Hypertension (HT) is a long-term(chronic) medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently higher than the normal range. High Blood Pressure on the other hand is usually transient and reversible.
Blood pressure (BP) is the term for the force of blood against artery walls. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms, but long-term high blood pressure may eventually cause artery disease, stroke, heart failure, heart attack, dementia, vision loss, chronic kidney disease, and death.
You can have high blood pressure for years without any symptoms.
Even without symptoms, damage to blood vessels and your heart continues and can be detected. Uncontrolled high blood pressure increases your risk of serious health problems as listed above.
Hypertension generally develops over many years, and it affects nearly everyone eventually.
Fortunately, hypertension and high blood pressure can be easily detected. And once you know you have high blood pressure or hypertension, you can work with your doctor to control it by modifying your lifestyle and diet in the initial stage.
What Is The Normal Blood Pressure (BP)?
How Can You Check Your BP?
First of all, the key to prevention and treatment of high BP is for you to know your status, only then can your doctor work with you to help you control your BP. So, where can check your BP?
You can check your BP at any healthcare centre close to you by any healthcare professionals, or you can also check your self at home provided you’ve got the proper knowledge of how to read and interpret the values of blood pressure instrument (sphygmomanometer) or any other modern devices.
Healthcare professionals do encourage constant checking of BP at home, and also teach people on how to use those devices anywhere. There are several devices that I recommend for everybody to have for self-assessment of BP, the few notable listed are:
- Any automated sphygmomanometer- it’s available all over the world and comes in different shapes and sizes, and it’s easy to use and comfortable to wear. However, to avoid any errors in its readings, you must always use a new battery or fully charged rechargeable battery.
- Modern electronic wristbands such as “Helo LX plus” and others– these are the bracelet that you can wear on the wrist just like wristwatch or wristband, they’re comfortable to wear, and you can put it on all day. It helps to detect BP, blood sugar levels and send the signal to your phone with a preinstalled app. Measuring BP has never been this easy before! The advantage of this piece of tech over the conventional sphygmomanometer is that its very mobile and you can also monitor the health of your loved ones like parents, grandparents and spouse from anywhere in the world through the app provided they are wearing the wristband.