Highs and Lows-taking control of blood pressure

The heart is a small but powerful pump beating steadily throughout your life and once it stops beating, you die! It circulates five litres of blood around your body every minute. The smaller blood vessels through which blood passes produce a resistance to this blood flow, and the pumping heart action against this resistance creates the blood pressure necessary for the circulation of the blood. This flow of blood is necessary for maintaining nutrition to the major organs, such as the heart, kidneys, liver and brain. So everyone has a blood pressure to sustain their circulation and stay alive.

In today's society, high blood pressure is on the increase, but it's not known as the silent killer for nothing as many people do not have their blood pressure checked or if they do, don't follow their doctors advice. Therefore they are a time bomb just waiting to go off.

Just ignoring your high blood pressure neither cures it or makes it go away and leave you in peace. If you have high blood pressure, you need to deal with it (period). Once you admit to the fact your blood pressure is raised, then you start to deal with it by following the treatment plan prescribed by your doctor, and if necessary making those all important lifestyle changes you probably desperately need to make.

Lifestyle changes can include such radical measures as losing weight, reducing the salt intake in your diet, and if this isn't enough then taking prescribed medication.

Having a high blood pressure does not mean you are terminally ill or you have to "take things easy" (As such anyway). A high blood pressure is a warning to you that your health is being compromised and very often your high blood pressure can be reduced to within normal limits by improving your weight, diet and general lifestyle. It's important though that you still have it monitored on a regular basis. High blood pressure can't be cured, though it can be controlled. Unfortunately once you've been diagnosed with high blood pressure, you'll usually find it's with you for the rest of your life. If you care watching and treating it carefully, it will be fine, but start mistreating your blood pressure and you'll find it will become unstable again.

Understanding your high blood pressure

It's important to see where the fine dividing line is when it comes to blood pressure and whether it is high, low or even normal, because so many different factors depend on the category. High blood pressure affects one in six people, which bluntly is a heck of a lot of people. To compound this, many people are walking around completely unaware their blood pressure is high which makes them a prime candidate for stroke, cardiac disease and other medical problems.

High blood pressure also appears to run in families, so if anyone close to you have high blood pressure, it's always a good idea to keep a close eye on your own.