LATEST NEWS - Eliminate high blood pressure and halve the impact of stroke
It’s World Hypertension Day and the Stroke Foundation is determined to slash stroke numbers in Australia – with your help.
Today kicks off Australia's Biggest Blood Pressure Check for 2018 and communities are being urged to take five minutes out of their day for a potentially life-saving blood pressure check.
More than 4.1 Million Australians are living with hypertension or high blood pressure, putting themselves at serious and unnecessary risk of stroke.
The major concern with high blood pressure is many people don’t realise they have it. It has no immediate symptoms, but over time, it damages blood vessels and increases the risk of stroke and heart disease.
Stroke Foundation and SiSU Wellness conducted more than 520,000 digital health checksthroughout 2017, finding 16 percent of participants had high blood pressure putting them at risk of stroke.
A staggering 82 percent of those, found to have high blood pressure, were not aware prior to taking the health check and were referred to their doctor for a further assessment.
Stroke strikes in an instant, attacking the brain. It kills more women than breast cancer and more men than prostate cancer and leaves thousands with an ongoing disability, but stroke is largely preventable by managing blood pressure and living a healthy lifestyle.
Given there will be 56,000 strokes in Australia this year alone, if we can reduce high blood pressure we will have a direct and lasting impact on the rate of stroke in this country.
I am urging you – no matter what age you are – to have a blood pressure check regularly with your GP (General Practitioner), pharmacist or via a digital health check machine.