Peoria Standard

Heart screenings save lives

During American Heart Month, here’s a checklist to make - the who, what, where, when, how and why of heart screenings.

Matt Janus, a wellbeing coordinator for OSF HealthCare, outlines the screenings you need to know.

• When you visit your health care provider, they should strap a cuff on your arm and check your blood pressure, or the amount of pressure your blood is putting on the walls of your arteries.

Blood pressure is measured using two numbers on top of each other. Systolic blood pressure, the top number, measures the pressure in your arteries when your heart beats. Diastolic blood pressure, the bottom number, measures pressure between beats. A normal blood pressure is less than 120/80.

“There’s a reason people call blood pressure the silent killer. Sometimes you can have really high blood pressure and not feel it,” Janus says. “Consequences of uncontrolled blood pressure include stroke, heart attack or heart failure.”

Original source can be found here