Laura L. Smith - High Blood Pressure For Dummies®, Pocket Edition

High Blood Pressure For Dummies, Pocket Edition

by Alan L. Rubin, MD

High Blood Pressure For Dummies, Mini Edition

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com

Copyright 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

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ISBN: 978-1-118-04293-9

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Publishers Acknowledgements

Project Editor: Traci Cumbay

Composition Services: Indianapolis Composition Services Department

Cover Photo: iStockphoto.com/Emilia Stasiak

Introduction

W hen I was growing up, my mother often used the pressure cooker to make dinner in a hurry. The idea was that if you cooked food at higher pressures, the food would get done faster. High blood pressure in people is like that. If you permit yourself to have high blood pressure, youll get done faster. What do I mean by done? I am talking about all the medical complications, such as heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure, as well as the shortened life span of people with poorly treated or untreated high blood pressure.

High blood pressure, or hypertension; as doctors like to call it, affects more than 50 million adults in the United States and between 15 and 25 percent of the rest of the world according to the World Health Organization.

Like diabetes, high blood pressure is a lifestyle disease. It tends to occur in more affluent nations where food is plentiful and hard manual labor is done less often. This is both a problem and a challenge. On the one hand, affluent societies dont want to give up their benefits. On the other, the more fortunate want to enjoy their blessings without destroying themselves.

I always like to have a bottom line in my books, and this one is no exception. The bottom line is that you never have to suffer any of the consequences of high blood pressure. You have it within your brain and your body to prevent it or successfully treat high blood pressure should you discover that you have it. Imagine if all the people with high blood pressure heeded this advice and got theirs under control. About 250,000 lives a year would be saved, not to mention a much larger number who suffer but dont die. And thats in the United States alone.

If you read any of my previous books, Diabetes For Dummies, Diabetes Cookbook For Dummies, or Thyroid For Dummies, you know that I use humor to get my point across, a technique that characterizes the For Dummies series. I want to emphasize that Im not trying to trivialize anyones suffering by being comic about it. Humor has healing properties. A positive attitude is far more conducive to a positive outcome than is a negative attitude.

About This Book

No one expects that youll read this book from cover to cover. You dont have to skip back to Chapter 2 to understand Chapter 7. You dont have to start at the beginning to understand the end. Its not a novel, after all, but a tool to help you manage your high blood pressure. (Though some people may think of high blood pressure as a villain.)

Conventions Used in This Book

As much as I would love to use all nonscientific terms in this book, if I do so, you and your doctor will be speaking two different languages. Therefore, I use the scientific term, but I explain it with simple language the first time you see it.

As for using the term high blood pressure or the word hypertension, in this case and in all cases, I use the simpler term high blood pressure. This seems to be the trend, and I think its a good trend so long as the information that the term provides is accurate and comprehensive.

What You Dont Have to Read

Throughout the book, shaded areas (called sidebars) contain material thats interesting but not essential to your understanding. If you dont care to go so deeply into a subject, skip the sidebars. Youll understand everything else.

Foolish Assumptions

This book makes no assumptions about what you know. All new terms are explained. If you already know a great deal, youll find new information that adds to your knowledge. Key points are always marked clearly for you. You probably fall into one of the following categories: