When is the last time your blood pressure was checked? Do you know what the reading was, and if it was in the normal range according to the American Heart Association guidelines? Blood pressure can seem like a mundane and routine metric, which is sometimes simply taken and noted in your chart without much further ado. In fact, most of us don’t give blood pressure much thought, that is until there is a problem! Those who are caught unaware may not have noticed as it was silently creeping up little by little, year after year…until the day it seemed to jump out of nowhere into Hypertension stage 2, or worse!
High blood pressure is hard to detect without a reading. It can become a serious problem because it causes your heart to pump harder to distribute blood around the body. This leads to thickening of the left ventricle which can lead to serious heart problems including heart attacks. In addition to heart damage, high blood pressure (called hypertension) negatively affects your circulatory system and other vital organs all of which can lead to a premature and preventable death.
Importantly, blood pressure readings are noted by a systolic number (the top number) which measures the amount of pressure in arteries during the heart muscle contraction, and a diastolic number (the bottom number) measuring the pressure when the heart muscle is resting between beats. These numbers help tell a story about the health of your heart and arteries, and they can also signal an important call to action as the guidelines below exemplify.
Since 2017 the guidelines for blood pressure are:
- Normal: <120 (systolic) and <80 (diastolic)
- Elevated: 120-129 (systolic) and less than 80 (diastolic)
- High B/P (Hypertension) Stage 1: 130-139 (systolic) or 80-89 (diastolic)
- High B/P (Hypertension) Stage 2: 140 or higher (systolic) or 90 or higher (diastolic)
- Hypertensive Crisis, Consult doctor immediately: Higher than 180 (systolic) and/ or higher than 120 (diastolic)
High blood pressure left unchecked can cause systematic damage to your heart, arteries, brain, kidneys and more including but not limited to:
- enlarged heart/ heart disease/ heart attack
- blocked and narrowed arteries
- stroke or mini strokes called TIAs (Transient Ischemic attacks)
- kidney damage and or failure
Some factors that can contribute to high blood pressure:
- diet high in fat, salt, and cholesterol
- smoking
- genetic factors
- lack of exercise
- older age
- being overweight
Though often there aren’t any, some of the warning signs of hypertension may include:
- dizziness
- chest pain
- severe headaches
- nosebleeds
- fatigue
- vision problems
There are things you can do to combat high blood pressure (whether proactive or reactive):
- exercise regularly
- stop smoking/ limit alcohol
- eat a diet low in fat, sodium, and cholesterol
- use the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet and DASH recipes as a guide for what you should be eating
- check your b/p regularly and notify your doctor of changes
Maintaining a healthy blood pressure:
- Know what your current blood pressure reading is, and what it should be. If you are a caregiver, also know this information regarding the person you are caring for.
- If you are serious about tracking your blood pressure, there are great monitors available for home use (Omron for example). It is recommended you take the reading once per week and keep a log so you can share the information with your doctor.
- In 2017, for the first time in 14 years, the American Heart Association tightened the guidelines for what constitutes normal blood pressure. Normal is now considered less than 120/80 (less than 120 systolic and less than 80 diastolic).
- You can lower your blood pressure effectively through diet (DASH) and exercise, and if needed, the use of blood pressure medications (which are many and varied) prescribed by a doctor.
There are often no warning signs exhibited for hypertension, as my doctor said “it’s not called ‘the silent killer‘ for nothing.” If your blood pressure is in any stage of hypertension I urge you to talk to your doctor and work to get it back down into what is your normal range. I hope to raise awareness on this subject because hypertension can easily go unnoticed until it is too late, and in fact high blood pressure is very treatable, and even more importantly, preventable.
Disclaimer: Please check with your doctor before starting any new diet or exercise program. We are NOT doctors, nutritionists or registered dietitians.