Blood pressure: What you can do for yourself

There are two kinds of people in the United States -- ones who have high blood pressure now and ones who have a very good chance of getting it someday. That’s bad news, because high blood pressure, technically known as hypertension, raises the risk for stroke, heart disease, heart failure, kidney disease and eye damage, including blindness.

Patients can greatly reduce their risk for such problems by bringing their blood pressure down to a “goal level” they establish with their doctor. Unfortunately, national data show that only one in three people with high blood pressure manages to do this, even though a wide range of lifestyle choices can help and effective drug treatments are available.

Why? Well, for one thing, lifestyle changes can be hard, says Dr. Peter Rudd, professor of medicine emeritus at the Stanford University School of Medicine. And even when drugs are prescribed, patients don’t always take them properly. After all, high blood pressure usually has no symptoms, so people may not feel they need to take medication or adjust their habits, Rudd says.

That could be a big mistake, though. So you may want to consider some of the many ways you can coax your blood pressure down or stop it from getting unhealthily high to begin with. Some of them can do as much good as medications. See Page 3.