An active and healthy woman who was diagnosed with high blood pressure has encouraged others to get their blood pressure checked.
Rebecca Fitzsimons, 71, is a retired French and English teacher from Clontarf in Dublin, reports RTE.
Although she maintained a very active and healthy lifestyle, she was diagnosed with high blood pressure last year.
She is now urging people to have their blood pressure monitored to help lower the risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure, dementia and certain types of blindness, reports RTE.
Ms Fitzsimons said an initial borderline high blood pressure reading she received last year was later confirmed as high by her GP a month afterwards.
She said the diagnosis encouraged her to make lifestyle adjustments, including losing weight, switching to a Mediterranean-style diet, avoiding eating late at night and improving her sleep routine, reports RTE.
As a result of those changes, her blood pressure has now returned to normal.
The Irish Heart Foundation (IHF), alongside several other organisations, has launched a month-long campaign aimed at increasing awareness around high blood pressure and the importance of regular health checks, reports RTE.
For most people, high blood pressure is considered to be a reading of 140 over 90 or above.
However, for those living with diabetes or kidney disease, the target blood pressure level is lower in order to reduce the risk of stroke, reports RTE.
If someone is diagnosed with high blood pressure, it means their blood pressure remains consistently above the recommended level.
Doctors say symptoms linked to high blood pressure are often silent, reports RTE.
Janice Morrissey, Director of Health Promotion at the IHF, said there is rarely one single cause, but several factors can increase the risk and the condition can also run in families.
She said people will not be aware of the condition unless they have their blood pressure checked, reports RTE.
Recent research carried out by the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing found that 62% of adults aged 50 and older with high blood pressure were not being properly managed, meaning they were undiagnosed, untreated or treated but not under control.
That figure equates to approximately 445,000 people, reports RTE.
Treatment generally involves lifestyle changes and in some cases medication may also be required.
The campaign – ‘Before Damage is Done’ – is also backed by the Irish College of GPs and the Irish Pharmacy Union, reports RTE.
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