What's All This About Hypertension, Then?
Well, it's high blood pressure.
IT CAN KILL YOU, DAMMIT!
Or worse.
Yes, elevated blood pressure, all by itself can kill you, by triggering heart attacks or fatal strokes. But, it can also ruin your kidneys, making life miserable for you for years and years until you do die.
Or it can contribute to blindness. Or it can trigger non-fatal strokes that rob you of your basic abilities and your dignity, and leave you trapped in your head, waiting to die... while your caregivers wait for you to die.
Think of that. You just hit (say) retirement age, and suffer a massive stroke. All the marvellous advances of modern science jump into action and keep your body alive for the next twenty years. But half of your body doesn't work, and the other half is feeble and twitchy.
Half of your field of vision is gone, so you can't even read for yourself anymore, and you get confused by any TV show that's got more action than talking heads.
Your wife has to brace herself each time she visits and makes a brave face for the shrivelled shell in the bed - you. This is what she gets instead of a loving companion for her "golden years". The staff has to turn and re-position you constantly, to keep ahead of the bed sores.
Did that sound brutal? It was supposed to. Hypertension, is serious business.
It's also big business for pharmaceutical companies (at your expense). And it brings misery both to you and to people you you love; you know, the ones who have to take care of you when you are paralyzed and need a bed pan and can't remember what happened five minutes ago.... those people; remember them?
Every other page on this website deals with wear-and-tear stuff that hurts your body and cramps your style, but it's stuff you can live with. You don't have to do anything about back pain, shoulder pain, foot pain, body odor, or whatever. But this? This topic is different. This is the one that is killing you - or worse (see above) - right now!
This is THE ONE that you cannot afford to put off, but because it has almost no symptoms, it's the easiest to ignore. Don't do that.
The table below lists our blood-pressure-related pages on this MHT
site. Go read them to learn about blood pressure, how it goes wrong, and what you can do about it before it kills or cripples you.
The MHT page | What the page is about |
---|---|
About Blood Pressure | How blood pressure works in your body |
Measure Your Blood Pressure | How a blood-pressure measuring kit works and how to use it to measure your own BP and that of family members |
Prevalence of High Blood Pressure | How likely is it that you or a member of your family has damaging high blood pressure? |
Find Your Blood Pressure Numbers | Some general ways to learn what your numbers are |
Relieve Hypertension / Reduce High Blood Pressure | A non-pharmaceutical way to help lower the BP while you work on eliminating the cause |
Control Weight/Control Hypertension | Straightforward, relatively easy ways to get your weight down and thereby control your BP |
The blood pressure introduction (this page) | The intro page to this hypertension section |
And if this page wasn't where you wanted to be, then return to the Home page from this blood pressure page.
Still dithering?
Gaaaaaahhh! Why do we want to grab you and shake some sense into you?
Have you got kids? Bad enough they should lose their Dad to a sudden coronary or cerebral "event" (as the doctors like to call it), but wouldn't it be even worse if they had to spend the rest of their growing-up years taking shifts emptying your bed-pan? Or seeing their old man shrivel away because he doesn't even have the motor control/capacity to sit upright in a wheelchair?
The least you can do is find out. After that, you have a starting point from which to make further decisions. But either march to the nearest doctor and find out what your blood pressure is doing, or go buy a kit right now and check your own. Do it. No more excuses. Do it.
Before you go, PLEASE be aware that by using this site you agree to our Terms and Conditions. Go head - raise your already high blood pressure by reading our hopelessly convoluted Terms and Conditions . |
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Some links that we like:
We still don't get any money from any of these, but we like them anyway.
How to Boost Your Immune System
Simple, natural methods that can help you stay well and healthy
Sitting all day is killing you! Kangaroo Adjustable Height Workstations
For people with desk jobs - a workstation that lets you easily place your computer, keyboard, display(s) and "stuff" at sitting or standing height or anywhere in between.
Used and recommended by Men's Health Tips - we've had one since 2010, and we bought another one for the wife. Does what it says, no hype.
Keep your head from blowing up!
Used and recommended by Men's Health Tips - we've used it since 2009. Another product that does what it says it will.
Beat yourself up... in a good way
Used and recommended by Men's Health Tips - we've had one for years. We use it.
Free your feet
to be the feet
your feet were
meant to be!
Used and recommended by Men's Health Tips - we've got several pair.
Relax with a classic book
This has nothing to do with MHT; we just think Project Gutenberg is a great idea.