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High Blood Pressure (HBP) or Hypertension is often called the “silent killer” because there are usually no warning signs or symptoms before the onset of serious health conditions. High blood pressure is the leading cause of stroke in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 1 in 3 adults have high blood pressure, making it one of the most prevalent health risks in the country. Blood pressure is a measurement of the force against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps blood through the body. There are two primary measurements, the systolic pressure which is when the heart contracts and pushes blood through the body and the diastolic pressure when the heart fills with blood between beats. For an adult, normal blood pressure is a systolic reading of less than 120 and a diastolic reading of less than 80.
Prehypertension is when blood pressure readings are within the range of 130 to 139 for systolic or 80 to 89 for diastolic. High Blood Pressure or Hypertension is when the readings are above 140 for systolic or above 90 for diastolic. It is important to note that a high reading in either systolic or diastolic indicates high blood pressure. High Blood Pressure is linked to a number of serious health conditions, most notably heart disease, kidney disease, stroke, eye disease, and hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis). Risk factors for high blood pressure include obesity, smoking, frequent stress or anxiety, too much salt in the diet, too much alcohol consumption, being of African American descent, a family history, or having diabetes. While there are a number of contributing causes for hypertension, monitoring and managing your blood pressure is an important part of your overall health. HealtheHuman is the only software product to provide comprehensive tracking features for all the areas of your health needed to manage your high blood pressure.
Key Health Information to Track for High Blood Pressure
Keeping track of your blood pressure readings at various times of the day is an important part of your management of hypertension. It is important to log your blood pressure at different times of the day, such as at waking, after meals, after exercise, readings at rest, before bed, and during period of high stress or anxiety. Taking these readings throughout your daily activities can help identify spikes in your blood pressure. By regularly tracking your blood pressure with a home device you also reduce the changes of “white coat blood pressure” readings caused by patient anxiety in the doctor’s office. Establishing a baseline for your blood pressure throughout the day is an important piece of health information for you and your physicians. HealtheHuman includes a Blood Pressure Tracker that lets you log all of your blood pressure readings throughout the day, including pulse, pulse pressure, mean arterial pressure (MAP), and any pulse arrhythmias (PAD). Providing a detailed report of blood pressure readings can be very valuable when visiting with your doctor or other health advisor.
Obesity is one of the risk factors for high blood pressure, but being overweight can also worsen hypertension. Blood pressure often increases as weight increases. Losing just 10 pounds can help reduce your blood pressure. In general, the more weight you lose, the lower your blood pressure. Losing weight can also make any blood pressure medications you're taking more effective. Keeping your visceral fat levels low is also an important part of lowering your risks for hypertension. HealtheHuman provides a number of tools to help you with weight management, including a Body Measurement Tracker, Body Composition Tracker, and other features to help you watch what you eat and track your physical activity.
In addition to your overall weight, it is important to know your waist circumference. Maintaining a healthy waist measurement can have a significant effect on your high blood pressure. Carrying too much weight around your waist places you at greater risk of high blood pressure. For men, if your waist measurement is greater than 40 inches, you are at a higher risk level for hypertension. For women, a waist measurement less than 35 inches has been recommended to lower your risk level. The risk levels are slightly different for people of Asian descent, with a recommendation of less than 36 inches for men and 32 inches for women. The Body Measurement Tracker helps you keep track of your waist measurements. If you need to reduce your waist size, you can setup a goal and chart your progress over time.
Like many other conditions, watching what you eat is an essential part of managing your high blood pressure. Keeping a detailed food diary can help you understand what you are eating throughout the day and its potential impact on your blood pressure. Carefully watching your intake of salt (sodium), cholesterol, and saturated fats are all important parts of managing your high blood pressure. Certain foods can also have a positive impact on reducing your blood pressure by as much as 14 mm Hg, such as whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and low-fat dairy products by reducing your intake of cholesterol and saturated fat. Just tracking your diet over a few days can provide valuable insights into your eating habits. The Diet and Nutrition Tracker in HealtheHuman provides an extensive set of tools to log your foods throughout the day and by meal. Our comprehensive database of over 40,000 foods provides key nutrition summaries of all your foods, helping you track your calories, fat, sodium, cholesterol, fiber, and more for every food and every meal on each day.
Sodium chloride (table salt) increases average levels of blood pressure. Some people are more sensitive to salt intake and it can have an impact on their blood pressure. In general, reducing the dietary intake of sodium contributes to lower blood pressure. Even a small reduction in the salt in your diet can reduce blood pressure from 2 to 8 mm Hg. The general recommendations are to limit total sodium intake to less than 2300 milligrams (mg) per day. For people with high blood pressure, prehypertension, or over 51 years old, the recommendation is less than 1500 milligrams per day. One important part of watching your sodium levels is to read food labels. Packaged foods tend to have higher sodium levels, especially processed foods. Avoiding foods like potato chips, processed meats, bacon, frozen dinners, and other high sodium foods can be an important part of managing your high blood pressure. It is equally important to not add regular table salt to your meals. One teaspoon of salt is equivalent to the entire daily allowance for a healthy person, 2300 mg. Keeping a food diary is an important part of watching your sodium intake. The HealtheHuman Diet and Nutrition Tracker provides a daily total of sodium intake, integrated recommended daily allowances, and a goal feature to ensure your salt intake is under control.
Regular exercise and physical activity of at least 30 to 60 minutes a day can lower your blood pressure from 4 to 9 mm Hg. Exercise is an important part of managing prehypertension because adding in physical activity and dietary changes can avoid developing full-blown hypertension. The Exercise and Workout Tracker provides a database of over 1000 exercises and activities, making it easy to keep an accurate log of your daily activity levels.
Stress can cause temporary increases in blood pressure. Frequent or prolonged exposure to stress can lead to hypertension or accelerate the onset of high blood pressure. Once you have hypertension, stressful events can cause dangerous increases in your blood pressure, so being aware of and reducing stress is vitally important in managing your condition. Anxiety can have similar effects on the body and should be reduced wherever possible as well. Logging your stress and anxiety levels throughout the day, including the potential sources, can be important information for you and your physician. HealtheHuman provides a Stress Tracker that lets you log your stress levels from different sources hour by hour throughout the day. By tracking and analyzing these stressful times of the day, you can reduce stressful events or introduce relaxation activities into your routines to offset the effects. Correlating your stress levels with your blood pressure readings can also help you quantify the impacts of stress and anxiety on your blood pressure.
It is important to keep track of the medications and prescriptions you are taking, especially when discussing your blood pressure management plan with your physicians and health advisors. Providing detailed records of all your medications, vitamins and supplements will be an important part of their treatment plan and recommendations. It is important to give your treating physicians a comprehensive history and profile of all your vitamins and supplements because many can increase blood pressure. Certain vitamins and supplements might contain sodium, so it is important to read the labels on every supplement, vitamin, or over-the-counter medication you are taking. Other supplements have been shown to lower blood pressure, such as fish oil. HealtheHuman provides daily trackers to log all of your medication and supplement usage, as well as a medication history feature to keep accurate records of all your past prescriptions.
There are a number of tests your doctor might run to help monitor the effects of high blood pressure on your body, including checking for signs of kidney or liver damage. Due to its impact on the heart and overall circulatory system of the body, your doctor might test regularly for your heart health, potassium, sodium, vitamin D, cholesterol, hormones, and adrenal function. The Laboratory Results Tracker lets you keep track of all you medical test results, including the blood tests commonly run to monitor high blood pressure patients. Tracking this information can provide valuable historic information for your doctors or health advisors, as well as measure the effectiveness of drugs, diets, or other changes to manage your hypertension.
While there are not always signs associated with hypertension, some people experience symptoms such as dizziness, shortness of breath, and chest pains when their blood pressure is high. HealtheHuman includes a Symptom Tracker feature to help you keep detailed records for any symptom or pain associated with your high blood pressure. Creating logs of these symptoms might help identify triggers of increased blood pressure or other insights into your treatment plan.
Keeping your doctors informed on your medical history is an important part of your care, and could have an impact on their course of treatment. Make sure to provide your physicians and other health advisors with as much detail on your past medical conditions, procedures, surgeries, hospitalizations, or any other relevant aspect of your health. The various health history features of HealtheHuman can help you build and share your comprehensive health history with all your health advisors.
One of the main things you can do to help manage your high blood pressure is to make the most out of your time with your doctor and health advisors. HealtheHuman helps you come prepared for your appointments with your doctors, specialists, and other health advisors with a complete, accurate, and detailed health history. The extensive set of charting and reporting features found throughout the various tools in HealtheHuman help you provide the insight, detail, and history need to keep information flowing between you and your advisors.
Other Things You Can Do to Help Manage Your High Blood Pressure
While it is important to track your key health information related to your high blood pressure, one of the main reasons to log all of this information is to create more effective and meaningful visits with your doctors, specialists, and other health advisors. Maintaining regular appointments with your treating physicians and specialists is vital to your long-term success. It is important to keep your appointments with your doctor and to provide as much detail as possible to make their treatments, recommendations, and prescriptions as effective as possible.
Being dehydrated can have serious effects on your blood pressure. It is important to keep your body hydrated to balance the amount of water and salt in your system.
A healthy diet is an important part of managing hypertension. Eating foods rich in whole grains, fresh fruits, and vegetables can lower your blood pressure. Discuss the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet with your doctor to see if it could help you.
Potassium can lessen the effects of salt on your blood pressure. Getting potassium from fresh fruits and vegetables is best, such as bananas, papayas, raisins, avocados, and sweet potatoes. Talk to your doctor or dietitian about introducing potassium rich foods into your diet.
Monitoring your eye health is an important part of managing your high blood pressure. Hypertension can damage the small blood vessels in the retina. See your eye care specialist on a regular basis to have them check for signs of retinal damage.
Smoking increases your risk of numerous diseases and conditions, including high blood pressure. Talk to your doctor about ways to stop smoking and any other use of tobacco products.
While small amounts of alcohol can be good for your blood pressure, too much alcohol can cause sharp increases in your blood pressure. If you have hypertension, limit your consumption of alcohol to no more than 1 drink a day for women and no more than 2 drinks a day for men. Do not binge drink if you have hypertension because it can cause serious increases in your high blood pressure.
Controlling your stress and anxiety levels can be an important part of long-term success with managing hypertension. Once you know what causes you stress, take action to reduce or eliminate those stressors from your life. Take time for breaks throughout the day. Practice deep-breathing exercises or meditation. Get a massage, go to the spa, sit on the beach, or any other activity that helps you relax and be calm. If you are struggling with stress or anxiety, consider talking to a professional for counseling.
Other Resources
National Institutes of Health, High Blood Pressure
National Institutes of Health, MedlinePlus, High Blood Pressure
Medical Disclaimer: All information on this site is of a general nature and is furnished for your knowledge and understanding only. This information is not to be taken as medical or other health advice pertaining to your specific health and medical condition.
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