high blood pressure

[Happyrosie]

Some information which might be helpful.

there was a recent post from someone who had been diagnosed with hypertension (high blood pressure) and had not been given further information by his or her medical professional.

The pathways that doctors should follow have been published by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), and anyone can look these up by going on their website and put “hypertension” into the search box at the top of the page.

This wasn’t written for patients and is not easy for the general public to understand NICE published a guide for patients within the section on hypertension and this is easier to follow.

Regardless of this, if a doctor thinks you have hypertension and it’s not horrendously high, he/she should start by giving diet and lifestyle advice and invite the patient back for monitoring and only then start prescribing. This has been the case since before NICE existed!

the specialist charity is called Blood Pressure UK.

[Lowerfield_no_more]

I think it is incumbent upon anyone who has been diagnosed with a potentially serious medical condition, including hypertension, to do a little research of their own to find out what they can do for themselves to help their situation, by looking into the vast resource that it now available on tinterweb. But this comes with the proviso that such information is only sourced from reliable agencies such as NICE (as you have mentioned), the NHS, and such as our very own BHF and the Blood Pressure UK mentioned. Most of us are only a few clicks way from this stuff, and in many cases it is far more digestible than a pamphlet you pick up somewhere or a few hurried words from a GP who might already be thinking about the next person who comes through the door, assuming of course you are actually lucky enough to get to see your GP face to face.

[Happyrosie in reply to Lowerfield_no_more]

Whilst I agree with you, I’ve found from reading posts on Health Unlocked (including conditions other than cardiovascular) that people sometimes just start googling and get down a rabbit hole of doctors, so-called, promoting dubious products.

HU is world-wide, and New Zealanders and Argentinians - to name a few - have no idea that charities exist to promote knowledge in their spheres. In Britain we have a tradition of going to our doctor for the slightest thing, as it’s free. Other countries maybe not so much.

When I was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago I had no idea from where to get better knowledge, even though I had worked in the life assurance industry dealing with medical matters. I was, though, very aware that I should NOT delve into the internet and had to ask my oncologist for advice as to where to turn. Had I thought it through, I would have gone to one of the many cancer charities -but when you have a diagnosis that’s a hammerblow you don’t know where to turn.

[Lowerfield_no_more in reply to Happyrosie]

Whilst HU may well be worldwide, this particular group is sponsored by the British Heart Foundation, which is UK based and the membership appears to reflect that by being in the majority. So creditable UK based websites providing advice is usually the go-to for people on here, although is doesn't, or course, stop people from other countries on here using them, and also supplementing that data with that from their own country or indeed anywhere else in the world. I would like to think the point we are both trying to make is that it is beneficial for the individual to do their own research from their own credible sources and be expansive rather than be spoon fed something from a single source. A depth of education is surely better than something narrow and restricted. Like many on here, including yourself, I have other non cardio related conditions, some of them potentially life threatening, and have taken it upon myself to supplement the little the health professionals provide by self educating where necessary, and I thoroughly recommend others do the same.