Blood pressure is one of those health issues that people can easily ignore. It doesn’t show up like a red mark, an unusual lump, or through pronounced symptoms like a fever or continual pain. But it does need to be checked and, if it is too high, you should take steps to address it.
While high blood pressure itself may not cause you to feel unwell, it can be the catalyst for some serious and potentially deadly health episodes, such as heart attacks or strokes.
Known in medical terms as hypertension, high blood pressure means your blood is pushing hard against the artery walls and your heart has to work harder to pump it round. The strain on the heart can cause a heart attack, while the pressure on blood vessels can cause a stroke, when an area of the brain is deprived of blood and is damaged as a result.
How Often Should You Get Checked Out?
This means that you should get your blood pressure checked every couple of years to ensure it is not too high. If it is, you should then seek advice on how to lower it and act on this, with further tests in due course being able to show if you have succeeded in getting it down again.
With our pharmacy offering these tests, you can come down to see us at your convenience to get it checked. It only takes a few minutes and you don’t have to wait for the results as we will know right away what the situation is.
The test will provide a reading that combines two types of pressure. The first is systolic pressure, which is the pressure in the arteries when the heart beats. The second is diastolic pressure, which is the pressure level between heartbeats. This will be expressed as a systolic reading over the diastolic reading.
A healthy reading should be below 120 for systolic pressure and under 80 for diastolic pressure (expressed as 120 over 80). If it is higher than this, you have an issue you need to act on. If it is between 120-139 over 81-89 then it is elevated. When it gets higher than this you have hypertension, which reaches crisis levels at 180 over 120 or above.
It is at the higher levels that you may start to get regular symptoms like dizziness or fatigue, but you can avoid it ever getting this bad if you are tested regularly and found to have high blood pressure. It is an avoidable problem for most people and there are many things you can do to make it worse as well as to make it better.
Causes Of High Blood Pressure
Among the things people do that raise blood pressure include smoking, excess alcohol consumption, eating fatty food and a lack of exercise. Some kinds of medication and oral contraception can also be a factor, which you should discuss with your GP. Illegal drugs can also be a cause.
For some patients, there are underlying medical conditions that can cause a problem. Thyroid problems, adrenal gland tumours, sleep apnoea, kidney disease and congenital blood vessel problems come into this category, although in most cases these will have other symptoms, that will have been identified, and you should be getting treatment for them.
For most people, a diagnosis of high blood pressure presents a challenge to improve your lifestyle. If you stop smoking, drink less alcohol, eat less unhealthy and fatty food, consume more healthy food and do more exercise, you can bring your blood pressure down and no doubt enjoy a lot of other health benefits as well, making you feel healthier in general.
How To Monitor Improvement
In such a situation, you can come back to the pharmacy for regular blood pressure checks to monitor your progress. Of course, if you can get your blood pressure back to normal levels that will be great news, but it is important not to slip back into old habits after that point, or you could end up back at square one.
Instead, you should see a high blood pressure reading as a signal to make significant changes to your lifestyle to improve it for the better, with all the wider benefits this brings.
Nobody wants to be told they have a medical problem. But blood pressure issues, like many others, can creep up on you and the consequences can be tragic. For that reason, it is essential that you get yourself checked out.
You may very well find that your blood pressure is fine even if you aren’t exactly in the shape to run a marathon. But whatever the outcome, knowing means you can either feel reassured about your state of health or be aware of the need to do something about it.
Frequently Asked Questions
High blood pressure can develop due to several factors, including getting older, being overweight, eating too much salt, drinking excessive alcohol, smoking, lack of physical activity and a family history of hypertension. In many cases, there is no single identifiable cause.
Stress can cause temporary increases in blood pressure and may contribute to unhealthy habits such as poor diet, smoking or excessive alcohol consumption. Managing stress through regular exercise, adequate sleep and relaxation techniques can support overall heart health.
High blood pressure often has no noticeable symptoms, which is why it is known as the “silent killer.” The only reliable way to know if you have high blood pressure is to have it checked regularly by a healthcare professional or with a validated home blood pressure monitor.
You can lower your risk by maintaining a healthy weight, eating a balanced diet low in salt, exercising regularly, limiting alcohol, stopping smoking, managing stress and attending routine blood pressure checks, especially if you have other risk factors.