Hypertension

Blood pressure and hypertension explained

Blood pressure is the pressure of blood in your arteries. Your arteries are the vessels (tubes) that carry blood from your heart to your brain and the rest of your body. You need a certain amount of pressure to get the blood moving around your body.

Your blood pressure naturally goes up and down throughout the day and night, and it’s normal for it to go up while you’re moving about. It’s when your overall blood pressure is always high, even when you are resting, that you need to do something about it.

blood-pressure

home-blood-pressure-check

Measurement

Blood pressure is measured using two numbers:

  • Systolic pressure: this is the higher of the two numbers. It’s the pressure against your arteries when your heart is pumping blood around your body.
  • Diastolic pressure: this is the lower of the two numbers. It shows how much pressure is in your arteries when your heart relaxes between beats.

High Blood Pressure (Hypertension) is one of the most common long-term conditions affecting the population at St Marys /Mulberry House Surgeries. There are also lots of patients in our area with undiagnosed Hypertension and it is important that we try and identify these people. This is especially important as often you are not aware your blood pressure is raised and untreated raised blood pressure can lead to other issues.

Hypertension increases the risk of:

  • Heart attack
  • Stroke
  • Kidney damage
  • Vision loss
  • Memory problems (dementia)
 

Prevention

You can prevent Hypertension and help potentially treat without medication by doing various things:

We do not make a diagnosis of Hypertension based on just one reading. Your average blood pressure is the best way to make a diagnosis, and this means doing some readings at home.

Please click on the link below for information on how to take and submit your blood pressure readings.

BP CALCULATOR

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