On your next doctor’s visit, don’t be surprised if your child gets diagnosed with hypertension due to high blood pressure. The American Academy of Pediatrics has released new recommendations that will likely expand the number of children in America who will be declared as having abnormally high blood pressure.

High blood pressure is what experts call a “silent” condition in that it doesn’t have any visible symptoms but can destroy the body from within over time. It is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease, one of the top killers of people in the United States. The new guidelines were published in the journal Pediatrics Monday as a way to prevent the development of cardiovascular disease down the road.

A 20-person committee updated the previous guidelines, which were issued in 2004. They reviewed nearly 15,000 articles. Under the new guidelines, about 3.5 of all children and teens in the country have hypertension.

“If there is diagnosis of hypertension, there are many ways we can treat it,” said David Kaelber, MD, PhD, MPH, FAAP, co-chair of the AAP Subcommittee on Screening and Management of High Blood Pressure in Children, which developed the report. “But because the symptoms are silent, the condition is often overlooked.”