Vim & Vigor - Spring 2010 - Community Healthcare - (Page 14)

pressure the think your job is demanding? consider your heart’s job. keep it functioning properly with these three steps by carey rossi easing Day in and day out, you work hard. Whether it’s at a full-time job or part-time volunteer gig, you give it your all. You even put in occasional (or not-so-occasional) overtime. Now imagine the demands your heart is under 24 hours a day, seven days a week, pumping blood into your arteries and then out to the rest of your body. Simply put, that’s your blood pressure. And if it’s elevated, it causes your heart to work harder and can cause damage to other parts of the body, says Alan L. Rubin, M.D., an endocrinologist and author of several books on high blood pressure and diabetes. It increases the risk of strokes and heart attacks, so keeping it under control is crucial. Luckily, that is as simple as 1, 2, 3. 1 14 vim & vigor · s p rin g 2 010 know your numbers Normal blood pressure is less than 120/80; anything over 140/90 is considered high. If your numbers aren’t where they should be, consider buying an at-home blood pressure monitor. “Check your blood pressure weekly and, to keep your monitor honest, check it against your doctor’s once a year,” says Yuling Hong, M.D., Ph.D., associate director for science with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. PHOTOGRAPH BY PHOTOLIBRARY

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Spring 2010 - Community Healthcare

Vim & Vigor - Spring 2010 - Community Healthcare
Contents
Community Message
Award-Winning Care
Get Well Sooner!
Band of Gold
Confirming the Count
Excuses, Excuses
Easing the Pressure
Prostate Predicament
On Mended Knees
Imaging IQ
Caregiving: A Survival Guide
Form Factors
Wake-Up Call
Getting to the Bottom of Back Pain
From Growing Pains to Patient Gains
To Clot or Not to Clot

Vim & Vigor - Spring 2010 - Community Healthcare