do you consume a lot of salt can't resist salty foods like french fries sausages and processed foods and are you hypertensive or do you spend most of your time sitting without exercising do you think your blood pressure medication alone should solve your hypertension problem think again in this video I will talk about five serious and common mistakes that a hypertensive person cannot make if you or someone in your family is making any of these mistakes it's important to correct them as soon as possible because it can lead to a series of complications that will affect
your health hypertension is the leading risk factor for death worldwide more than smoking more than having diabetes obesity or high cholesterol hypertension is like a ticking Time Bomb inside us if we're not careful it can detonate and cause serious damage to our body such as heart problems Strokes kidney disease and even eye damage it's serious are you making any of these serious mistakes are you scoring an own goal against your health I hope not I'm not here to judge if you're making mistakes I'm here to help you however mistake number one is the most frequent
so stay until the end to find out but first like the video because the more people like it the more YouTube distributes it to people who don't have access to doctors or hospitals many people are hypertensive 35% of adults suffer from this problem or more than 60 million people sharing the video with your friends and family helps so don't hesitate share it and tell me are you hypertensive and making any of these five mistakes where in the world are you from write it down below let's go the blood pressure you measure at home or at
the health center reflects the pressure your circulation is under think with me when blood pressure is high our internal organs suffer the heart for example needs to work much harder to pump blood which can lead to Serious heart diseases like heart attack angina and heart failure and the brain is not spared uncontrolled hypertension increases the risk of Strokes it's the leading cause of both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes and can even lead to death it's a real danger hypertension ages blood vessels it hardens them increasing cardiovascular mortality but do you know what the main problem with
hypertension is it's silent it doesn't cause nose bleed headaches chest pain or shortness of breath that's why many people don't know they are hypertensive I ask my patients when was the last time you measured your blood pressure they can't say 2 years ago 5 years ago never according to the hypertension consensus all people over 18 should measure their blood pressure at least once a year at the doctor's office and be aware of their pressure so what are the five serious mistakes that a hypertensive person cannot make mistake number five not measuring blood pressure or measuring
it incorrectly checking blood pressure at home is an important part of treatment do you have a blood pressure device at home is it well calibrated does it have the inmetro seal it's important to check your blood pressure at least once every 15 days or as I recommend to my patients measure it twice a week at different times why the only way to know if your medications are working is to check your blood pressure regularly it gives you the sense that you are in control of your disease that non-drug changes like exercise diet and sleep are
working you become more motivated when you see that your pressure used to be 14 and now it's always below 11 also measuring your pressure at the doctor's office is different from measuring it at home there are people who get tense during the consultation and their pressure Rises white coat hypertension or the opposite when they go to the doctor they relax and the pressure normalizes but at home it's high which we call masked hypertension regularly measuring at home helps your doctor better track your treatment how to measure blood pressure correctly at home first of all 30
minutes before measuring you should not have smoked consumed coffee or caffeine or exercised you should not have a full bladder and 5 minutes before starting you should sit down and remain seated during the measurement the cuff must be the right size if you are obese the cuff must be appropriately sized uncross your legs sit properly and rest your arm on a flat surface like a table at Heart level after the measurement you can measure again just to ensure the measurements are accurate it's important to measure measuring twice a week is a healthy and important practice
now beware of fake news and there are so many misconceptions out there I have a patient who blood pressure I measured and it was very high 18 I said aren't you measuring your blood pressure he replied yes doctor I am measuring it I bought an app on my cell phone I place my hand here and it measures my pressure look my pressure is 12x 7 12x8 I said no your pressure is 18 I measured with a digital device and it was 18 he measured again and it was 11x 70 these cell phone apps don't work
the fourth serious mist is the opposite measuring blood pressure all the time like everything in life extremes are not ideal if you only check your blood pressure when you go to your cardiologist once a year it's too little but measuring your blood pressure all the time is an exaggeration I want you to measure it I want you to have a device at home that works is certified and is from a good brand why is measuring your blood pressure all the time also not good oh I have a headache I'll measure it I'm agitated I'll measure
it I'll see what my pressure is before going to sleep there are people who measure their blood pressure all the time and this ruins their quality of life why because the numbers they see on the screen generate anxiety wow my pressure was 11 half an hour ago now it's 13 so when I go to sleep it'll be 15 and at dawn it'll be 18 I'll have a stroke and then they wonder why their pressure doesn't go down it should go down what should they do now it's like that I have hundreds of patients like this
when I change one of these patients medication due to a side effect like leg swelling I say I don't want you to measure your blood pressure for the next 15 days the class I'm prescribing is different the potency is the same but your body needs to adapt to the new medication 2 days later they come back to my office with more than 20 blood pressure measurements all noted look doctor the medication is not working or worse my blood pressure has never been so high in the last 15 minutes I measured it five times and it's
increasing each time don't do this don't keep measuring your blood pressure all the time stress causes your vessels to constrict due to Adrenaline and nor adrenaline what happens when you squeeze your garden hose the water spurts further squeezing increases the pressure in the hose so stress does this to your arteries measure twice a week or if you you've done a map and your cardiologist said it's okay you can measure once a week or once every 15 days not when you're feeling something but when you're calm relaxed you shouldn't be so concerned about a single high
reading but rather about your overall pressure focus on the forest not the tree if your pressure is generally good that day you slept badly drank too much coffee because of an important exam the next day disregard that reading let me ask you have you ever done a stress test your pressure went way up 180 by 90 is this dangerous during a stress test probably not it's normal your body needs to pump more blood to irrigate your leg muscles when you're running on the treadmill so the takeaway from this mistake is don't generate more anxiety don't
harm your mental health by measuring your blood pressure all the time let's move on to the next mistake mistake number three adjusting the medication on your own you measure your pressure it's high and you double the medication dose on your own I see this very often in my office look doctor I was taking benar 40 my pressure was always high so I decided to double the medication but they don't understand that 40 migrs was already the maximum dose doubling it won't help it will increase side effects double the cost and can have detrimental effects what
they should have done is come back to the office and I would associate another medic ation it would be more effective and wouldn't overload their body there are other cases where the person doesn't have a hypertension diagnosis is under stress measures their pressure it's high and decides to take their spouse's medication they schedule an appointment 3 months later and mention this and they don't understand why they became impotent because the medication I prescribed for the wife is different from what I'd prescribed for a man the treatment is individualized medicine is increasingly moving towards personalized Precision
medicine there shouldn't be a one- siiz fits-all approach self-medication and altering the medication dose on your own without consulting your doctor will make treatment difficult and can harm you instead of self-medicating the correct approach is to calm down rest and monitor your blood pressure again after 15 to 30 minutes report this to your doctor at the next appointment or if your pressure is very high 180 by 120 for example go to the emergency room mistake number two thinking that because you're taking the medication correctly you don't need to change your other habits or follow non-drug
treatments well medication is important but you also need to do your part your homework reduce salt intake or better yet switch to light salt if you don't have high potassium levels or chronic kidney disease why sodium retains fluid and potassium can counterbalance sodium's effect by excreting excess fluid light salt has 50% potassium there are studies one of the largest dietary intervention studies conducted in China and published in circulation in 2021 showed that light salt can reduce the risk of stroke heart attack and dementia look an easy cheap intervention that impacts your health but of course
you need to adjust the rest of your diet do you consume a lot of salt or sodium rich foods like processed foods yellow cheeses sausages snacks sodas including diet sodas you need to eat more fruits and vegetables that help normalize blood pressure don't smoke reduce or eliminate alcohol lose weight if you are overweight or obese exercise regularly sleep well reduce stress all of this together makes your blood pressure better and who knows over time your doctor might reduce or stop your medication and mistake number one stopping medication because your blood pressure is excellent if your
pressure is always low and you're having symptoms like postural hypotension or dizziness talk to your doctor you shouldn't stop on your own but the bigger problem isn't this the person is taking two three anti-hypertensive medications has well-rolled pressure 120x 80 and decides to stop everything then it becomes a problem or frequently I hear from my patient patients this morning I measured my pressure it was 110x 70 so I didn't take the medication otherwise my pressure would drop too much well your morning measurement the medication from yesterday was still effective the newer anti-hypertensives have a long
half life taking time to leave the body you shouldn't measure your pressure to decide whether to take the medication or not you should take it every day I'll share a concept you may not have heard before the newer medications are are anti-hypertensives not hypotensives in other words the medication won't lower your pressure it tends to normalize your pressure the drop in pressure is proportional to the level of hypertension there's an interesting study where they gave the same dose of three combined anti-hypertensives The Pianist study a fixed dose of perindopril indapamide and amlodipine for 4 months
what happened pressure stabilized over time in the first month it was higher than in the the fourth month for all groups mild hypertensives did not become hypertensive the pressure normalized the same happened for moderate hypertensives and for severe hypertensives where the pressure was very high it improved to acceptable standards in other words the newer medications are against high blood pressure not to lower pressure so if your pressure is normal on a given day take the medication as prescribed in Brazil today only 10 to 20% of hypertensive patients are well controlled 10 to 20% in Portugal
it's 55% in Canada 66% and the most controlled country is South Korea with 72% of hypertensives within range good blood pressure control reduces your risk of having a stroke heart attack heart failure ending up on dialysis and dying take good care of your blood pressure try your best to avoid these five mistakes and you'll do well you'll Excel did you like the video remember to subscribe and see you in the next video
