What you should know about self-management of hypertension in 2022

The 2022 "Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Hypertension in China" stipulates that blood pressure values ​​are roughly divided into the following categories:

①Ideal blood pressure 120/80 mmHg

②Normal value <130/85 mmHg

③Normal high value 130~139/85~89mmHg

④Level 1 hypertension 140~159/90~99 mmHg

⑤2 and hypertension ≥160/100 mmHg

If you suffer from high blood pressure and want to lower it scientifically, what should you do in your daily life?

1. Improve sleep quality

If you often have difficulty falling asleep or suffer from insomnia, the control of high blood pressure will be affected. Therefore, patients with hypertension need to sleep at least 8 hours a day and find the right way to improve sleep quality. If you often snore, suffer from insomnia, or wake up early, you need to go to the sleep and respiratory departments for examination in time.

2. Slow down your pace of life

If you often live at a fast pace, the secretion of adrenaline and sympathetic nerves will change, and the resistance of blood vessels will increase. Over time, your blood pressure will rise. Therefore, you must slow down in your life and get up and move around after working for half an hour. This will increase the blood circulation speed and relax your mind.

3. Quit smoking

If patients with hypertension have the bad habit of smoking, they need to quit cigarettes in time, because tobacco can cause certain damage to multiple organs such as the lungs. Frequent smoking can cause cardiovascular and cerebrovascular problems in patients, such as irregular blood vessel contraction and vascular sclerosis. These lesions will increase the blood pressure of patients with hypertension, so people with high blood pressure should quit the bad habit of smoking.

4. Keep warm

Winter is cold, and people with high blood pressure need to keep warm when going out. If people with high blood pressure catch a cold, their cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems will be stimulated, causing their blood pressure to rise and other diseases to occur.

5. Take medicine on time

Hypertension is a chronic disease that requires long-term medication. You cannot stop taking medication when you see that your blood pressure is under control, and then take medication again when your blood pressure rises. Intermittent medication will make blood pressure more difficult to control, and the condition will worsen after stopping medication. In addition, irregular medication will cause blood pressure fluctuations to increase, increasing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular damage, so patients with hypertension must take medication on time.

How to accurately measure your blood pressure?

1. Choose a professionally certified upper arm fully automatic or semi-automatic electronic blood pressure monitor or mercury blood pressure monitor.

2. Empty your bladder and rest for at least 5 minutes before measuring. If you smoke, eat, drink coffee, exercise, or get emotional, you should rest for 30 minutes before measuring.

3. When measuring, lie flat or sit, take off thick clothes, expose your arms or wear only thin clothes close to your body.

4. Avoid measuring blood pressure on limbs with trauma, hemiplegia or paralysis.

5. Make the forearm (brachial artery) and heart and sphygmomanometer at the same level, with the center of the cuff rubber bag placed on the brachial artery. The lower edge of the cuff should be 2.5 cm away from the elbow line, and the tightness should be enough to insert 1 to 2 fingers.

6. Keep quiet and don't speak when measuring blood pressure.

7. If you find that the blood pressure is unclear (mercury sphygmomanometer) or abnormal, you should re-measure it after 1-2 minutes. When re-measuring, you should expel all the gas in the cuff, wait for the mercury column to drop to "0" (mercury sphygmomanometer), and then measure again after a while. If necessary, make a bilateral comparison.

8. Pay attention to the four things: fixed time, fixed location, fixed body position, and fixed sphygmomanometer, which will help to measure the accuracy of blood pressure and the comparability of comparison.

9. If you experience symptoms such as dizziness or headache, measure at any time.

10. Record the date, time, blood pressure value, etc. of each measurement.

Which home blood pressure monitor is best?

Hypertensive patients are advised to use upper arm electronic blood pressure monitors when purchasing home blood pressure monitors. They are convenient for self-testing of blood pressure and can accurately reflect the blood pressure control situation. Blood pressure monitors that have passed ESH, AAM or BHS certification and that the manufacturer provides calibration services are recommended. If conditions permit, blood pressure monitors that can be connected to the software on smartphones for easy recording can be selected.

How often should blood pressure be measured?

How often should blood pressure be measured?

For those whose blood pressure is up to standard and stable, they should measure their blood pressure once a week, that is, once after getting up and before taking medicine and before going to bed. Measure 2 to 3 times each time, with an interval of 1 to 2 minutes, and take the average value; follow-up in the outpatient clinic should be conducted once a month.

If blood pressure is not up to standard or is unstable, self-measure blood pressure 3 to 7 days a week and follow up at least once every 2 weeks.

If blood pressure control is not ideal, 24-hour dynamic blood pressure monitoring should be performed, and the doctor should adjust the medication time according to blood pressure fluctuations.

Changes in temperature can cause blood pressure fluctuations. When the seasons change, you should pay attention to increasing the frequency of blood pressure measurements.

Everyone is the first person responsible for their own health. It is recommended that adults measure their blood pressure regularly to detect and control it early. Preventing hypertension and stroke starts with self-management and changing your lifestyle.