May is National High Blood Pressure Education Month. That makes it the perfect opportunity to refresh your knowledge of how blood pressure can impact your health. To make that easier on you, we’ve gathered the most important information about high blood pressure in the sections below. Keep reading to learn more.

What is High Blood Pressure?

In order to understand what high blood pressure means, we first have to understand what blood pressure means. Put simply, blood pressure is the force of your blood that’s pushing against the walls of your blood vessels. When there’s too much of this force, that person is diagnosed with high blood pressure.

How Does High Blood Pressure Impact a Person’s Health?

When someone has high blood pressure, their heart and blood vessels need to work harder to do the same things they always do. Over time, this damages delicate tissues that are inside of your arteries. Ultimately, your whole body can be impacted by high blood pressure. If left untreated, high blood pressure can ultimately lead to heart attacks and strokes.

Lowering High Blood Pressure

Doctors sometimes prescribe medications to patients who are dealing with high blood pressure. However, that’s not the only way that you can reduce your number. You can also bring down your blood pressure by changing your lifestyle.

For example, studies have shown that losing excess weight, eating healthier foods, and exercising more often can all lead to a reduction in a person’s blood pressure. If you aren’t focusing on any of these things now and you have high blood pressure, then it’s a good idea to start embracing them.

Studies have also shown that smoking, alcohol consumption, and caffeine consumption can have a big impact on a person’s blood pressure. If you smoke, there’s never going to be a better time than now to finally quit. You can still drink some alcohol and caffeine without ruining your blood pressure levels. However, you should aim to drink moderate amounts of each to make sure that you’re not putting yourself at risk for high blood pressure.

Talk to Your Doctor About High Blood Pressure

The best defense for high blood pressure is a good offense. Even if you don’t have high blood pressure now, it’s worth being proactive to keep yourself healthy in the future. The easiest way to do this is by visiting a doctor.

Thankfully, you can use your Medicare health insurance to do this. For example, Medicare includes free annual wellness visits. If you haven’t used yours yet, then consider using it to consult with a doctor about your blood pressure.

Medicare also covers blood pressure checks during your “Welcome to Medicare” preventative visit. However, this will only work for people who are just getting enrolled in a Medicare plan.

Regardless, there are ways that you can use your Medicare coverage to keep your blood pressure in check. If you’d like to learn more about these opportunities, consider reaching out to a partnered licensed agent with Time for 65. They can provide you with the information that you need to maximize your health insurance.

Getting started is easy. You can do so today by either filling out this form or giving us a call. We hope to hear from you soon.