Your Blood Pressure: Get it Checked, Get it Treated.
Your Blood Pressure: Get it Checked, Get it Treated.
Dr. Sean Gloth is a board-certified cardiologist with ISIM, Inc. and a member of CA’s Medical Advisory Board.
We all know that nearly every health care provider we see throughout our entire lifetime is interested in our blood pressure. Think of it: From childhood to advanced age, someone has taken your blood pressure reading. Why? More than 1 billion people worldwide have high blood pressure (hypertension). And hypertension is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. This means it can make us sick (morbidity) and dead (mortality). It puts us at risk for stroke, kidney damage and heart attacks. That’s the bad news. The good news is we can control it.
Here is how you can help keep hypertension from adversely affecting your health:
- Be aware of the problem. It is known as the “silent killer” because we usually can’t feel it. Just because you didn’t have high blood pressure last year does not mean you don’t have it this year. Have your health care provider check your blood pressure. You can check it at the pharmacy or at home, but it is important to have a trained health care provider check it as well.
- If you have hypertension, follow the advice of your health care provider to treat it. If you need medication, fortunately there are a wide variety of medications and a wide range of doses to not only lower your blood pressure — but also reduce your risk of kidney damage, stroke and heart attack. Because hypertension affects a wide variety of people of all ages and underlying medical conditions, the treatment and goals vary from person to person. Your provider can select the best medications and achieve the appropriate goal, keeping in consideration the unique medical history of each patient.
- Generally, lifestyle modification is a key element in treatment. This is where Columbia Association can partner with your provider to improve your diet, exercise, stress reduction, weight loss and healthy lifestyle choices. Lifestyle modification can reduce or eliminate the need for medication.
