Know Your Numbers week is here, and at Acorn, we feel it’s a brilliantly effective campaign to enable employers and employees throughout the UK to understand and appreciate the importance of being aware of their blood pressure.
During this week, you’re encouraged to get a blood pressure check and to familiarise yourself with the good, the bad and the steps you can take to improve any blood pressure issues for long-term health.
Did you know that over six million people in the UK have high blood pressure and don’t even know it? When your heart beats, it pumps blood around your body to give it the energy and oxygen it needs. As the blood moves, it pushes against the sides of the blood vessels. The strength of this pushing is your blood pressure. If your blood pressure is too high, it puts extra strain on your heart and blood vessels. This is called high blood pressure, or hypertension. Over time it can lead to a number of health problems including heart attacks, stroke, kidney disease and some forms of dementia.
Every day 350 people have a heart attack or stroke that could have been prevented. So it’s time to wise up and know your numbers!
Blood pressure is measured in millimetres of mercury (mmHg) using a simple machine. When you have it measured it will be written as two numbers, a top number and a bottom number. For example, if your reading is 120/80mmHg, your blood pressure is 120 over 80. This is a healthy blood pressure reading, but what about others?
140/90mmHg or over – you may have high blood pressure: Most doctors use 140/90mmHg as the cut off for point for diagnosing high blood pressure. This is the point where your risk of serious health problems increases. You may be prescribed medications and given advice regarding changes that you can make to your lifestyle to bring your blood pressure down.
120/80mmHg up to 140/90mmHg – pre-high blood pressure: Also called high-normal blood pressure. This is not high blood pressure, but it is a little higher than it should be and means you could go on to develop high blood pressure. See how you can make healthy changes to your lifestyle to lower it.
90/60mmHg up to 120/80mmHg – ideal blood pressure: Also called normal blood pressure. Your blood pressure reading is healthy. At this level you have a much lower risk of heart disease and stroke. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle will help you to keep your blood pressure in the healthy range.
90/60mmHg or lower – you may have low blood pressure: This usually isn’t a problem, but it can sometimes make you feel faint or dizzy or could be a sign of another health problem.
Don’t let all these numbers, facts and figures cause you too much concern though. There are simple steps you can take to make big changes to your blood pressure health. And those changes will have ever-lasting effects on your health for the long term. Getting active, keeping to a healthy weight and stopping smoking are some of the best things you can do. Eating your five a day, cutting back on salt and saturated fats and having an all-round healthy, balanced diet is also a great way to keep those numbers in the healthy range. However, if you do have further concerns and have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, there are medications that you can take to lower it.
How can Acorn help?
As a business, it’s important to help your employees be wise to their health to improve their wellbeing, fitness to work and secure your position as a compassionate and dedicated employer. Along with blood pressure, we can help give a comprehensive health check to your staff with our well-person medicals. We can carry out a number of checks whilst on site such as Cholesterol and glucose, blood pressure, pulse and BMI. These can all be performed on site with ease to give your staff the reassurance and guidance they need to take better care of their health for their personal and professional lives.
It’s more important than ever to be aware of and help employees with their health. When you work with Acorn you can ensure you’re doing all you can to take care of your workforce and your business with simple, effective checks and advice. When you and your staff know your numbers, you can begin to take necessary and important steps to improve them for the better. Simple lifestyle changes may be all it takes and you can help your team achieve that with Acorn.
Speak with us today about our well person medical and know your numbers!