Read This If You Think Your High Blood Pressure Is Controlled
As a Personal Trainer trying to help others stay healthy, it bothers me when during my initial interview a client tells me they have high blood pressure… but it’s under control. What they think is that their medication is keeping them healthy when what I am thinking is that the medication is just masking some underlying condition that will only get worse if they don’t make lifestyle changes.
Even when managed with medications, high blood pressure (hypertension) remains a significant health threat. This is because hypertension often causes no obvious symptoms, making it easy to overlook its long-term effects on the body. Even with medication, blood pressure can fluctuate or fail to reach optimal levels, continuing to strain the heart, arteries, and organs. Over time, untreated or inadequately controlled high blood pressure can lead to serious conditions such as heart disease, stroke, kidney damage, and vision loss. Medications help lower blood pressure, but they do not eliminate the risks entirely. Lifestyle changes such as a balanced diet, regular exercise, and stress management are essential in complementing medication and maintaining healthy blood pressure levels, safeguarding overall health.
To be clear, I am not a healthcare professional. There is a ton of information on hypertension available and it is not my intention to go over that here. You are here because you have hypertension and are probably on some sort of medication to treat it. What I want to convince you of is that….
It is in your best interest to make lifestyle changes if you have high blood pressure, even if you are on medication for it
High Blood Pressure can be lowered by medication. That is not the same thing as controlled. Whatever caused the high blood pressure to begin with is still running rampant in your body. If left unchecked, the underlying condition could make your hypertension worse which would then cause your health care provider to take more aggressive steps to “control” it.
My plea to you is that you try to make some lifestyle changes to ensure that it doesn’t get worse, or hopefully, that you’ll be able to lower it back to normal. There is some good advice from the National Institute of Health and also another blog of mine on how I lowered my blood pressure back to normal.
Having high blood pressure/hypertension is symptom of things to come. Try some of these things, along with what your healthcare provider is doing, to live a longer and healthier life:
- Lose Weight
- Become more active by following the CDC guidelines for physical activity
- Modify your diet if needed. Here is information on the Dash Diet
- Reduce or manage stress in your life (Meditation, Yoga)
- Stop smoking
- Reduce your alcohol intake