May is National Blood Pressure Education month and Charles R. Drew University’s School of Medicine and Science is offering some tips to help reduce the silent killer, high blood pressure. While people of all ages and backgrounds can have high blood pressure, minorities are at a higher risk and seem to have more complications in their cases of hypertension. African Americans, specifically also tend to get high blood much earlier in their lifetimes that their white or Hispanic counterparts. According to the CDC, African American women are the largest group of people with high blood pressure in the country. The clinical diagnosis of hypertension is made when a blood pressure reading is taken by a health professional and is 140/90 mmHg and higher on at least three different occasions under complete physical and mental relaxation.
The best part of hypertension is that it can be prevented and controlled by simple making changes to your diet and with increased physical activity. Dr. David Martins, M.D., M.S., Associate Professor of Medicine at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science recommends the following lifestyle changes to enhance normal blood pressure readings:
