A lot of people are living with high blood pressure and don’t even know it. This could be because high blood pressure usually has no symptoms. However, if you know you’re overweight and aren’t leading an exemplary lifestyle, it might be a good idea to get your blood pressure checked.
Getting your blood pressure checked is the easiest thing to do and, if it turns out that you do have high blood pressure, again, it’s one of the easiest things to correct. Simple changes in lifestyle, and possibly prescription medications, can make all the difference in your numbers. And you should always know your numbers.
High blood pressure can come from a lot of different sources in life, two of which always seem to stand out; salt and stress.
Our daily diets seems to be the obvious offender that everyone thinks of first, and within the boundaries of diet, excess salt intake is always front and center.
Too much salt in your diet can not only lead to high blood pressure, but it also leads to muscle cramps, dizziness, or a disturbance in the balance of all four major electrolytes in your body; sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. When one is out of kilter, the rest suffer. And, since 1994, the evidence of an association between dietary salt intake and blood pressure has increased.
Today’s lifestyle seems to take stress as a given, but we absolutely shouldn’t and don’t need to. There are so many different ways we can reduce stress levels to ensure our blood pressure stays within normal limits.
The general medically accepted standard reading for normal blood pressure hasn’t changed much in the last decade; it is still 120/80. However, high blood pressure is different in women and men. Along with their diet, women also have to take into consideration different conditions specific to the female of the species:
• Are they still of childbearing age? Pregnancy has an effect on blood pressure.
• After 50, a woman’s risk of high blood pressure rises.
• Are they using oral contraceptives?
• Have they gone through menopause?
Talk with your health care professional about your blood pressure at your next appointment. Have your blood pressure checked and, if it’s too high, ask for guidance and the simple steps you can take to bring it back down.
The American Heart Association has put together a new program called
Life’s Simple 7; seven simple steps you need to start living your best life. Their website also offers a short HBP quiz that can help you test your knowledge of high blood pressure facts and myths.
Q: When was the last time you had your blood pressure checked? Do you know your numbers? Have you changed your lifestyle recently because your blood pressure was too high? What steps did you take to change it?