Is Your Blood Pressure Creeping Up?
Sometimes it just happens. You’re at your doctor’s office for a checkup—or maybe for a sick visit—and the nurse goes about recording your vital signs as part of the routine. Calmly she states: 138/92.
Wait what?
Your BP has always registered in the 120/80 range! (Maybe even in the 110’s/70’s.) Why would your blood pressure suddenly be on the rise? To your knowledge, your lifestyle been pretty static health-wise over this past year.
Welcome to old-er age, my friend…
A rise in blood pressure often begins to creep up as one ages into their 5th or 6th decade of life. It typically flies under the radar as mildly elevated blood pressure, or prehypertension (120-129/80-89 mm Hg) has no symptoms associated with it.
It’s not until you are in the category of high blood pressure, a.k.a, hypertension, that you might notice things such as strong headaches, nose bleeds, fatigue, shortness of breath, and possibly even a thumping/pulsing in your ears when you lay down to rest. High blood pressure puts you at risk for heart attacks, brain attacks (strokes), kidney damage, etc.—all of which, I’m sure, you want NO part of!
FYI, hypertension is graded into two stages:
Stage 1 (moderately high BP) = 130+/90+ mm Hg
Stage 2 (severely high BP) = 140+/90+ mm Hg
The only way you’ll know if your blood pressure is on the rise is to regularly monitor it. Most drug stores have a blood pressure machine available for customers. Another way to keep track of your blood pressure in between doctor visits is to buy an automated cuff to use in the privacy of your home*.
You’ve heard me say all this before in one Monday Morning Health Tip or another, but as it pertains to lowering your rising blood pressure: Eat heart healthy foods, decrease salt consumption, increase your potassium intake, exercise regularly, maintain a healthy body weight, drink less alcohol, manage your stress, and for goodness sake, if you smoke, please quit smoking!
Remember, even though there are medications which chemically lower your blood pressure, they don’t negate the effects of the insulin resistance and other determiners which brought you into the realm of high blood pressure to begin with. Lifestyle changes ALWAYS trump medication!
*Sometimes people suffer from what is termed “White Coat Syndrome.” This means that when in the presence of health care professionals (often wearing white lab coats), the patient becomes somewhat anxious, causing artificially high blood pressure readings. If this sounds like something you might be experiencing, have your doctor/nurse retake your BP at the end of your visit, when you might be more relaxed, or, as suggested above, get yourself an at-home BP monitor to use when you are in comfortable surroundings.