When did you last check your blood pressure?

Healthwatch Barnet, in collaboration with Healthwatch Islington, Healthwatch Enfield, Healthwatch Camden and Healthwatch Haringey, started the Core 20 Plus project, to combat Hypertension by offering free blood pressure checks, and advice, such as lifestyle changes, so that individuals can fix this issue early on, to reduce the complications that can occur later. This is important as around 7 million of adults in the United Kingdom have undiagnosed high blood pressure. This can be reduced if adults get regular blood pressure checks, which can be done at home, using own equipment, in a GP surgery or in a pharmacy.

If you wish to purchase a blood pressure machine, to enable at home blood pressure checks, it costs around £20. 

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is where the heart is consistently working too hard to push blood around the body. This can cause issues, as the arteries become less stretchy, arteries can clog up easier. 

If you would like to know more, see the previous news article on Hypertension or watch the British Heart Foundation informative video.