There’s Never a Wrong Time to Start Making Lifestyle Changes

A Look at Hypertension During National Women’s Health Week

Jennifer Wider, MD
SWHR, Contributing Writer
May 2013

Each year, the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health promotes the health of women and its importance during a weeklong health observance called National Women’s Health Week.  The purpose is to empower women to take charge of their own health and to make it a priority. 
One important step in taking care of your health is visiting a health care professional on a regular basis for checkups and preventive screenings.  These guidelines may vary by age and your own medical profile, so it’s important to speak with your health care provider to see what’s right for you. 
“The most important screenings are the basic ones,” says Nina Karol, MD a physician at Internal Medicine Associates of Westport, CT.  “Blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, and waist circumference; and make sure that you discuss the overall quality of your diet with your doctor: calcium intake, fruit/vegetable intake.”  Karol also recommends diabetes screening, mammogram and colonoscopy when they are age appropriate.  “Everyone should be screened for skin cancer,” she adds.  “A melanoma that is diagnosed early is completely curable.” 
One issue that some women don’t pay close attention to is high blood pressure.  Oftentimes, people mistakenly believe that high blood pressure, or hypertension, is more common among men.  But according to statistics from the American Heart Association, nearly half of all adults with high blood pressure are women.  And beginning at age 65, post-menopausal women are actually more likely to have hypertension than men.
“High blood pressure is more common in women than people realize,” says Karol.  “This is one of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and stroke that people can control, and it’s easy to treat.”  People need to be aware of their risk factors, which include: age, family history, weight, sedentary lifestyle, stress, tobacco use and poor diet.  “Even if you have had normal blood pressure your whole life, it can come on at any time,” adds Karol.
High blood pressure can damage a person’s blood vessels and their vital organs.  The extra pressure on the artery walls can wreak havoc, especially over time.  The longer a person suffers from high blood pressure the worse the damage.  Uncontrolled hypertension can lead to: a stroke, heart failure, heart attack and an aneurysm.  It can also affect a person’s ability to think and remember things.
Making lifestyle changes can make a huge difference in controlling a person’s blood pressure.  “Weight loss, regular exercise and eating a diet lower in processed foods and higher in fresh fruits, vegetables and low fat dairy can go a long way,” says Karol.  But sometimes lifestyle modifications aren’t enough.  There are a host of medications available to treat hypertension including: diuretics, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, calcium-channel blockers, among many others.  If you have hypertension, it’s important to speak with your doctor to choose the right plan for you.
All too often, women deprioritize their own health because they are busy taking care of other family members.  National Women’s Health Week is a great time to highlight how important it is to take steps to prioritize the health of women everywhere.  Getting active, eating healthy, making regular checkup and screening appointments, paying attention to mental health and avoiding unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, drinking, seatbelts and cellphone texting or talking while driving are among the steps women can take to ensure better health for themselves throughout the year.

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For more information on the Society for Women’s Health Research please contact Dimetrius Simon at 202-496-5067 or dimetrius@swhr.org.

Jennifer Wider, M.D., is a medical advisor for the Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR), a national non-profit organization based in Washington D.C., widely recognized as the thought leader in research on sex differences and dedicated to improving women’s health through advocacy, education, and research.

Dr. Wider is a graduate of Princeton University and received her medical degree in 1999 from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. She is frequently published in newspapers, magazines, and websites and has been a guest on the Today Show, CBS News, Fox News, Good Day New York, and a variety of cable channels. Dr. Wider hosts “Paging Dr. Wider,” a weekly segment on Sirius satellite radio for the Cosmopolitan magazine channel.

Dr. Wider is a past managing editor of the health channel at iVillage.com. She writes a monthly news service article for SWHR and is the author of the consumer health booklet “Just the Facts: What Women Need to Know about Sex Differences in Health” and the book “The Doctor’s Complete College Girls’ Health Guide: From Sex to Drugs to the Freshman Fifteen.”