Is your blood pressure reading at or above 130/80? If so, it’s too high -- and can put you at serious risk for heart disease and stroke. And you’re not alone: nearly half of all Americans have high blood pressure. Also called hypertension, it can also cause life-threatening cardiovascular events and kidney failure.

High blood pressure used to be defined as a reading at or above 140/90. The new guideline, issued by The American Heart Association and based on scientific data, is also designed to get people to take preventative measures earlier. Read the American Heart Association article.

At Friendship Village, hypertension is the most widespread chronic health condition in our community and many of our residents take medication to manage high blood pressure. That’s why we’ve launched our Get Set Pathway for hypertension. This program aims to monitor the health of our residents with hypertension and improvements resulting from a better diet, exercise, and education -- among the core benefits of the Friendship Village lifestyle. What we learn will help us continually improve our care, health and wellness services and meal planning we provide to our residents. Additionally, we are launching a Get Set Pathway for residents with diabetes, a condition that can also cause hypertension. More than 30% of Friendship Village residents have diabetes and our program will help ensure we are serving these residents, too with the best care and programming possible.

The American Heart Association guideline provides advice about the things you can do to reduce hypertension and protect your heart:

• Adopt a heart-healthy diet. Reduce your intake of salt and eat potassium-rich foods such as bananas, potatoes, avocados and dark leafy vegetables.
• Maintain a healthy weight.
• If you smoke, stop.
• Cut back on alcohol consumption.
• Increase your physical activity.

 We encourage new residents who have hypertension or diabetes to sign up for our Get Set Pathway program!