High Blood Pressure
Everyone’s blood pressure varies with their daily activities. For example, our blood pressure is usually lower during sleep and higher when we are excited or anxious. However, blood pressure that is constantly higher or lower than the normal range can cause serious problems. The medical name for constantly high blood pressure is hypertension.
Most people with high blood pressure have no symptoms and feel well. However, over time, constantly high blood pressure can cause heart and blood vessel disease and lead to problems including:
- Brain damage (e.g., stroke, dementia)
- Heart damage (e.g., heart attack, heart failure)
- Kidney damage • Eye damage (e.g., blindness).
The only way to find out if blood pressure is high is to measure it. It is recommended that adults have their blood pressure measured regularly, to detect high blood pressure before any damage is done. If your blood pressure is normal and you have no other factors that increase your risk of developing heart and blood vessel disease, the Heart Foundation recommends a blood pressure check every one to two years. If your blood pressure is high, or you have other factors that increase your risk of heart and blood vessel disease, more frequent checks are recommended.
Our lifestyle can significantly affect our blood pressure and also the health of our heart and blood vessels.
Lifestyle factors that can contribute to high blood pressure and to heart and blood vessel disease include:
- Too much salt in diet
- Too much fat in diet
- Being overweight
- Drinking too much alcohol
- Not enough physical exercise
- Smoking
- Stress
- Have certain medical conditions (e.g., diabetes, high cholesterol, sleep apnoea)
- Take certain medicines (e.g., oral contraceptives).
A healthy lifestyle is very important to help prevent or control high blood pressure and to reduce other risk factors for heart and blood vessel disease.
- Eat a healthy, balanced diet, with lots of vegetables, fruits, legumes and grain-based foods.
- Limit or avoid highly salted foods and adding salt to food. Use other flavourings in place of salt (e.g., herbs, spices, vinegar, lemon juice, onion, garlic).
- Limit foods high in fats, especially saturated and trans fats. Have moderate amounts of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats.
- Keep to a healthy body weight.
- Limit alcohol to no more than two standard drinks per day.
- Don’t smoke.
- Exercise regularly.
- Learn and practice relaxation techniques to manage stress
The Heart Foundation recommends at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise on all or most days of the week (some types of exercises should be avoided by people with high blood pressure – check with your doctor).
