What is high blood pressure?

Your blood pressure reading tells you if your blood pressure is too high.

Blood pressure is the force with which your blood pushes against the walls of your arteries. A blood pressure reading has two measurements, usually shown as one number over another.
Systolic pressure (the top number) is the pressure that occurs when the heart is pumping blood.
Diastolic pressure (the bottom number) is the pressure that occurs between heartbeats.

A normal blood pressure reading is less than 120 systolic and 80 diastolic (120/80). Blood pressure is considered too high if the systolic stays over 140, or the diastolic stays over 90, after two or more visits to the doctor's office.

For people with diabetes or chronic kidney failure, blood pressure is considered too high if it is above 130/80.

Nearly one in three adults in the United States has high blood pressure.

High blood pressure is the most commonly diagnosed condition in the U.S. An estimated 73 million people in the U.S. have high blood pressure. And nearly a third of people with high blood pressure don't know they have it. For most patients, blood pressure is a condition that can be controlled with adequate lifestyle changes and prescription medicine. In fact, most high blood pressure patients will need two or more High blood pressure medications to achieve blood pressure control.