Do not borrow a target from a newsletter. Ask for yours.
High blood pressure is common at this age, and it often feels like nothing. That is the trap. The National Institute on Aging treats the number as something to know, not as a mood. A longer life you can use starts with a number you have actually seen, not with a powder that promises years.
How to take it without fooling yourself
The photograph is a cuff on an arm. The reading that counts is the one your own clinician is using for you. A machine at the drugstore is a hint, not a diagnosis. If they have asked you to check at home, sit with your back supported and your feet on the floor. Rest the arm at the level of your heart. Do not talk through the reading. Write the date and both numbers.
- Take your home cuff to the office once and ask whether it agrees with theirs.
- One high afternoon is a note. It is not a reason to add a pill from the drawer.
- One low morning is not a reason to skip the pill they prescribed.
- Ask what number they want for you. Do not borrow a target from a neighbor or from this page.
When the number is not a home project
If a reading is far from your usual and you also have chest pain, trouble speaking, a sudden severe headache, or weakness on one side, call for help. Do not sit with it to see if the next reading is kinder. The piece in this issue on what is not “just age” is that list.
Sources to read yourself
A note from the desk
This is general reading, not a diagnosis and not a plan written for you. Before you change how you move, eat, or what you keep in the cabinet, ask your own clinician. Do not stop a prescribed medicine because of something you read.