Blood pressure (BP) is the pressure of circulating blood against the walls of blood vessels which usually results from the heart pumping blood through the circulatory system.
High blood pressure (HBP or hypertension) is when your blood pressure, the force of your blood pushing against the walls of your blood vessels, is consistently too high.
Most people have a yearly appointment with their doctors where they have full body checks, which usually includes checking their blood pressure, but one appointment a year is not enough at all.
Knowing this, you need to check to your blood pressure for these reasons:
1. If your blood pressure is high, and this is known as hypertension, it can cause headaches, shortness of breath, nosebleeds etc but in most cases, these symptoms are not even noticeable so it can be undetected for a long time leading to a silent death as a result. You should check for your blood pressure even when you have no symptoms so as to guard against high blood pressure which can lead to other diseases.
2. To avoid the risk of heart disease: Hypertension is the root cause of heart disease and, if left untreated, it can cause organ damage, heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure as well as bleeding in the brain and kidney damage that will eventually require dialysis. People with high blood pressure are 3 times more likely to die of heart failure. This is because when the heart is beating against higher pressure, it creates increased workload on the heart with every heartbeat which allows the heart muscles thicken and makes it harder and harder for the heart to pump blood effectively. See why you need to check your blood pressure?
3. High blood pressure can be treated with lifestyle changes if caught early on: This simply means that if you check your blood pressure regularly, you stand a higher chance of knowing when it is high and you can make better lifestyle choices such as changes to your diet, cutting back on alcohol, or increasing physical activity levels.
4. To improve Your Quality of Life and Increase Your Life-span: In 2013, almost 1,000 deaths per day in America were caused by hypertension. By decreasing your blood pressure and keeping it controlled, you are 25 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease:
In a nutshell, checking your blood pressure regularly does more good than harm and could actually be your lifesaver.
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