Know Your Numbers
| Published: 31st August 2007 20:52 |
High blood pressure affects over 16 million people in the UK. The higher your blood pressure, the greater your risk of stroke, heart attack and heart failure. High blood pressure rarely has any symptoms. The only way to know if you have high blood pressure is to have it measured.
The Blood Pressure Association is a UK registered charity, that provides information and support to people with high blood pressure. A fundamental part of our work is to draw attention to the need to improve detection, management and treatment - and through our ongoing "Know Your Numbers!" campaign we are determined that everyone in the UK will realise the importance of knowing their blood pressure levels.
High blood pressure can be treated and sometimes prevented and there are many things that you can do to help lower it.
How you can lower your risk of developing high blood pressure
The leaflet below will show you how you can keep your blood pressure down to a healthy level and help to lower your risk of heart disease or stroke in the future. If you already have high blood pressure, then our other information pages (choose from the list on the left) will be more helpful.
There are a number of key steps you can take to help keep your blood pressure down:
1. Know your numbers (get your blood pressure checked regularly)
2. Eat less salt (no more than 6g a day)
3. Eat more fruit and vegetables (at least 5 portions a day)
4. Be as active a you can (aim for 30 minutes five times a week)
5. Drink alcohol in moderation
6. Keep to a healthy weight (lose weight if you have to)
To lower your risk of heart attack or stroke still further you can:
1. Give up smoking
2. Eat less fat
3. Deal effectively with your stress
Can high blood pressure be treated?
This is the good news. High blood pressure is not usually something that you can cure, but it can be treated. There is very good evidence from many studies that lowering blood pressure does cause a large reduction in strokes, heart attacks, heart failure and kidney disease, that would otherwise have occurred.
Most people in the UK with high blood pressure are treated at their GP practice either by the doctor or the practice nurse. Many surgeries now have specific clinics for people with high blood pressure which are often run by nurses. In the future many pharmacists may also be involved in monitoring and managing high blood pressure.
A few people may need to see someone more specialised in treating blood pressure. If you are having a lot of difficulty controlling your blood pressure, have a very severe high blood pressure or are having a lot of difficulty with side effects from medications then you may be referred to a specialist.
For more information visit http://www.bpassoc.org.uk
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