I Have High Blood Pressure, Now What?

Discovering you have high blood pressure (hypertension) may leave you feeling surprised, anxious, or worried about your health.

Many people are shocked to learn they have an incurable condition, yet they never had symptoms alerting them to a problem.

What to do now? Now, you work with our Michigan Avenue Primary Care team to lower your blood pressure. We create a lifestyle and treatment plan tailored to managing your hypertension, helping you stay healthy, and preventing complications.

 Here, you’ll learn the four most important steps for lowering your blood pressure.

1. Consult a healthcare provider

If your healthcare provider diagnosed high blood pressure during an office visit, then you’ve already taken care of this step.

However, if you have checked your blood pressure at home and discovered it's high, you should schedule an in-office assessment.

Why is it so important to get a thorough evaluation? Because we’ll verify your at-home reading and evaluate the severity of your high blood pressure.

Since blood pressure naturally fluctuates throughout the day, we may need to take several additional readings. Alternatively, we may ask you to undergo 24-hour ambulatory monitoring, which can provide a more accurate reading.

We’ll determine if you’re at risk of health complications caused by high blood pressure, such as clogged arteries or coronary heart disease.

In most people, high blood pressure develops gradually due to an unhealthy lifestyle. However, about 10% of adults have hypertension caused by other conditions, such as kidney disease, sleep apnea, and thyroid disease. We may screen for those conditions if needed.

2. Follow a lifestyle plan to lower your blood pressure

No matter the severity of your blood pressure and whether or not you need medication, everyone with hypertension should review their lifestyle and determine if they must make changes to lower their blood pressure.

Your daily habits can make a dramatic difference because an unhealthy lifestyle is the primary cause of hypertension.

High blood pressure usually develops due to:

• Consuming too much salt
• Consuming too much sugar
• Consuming a diet that’s low in potassium (from vegetables, beans, and fruits)
• Not getting enough exercise
• Being overweight or obese
• Drinking too much alcohol
• Smoking

Changing your risk factors (avoiding salt, increasing potassium, getting more exercise, losing weight, etc.) can lower your blood pressure.

If you have mild blood pressure, lifestyle changes may be all you need to return to a healthy range. Then, you’ll need to maintain those changes to prevent your blood pressure from rising again. Hypertension can’t be cured, but it can be managed by sticking with the plan for your lifetime.

3. Take blood-pressure-lowering medications

If your blood pressure doesn't improve with lifestyle changes or you have dangerously high blood pressure, you'll need medication.

A few examples of blood-pressure-lowering medications include:

Diuretics

Diuretics reduce salt and water. As a result, body fluids and blood volume decrease. The drop in blood volume helps lower your blood pressure.

Calcium channel blockers

These medications relax blood vessels, which improves circulation and reduces blood pressure.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors

ACE inhibitors block the production of a hormone that tightens blood vessels. As a result, the vessels relax, and blood pressure drops.

4. Get enough sleep

Your risk for high blood pressure increases if you don’t get the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep each night. 

Sleep also matters after you’re diagnosed with hypertension. Getting six hours or less of sleep every night makes it harder to manage the condition and maintain healthy blood pressure.

In other words, keeping a regular sleep schedule and getting a good night’s rest is crucial for managing hypertension.

Take action now to protect your health

The challenge of high blood pressure is that it’s a chronic condition. It will continue to elevate if you don’t take steps every day to keep it well controlled.

The stakes are high because hypertension is the leading cause of blood vessel disease, heart disease, kidney disease, heart attacks, and strokes.

Call Michigan Avenue Primary Care today or book an appointment online to get blood pressure screening and a personalized plan to support your health.