In 2017 changes were made to the blood pressure guidelines.
Dr. Kyler Barkley is in interventional cardiology for Covenant Medical Group. He said the changes are hoping to increase awareness about hypertension.
“The old definition of hypertension was 140/90, but what they’ve done is anything above 120/80 is abnormal,” Dr. Barkley said.
“So anything above that should warrant some kind of treatment or evaluation, doesn’t necessarily, mean they have to be put on blood pressure medicine, but people should be aware of their blood pressure if it’s that high,” he added.
He said it’s a good idea to know your numbers. He also said there are some things you should do before you check your blood pressure in order to get a good reading, including no caffeine or tobacco for 30 minutes before the reading and be well rested and calm.
“If people can know their risk early on, then we can do things to mitigate that risk and decrease that risk moving forward,” he said. “People don’t feel high blood pressure, it’s something most people are asymptomatic from.”
