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If you're a woman, you're middle aged and you have high blood pressure, you're at an increased risk of heart attack.
"Having high blood pressure is not a good thing, especially for this age group," says Furqan H. Tejani, MD, FACC, director of advanced cardiovascular imaging at the Long Island College Hospital in New York City. "The women who are most at risk are those who are in perimenopause or just entering menopause."
While women traditionally are "10 years behind men in heart attack risk," Tejani says, "If you are middle aged woman with high blood pressure, your chances of having heart disease are higher than a man's."
High blood pressure can be a "silent killer," says LeRoy Rabbani, an interventional cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia Medical Center in New York City. "And many women don't even realize they have it."
To preserve heart health and reduce your risk of a possible heart attack, try the following:
- Get your blood pressure checked on a regular basis: once a year, unless your doctor tells you otherwise. Even a slightly abnormal blood pressure reading should trigger a visit to your health care provider, Tejani says.
- Don't rely on a home blood pressure monitor. "These are notorious for incorrect readings," Tejani says.
- Lower your sodium intake. It can be hard if you're "addicted" to salt, but once you learn to substitute herbs and spices for table salt, it gets a lot easier. There's also a low-sodium salt that's widely available that gives a very similar flavor to the food as real salt.
- Not sure how much salt you can have? "For an individual with high blood pressure, the sodium intake really should not exceed two grams a day," Tejani says.
- Get regular exercise. Start out slow, with walking. Later when you're getting back in shape, get in the habit of jogging, fast walking, or aerobic dancing.
- Recognize that you may be under more stress than your partner. "A woman forms the nucleus of the household," Tejani says. "She may be a breadwinner, but she is also the money manger and the manager of organization for the whole house. A woman has to take care of everyone else before she can take care of herself."
- To lower your stress level, which can aggravate a blood pressure problem, sign up for some stress reducing techniques. Take a yoga class, learn to meditate and do so on a daily basis. Find whatever calms you down, and practice it regularly.
- If you make some lifestyle modifications and change some bad habits, and your blood pressure is still not in the normal range, make your doctor aware of the situation. "Medications are an effective strategy to control blood pressure," Tejani says.
- Take your blood pressure reading seriously. "Monitoring your blood pressure unquestionably reduces your heart attack risk," Tejani says. "And especially in women, it improves cardiovascular health."
- If you drink, keep your intake moderate. "Too much alcohol can raise the blood pressure," Tejani says.
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