Being Aware Of Your Blood Pressure Could Literally Save Your Life
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High blood pressure, which is also known as hypertension, has been given the nickname of the ’silent killer’. High blood pressure can be a fatal condition that develops gradually over a long period of time and the majority of people do not experience any signs or symptoms of the condition at all. As a consequence of its lack of signs and symptoms, high blood pressure frequently goes undiagnosed and untreated.
In the United States it was estimated that some 50 million adults were suffering from high blood pressure in the early 1990’s and this figure has been rising ever since. By the start of the 21st century it was estimated that some 65 million people were suffering from high blood pressure and now that number has topped 72 million. This means that about one in three adults in the US now suffers from high blood pressure.
This is what some recent studies have revealed:
30% of people who have hypertension are not aware of the fact that they have it and are therefore not receiving any treatment.
15% of the people are aware that they have hypertension but are either not getting treatment for it or do not bother to follow their recommended treatment.
25% of the people are aware that they have hypertension but they do not have their blood pressure under control.
All of this means that about only 30% of the people with hypertension are currently receiving the correct treatment for their hypertension and have it under control.
Even though it has often been said that it is not possible to tell if someone has high blood pressure there are some tell-tale signs that may indicate that you have hypertension. Some of these symptoms include headaches, blurred vision, dizziness and nausea.
High blood pressure is a major cause of death in the US today and it raises considerably the risk from a number of life threatening conditions such as heart failure, heart attack, cardiovascular disease and kidney failure.
Bearing in mind the nature of this condition it is only sensible to monitor things by regularly checking your blood pressure and this can be done by calling on your doctor to ask for a blood pressure check. But this is not always convenient for many people and so an alternative is to simply check your own pressure at home. There are now many blood pressure monitors available which are designed for use at home and they are both simple and quick to use and are also quite inexpensive.
Having your own blood pressure monitor means that you can keep an eye on blood pressure for the whole family and will give you considerable peace of mind and allow you to pick up any developing problems at a stage at which they can be easily treated.
