Blood Pressure

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Here at Simply Pharmacy, we offer free blood pressure checks. If your blood pressure is high, it is important to have regular checks.

What is blood-pressure?

Blood pressure is the pressure of the blood in the arteries as it is pumped around the body by the heart. Blood pressure does not stay the same all the time. It changes to meet your body’s needs. It is affected by various factors, including body position, breathing, emotional state, exercise and sleep.

If blood pressure remains high, it can lead to serious problems like heart attack, stroke, heart failure or kidney disease. The medical name for persistently high blood pressure is hypertension and the medical name for low blood pressure is hypotension.

Regular blood-pressure checks

If your blood pressure is in the healthy range and you have no other risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and no personal or family history of high blood pressure, it is still important to have a check every two years and during routine visits to your doctor.

If your blood pressure is ‘high–normal’ (or higher), or if you have other risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as a personal or family history of high blood pressure, stroke or heart attack, it is best to have it checked more frequently.

Managing high blood pressure

If your blood pressure remains high, it can lead to serious health problems. You will be more at risk of these problems if you:

have unhealthy eating habits
are overweight or obese
are physically inactive
smoke
have high cholesterol
have diabetes
are socially isolated
have depression.

Lifestyle changes are very important to help manage high blood pressure and lower your risk of cardiovascular disease.

Suggestions include:

Enjoy a wide variety of foods from the five food groups.
Decrease your salt (sodium) intake. (Salt is a mineral and is made up of sodium and chloride, but it’s the sodium in salt that is bad for your health. Although health professionals talk about salt, it is the sodium that is listed on food labels in supermarkets that it is important to keep track of.)

Achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
Be moderately physically active for 30 to 45 minutes per day, five days or more in the week. Alternatively, you can aim for vigorous activity (activity that makes you huff and puff) for 15 to 30 minutes, five or more days of the week.
Limit your alcohol intake to no more than two standard drinks on any day.
Quit smoking.

Some people may also need medicine to manage high blood pressure, but it is still important for them to make lifestyle changes too.

Blood Pressure

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