Why do physician want to control blood pressure?
It is the measurement of the pressure at which the blood moves through the blood vessels.
What do the two numbers mean?
When you visit our office, the nurse takes your blood pressure, and they tell you 120/80, so what do these numbers mean? The top number is the systolic pressure. The systolic pressure is when the heart is pumping. The bottom number is the diastolic pressure, which is the pressure when the heart is not pumping, but relaxed and filling with blood.
What is considered high blood pressure aka Hypertension (HTN)?
You want your blood pressure to be below 120/80. HTN is diagnosed in patients with blood pressure greater than 140/90 in 3 separate occasions. Remember, these measurements are taken couple weeks apart. If your blood pressure is between 120/80 and 140/90, then it is called PRE-hypertension. People with pre-HTN may end up with HTN, but some people may be able to control blood pressure just with lifestyle modification. However, patients with other disease along with pre-hypertension, such as diabetes or high cholesterol, the physician may be more aggressive in treating the high blood pressure with blood pressure lowering medication.
Blood pressure that is uncontrolled will cause damages to the heart, kidney, brain, and eyes. End organ damage will result in problems like stroke, coronary artery disease, and kidney disease. So, it is very important to control your blood pressure.
Blood pressure is controlled either by medication or by lifestyle modification. There are many medications your doctor can you put you on. So, don’t be discouraged if your blood pressure does not go down immediately. Also, you may need to be on more than one medication. Fortunately, there are combination drugs which allow you to take one medication that has two different ingredients combined together.
There are many lifestyles changes you can make to prevent HTN: Increase daily activities, which will lead to weight loss, eat a healthy diet with low salt. If you are an alcohol drinker, limit to 2 drinks a day for males and 1 drink a day for females. Try to quit smoking, this may be hard, but there are couple different options we can provide to help you stop smoking.
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