What You Can Do As A Patient.
This information should help you manage your blood pressure better.
High blood pressure- sometimes called hypertension- is not usually something you can feel or notice. Having high blood pressure puts extra pressure on the walls of your arteries (blood vessels) and over time this can cause damage, meaning that they are more likely to get clogged up.
So having high blood pressure means you are more likely to have a heart attack or a stroke. High blood pressure can also cause your heart to become bigger and be less effective at its pumping action. High blood pressure can also damage kidneys.
For all of these reasons it is important that we work together to reduce it.
The good news is that there are lots of things you can do to help lower your blood pressure.
Your blood pressure reading is: ________________
Your target blood pressure reading is: ________________
Life Style.
There are simple things you can do to help lower your blood pressure:
- Eat a diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables;
- Aim to reduce the amount of red meat you eat;
- Aim to try to lose some weight;
- Reduce your salt intake- try adding herbs and spices for flavouring and cooking at home rather than buying prepared food
- Drink less alcohol (<14 units a week);
- Be active for at least 30 minutes a day. The activity should make you feel warmer, breathe harder and make your heart beat faster than usual;
- If you are a smoker then you need to stop smoking! Ask for advice if necessary.
Medication.
It is important to take your blood pressure medication as prescribed. Let your doctor or nurse know if you are not taking your medication or thinking about stopping it so a plan can be drawn up together.
When you are taking medicine to lower your blood pressure this will help most if you are working to make lifestyle changes too.
Most people need to take more than one medicine to help lower their blood pressure.
From time to time it can be easy to forget medicines so don’t worry if you do and at the same time try to remember to take regularly.
There is some evidence that taking all your blood pressure medication in the evening before going to bed may be more effective.
Action Plan
If you need to make a lot of lifestyle changes it can often be overwhelming to think about tackling everything at once. Often it is best to pick a priority area and that one, change well.
My personal priority is: _______________________________________________
What To Expect From The Caversham
Blood pressure reviews
Minimum once a year or at your request if you have concerns about your blood pressure. During your review, your blood pressure will be taken and various lifestyle factors that contribute to high blood pressure will be discussed.
If you have a blood pressure machine at home, please let us know and we can carry out this review remotely using readings recorded on your home blood pressure monitor. If you have a smartphone, the practice have a small supply of wireless Bluetooth blood pressure monitors which you can borrow for the purposes of home monitoring. We also have a blood pressure machine at reception for you to use to monitor your blood pressure if you wish to.
Use this home recording Blood Pressure Recording Sheet to keep track of your blood pressure.
Blood tests
Some blood pressure medications require you to attend for annual blood tests or more frequently if we change your dose of medication.
Repeat prescriptions
Order your regular prescriptions remembering to allow at least 48 hours prior to needing the new prescriptions to allow time for prescriptions to be prepared.
Smoking cessation support
You can book in with our health care assistant, Jibril, for advice and support around stopping smoking. You may also want to look at this NHS information.
For more help and advice please visit the British Heart Foundation Website.
Coming Soon:
- Virtual Hypertension Clinic
