Who to control my blood pressure?

Primary care doc: Your blood pressure can be normal, high, low, or borderline. Your primary care physician is the one who should diagnose any problems with your blood pressure and provide you with the appropriate treatment.

Blood pressure: It's important to be aware of your blood pressure even at your age. Checking your blood pressure at the drug store or pharmacy is a good first step to determine if it is elevated or not. If it is elevated you will want to discuss this with your doctor and decide on a treatment plan to bring it under control. Uncontrolled blood pressure can lead to more serious long term complications.

Teamwork: You and your doctor can come up with a game plan/treatment plan.

Family doctor: If you have concerns about your blood pressure, you should see your family doctor.

Several ways: Avoid salt, exercise regularly, keep your weight down, and get a good nights sleep. If these things don't work then medications might be needed.

Work with it ...: Blood pressure (BP) naturally changes throughout the day, increasing with exercise, reducing as we rest, or sleep. High blood pressure is diagnosed if there are consistent BP readings at rest above a certain threshold, usually 140/90mmHg. Discuss the significance with your Dr. Look at lifestyle; increase exercise; reduce salt, alcohol; lose weight; identify & resolve stress. Consider medication.

High/low or erratic: A good review of your medical history, exam & a few tests to start.High or low BP can be from various separate medical problems.When/if they determine you do not have a contributing medical issue, either those are addressed or you move to life style/diet changes. If needed medications may be given trial runs to find your proper medication dose.