Do You Know What Your Blood Pressure Readings Mean?

Alas, all to often high blood pressure causes no symptoms. Sometimes people report feeling unwell with no specific symptoms, just a bit 'virally'. Others have spontaneous nosebleeds or persistent headaches. For many unlucky patients the first diagnosis of high blood pressure is a heart attack, stroke or kidney problems.

This is why as you get older it's worthwhile checking your own blood pressure with a blood pressure monitor. You'll have early warning of potential problems and be able to take steps to fix them. The old wives were right when they said prevention is better than cure!

The complications caused by high blood pressure can affect all your major organs.
As your blood pressure increases your heart has too work harder to pump blood round your body. Your heart is a strong muscle and gets bigger. Eventually it is too big and you may develop heart failure, which means your heart can't pump enough blood round your body.

High blood pressure causes your arteries to get narrower which reduces the blood flow and may cause a stroke, heart attack or kidney failure. You may develop a swelling of the largest artery in your body, which if untreated may burst.

The risk of developing these problems can be reduced easily by early diagnosis and prompt treatment to lower your blood pressure.

Most definitely yes it will. Using a blood pressure monitor at home enables you to keep track of your blood pressure. You need to take your BP at different times of the day to get a true picture of how well controlled it is. This avoids the well-recognised problem called white coat hypertension. Your blood pressure shoots up when measured by a doctor, but is much lower when you do it yourself. In the past this meant patients were treated when perhaps it wasn't needed.

There are a number of blood pressure monitors designed for use at home. With the rapid advances in electronics they are small, portable and easy to use. They are usually battery powered with large LCD displays that are easy to read. You can get blood pressure monitors that fit on your upper arm, wrist and even your finger.

Measuring your blood pressure at the wrist is easy as the cuff is small and easy to put in position. The machine pumps air into the cuff and as it tightens the pressure gradually increases until and it measures your blood pressure. They are not usually uncomfortable as the pressure is only high for a very short time.

Using the old-fashioned blood pressure machine with the upper arm cuff and doctor blowing it up and listening as the air was released was often quite uncomfortable. This was due to the cuff being inflated to well above your blood pressure. The modern blood pressure monitors pretty much avoid this problem.

It is amazing but just losing a few pounds can have a dramatic effect on your blood pressure. If you're overweight and get diagnosed with hypertension as well as taking the prescription drugs from your doctor, you really must lose some weight.

Studies have proven time and again that even a few pounds off has a marked and lasting effect on your blood pressure. It really is worth making the effort. Eat less ready prepared food and more fruit and veg and the first few pounds will drop off you. The diagnosis of high blood pressure is an early warning to you telling you to change your eating habits and lose some weight before it's too late.

A recent study published in the New England Journal Of Medicine has proved that high doses of vitamin A & C does not prevent high blood pressure in pregnant women.

Over the course of the 5-year study the women taking the vitamins had a higher rate of high blood pressure compared to those taking placebo.

In addition other problems associated with pregnancy such as a low birth weight, respiratory distress syndrome and cesarian section rates were unchanged.

High blood pressure in pregnancy is called pre-eclampsia. It is dangerous to both mother and baby and if untreated can lead to dangerously high blood pressure, fits, small babies, respiratory distress and even maternal death. So it is a condition that needs to be diagnosed and treated.

This new study proves very clearly that high doses of vitamins are of no use in preventing pre-eclampsia and in fact may well make high blood pressure worse. Vitamins in normal doses are still essential before, during and after pregnancy but high doses are actually dangerous.

Pre-eclampsia occurs in around 15% of pregnancies so it is uncommon but far from unknown. It's usually watched carefully and treatment may be started if necessary. If the blood pressure readings keep on increasing then often an early delivery by cesarian section is the best option. After the baby is delivered the blood pressure soon starts to return to normal.