Healthcare Charity Campaign to Raise Blood Pressure Awareness
Over the course of the past eight years’ annual national blood pressure Testing Weeks, held in the second week of September every year, over a 1.5 million people have had their blood pressure measured for free.
The campaign has been so successful that the campaign was a winner at The Charity Awards 2008 for its work on the Awareness Week.
Health professionals, including pharmacists, nurses and occupational health officers, will run well over a thousand official venues which have signed up to offer free blood pressure checks during the event, on behalf of the charity to help test the nation’s blood pressure and educate people about what their numbers mean.
Are You 1 in 3?
This year’s theme asks ‘Could you be the 1 in 3?’. One in three adults has high blood pressure and it’s the biggest cause of death and disability in the UK through the strokes and heart attacks it causes – and although reports of recent research has lead some healthcare advisors to encourage everyone to take blood pressure lowering drugs it is still vital that people have their readings taken regularly in oreder to detect any increases early.
When & where can I be tested?
The awareness week runs from 7-13 September 2009. To find out where you can have your readings taken visit this page and enter your town or postcode to find the nearest venues and opening times.
Healthcare Appeal
On the run up top the event BBC Radio 4 will broadcast actor Timothy West highlighting the tragic consequences of undetected high blood pressure and describing his own experience of the condition in a special broadcast on the Radio 4 appeals page
What should I do if I have a raised reading?
If you have a raised reading, don’t panic. It may mean that you have high blood pressure, or it may be a one-off raised reading. The important thing is visit your GP to have it checked again to find out more. If your GP diagnoses you with high blood pressure, it can be treated and controlled, through changes to your lifestyle and, for some people, also with medication.
Diagnosis of High BP
High blood pressure cannot be diagnosed after a one-off reading. If the first reading is raised, it is recommend that a follow-up check with a GP is done soon afterwards.
Measure Blood Pressure at Home
The purpose of the week is not only to identify those with high blood pressure but to educate and empasise the imprtance of regularly getting your blood pressure checked – as a result more and more people are buying home monitors and following correct procedures to measure their blood pressure at home – studies show that measuring at home more accurately reflects your true readings. No longer do you need to use the old fashioned cumbersome sphygmomanometers and take awkward, inaccurate readings with a stethoscope – there are many affordable clinically validated automatic monitors on sale to the public.
Tags: blood pressure
[...] Blood Pressure – Know Your Numbers! | Morts Musings http://www.morts-musings.co.uk/know-your-blood-pressure – view page – cached One in three adults has high blood pressure and it’s the biggest cause of death and disability in the UK through the strokes and heart attacks. — From the page [...]
I think it’s good advice to measure ones blood pressure at home because one off readings at a doctor’s office are rarely accurate.
Good article, highlighting an important health issue, thanks for the contribution!
With regard to the mention of using stethoscopes with “cumbersome” sphygmomanometers it appears that these types of machines are being phased out because they contain mercury – a highly toxic and dangerous chemical. The latest automatic electronic machines, when used properly, give much more accurate readings than the old fashioned method of listening to the pulses stop and start which is dependant on the hearing ability of the wearer of the stethoscope. There is also a call for the urgent replacement of mercury thermometers with digital ones – again modern digital devices are both safer and more reliable.
High blood pressure is VERY dangerous, and many people aren’t even aware they have the condition. Good to see more awareness about this.