Three ways to stay in control of your blood pressure

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Known as the ’silent killer’, high blood pressure affects at least 25% of adults in the UK and many of them are not even aware that they have it. If left untreated, high blood pressure increases your risk of a heart attack or stroke. It is recommended that you go to your doctor for a check up at least every five years and more often if you are over 65, have a family history of hypertension or are overweight.

Luckily there are plenty of small changes that you can make to your lifestyle to ensure that you stay healthy and avoid the issues associated with high blood pressure. Here are three top tips…

Keep an eye on your diet

Although it probably goes without saying, maintaining a healthy weight and eating plenty of fruit and vegetables is one of the best ways to stave off not only high blood pressure but to stay fit and healthy generally. It is also recommended that you limit the amount of alcohol, caffeine and salt that consume.

Play Football

In a study carried out at the University of Exeter, it was discovered that football is likely to help those at risk of having a high blood pressure to improve their fitness, normalise their blood pressure and reduce their risk of stroke.

Football training was found to prevent cardiovascular disease in middle-aged men with high blood pressure according to the research published in the latest edition of the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

After six months of training, three out of four men who took part in the study had blood pressure within the normal, healthy range!

Stay aware

High blood pressure is an easily controllable and treatable condition, however many of the people who end up hospitalised as a result of more serious medical conditions caused by high blood pressure, were not even aware that they had a problem until it was too late.

Being aware of your blood pressure is extremely important, especially if you are over 65, have a family history or are overweight- it could even save your life!

There are plenty of perfectly functional and reasonably priced monitors available to buy in chemist and many doctors’ surgeries offer a free blood pressure monitoring service. Ask your GP for more information.

However if you want a state of the art monitor and wish to track your blood pressure at the touch of a button then you need to look no further than this blood pressure monitor that is compatible with your ipad, ipod or iphone.

Based on the iOS operating system and Bluetooth technology, you can test, track and share your blood pressure results wirelessly with your iPod touch: iPhone and iPad. The monitor is integrated on the arm cuff and works with the Free App. It can even work out averages to see if the chances that you have made to your lifestyle or any medication that you are on is having a positive effect. This information can then be sent to family members or caregivers at the tough of a button.

The best defence against more serious health problems is to be aware and stay in control of your own body!