All Americans are urged to understand the risk factors associated with hypertension -or high blood pressure.

Mary Garcia who has a family history of high blood pressure, says that "To me I don't know what would cause it directly but I know it could cause a stroke."

Mary is of Hispanic descent. She has two young children and she's concerned she could be a candidate for high blood pressure. Cardiologist Elizabeth Cintron explains that "Hispanics are a group of individuals that tend to have an increase risk of stroke. People can develop high blood pressure just by their family history."

Dr. Cintron says that besides genetics, lifestyle choices also contribute to health problems-at any age. "And unfortunately the Hispanic population tends to have an increased risk of being overweight, have an increased risk of developing diabetes, and certainly has a decrease likelihood of lack of exercise."

Dr. Cintron also says that when you put those factors together, more than 50% of hispanics over the age of 65 has high blood pressure. "Anyone in general, regardless of their ethnicity or racial background, you should know what your blood pressure is as a baseline. As you can get older you have a risk of developing blood pressure."

Mary says "I live for my kids, you know, I don't want them to be without a mom because I want to be selfish about not taking care of my health."

And everyone should be aware that as we get older our risk for developing high blood pressure increases. There may be no symptoms, it's known as the silent killer, which is why you should know your numbers.

According to the American Heart Association stroke is the fourth-leading cause of death among Hispanics.