High blood pressure, do you know if you have it? And my story

All too often we aren’t aware if we are affected by high blood pressure until we have it…

What is high blood pressure?

High blood pressure, also known as ‘hypertension’ is when your heart pumps blood around the body at a higher pressure. The pressure pushes against the walls of your arteries and your blood pressure is a measure of the strength of this pushing, combined with the resistance from the artery walls.

Pushing the blood around the body is necessary to help get energy and oxygen to where it is needed. A normal heart can pump the blood around the body easily, at a low pressure. With high blood pressure, this means your heart must pump harder and the arteries have to carry blood that’s flowing under greater pressure.

This will cause a strain on the arteries and the heart itself, which in turn increases the risk of heart attack, stroke or suffering from kidney disease.

What are the symptoms of high blood pressure?

Well, here is the tricky thing. Normally there are no obvious symptoms. The only way to find out if you have high blood pressure is to get your blood pressure taken.

However, if you have extremely high blood pressure there may be certain symptoms that you could look out for, which include; severe headaches, fatigue or confusion, vision problems, chest pain, difficulty breathing, irregular heartbeat, blood in urine or pounding in your chest, neck or ears.

If you have any of these symptoms then it is recommended you seek medical advice as you might be having a hypertensive crisis that could lead to a heart attack or stroke.

It is recommended that adults should have their blood pressure checked at least every 5 years.

What risk factors could result in someone developing high blood pressure?

It is said that the exact causes of high blood pressure is unknown. There are a number of factors and conditions which may increase the risk. These include; overweight and obesity, smoking, little or no exercise, too much salt in your diet, drinking too much alcohol, stress, ethnic background or having a history of high blood pressure in the family.

How likely are you or someone you know to get or already have high blood pressure but don’t know about it?

It is estimated almost 1 in 3 people suffer from high blood pressure. According to BloodPressureUK.org approximately 16 million people in the United Kingdom have high blood pressure. 30% of women and 32% of men have it. They also state that approximately one third of people with high blood pressure do not know that they have it.

This is why high blood pressure is often called “the silent killer” because typically there are no symptoms until after it has done significant damage to the heart and arteries.

My story

I, unlike probably a lot of people, never thought I would be affected by high blood pressure. I only found out because I was due to have a tooth removed under sedation. When I went for a pre-check the lady took down some of my details, informed me of what would happen on the day and then needed to take my blood pressure. Well, when she took these she noticed that they were high and after several readings on both arms with no change, she highly recommended I go see my doctor.

Initially I didn’t think much of it. I just thought maybe it was nerves due to the thought of what would happen when I would go under sedation. However, I still arranged a visit to my local doctors. The day came when my appointment was due with the doctor and thought he would probably just do a couple measurements, see my blood pressure was okay and then just advise me that everything would be okay to go ahead with the sedation. I was a bit shocked when he showed me blood pressure readings that were around 150/110 (normal readings should be around 120/80). He recommended I take a 24-hour blood pressure test to see how my results were over a normal day. This would show if I was just anxious when I was at the doctors or if there was a real problem.

After waiting for about 3 to 4 weeks, I was notified that they had a machine available at my local hospital to attend to have it fitted. The machine is basically a normal blood pressure device that has a battery and recording device which is hooked up to your belt. The pressure band was put on my left arm (as I am right handed) and every 20 minutes between 7am and 10pm the machine would go off, squeezing my arm and making the sound that it does. If I was in the middle of doing something or driving then often it would let me know it failed and it would repeat again in a couple minutes. Between 10pm and 7am, the machine would go off every hour. As you can imagine this woke me up every hour, hearing the device turn on and my arm being squeezed.

A couple weeks later the results were in and the doctor called me back in to confirm I had high blood pressure. I was given some tablets to take and advised that they could affect my kidney so I would need to have a blood test and would need to regularly have these blood tests to monitor my kidney’s performance.

What has helped me since being diagnosed with high blood pressure?

Apart from the tablets that I have been given, there has been something else that has helped me and that is a device which allows me to monitor my blood pressure regularly and doesn’t squeeze my arm each time it does it. Now initially I had some doubts to how accurate this device would be compared to a blood pressure machine that squeezes your arm. After charging the device and downloading the app, I set up my personal details, including an initial recording of what my blood pressure normally is and I was then ready to start the test.

First, I ran the normal blood pressure machine twice to get an average and then I did the same on the device and I found the bottom value was spot on and the top value was only off by 4. This was impressive. However, I am someone who likes to do some proper testing. I continued to test both over the course of a couple of days and they were never too far apart.

This for me was a big relief as it meant I could use the device to give myself a fairly good understanding of what my blood pressure might be. I was now able to monitor my blood pressure every 30 minutes and so I started and still am testing different things to see what can improve my readings.

The biggest single difference I have noticed so far has been by eating a banana. This made a difference and actually dropped my values by nearly 10%. I had done some research online which did say eating 2 bananas a day can help to reduce blood pressure. The potassium in them reacts with the salt in your body. Fantastic, that’s a good start I thought.

I then also did another test; I ate a banana in the morning and then completed a short run. That accompanied with a hot shower showed my levels coming down just below the 120/80 mark, I was very impressed.

I am now planning more tests to see how other foods and different exercises help to reduce my blood pressure. I am hoping with the correct mixture of foods and exercising I can look to control it without the help of tablets.

If I could go back in time, what would I change?

I would have focused on a healthy diet and finding time for more exercising, also being able to monitor my blood pressure regularly would have alerted that I may have a problem. If I had this device 6-12 months ago I could have seen my blood pressure starting to increase and I could have taken steps to stop it from getting to where it got. My suggestion for others is if you have or think you might have, or know someone who may or has high blood pressure, get a device that can monitor the blood pressure regularly, improve eating habits and ensure regular exercise.

For me it was the Helo device that helped me. It is also one of the biggest reasons I am now looking to share my story and help others become more aware.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Helo LX then you can visit https://markclaxton.helo.life or if you are in a similar situation as I am and would like to talk please get in touch via private message or you can email me at [email protected]

Let’s try and reduce the number of people that don’t know they have high blood pressure before it’s too late.

Thank you.