Living with high blood pressure is like living, full stop. The fact that you’ve had high blood pressure diagnosed doesn’t have to change your life radically if you’ve already got a healthy lifestyle and that’s entirely possible. High blood pressure is not your fault. it’s something that happens within you. You can do things which will help to lower it a little bit particularly avoiding salt, particularly controlling weight and to some extent keeping to a healthy diet which is something I’ll come on to in a moment. But by and large your high blood pressure is only one of several risk factors. And it’s also worth you looking at the other ones that there may be in your life.

The biggest one of all is smoking and anyone who has high blood pressure, anyone full stop, should stop smoking because it’s such a high risk factor for heart disease as well as lung cancer, lung damage and stroke and all the other things.

Now if you happen to be over weight as well it will help your blood pressure if you reduce your weight but it will also help you generally to stay healthy if you can get your body mass index down to the usual target level of 30 or under, ideally around 25. And diet will play a part in that as well. And again you’ve got to be living with the lifestyle that you can maintain and that gives you good enjoyment in your life. And fortunately the diets which help to keep blood pressure under control are not difficult ones to follow. The classic one is called DASH from a low salt study but it also included a low fat component. Now you may want to look that up and follow it but equally if you simply want to follow a Mediterranean style diet, the kind of food that you may have on holiday then that’s absolutely fine provided that you try to avoid excessive salt. The problem of fat in the diet is often brought up but there’s no specific link between fat in the diet and high blood pressure and in fact if you want to follow a low glycaemic diet like the Atkin’s Diet that will also help to lower your blood pressure and control your weight. So you’ve got a large range of options there.

Cholesterol is a factor that like blood pressure you won’t be aware of and that’s largely not under your control but genetically determined. So don’t feel that simply because you’re keeping to a good diet you don’t need to have your cholesterol checked. You do if you’re having treatment for blood pressure. You do anyway if you’ve reached the middle of life, say around 50 because that’s one of the risk factors that you can know about and then take control over usually again by the use of tablets. So what I’m emphasising here is that high blood pressure is not a disease. it’s not a condition that’s going to shorten your life if you take the right precautions, if you keep taking your tablets and if you address the things that you yourself can address within your lifestyle.

I’ve been very fortunate in having such good doctors. I’ve taken notice of everything they’ve told me, I’ve always taken my drugs.

The reason I also take my tablets is because I certainly don’t want to have a stroke which I think also could be brought on by not having your tablets. I don’t know but I think so and I think the sensible thing to do is to carry on taking them because well theres always a possibility that you could have…

I mean I don’t think of heart attacks or anything like that but I mean theres always a possibility. I mean my brother in law didn’t know he was at that stage when he had his you know. And I keep myself well, I eat properly. I would not like to get overweight because I think overweight can cause such a lot of problems, not only strokes and things like that but it can… I just keep moving on.

I don’t like having uncontrolled hypertension, I probably will feel a lot happier about it when it is- and hopefully it will be- stabilised. I know from my father’s experience what the result of hypertension can be; he was disabled by his stroke and lived with far less quality of life for 10 years and so obviously I’m aware of the dangers.

If you already know that your family are slightly prone to something, then you are going to make a bit more effort’ and I didn’t make any until my mother died. I was having cream cakes and just doing what I wanted really. I don’t smoke, but that’s just by choice. When she died I did start being more aware and being more careful with my food, and exercise, and so on. And then when I was cycling and I got these pains in my arms, I just remember thinking ‘it can’t happen yet. I am too young. I thought ‘well get everything checked and then we can go from there really. I think it’s so hard with blood pressure because you don’t know what part of you is causing it. You don’t know whether it is because you are slightly highly strung or you are not eating properly. You don’t know which of the many factors it could be.

The only thing I can’t quantify is this stroke business, because I don’t understand it for one. I’ve said stroke because I don’t think I would be in the heart attack category until I am in my 60s. I think, having my heart checked, I have got a good 10 years left of a reasonable heart, especially if I lose weight; which I am doing through exercise and my bike.

I suppose that figure of 15 – 30% chance of developing heart disease in the next 10 years is not very encouraging, but I suppose it’s not so alarming that I’m really bothered about it. I still believe that the stress is one of main factors in why my blood pressure is so high now. There are all kinds of reasons but I still believe that it is the main cause of my blood pressure; but as I say nobody can tell.

So, I think it is up to me to actually work on reducing stress. Sometimes, I think I don’t worry enough. Perhaps I could be doing more, trying to take things more easily and I think I should be looking at diet. But those are things I haven’t – because I’m not taking it very seriously – I haven’t really pursued as much as I feel you know perhaps I ought.

It is 7 years ago since my accident. It’s been something like 15 years since I was first diagnosed with hypertension. And it’s taken me all this length of time to take the bull by the horns, stop depending on the National Health Service and my local GP to push tablets down me all the time. And try to find cures by medicine; rather than look into myself to actually find what a cure for hypertension could be.

But what causes hypertension? I know people a lot bigger than myself who don’t have it and quite a lot of people are very slim and thin. My recent mother-in-law, totally riddled with heart disease, had never been fat at all in her life. So, natures not selective. No matter what size, or what age you are, or what build you are; you can get hypertension. What does it make you feel when they say to you you are not going to last beyond 60?

Well it is very worrying because my youngest child is 8 years old and I have got a 14 and a 15 year old still living at home. And it worries you, and for my wife. Although the mortgage is nearly paid off on this house, we have only got another year to go. You still have to worry about children, their education and university. And then there is the thought that I am not going to work again, because I can’t concentrate for very long.

I think that once you have got hypertension there is the knowledge it is going to be there for a lifetime. I am not sure other than if one loses weight, exercises very well, gives up all salt one might bring it down a bit. But the fact is I think in my own situation it is a kind of titration. I still want to go on doing the things I really enjoy doing and I know that I am going to have blood pressure for lifetime so I am aware that this pill taking is going to go on really until the end of my life.

I don’t think anybody can turn round and say ‘This is a definite thing that causes blood pressure. I don’t think you can, there are just many, many things that contribute to it. High blood pressure again is a part of getting old – a person of 70 is going to have a higher blood pressure than a young man of 20, it’s only natural. And if you’re running at an acceptable 170 odd at 70 and a little bit of stress upsets you, it’s going to rise up to the point where the doctors say ‘Were going to have to have a look.

I think the main thing is don’t get stressed out, if you’re not stressed out your blood pressure is not going to do too high. I believe if I worry I’m going to die. Worry is going to cause me stress, stress is going to cause me to have a heart attack or something like that. I don’t believe in worrying. I’d probably think to myself that one day I’m suddenly going to wake up and I’m not there. If I go in my sleep what a nice way to go. What would worry me and it would tear me to pieces is my wife died of cancer and I saw her for month after month after month go down to about 3 or 4 stone.

Husband’Obviously I am aware, and I have always asked what the blood pressure was whenever it has been checked. I always want to know my cholesterol level and triglyceride level. But, that’s being an accountant I think – I like the figures! And I compare the graph.

I am very laid back about the fact that I have got blood pressure. But my wife tends to brood on things. Sometimes I have said ‘What’s going on girl?’ What’s up with her? I have to dig it out – what’s worrying her, what she is thinking about. She broods more.

I have a way of dealing with it – to say chronically ill is not how I feel but to need permanent treatment. I don’t consider myself ill or an invalid but I know I do, and I’m going to need for the rest of my life some kind of treatment regime, that’s how I look at it. And in a way it’s not quite happening to me, it’s happening to someone else called [name]. Nobody at the hospital knows that I’m not called [name] by my friends and people who know me so when I go there then it’s her, it’s [name] that’s being looked after and treated and is having to waste time on this stuff. To me I’ve got better things to do with my life than sit around in clinics, sit around in hospital wards, go to Glasgow. So I’ve felt for a long time now that the real me is an observer of this and so it doesn’t get to me, in a way it doesn’t touch me. And [name] takes care of that side of it and does all that’s required, does whatever is needed and meanwhile I’m getting on – the real me – I’m getting on with the rest of my life.

As I’ve got endemic high blood pressure let’s say I reduce my salt. If was a smoker I’d be really trying to stop and I’d be stupid to be a smoker. I would try and watch my weight because all these things are known risk factors. You don’t want to exacerbate something that you know you’re susceptible to. It’s a bit like you hear this’ ‘Why bother to cut down this, that and the other, I could be run over by a bus tomorrow, what the hell. To me not taking those elementary precautions is like walking down the middle of the road and saying ‘I could be run down by a bus. You’re actually a lot safer if you get on the pavement.

I believe that as long as I continue to take that medication, but with some other little aid like if somebody says ‘Have a glass of this, it works for about half an hour or so, or two hours’ something like that. If that is a supplement to what I’m doing and it can’t really damage it, it can’t make it any worse, it can either do nothing or leave it as it is, then I’ll do it. I don’t think about having a stroke and dropping down dead or something like that, it doesn’t bother me. I’m aware of that dieting too probably could play a great part in my life.