Some dangerous diseases often appears without a special announcement or warning. Fortunately, things are not as black as they look.
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High blood pressure is often called silent killer and not without a reason. Some medical researches show that one in four adult people suffers from high blood pressure, but since it shows almost no symptoms one third of the people are not aware that they have a problem. It is important to know that problems with high blood pressure can appear in any age, including young people and adolescents.
The only way to know if you have high blood pressure is to measure it at home or every time when you see your doctor. When you are checking your blood pressure the higher number (systolic pressure) should be lower than 120 while smaller number (diastolic pressure) should be lower than 80.
Why si it important to know how high our blood pressure is? Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to brain and heart attack or kidney failure. You can do a lot to control your blood pressure. Firstly, the main key lies in proper low calorie nutrition with low input of salt. Salt forces our organism to keep fluid in blood vessels and that makes blood pressure higher. Furthermore, body activity and regular exercise are very important not just for a blood pressure but for your organism in general. When you exercise, ride bicycle, swim or run, your body excretes endorphin that expands blood vessels which in turn decreases the blood pressure. Avoiding stress is also important. Stress causes narrowing of blood vessels and increasing of a blood pressure. If you smoke try to stop or at least minimise the number of cigarettes.
American researches show that some 2.2 million Americans over 40 year of age have glaucoma. Half of them is not aware that they suffer from the disease which causes blindness - they don't have any symptoms. Generally speaking, glaucoma firstly attacks peripheral sight, constricting it so slowly and gradually that people rarely note that something is happening. It is possible that sick person lose a huge part of eyesight before he notice what happened. Glaucoma damages the eye nerve which can be connected with the high eye pressure and it may lead to a loss of the eyesight.
Fortunately, things are not as black as they look. Early detecting and adequate healing can save the eyesight. In most people early detecting and lowering of eye pressure glaucoma progress can be slowed down so the person don't feel any problem to the end of his life. In most cases the doctor will prescribe eye drops that help decreasing of the eye pressure but if it iss necessary he will suggest surgical procedure. The best prevention of glaucoma is annual control of visual field. Risk factors are family history, age and high eye pressure.
High cholesterol is the huge risk factor for heart diseases and it doesn’t have any symptoms at all. Lot of people don't know that they suffer from high cholesterol unless if they make blood tests as a part of annual examination. Bad cholesterol or low density lipoprotein (LDL) should be on the level lower than 100mg/dl. Good cholesterol or high density lipoprotein (HDL) should be on the level of 40 mg/dl or higher.
It would be good to check level of cholesterol every five years or often if you are a man older than 45 or women older than 55. The best way to keep healthy levels of the good and the bad cholesterol are, again, proper nutrition and regular exercise. Eat food that contains small amounts of saturated fats and cholesterols, exercise and remove all extra weight from your body. Those changes can reduce level of cholesterol and lower the risk of heart diseases and brain attack.
In some cases just change in habits can improve your health condition. In some cases those changes are not enough and you need medical help mostly in a shape of drugs. Act responsible and check your health at least once a year if you have family history of some disease. ■