Beware of the Silent Killer

I wanted to do this as a form of a PSA on ToaLN because I really hope every­one is aware of the dan­gers of hav­ing high blood pres­sure.

I have had high blood pres­sure for about five years and only took med­ica­tion dur­ing the first year that I was diag­nosed. After that I lost health insur­ance and used everyone’s favorite form of self med­icat­ing: hop­ing and pray­ing (that my blood pres­sure would just go down on its own.) But, that is no excuse because there are basic meth­ods to help reduce blood pres­sure. Eating a healthy diet, reduc­ing salt intake, drink lots of water and main­tain­ing a healthy weight. Our blood pres­sure is the key to heart health. Here is some infor­ma­tion on Blood Pressure from the American Heart Association:

About one in three U.S. adults has high blood pres­sure, but because there are no symp­toms, nearly one-​third of these peo­ple don’t know they have it. In fact, many peo­ple have high blood pres­sure for years with­out know­ing it. Uncontrolled high blood pres­sure can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart fail­ure or kid­ney fail­ure. This is why high blood pres­sure is often called the “silent killer.” The only way to tell if you have high blood pres­sure is to have your blood pres­sure checked.

The risk is much higher in African Americans. We develop high blood pres­sure at a younger age than any other race. High blood pres­sure can also affect chil­dren as well. So it is extremely impor­tant that we “know the num­bers”. Normal range for blood pres­sure is ¹²⁰⁄₈₀. Readings 120–139 top (sys­tolic) and 81–89 bot­tom (dias­tolic) are clas­si­fied as pre-​hypertension. Any blood pres­sure with an upper read­ing of 140–159 and a lower read­ing 90–99 is Stage 1 hyper­ten­sion. Readings ¹⁶⁰⁄₁₀₀ and above is Stage 2 Hypertension and is a very dan­ger­ous level. This is where I am.

I spoke with my doc­tor a cou­ple of days ago and she informed me that X-​rays revealed that I had an enlarged heart. This is com­mon in peo­ple with hyper­ten­sion. But, if left unchecked can lead to a host of seri­ous prob­lems. The only thing is I could have pre­vented it by tak­ing the steps I men­tioned ear­lier.

What about you? Remember that high blood pres­sure has no symp­toms and that is why it is called the silent killer. Please be aware of the risks and take nec­es­sary mea­sures to main­tain a healthy blood pres­sure if you have it or get it under con­trol if you don’t.

I am actively work­ing to get my blood pres­sure to a healthy level. I chal­lenge all of you to do the same thing. Let’s make it our goal to be peo­ple who don’t allow them­selves to be prey to the silent killer.

Here are some help­ful links to help you get started:

American Heart Association
National Heart Lung and Blood Institute
Heart 360: Track Blood Pressure Online

Thanks for read­ing,