Blood Pressure Break Down One in two American adults has high blood pressure according to guidelines from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. If you don’t currently have high blood pressure, that’s great! However, ninety-percent of adults in the United States go on to develop high blood pressure, increasing their risk for stroke, heart attack, diabetes, and dementia. But is high blood pressure inevitable? No! Eating the right diet, losing weight, and exercising regularly can help you take control of your blood pressure. Blood pressure is a measure of the cardiac cycle, or the contraction (squeezing) and relaxation (refilling) of the heart’s chambers. Blood exerts pressure on the walls of your arteries, just like water pushes against the walls of a garden hose. The force exerted by blood on the walls of blood vessels during a [...]