Believe it or not, blood pressure can be a funny, quirky
thing!
A while back, I was taking my blood pressure just to see how it
was doing.
I always take it about 3 times each time just for kicks.
Anyway, I had already taken it the first time, when I had
the thought that I'd like to prank my son.
He and his wife come over every other Sunday for dinner, and
the next Sunday was the in-laws' turn to have "custody" as I jokingly put it.
So I thought I'd text him and ask him what time they wanted
to have for dinner on Sunday...
I'm starting to laugh at the thought, but also trying to
contain my laughter until done taking my blood pressure!
And my blood pressure went UP while trying not to laugh!😁
I texted, then just TOTALLY let that laughter out!
Then I checked my BP again, and it went down 15 points!
THAT'S how much your blood pressure can be affected…even for the "good" stuff in your life!
Numbers and Motivations
Did you know there are similarities between the CoronaVirus
and high blood pressure?
Especially at first, you might have had a fear of what was
going to happen to you…
You didn't know what to expect…
The daily numbers scared you into following the rules…for
good reason!
Those three statements could apply to either CoronaVirus or
high blood pressure…
Don't you agree?
As time goes on in both cases, the fear wears off a bit, altho you're still aware of it.
There's one more fear that a lot of people have that I'll
talk about at the end.
Not to scare you or anything, but back in 2017, there were some pretty scary numbers coming out of the CDC.
I'm sure those numbers have only grown since then.
An update by the CDC to that number... "In 2020, more than 670,000 deaths in the United States had hypertension as a primary or contributing cause."
My guess is that most people have at least heard about this
issue, but many may not even realize they have it.
Why?
Because similar to the coronavirus, you may not have symptoms until suddenly it
thrusts those symptoms on you!
What is this condition?
If you haven't guessed yet, it's high blood pressure, aka hypertension.
According to the American Heart Association, between 2005 and 2015, deaths from high blood pressure
increased 11% in that 10-year span.
That's pretty impressive! Although not in a good way!
Preventing CoronaVirus ...
Let's look at it this way…
You may be scared about the coronavirus… and sometimes even mad
because of some of the rules that have been implemented "for our
protection."
At first, it was easy to go along with those rules because
of the thought of catching this virus.
Seeing images and stories of others getting the virus was
enough for you to want to stay home. (By the way, I'm
sincerely hoping that you or your loved ones didn't have to deal with the
disease.)
But then…
Although you may have been quarantined, life may have gone
on as usual.
Meaning you got into a comfort zone at home or working from
home, with the exception of all those essential workers that we relied on so heavily!
... Vs preventing or treating high blood pressure.
You may not know you have high blood pressure…which is kind
of similar to people not knowing, yet having coronavirus antibodies without the
symptoms.
Life is going along as normal…possibly with your blood
pressure rising in your veins and arteries without any symptoms.
Or…
If you do know you have it, it's not calling attention to
you…yet.
Until that day or night when it does…
And BOY …that wakeup call can REALLY SCARE YOU!
Or even KILL YOU!
What will your thoughts be then?
Or how sad will your family and/or friends be when you have
a stroke and possibly die?
Your Reality
With both the CoronaVirus and the High Blood Pressure
scenarios, whether the numbers were changed or not, it's easy to get scared
about what can happen to you.
The scenario playing out in front of us all with CoronaVirus
was scary enough to have us abiding by the quarantine, for the most part
anyway.
The numbers of illnesses and deaths are beside the point…you
didn't want to catch this nasty bug!
With high blood pressure, the scenario isn't as obvious
because the media is not putting it out there every day in our faces!
The reality, though, is that it sure looks like the blood pressure numbers
are higher.
With CoronaVirus, we don't want the government totally
taking over our lives.
We say we should be able to take care of ourselves.
But in the case of high blood pressure, do you?
It is NOT hard to keep track of your blood pressure numbers.
There is a little machine that you can very easily and
painlessly track what your numbers are doing.
And you should…
Because as I showed in the beginning story, while sometimes a
slight rise in blood pressure happens, when you are aware of what your numbers
are doing you can take action steps to control it better.
If you don't know what your blood pressure is doing…well,
you are just in the dark & your numbers could be going up without you feeling it or knowing.
Why take the risk, when it is just SO EASY
All throughout this blog, there are different steps you can
take when you see a need for lower bp numbers.
Some people say they don't like to take their blood pressure
because it goes up when they take it and scares them.
My answer to that…how scared are you going to be when you're
feeling dizzy and nauseous, & seeing stars in your head when you close your
eyes?
Believe me…been there, done that! And it's not fun.
There are lots of ways to lower blood pressure naturally…or if
you or your doctor find that you need to…there are medicines.
Take care of yourself…and your family by being aware.
Hey…sorry if I came down kind of hard on you. You know, sometimes things just need to be
put out there!
P.S. There are certain things you might want to look for in a blood pressure monitor. The first is to make sure the cuff is the right size, otherwise, the measurement can be thrown off.
The brand and model I recommend has a cuff that fits arms 9 to 17 inches in circumference and records 120 blood pressure readings each for two people.
If the blood pressure monitor is just for one person, this Omron should work well for you. Another difference is it stores 60 readings for one person instead of 100 - 120 readings for two people, but 60 readings will still give you and your doctor the information you need.
Of course, there are more expensive models as well, such as the Platinum model that can even include things like sleep monitoring, monitoring and tracking your progress of physical fitness goals, and an AC adapter to use when you prefer not to use batteries and has a 6-year warranty.
Having recordings of your blood pressure readings is important if you want to take the monitor to the doctor's office to possibly compare your number measurements against theirs to confirm accuracy, or just to look back at your own blood pressure history!