Hypertension

Millions of high blood pressure patients are wrongly diagnosed

Patients suspected of having high blood pressure will in future be sent home with a monitor for 24 hours because millions of people are being wrongly diagnosed with the condition due to waiting room nerves. 

More than 8.5 million people in Britain are registered as having high blood pressure

Currently, anyone suspected of having high blood pressure is diagnosed by a GP with an inflatable arm cuff. Doctors then call the patient back for additional readings, but these are always taken at their surgery or in hospital.

New guidance to be published today by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) says as many as one in four people experiences a surging pulse rate on entering a GP’s surgery.

This nervous response, termed “white coat hypertension”, can significantly raise blood pressure readings and many people are being misdiagnosed as a result.

To counter this, Nice recommends that doctors do not rely solely on readings taken in their own surgeries. After the initial assessment, a patient should be sent home and asked to wear an ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) device.

This comprises an inflated arm cuff, similar to those used in surgeries, which takes spot readings at intervals over a 24-hour period.

Prof Bryan Williams, from Leicester University, who led the development of the new guidance, said: “This new approach would not only improve diagnosis but would ultimately be cost-saving for the NHS.”
More than 8.5 million people are registered as having high blood pressure. People with the condition are three times more likely to develop heart disease and suffer strokes as people with normal blood pressure and twice as likely to die from these.
Patients are often put on drugs to lower their blood pressure, such as beta-blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. In 2008, the NHS in England spent £83 million on beta-blockers alone.
The drugs can have serious side effects. For example, ACE inhibitors can cause blood pressure to drop to dangerously low levels and result in kidney problems.
Nice’s guidance notes: “White coat hypertension is reported to occur in as many as 25 per cent of the population, especially where their blood pressure is close to the threshold for diagnosis. It is more common in pregnancy and with increasing age.”
This suggests that as many as 2 million people may have been wrongly diagnosed simply because they were nervous when they went into the surgery.
Prof Williams added that the new guidance would allow doctors to get the correct diagnosis more often, but warned that surgeries and clinics would not have sufficient stocks of the equipment at the start.
The Blood Pressure Association, which has been campaigning for the change for years, welcomed the move. Prof Gareth Beevers, a trustee of the charity, said the guidance should be backed up with money “to ensure ambulatory monitors are more widely available”.
But Dr Clare Gerada, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, questioned whether the new approach would be significantly more accurate.
She said: “If we were looking at lifelong treatment or uncertain diagnosis, then this device might be useful, but for the majority of patients we would take three readings anyway before starting treatment.”
Nice officials said the guidelines would “significantly change the way high blood pressure is diagnosed and subsequently treated”.

Obesity

When someone is obese, it means they have put on weight to the point that it could seriously endanger their health. This is caused by a combination of eating too many calories and not doing enough physical activity.Everyone needs to make sure they maintain a healthy weight. Levels of obesity have tripled in England since 1980, and childhood obesity is a major public health concern.
Currently, over half of women, and about two-thirds of men are either overweight or obese.
Being overweight or obese increases the risk of developing heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and osteoarthritis.Obesity causes about 18 million sick days and 30,000 deaths a year in England alone (source: National Audit Office).  You can tell from your Body Mass Index, or BMI, whether you are overweight or obese. To work out your BMI use our BMI calculator.

Your BMI is calculated using the following equation:

Your weight in kilogrammes (kg) divided by your height in metres (m) squared

So a man who weighs 85kg and is 1.75m tall will have a BMI of 28. A body mass index over 25 is defined as overweight, and over 30 is defined as

What dietary advice is there?

To maintain a healthy weight, it's important to follow a balanced diet.

Physical activity has benefits not only for controlling body weight over the long term, but also in controlling appetite. It has beneficial effects on the heart and blood that help to prevent cardiovascular disease.

If you want to lose weight, it's important not to go on a 'crash diet' but to change how you eat and organise a new diet that you can keep to all the time (not just when you're trying to lose weight).

If you go back to eating more calories than you need, you will put the weight back on.

Try:

• trimming the fat off meat
• choosing low-fat varieties of dairy and other products
• increasing your intake of starchy foods instead of fatty ones
• eating less of sugary foods
• increasing your intake of a variety of fruit and vegetables (aim to eat at least five portions a day)

Sometimes certain medical conditions and drug treatments can cause weight gain. Ask your GP for advice if you are suddenly gaining weight for no apparent reason or if you are on medication.

If you would like advice about losing weight, talk to your GP or a dietitian.

obese. 

 

 

Acai Berries

It’s a secret desire we all have. We want to look good, feel good and have others think we look good. But – shedding pesky pounds that resist exercise and dieting torture is what most of us are up against. And we’re surrounded by temptations galore. Fatty foods, fast foods, sugar and carb-loaded foods beckon us to savour them.
No wonder so many men and women endlessly feel discouraged when they try to lose weight. It’s a hair-pulling up and down roller-coaster ride. You’re following your weight loss routine so religiously it would make a nun proud, but then you weigh yourself the next morning and you’re up a pound! It’s enough to make you scream and give up.
Faced with days like this, when you start feeling weak and hungry and irritable, the temptation to cheat is almost unstoppable. Most people give up and feel guilt. That’s not unusual. If losing weight were so easy, everyone would be wearing skinny jeans and showing off their flat stomachs.
Because of this, it’s absolutely vital that you find a dietary supplement that’ll help you shed unwanted weight and inches off your waistline. Over the years, many diet formulas using a variety of natural and herbal solutions have been released but as you might have guessed, some are better than others.
By far, the best dietary supplement to help you win the battle of the bulge is a little berry called Acai Berry (pronounced ah-sigh-ee). Acai berries come from the swamps of Central American and from the Amazon Basin in Brazil.
Now this isn’t one of those foods that “supposedly” works because some witchdoctor claimed it did, no, Acai Berries are well documented by scientists the world over to help you do two very important things. Let me ask you a question.
You clean the outside of your body don’t you? But do you clean the inside of your body? If you’re like most people, not really. How would you do that?
As a result our bodies build up in toxic sludge and this toxic build up may impede your ability to lose weight. The second thing Acai Berries do for you is they help you peel off unwanted weight – they work to make you skinny again.
And they do this because they’re jam-packed with high concentrations of antioxidants including the proven fat-busting Resveratrol and Anthocynanins, Omega 3, 6, and 9 fatty acids, amino acids, fibre and other nutrients. Rachel Ray and Oprah Winfrey (among other celebrities) have called Acai Berries – “Super-Food.” So let’s dig deeper shall we, and look at the exciting benefits you get from consuming Acai Berries.
The antioxidants they contain help you burn fat while fighting free radicals which damages your cells, resulting in disease and pre-mature ageing. So Acai berries are not only a powerful weight loss food they’re an anti-ager and health booster. In fact they enhance your hair and nail beauty.

Sleepless nights could lead to your demise!

People who suffer prolonged sleep deprivation are more at risk from a stroke and heart disease.
A report from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom has indicated, that if an individual sleeps less than six hours per night and have disturbed sleep, you stand a 48% greater chance of developing or dying from heart disease and a 15% greater chance of developing or dying from a stroke.
The trend for late nights and early mornings is actually a ticking time bomb for our health..
This revelation has been taken from evidence gleaned from tests varying from 7 years to 25 years carried out on over 470,000 participants across 8 countries including Japan,United States,United Kingdom and Sweden.
Chronic short sleep produces hormones and chemicals in the body, which increases the risk of developing heart disease and strokes, plus other conditions such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes and obesity.
Unfortunately there is an expectation in today's society to fit more into our lives.
The whole work/life balance struggle is causing too many of us to trade in precious sleeping time to ensure we complete all the jobs we believe are expected of us.

High Blood Pressure and Melons

 Blood Pressure is the force of blood against the artery walls. High blood pressure is dangerous because it makes the heart work too hard, and the high force of the blood flow can damage arteries and organs like the heart, kidneys, brain and eyes.Normal blood pressure for adults is less than 120/80 mmHg. The more your blood pressure rises above normal, even slightly above normal, the greater your risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and blindness.
If you want to lower your blood pressure, eat more melons!
A study by The University of Texas has confirmed that eating melons can have a dramatic impact on your blood pressure.
Melons are high in potassium, a mineral that is crucial to maintaining normal kidney and heart function. Because potassium has such a significant impact on blood pressure, too little of it can lead to sodium (salt) retention, which can cause higher blood pressure.
Melons like cantaloupe and watermelon are particularly high in potassium, just a quarter of a melon contains between 800 and 900 milligrams of potassium which is 20% of the recommended daily value.
Melons are not the only high potassium foods!

Salmon helps to reduce inflammation of the arteries.

Bananas are very high in potassium, which helps to balance out the fluids in the body.

Celery has distinctive oils in it that help to lower blood pressure and maintain it at healthy levels.

Beans contains magnesium, which will add a trace element that lowers blood pressure,

Low Fat Yogurt gives you a boost of calcium and beneficial bacteria, both of which help lower your blood pressure.