One in three New Zealanders over 30 have high blood pressure – but many of them do not even know it.<\/p>\n
The Heart Foundation is launching its first-ever blood pressure awareness campaign to encourage people to get checked, a move it says could save thousands of lives.<\/p>\n
Heart Foundation medical director Dr Gerry Devlin said about 350,000 New Zealanders with high blood pressure were not being monitored because they had no symptoms.<\/p>\n
“That’s why it’s known as ‘the silent killer’.<\/p>\n
“The first symptom of high blood pressure may well be when you develop a complication of high blood pressure – be it a heart attack or a stroke or presenting with heart failure or kidney failure.<\/p>\n
“We recognise more and more, it’s also associated with dementia, and this occurs over many years.<\/p>\n
“When the blood pressure is not controlled, it remains high for a number of years, and it can cause stiffening and narrowing of the arteries.”<\/p>\n
Auckland woman Lynnette was diagnosed with high blood pressure in her 20s, when she was living in the Philippines – but she admits she did not take it seriously for some years.<\/p>\n
“I was trying to sort of ignore it,” she said.<\/p>\n
But shortly after turning 50, she started getting what she thought was indigestion.<\/p>\n
“I thought it was acid reflux waking me up in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n
“But [by the] second or third night, I was like ‘Hmm, this doesn’t feel good’ because I had a little bit of chest pain and my left shoulder was getting weak.”<\/p>\n
Lynnette was shocked to learn she had actually been having a series of heart attacks.<\/p>\n
“I thought heart attacks were sudden and severe. I didn’t know they could happen like this, so gradually.”<\/p>\n
Five years on, she is taking regular medication, and her blood pressure is well-controlled.<\/p>\n
However, Dr Devlin said thousands of other New Zealanders were not so lucky.<\/p>\n
High blood pressure was a factor in 45 percent of cardiovascular deaths in New Zealand each year – 4000 people.<\/p>\n
“If we improve blood pressure by about 50 percent over the next 10 years, we will prevent 12,000 deaths by 2040. So it’s a powerful intervention.”<\/p>\n
Blood pressure checks could be done by a doctor, nurse or at some pharmacies.<\/p>\n
Dr Devlin said it was advisable for some people to buy their own monitors to track their blood pressure at home.<\/p>\n
“We want to encourage New Zealanders to get their checks done, understand what the numbers mean and take charge of their heart health to live a longer, healthier life,” he said.<\/p>\n
“For every 10-point drop in your systolic blood pressure, you reduce your risk of a heart event by 20 percent.”<\/p>\n
A blood pressure reading contains two numbers, written as a figure, such as 120\/80.<\/p>\n
The first number is the pressure when the heart squeezes (systolic pressure). The second number is when your heart relaxes (diastolic pressure).<\/p>\n
For most people, an ideal blood pressure is under 120 systolic (top number) and under 80 diastolic (bottom number).<\/p>\n
Dr Devlin, who has a family history of high blood pressure himself, said it was not just about medication.<\/p>\n
“It’s about lifestyle. And that means looking at what we eat, can we reduce salt in our diet?<\/p>\n
“Becoming more physically active, reducing alcohol… so all the things we know we should be doing – or not doing – they all have an impact on our blood pressure.”<\/p>\n
Lynette said she now made an effort to live a healthier lifestyle, but also urged others to “go to the doctor if something feels off”.<\/p>\n
“Don’t just assume it’s nothing. And if you’re on medication, take it regularly – it could save your life.”<\/p>\n
Source: RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One in three New Zealanders over 30 have high blood pressure – but many of them do not even know it. The Heart Foundation is launching its first-ever blood pressure awareness campaign to encourage people to get checked, a move it says could save thousands of lives. Heart Foundation medical director Dr Gerry Devlin said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":13522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13523,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13521\/revisions\/13523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}