Search Results for 'Hypertension'

World Stroke Day 2011 is this Saturday October 29. Each year approximately 10,000 Irish people have a stroke, and sadly 2,000 people die as a result. It is estimated that 30,000 people are living in the community with a disability caused by a stroke. This makes stroke the third largest killer in Ireland, and the biggest cause of acquired disability.

The Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) is urging the people of Mayo to get checked for high blood pressure on Thursday October 20, between 11am and 3pm, at the Lidl store in Castlebar.

Dietitian Heather Miller, who holds clinics in Balla, Castlebar and Claremorris, this week talks about blood pressure.

As many as one in three adults over 40 years of age in Mayo are obese, according to a report launched this week by Croí, the West of Ireland Cardiac Foundation, in collaboration with HSE West’s Mayo Primary Community and Continuing Care Department.

The incidence of stroke in the population could be halved if people’s blood pressure was controlled to the recommended targets, according to a leading local professor.

Those who are overweight and who are able to lose 20 to 30 pounds can sometimes bring their blood pressure down without prescription medication. The Curves workout helps bring down blood pressure because it uses your major muscles and raises your heart rate.

Dr Ann Shortt works as both a GP in Brooklands Medical Centre, Castlebar, and in emergency medicine in Galway. Her area of special interest is preventative medicine.

According to the latest statistics, about 54 per cent of strokes and 47 per cent of heart disease worldwide are caused by high blood pressure.

Just under 200 people died from cardiovascular diseases in Westmeath last year according to  Professor Alice Stanton, chair of the Irish Heart Foundation’s Council on Blood Pressure.

A new initiative by local heart charity Croi aims to change the lifestyles of 450 people in the west considered to be most at risk from heart disease, Ireland’s biggest killer.