This Week’s Top Stories from Harvard Health

High blood pressure at the doctor’s office but not at home?

Medical appointments make most people feel at least a little bit anxious. But for some, that stress may trigger a temporary rise in blood pressure. If their blood pressure is normal at home and in other nonmedical settings, they have what's known as white-coat hypertension.

Now, a large study suggests that people with this condition face a greater threat of heart disease than people whose blood pressure readings are always normal. Normal blood pressure is defined as less than 120/80, whereas high blood pressure is 130/80 and higher.

Get your copy of Controlling Your Blood Pressure

An alarming one in three American adults has high blood pressure. Known medically as hypertension, many people don't even know they have it, because high blood pressure has no symptoms or warning signs. But when elevated blood pressure is accompanied by abnormal cholesterol and blood sugar levels, the damage to your arteries, kidneys, and heart accelerates exponentially. Fortunately, high blood pressure is easy to detect and treat. In the Special Health Report, Controlling Your Blood Pressure, find out how to keep blood pressure in a healthy range simply by making lifestyle changes, such as losing weight, increasing activity, and eating more healthfully.

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Controlling Your Blood Pressure
Self-Paced Course from Harvard Health Online Learning

The new blood pressure guidelines have made the importance of maintaining lower blood pressure numbers abundantly clear. Indeed, now nearly half of American adults are considered to have high blood pressure, with double the risk of heart attacks and strokes as well as increased risk of kidney failure, loss of eyesight, and even Alzheimer’s. You don’t have to be in that group. You can effectively and successfully lower your blood pressure.

This interactive online course will show you how. You’ll discover the strategies, the medications, and simple lifestyle changes that will make a truly significant and measureable difference.

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Controlling Your Blood Pressure

Featured content:

•	Blood pressure basics
•	Types of high blood pressure
•	What puts you at risk for high blood pressure?
•	How high blood pressure harms your health
•	Diagnosing high blood pressure
•	... and more!