Living With Added Pressure: High Blood Pressure

My parents called me the other night and talked to me about how they are taking these medicines that the their doctor prescribed to them to manage their high blood pressure. Hold up. My parents have high blood pressure? It turns out that during their biannual doctor visit their blood pressure has climbed up really high, and now they are taking these meds to control it, like a diabetic would do to control his/her sugar. I guess my parents are now part of the 72 million Americans that have high blood pressure today, which is about 1 in 3 adults.

I love my parents very much, so after I heard about this somewhat tragic news, I immediately did some looking around to find out what someone with high blood pressure can do to control it. And this is what I've found out which I immediately shared to my folks and now I am sharing it to you all.

The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute suggests that hypertensives ( a fancy name for people with high blood pressure) should take their prescribed medicines. There are medicines out there that can help control and/or lower your high blood pressure. Remember the following when you are taking your medicines:

• Follow your doctor's instructions regarding how much of these meds you should take and when you should take them.
  
• Know the names of your medicines
• Refill your meds immediately once they ran out.

Make sure you have follow-ups check ups with your doctor or as often as he or she advices. Regular checkups allow your doctor to keep track of your high blood pressure whether it has decreased or increased, and could right away adjust your medications. Another important thing you should do during your checkup is to ask your doctor any questions about your medications, your high blood pressure, and also about other methods to reduce or control it.

Learning the skill in taking and reading your own blood pressure can be a very helpful and convenient way of checking your blood pressure regularly. Have someone whether a family member or a friend learn this important skill, if you can't do it yourself, by having your doctor or a nurse teach them . Each time you check your blood pressure at home write down the date and then your blood pressure number. Show these results to your doctor when you visit him during your checkups. This will save you time and your doctor can immediately prescribed you the proper medications.

Medications alone cannot solve your high blood pressure problem. Another equally important way to reduce and control this disease is to change your lifestyle. This might be easy enough to hear ( or read), but to actually do this and commit to it is the hardest. Changing ones lifestyle into a healthy one includes:

• Not smoking
• Drinking moderately ( so goodbye weekend trips to the bars)
• Managing your weight
• Not eating that second serving of dessert
• Decreasing the amount of those delicious, salty, oily food we all love so much
• And EXERCISING!!!
  

Hey, if you all are committed in controlling or lowering your high blood pressure then you've got to change your unhealthy habits. This lifestyle changing thing is where my parents are also

having a hard time committing themselves into. Luckily they have each other to check or keep track of what the other person is doing. Ask your significant other or a friend to do the same thing. If you are serious in reducing your high blood pressure and living a healthy life then you should LIVE LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.

Resources:

National Institute of Health ( n.d.). Living with high blood pressure. Retrieved February 11, 2008 from National Lung Heart and Blood Institute Web site: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/Hbp/HBP_LivingWith.html.

American Heart Association. (2008). 10 ways to control your high blood pressure. Retrieved February 11, 2008 from: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=578.