19 Results for search "Blood Pressure".
Now that you're pregnant, you've probably noticed that health professionals have taken a sudden, intense interest in your blood pressure. You can hardly drive past the clinic without somebody flagging you down for a quick checkup. You might get tired of having that cuff wrapped around your arm, but all of those blood pressure measurements are completely necessary. Your blood pressure is one of the...
Your body goes through many changes while you're pregnant, some of them less welcome than others. For unknown reasons, a woman's blood pressure can climb during the second half of her pregnancy. If your systolic pressure (the upper number) is at or gets higher than 140 or your diastolic pressure (the lower number) is at or gets higher than 90, you have high blood pressure. If so, you may develop...
For all of his advantages, there was a moment when actor Kirk Douglas was so despondent after suffering a stroke that he opened a drawer, grabbed the pistol he had used in the film Gunfight at the OK Corral, and put the gun in his mouth. But he accidentally knocked the barrel against his teeth. The pain made him laugh at himself long enough to reconsider pulling the trigger. In the years followin...
No medical checkup is complete without getting your blood pressure measured. Pressure that stays too high for too long can damage blood vessels and greatly increase your risk of a heart attack, a stroke, or kidney damage. On the bright side, this simple test can give you the information you need to help prevent and control high blood pressure. What do the numbers mean? When you check your pressur...
Can exercise help lower my blood pressure? Researchers have spent decades developing new treatments for high blood pressure, but exercise is still one of the best remedies around. A single workout can reduce blood pressure for an entire day, and regular exercise can keep the pressure down for the long run. What's more, low to moderate intensity training appears to be as beneficial -- if not more ...
Is your blood pressure discriminating against you? Like so many other things, blood pressure is a mixture of luck and lifestyle. While some people seem to have low pressure by nature, others are predisposed to dangerously high numbers. But no matter what hand you're dealt, it's likely that you have the power to lower your blood pressure. About 73 million Americans have high blood pressure (defin...
Many people with high blood pressure see salt as a villain. According to conventional wisdom, just a few shakes can send blood pressure soaring. But is salt really so dangerous? After decades of studies, scientists finally have an answer to that question: Yes -- and no. For many people, extra salt really does raise blood pressure. In a few cases, however, it seems to lower pressure. And for some ...
Elena Manzana* was all too familiar with the consequences of high blood pressure. When she was in high school, her 64-year-old father suffered a debilitating stroke, brought on largely by high blood pressure. The stroke paralyzed his left side, and he never fully recovered. Because of her family history, Manzana suspected her blood pressure might climb when she became pregnant with her first chil...
What is hypertension? Every time you get your blood pressure checked, you get two numbers, perhaps something like 130/85. These numbers tell you how hard your blood pushes against the walls of your arteries as it flows through your body. The higher figure, called systolic pressure, indicates the force pushing on blood vessels as the heart contracts. The lower figure, called diastolic pressure, sh...
You've heard about the importance of a heart-healthy lifestyle. You might even have one. But have you given much thought to your brain? Every year, over 160,000 Americans die from strokes, and many more become permanently disabled. Like heart attacks, strokes are closely tied to a person's daily habits. By making a few healthy changes, especially if you're under 55, you can dramatically cut your r...
Within minutes, a stroke can ravage your brain, potentially robbing you of a world of skills that, until now, you've taken entirely for granted. Among the precious things you may lose is the ability to walk -- at least at the beginning. "It was frustrating and scary. I couldn't stand or move," recalls Melanie Goldberg*, who suffered her stroke in 1998 at the age of 52. "Basically you want to be in...
For many people who have had a stroke, simply walking again can be extremely daunting. And if there are steps to climb or narrow doorways to pass through, it may seem downright impossible. Barriers to safe walking pop up in places that people wouldn't have considered dangerous terrain before having a stroke. Outdoors, inclines in the sidewalk can change from block to block -- and that's one of the...
Have you ever asked for a "thingamajig" when you really meant a screwdriver? Have you ever misread a word on a street sign as you drove past? Of course. Everybody has language glitches every now and then. Now try to imagine a world where everything is a thingamajig and every sign, book, or menu is gibberish. For many people recovering from a stroke, this world is a reality. Every year, 80,000 stro...
What kind of diet will help me keep my blood pressure under control? If you have hypertension, your doctor will most likely recommend that you cut back on salt, particularly if you're 40 or older. To find out whether your blood pressure will respond to a low-salt diet, try to get no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day (just about the amount in one teaspoon of table salt) -- and much less t...
When someone has had a stroke, the damage to speech and movement is usually obvious. But for some stroke survivors, having trouble swallowing can be an invisible -- but extremely disabling -- aftereffect. Although there is no hard data on the number of people who have difficulty swallowing after a stroke, the American Stroke Association says the problem may occur in up to 65 percent of stroke pati...
It happened so fast. Sharon Brooks, co-owner of the trendy but now-defunct Hamburger Mary's restaurant in San Francisco, was ringing out the cash register and trying to reach her son's girlfriend on the phone. But when the young woman answered, all that came out of Brooks' mouth was gibberish. "I tried to talk and couldn't. I went into the bathroom and felt my left side tingling," says Brooks, wh...
If you suffer from any type of heart trouble, it's only natural to have concerns about whether sex is still safe for you. Here's the good news: According to the American Heart Association, most people with heart trouble can enjoy sex safely -- and that includes those with high blood pressure. Sex -- like any other form of exercise -- does get the heart pumping. And, in rare cases, the extra exe...
What is preeclampsia? If you're ever tempted to skip one of your prenatal checkups, consider this: Checkups are often the only way to detect serious complications of pregnancy, such as preeclampsia, that show few outward symptoms. Preeclampsia is a toxic condition marked by increasing protein in the urine and hypertension (high blood pressure) which makes blood vessels tighten or constrict. The c...
What is a stroke? The gray matter in our brains may get all the credit for our intellectual powers and nerve coordination, but it's blood that really keeps us going. If something interrupts blood flow in or to the brain, parts of the brain will quickly die. A stoppage in one of the brain's arteries is called a stroke, and it's the third leading cause of death in the United States. It's also a lea...