Almost one out of every four people in North America has high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. High blood pressure can lead to a number of medical conditions including heart/kidney disease and stroke. Some risk factors include being overweight, smoking, drinking alcohol and comsuming caffeine. Regular exercise can reduce your risk by 20-50% and even losing just a small amount of weight can help. Certain medications may also be prescribed to lower blood pressure. Hypertension has no warning signs or symptoms so monitoring your blood pressure is important. Fortunately, most pharmacies are equipped with monitoring devices and are able to assist you in using them and understanding your results.
