Known or unknown, most people suffer from blood pressure problems, usually high blood pressure, at some point of time in their lives. This is predominantly because daily living has become something of a stressful condition. In a bid to make life easy, humans also increased stress levels and that in itself leads to myriad health problems of which blood pressure is one. There are people who go though life and living with this condition, and medication which does not affect their daily activity levels and there are others who are unable to reconcile to this fact and end up feeling even more stressed. The fact of the matter is that having high blood pressure means making some changes but nothing that is radical or drastic in nature and this must be understood by all.

One can define blood pressure as the force of the blood against the walls of your arteries. It is measured using an instrument which records at two levels, the first as the heart beats, known as systolic and the second between heart beats, known as diastolic. 120/80 mmhg, where 120 is considered normal for systolic and 80 is considered normal for diastolic, is considered as normal, a reading consistently above or below this figure would be termed as hypertension if higher and hypotension if lower. Consistent readings of 140 for systolic and 90 plus for diastolic would mean you have high blood pressure. This particular disease can afflict anyone irrespective of caste, color, creed, race, geographical location or age.

There are no warning signs of high blood pressure and this condition can lead to heart attacks, kidney problems, other related heart diseases. Once diagnosed, there is no looking back. Keeping a check on your blood pressure is one way of ensuring that if you do have the condition, it is checked well in time. Most doctors advise regular health check-ups after a certain age. Some people get high blood pressure only when they visit the doctor, known as the 'white coat- hypertension' syndrome, where the patient is advised to wear a blood pressure ambulatory monitor that will record his blood pressure every 30 minutes and give an accurate picture of his health.

The only thing that will now help is making lifestyle changes like keeping a check on food intake. There should be an increase in fruits and vegetables and dairy products which are low in fat and a decrease in the salt and sodium content of the food, alcoholic beverages as well as saturated fats. Today the market is filled with food items with a low fat content. Choose rice, beans, cereals and pastas served without butter and sauce, ensure the meats you buy are lean and skinless if possible, try for no salt or reduced sodium content food and packaged goods.

Keeping a check on your health through regular medical check-ups, ensure a lifestyle which incorporates exercise and sensible eating and enjoy yourself within limits. You may have to take regular medication but that should not stop you from living a normal life in every other way.