Several medical organizations have recently made significant changes to blood pressure guidelines. What does all this mean?
It used to be that 140/90 was considered as hypertension or high blood pressure. They’ve eliminated the category of pre-hypertension (120-139 systolic). They are now calling 120-130 “Elevated” and 130-139 is called Stage I Hypertension. 140 and above is now labeled Stage II Hypertension. This means that almost one-half of adults have hypertension! This does not mean that all of those people will be put on medications. Instead, the experts are strongly recommending that the 120-139 mm Hg group be addressed with 4 lifestyle changes. These changes include: (1) Physical activity (2) Weight loss, (3) Salt reduction, and (4) stress reduction. These changes are relatively simple and things each of us should be doing on a daily basis.
If you want to learn more about how you can make these lifestyle changes, give us a call or stop in and our nurses will take the time to explain it to you.