If your doctor is concerned about your blood pressure even though you’re young and healthy, you should be, too. Even young adults are not too young to be affected by high blood pressure.
About half of the people over the age of 20 have high blood pressure. Although high blood pressure has no obvious symptoms when it occurs in healthy adults, it is essential to recognize it.
High blood pressure slowly but steadily affects your body, increasing your risk of major medical diseases. It’s for this reason that high blood pressure is known as the silent killer.
In the following paragraphs, you will know more about high blood pressure and how you can protect yourself even in your 20s or 30s.
Understanding Your Blood Pressure Numbers
Blood exerts force on the walls of arteries as it is pushed throughout the body, known as blood pressure. Your arteries are designed to endure a certain amount of pressure, but they have a limit. This is why blood pressure is monitored and categorized according to its impact on our health.
There are four blood pressure categories, namely normal blood pressure (lower than 120/80 mmHg), elevated blood pressure (120-129/80 mmHg), high blood pressure-stage 1 (130-139/80-90 mmHg), and high blood pressure-stage 2 (140/90 mmHg or higher).
High blood pressure harms your heart and arteries by causing your heart to work harder to pump blood. Over time, the thickening of the heart muscles makes it more difficult to fill the heart with blood and pump it out to your body.
This condition also leads to your arteries becoming stiff and constricting. Because of this, it can impede blood flow in the affected areas.
Checking How Blood Pressure Can Affect Your Health
Long-term studies suggest that having high blood pressure raises your risk of developing serious health problems later in life, even if you’re only in your 20s or 30s.
People with uncontrolled high blood pressure are at an increased risk for heart disease in their middle age, which is the leading cause of death in the United States. It’s also linked to stroke, kidney disease, and various eye diseases.
High blood pressure has financial consequences in addition to physical consequences. An individual with high blood pressure will spend about $2,000 per year on drugs and health care.
Unfortunately, if high blood pressure is not treated, significant medical issues such as heart disease develop.
Identifying the Best Way to Lower Your Blood Pressure
Lowering your blood pressure isn’t difficult. If you’re a smoker, you’ll have to stop the habit. But if you can do that, decreasing your blood pressure is simple.
Maintaining a healthy weight is a priority. If you’re overweight, a 10-pound loss can successfully lower your blood pressure. It should go without saying that you should eat well.
Aim for a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains that is low in saturated and trans fats. Get plenty of exercise while you’re already following a healthy diet. Try to exercise for at least 90 minutes per week.
Carefully limit your salt intake to less than 1,500 mg per day. Another item to keep an eye on is your alcohol intake. If you’re a woman, limit yourself to one drink per day; if you’re a guy, limit yourself to two drinks per day.
Conclusion
Young people are less likely to be diagnosed by doctors during office visits, not just because they may be motivated to ignore their raised or high blood pressure. It’s crucial to talk to your doctor if your blood pressure is continuously high, aside from taking steps now to lower risk factors in the future.
Be on top of monitoring your high blood pressure with the help of Medistics Health. We provide medical devices that show the results of tests taken at home—whether it is blood pressure, glucose, weight/BMI, and other tests. Contact us today to find out more!