Healthy Life Lines: Heart Month Hypertension Healers

 Make less stress, tolerate even less.

Learn relaxation techniques.

Meditate daily.

Eat heart healthy food.

Exercise at least fifteen minutes or more a day in your best way.

Pursue enjoyable hobbies that you like.

Sleep soundly at least eight hours per twenty-four.

Let love keep you healthy.

Smile a lot.

Pray often.

Own a blood pressure device and /or an application on a phone.

Check your blood pressure at home. 

Give a blood pressure monitor as a gift.

Use positive kindness as daily medicine.

Best health!

MY PATIENT HANDBOOK: hypertension 

Holiday Hypertension Healers

Make less stress, tolerate even less.

Learn relaxation techniques.

Meditate daily.

Eat heart healthy food.

Exercise at least fifteen minutes or more a day in your best way.

Pursue enjoyable hobbies that you like.

Sleep soundly at least eight hours per twenty-four.

Let love keep you healthy.

Smile a lot.

Pray often.

Own a blood pressure device and /or an application on a phone.

Check your blood pressure at home. 

Give a blood pressure monitor as a gift.

Use positive kindness as daily medicine.

Best health!

MY PATIENT HANDBOOK: hypertension 

Culinary Medicine Makes Healthy More Wealthy

Cooking is good medicine.  What you cook is better medicine.  Culinary medicine can help you get better and stay healthy.  The healthy food plus cooking adds to great, healthy feelings.  This is what more doctors and healthcare providers are studying to recommend for their patients.  More residency training programs are including culinary medicine in their school curriculum.  

Food as medicine is hardly a new treatment.  Hippocrates quoted it thousands of years ago.  Research continues to show that proper nutrition with natural foods keeps low risk for disease lower, and it also keeps high risk conditons from progressing and perhaps even occurring. Starting before birth is the optimal time.  Early good nutrition is important.

Make your healthy more wealthy by learning to prepare healthy meals.  This begins with education and action. Best health!

Educate Your Body: Know & Learn Your Blood Pressure

Do you know your average blood pressure reading? Do you know a normal blood pressure should be? High blood pressure, also called hypertension affects 1 in 3 adults worldwide.  It affects more people than any disease in the world. Untreated hypertension leads to unhealthy feelings and symptoms.  It causes heart disease, strokes, kidney failure, blindness, poor circulation, and more. 

A normal reading is 120/80.  For more accurate measures of your blood pressure and what affects it, you should do home blood pressure monitoring. Buy a blood pressure monitor for home use. Wrist and arm monitors are available in many stores on and off line. Record your blood pressure readings daily starting with morning, midday, and night. Make a note of your activity and how you are feeling. You may notice that extreme anxiety makes it go up. The correlation to your pressure will help you manage the things that make it go up. Share your results with your doctor so medication and lifestyle changes can be made if necessary.

You may find that while your blood pressure is high in the doctor's office, it may be normal in everyday activity. Remember, the doctor's result is a one time reading every one to four or more months. With normal home results, and high results at your doctor visits you may have "white coat" hypertension. There is much controversy over whether this should be treated. Check with your primary care doctor and cardiologist.

If your blood pressure is above 120/80, you want to start a low salt, low fat diet. One of the best is the DASH diet. Integrating healthy food, exercise, weight control, and stress reduction in your treatment plan improves the way you feel.  It also controls blood pressure. For higher blood pressure readings, medication may be necessary. Be sure to take your home blood pressure results in to your doctor. This will help in deciding on the best treatment for you. Best health!

White Coat Hypertension: Is It Really High Blood Pressure?  http://bit.ly/1cGaeMj

Free Prescription: Prayer - Use as Needed

Pray for me. This often forgotten yet basic request is often deferred until times of severe health duress. How effective is prayer in helping heal your illnesses or that of someone else? Combining this with other forms of treatment has proven effective in managing illness, especially chronic disease.

Prayer is considered an alternative health treatment; however, faith healing is the only way to many. Man made medical treatments like drugs and surgery combined with modern technology have overshadowed prayer. Prayer, like many other alternative "natural" treatments, is usually left off the intern and resident training in medical school. Research has shown that many patients pray for their health regardless of religious background, and that is does indeed have healing health benefits.

Praying for oneself as well as being prayed for are effective in staying healthy as well as in healing. The beautiful thing is that you can do it anywhere, anytime without paying any money. No health insurance is required.

Best health!

by J.L, Richardson, M.D., family medicine doctor and author of Patient Handbook to Medical Care: Your Personal Health Guide.

This book provides 112 pages (large print) of health information that will tell you what your doctor should be asking you, telling you, and doing for you - as taught in medical school and used since Hippocrates. http://amzn.to/13m51UU

Heart Month Health Tips

Check your heart list:

___Heart and vascular exam by health care provider
___Blood pressure, pulse, weight, height
___EKG


For further evaluation especially if symptoms are present, and/ or a strong family history of heart and vascular disease see a cardiologist. Tests may include:
___Doppler echocardiogram
___Stress test - nuclear, doppler or exercise
___Heart MRI scan
___Interventional studies like cardiac catherization


Heart health habits:
Maintain a healthy weight.
Eat healthy small portions.
Exercise regularly - every little bit counts! Just do it regularly.
Keep blood pressure under control.
Keep stress level low.
Get adequate sleep.
Take an aspirin a day if in a high risk group. Check with your health care provider.

Love, laugh, and let go! Have a happy, healthy heart!

Prevention Requires Less Intervention

Prevention and early detection are important for your health and wellness.  Routine check ups are shown to improve overall health while requiring less medical intervention and treatments.  Done on a "routine" basis means just that - in a consistent manner based on your health profile.  As one gets older, or if one has chronic disease they may become  more frequent than every few years.  As you prepare to see your doctor you will find that Patient Handbook to Medical Care: Your Personal Health Guide is the ideal reference book to inform you about what checkups and tests you may need for prevention intervention.

This Writer's Digest International Self-Published Book Award winner informs patients about basic medical care. By reading this how-to reference book you will learn:

• how to keep a medical diary
• how to get your medical records
• how to document your complete medical history
• what the physical exam should include
• about preventive tests and when to get them
• about tests your doctor orders
• about specialists and other medical providers
• about health care plans and coverage
• how to seek quality health services

Patient Handbook to Medical Care: Your Personal Health Guide is on Kindle, and can be borrowed via the Kindle Owner's Lending Library.

High Blood Pressure (HBP)

High blood pressure, also called hypertension affects 1 in 3 adults. Do you know your numbers? Do you what a normal reading is? Optimal is 120/80.  More precise classification is as follows:

  Normal 120-129/80-84

  High normal 130-139/85-89

  Mild 140-159/90-99

  Moderate 160-179/100-109

  Severe over 180/110

For more accurate measures of your blood pressure and what affects it consider home blood pressure monitoring. Buy a blood pressure monitor for home use. Wrist and arm monitors are available at retail stores, drugstores, and local medical supply stores.

Record your blood pressure readings daily starting with morning, midday, and night. Make a note of your activity and how you are feeling. You may notice that extreme anxiety makes it go up. The correlation to your pressure will help you manage the things that make it go up. Share your results with your doctor so medication and lifestyle changes can be made if necessary.

You may find that while your blood pressure is high in the doctor's office, it may be normal in everyday activity. Remember, the doctor's result is a one time reading every one to four or more months. With normal home results, and high results at your doctor visits you may have "white coat" hypertension http://bit.ly/1cGaeMj . There is much controversy over whether this should be treated. Check with your cardiologist.

If your blood pressure is borderline at 130/85, you want o start a low salt diet. The best is the DASH diet (http://bit.ly/hnbsL). Exercise, weight control, and stress reduction are other things to include in your treatment plan. For higher blood pressure readings over 140/90, medication may be necessary. Take your home blood pressure results in to your doctor. This will help in deciding on the best treatment for you.


by J.L. Richardson, MD, author of the Patient Handbook to Medical Care: Your Personal Health Guide.

Heart Health Check List

Heart disease and high blood pressure are leading causes of many health issues today.  High blood pressure (hypertension) affects about 1 in 3 people worldwide.  Studies have shown that screening and prevention can change this to healthier hearts.  As one gets routine physical check-ups for the entire body, the same should be done for the heart.

Basic check your heart list:
___Heart and vascular exam by health care provider
___Blood pressure*, pulse, weight, height
___EKG

For further evaluation, especially if symptoms are present, and/ or a strong family history of heart and vascular disease see a cardiologist for more testing.

Tests may include:
___Doppler echocardiogram (checks heart valves, size, etc.)
___Stress test - nuclear, doppler or exercise (heart function)
___Heart MRI scan (artery disease)
___Interventional studies like cardiac catherization, angiogram (checks artery blockage, valves)

Help your heart and overall health with these tips:

1. Maintain a healthy weight.
2. Eat healthy small portions.
3. Exercise regularly - every little bit counts! Just do it regularly.
4. Keep blood pressure* under control.
5. Keep stress level low.
6. Get adequate sleep.
7. Take an aspirin a day if in a high risk group. Check with your health care provider.

*Add home blood pressure checks to your list.  It will help you and your heart!  http://mypatienthandbook.blogspot.com/2009/03/high-blood-pressure-home-checks_21.html

Best health!

High Blood Pressure - Home Checks

High blood pressure, also called hypertension affects 1 in 4 adults. Do you know your numbers? do you what a normal reading is? A good normal reading is 120/80 with borderline at 130/85 to 140/90.

For more accurate measures of your blood pressure and what affects it consider home blood pressure monitoring. Buy a blood pressure monitor for home use. Wrist and arm monitors are available at Target, Walgreen's, CVS, Wal-Mart, and local medical supply stores. Shop on line by doing a search for "blood pressure monitor".

Record your blood pressure readings daily starting with morning, midday, and night. Make a note of your activity and how you are feeling. You may notice that extreme anxiety makes it go up. The correlation to your pressure will help you manage the things that make it go up. Share your results with your doctor so medication and lifestyle changes can be made if necessary.

You may find that while your blood pressure is high in the doctor's office, it may be normal in everyday activity. Remember, the doctor's result is a one time reading every one to four or more months. With normal home results, and high results at your doctor visits you may have "white coat" hypertension. There is much controversy over whether this should be treated. Check with your cardiologist.

If your blood pressure is borderline at 130/85, you want o start a low salt diet. The best is the DASH diet (http://bit.ly/hnbsL). Exercise, weight control, and stress reduction are other things to include in your treatment plan. For higher blood pressure readings over 140/90, medication may be necessary. Take your home blood pressure results in to your doctor. This will help in deciding on the best treatment for you.

Check out the American Heart Association http://hearthub.org/ for more information.

by J.L. Richardson, MD, author of the Patient Handbook to Medical Care: Your Personal Health Guide.

http://www.mypatienthandbook.com/
www.twitter.com/MD4U

DASH Diet for High Blood Pressure

The link below is the best information I have seen on DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). It is from the NIH National Heart Lung Blood Institute. There is more to managing hypertension with diet than avoiding salt. Diet and salt restriction (2400 mg/ day about 1 tsp.) is the initial treatment step along with exercise. Medication may be required if blood pressure remains high after a 6-8 week trial with diet and healthy lifestyle changes.

Click link for DASH diet.
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/dash/new_dash.pdf