Should I have my Blood Pressure measured?

It depends on many things.

Since you cannot feel whether your blood pressure is too high, it can be a good idea to have it measured. On the other hand, many other things in life are more important than your blood pressure. If you are under 30 years old and have a healthy lifestyle there is no reason to worry about your blood pressure.

Blood pressure rises with age, it is higher with men than with women and it is higher with people from families with a tendency to too high blood pressure or in families whose members have had strokes or heart attacks in an early age.

The risk of having a stroke or a heart attack is increased if you smoke, are overweight, do not exercise, have a big use of alcohol, eat unhealthy or is diabetic. The combination of unhealthy living and too high blood pressure is a dangerous ‘cocktail’.

Therefore, you should have you blood pressure measure the next time you visit your doctor if:

You are more than 40 years old and have not had your blood pressure measured recently.

Several family members, especially parents or siblings have too high blood pressure.

Several family members have had blood clots in an early age.

You have an unhealthy lifestyle.

You suffer from diabetes.

Further reading on How serious is it?