BLOOD PRESSURE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 114, 10 November 1934, Page 10

BLOOD PRESSURE

WORD OF REASSURANCE FACTORS IN VARIATION (From "The Post's" Rtprtsentativt.) LONDON, September 28. Some people will be glad to hear that a high, blood pressure need not in itself be a cause for undue anxiety. The medical correspondent rof the "Daily Telegraph" points out that the accumulating experience of cardiologists and other medical observers has shown how great are the variations of blood pressure, not only in the same individual but between persons who are otherwise- apparently normal in health. Emotion, activity, even certain articles of diet and y drink, will often suffice in a. perfectly' healthy man and woman to raise the blood pressure many degrees. The very act, indeed, of having it registered may be enough to raise it very considerably, and for this reason a single reading in an unaccustomed person should never be relied upon. It has further been the experience of almost every practising physician to have observed patients leading a vigorous life—often for an indefinite number of years—with a blood pressure so high that a generation ago it would have seemed to portend an imminent collapse. . . RELATION TO DIBEABE. In certain cases, of course, a persistently high blood pressure may be the obvious accompaniment of organic disease in the shape of a failing heart, or ineffectively acting kidneys, or of arteries that have been thickened by the toxic products of prolonged overeating, over-drinking, or sundry ctironic infections. It may even, apaTt from these, be associated with more or leas severo headaches and occasional attacks of giddiness; and in such cases it is always wise to take common-sense precautions. Violent exercise should be avoided, and, if possible, mental and emotional strain. The diet should be sparing within the limits of necesiary nutrition, and the consumption of alcohol cut down to a minimum. But for the Test it may be said that a high blood pressure alone deed not necessarily be a cause of undue anxiety. It may be perfectly compatible with a full and free lifo; and its mere discovery, in the absence of any 'other indications of bodily discomfort, should not, as it often has done, give rise to a crippling alarm. If it is accepted as a gentle indication towards the temperance of habit that should always be the rule in middle and old age, it may even be welcomed as a blessing.