I’ll always remember learning how to measure blood pressure. I learnt the technique as part of my training to become a Personal Trainer. After the correct use of the sphygmomanometer had been demonstrated it was our turn to practice. I measured my partner’s blood pressure and then looked for other members of the group to practice on. Joe and Steve were eager to oblige.

I wrapped the blood pressure cuff around Joe’s arm, inflated it and settled back to listen for the first Korotkoff sound – the systolic pressure – the pressure of the blood as its leaves the heart and courses through the blood vessels. (The point at which the Korotkoff sounds disappear is called the diastolic pressure and measures the force on the artery walls in between beats.) However, no sooner had I done this did I hear a loud BOOM in my ears. I nearly jumped out of my skin. Joe and Steve fell about laughing. I smiled too, eventually, but it was no laughing matter.

You see, Joe had high blood pressure and it was only through being on this course – Fitness Assessments and Exercise Counselling – that he discovered that he had high blood pressure. Joe had no symptoms of the disease yet his bloodpressure was through the roof!

Joe is far from alone in two regards:

(i) Nearly one billion people throughout the world have high blood pressure, and
(ii) 30% of these people do not know they have the disease.

This is why high blood pressure is referred to as “The Silent Killer”. The disease works in stealth mode – silently. When we do start to experience symptoms of the disease untold damage has already been done.

Having high blood pressure is like having a house riddled with termites. You often don’t realise your home is termite-infested until after extensive damage has been done. Sometimes the damage is so severe that just a small amount of “pressure” at the right spot can bring the whole structure tumbling down.

The disease may be dubbed “The Silent Killer” but for me the silence was almost deafening. My mates knew I was expecting Joe’s blood pressure to be in the normal range and wanted to see my reaction. I was completely unprepared and for their prank but the joke, if one could call it that, was not on me. The consequences of high blood pressure can be deadly. Hypertension is not something you want to fool around with.

The consequences of untreated high blood pressure often take years to be discovered and may take the form of coronary heart disease, kidney failure, strokes, diabetes and atherosclerosis. These are all serious diseases which could send you to your grave ahead of schedule. For instance, left unchecked hypertension can cause the heart to become enlarged through years of overwork. The heart may be a muscle, but overworking it in this manner, day in, day out will simply wear it out. The higher the blood pressure the greater the risks of these diseases.

However, being diagnosed with high blood pressure is not catastrophic. There are prescription drugs you can take but some of these have unpleasant or even dangerous side effects. In addition, most people once they start prescription medication are on it for the rest of their lives. This is a grim reality.

Fortunately, there is another way. There are a number of natural alternatives to prescription medication not just in terms of diet but also lifestyle. Stress is a key factor in high blood pressure and many doctors believe that stress is the underlying cause of all diseases.

“We’ve got a thousand different diagnoses and diseases out there. They’re just the weak link. They’re all the result of one thing – STRESS. When you put enough stress on the chain, when you put enough stress on the system, one of the links breaks.” Dr Ben Johnson

What is so frustrating about this is that blood pressure is, in theory, easy to measure. However, ease of measurement, especially now there are so many varieties of blood pressure monitors on the market, does not always equate with accuracy. Accuracy, as with most scientific measurements, is affected by the quality of the equipment used and the expertise of the operator. This can be critical if you are a borderline case as it can result in being prescribed medication unnecessarily if the reading is “false high”. Conversely, if your reading is “false low” then the untreated disease could lead to serious complications.

I have to put my hands up and say that, in the case of Joe, I never did measure his actual blood pressure, far less measure it accurately. It sufficed that from the result I did get, he needed to see a doctor for a complete medical examination pronto.