If you are worried about the risks of high blood pressure due to your family history or symptoms like headaches and chest pain, learning to manage your blood pressure is essential if you wish to avoid serious health problems later on. Having your blood pressure checked to gain accurate blood pressure readings signals the first step on the road to taking control of your health for a better quality of life.

The fee for this service is €5 and will take a total of approximately 15 minutes.

What is Blood Pressure?

Blood pressure is the pressure or force that the blood exerts against the walls of the arteries. Arteries are the blood vessels that take the blood away from the heart to the rest of the body. Blood pressure naturally rises and falls throughout the day as the heart contracts and relaxes. When taking blood pressure readings, the results are a measurement of how hard the heart has to work to pump blood around the body.

When blood pressure is measured, it is usually represented as a systolic and diastolic figure. The unit of measurement is called millimetres of mercury (mm Hg). For example, a normal BP in an adult may be around 120/80 mm Hg (often described as 120 over 80). This is shorthand for a systolic pressure of 120 mm Hg and a diastolic pressure of 80 mm Hg.

The systolic blood pressure number shows the highest pressure recorded and occurs when the blood is pushed through the arteries by the contracting (the beat) of the heart.

Conversely, when the heart relaxes between beats the pressure in the arteries falls – this is diastolic blood pressure.

Everyone's systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure differ. BP also varies depending on the level of activity; it usually drops when an individual is asleep and increases when an individual exercises or is under stress.

Why is Blood Pressure Screening important?

We offer a highly professional and accurate blood measurement service to help with the controlling of Blood Pressure.

High blood pressure (BP), otherwise known as hypertension is one of the major contributors of stroke and coronary heart disease (CHD).

Hypertension affects up to 25% of the population, including an estimated 50% of the Irish population aged over 50 years. As you get older, you're more likely to have high blood pressure.

Most people with high blood pressure hypertension do not have any symptoms, which is why many people remain undiagnosed. We hope to make a significant healthcare impact by raising awareness to improve the detection, monitoring and treatment of heart blood pressure to ultimately help more people bring their readings back to a healthy range.

What factors increase the risk of developing high blood pressure?

There are a number of different factors that can lead to hypertension. Some of these factors are things that cannot be changed including increasing age, ethnic origin and hereditary problems with the heart muscle.

However, there are several modifiable risk factors that people can do something about. These are related to a person's lifestyle and will go a long way to reducing the threat of a heart attack or other major health concerns. Health care professionals state that the following issues may cause you to develop high blood pressure;

• Too much salt in the diet
• Lack of exercise
• Too much total or saturated fat in the diet
• Smoking
• Being Overweight
• Stress
• Not enough fruits and vegetables in the diet
• Too much alcohol

Before your appointment

To allow us to get the most accurate “at rest” blood pressure reading, we recommend doing the following things before your appointment:

• Don’t eat or drink anything for 30 minutes before you present for your appointment.
• Don’t exercise 30 minutes before your reading.
• Don’t smoke or drink alcohol or caffeine before your reading.
• Empty your bladder before your appointment.
• For the most accurate reading, please wear clothing that will allow the cuff to be placed on bare skin on your arm.

During your appointment

Before having your blood pressure tested, it's also important to know what to expect from the process. Here's what you need to know;

• When you present to the pharmacy, the team will first ask that you sit in a chair with your back supported for at least 5 minutes before your reading.
• The questionnaire will already have been filled out by you online before the appointment. If you have any questions on this, please contact a member of the LloydsPharmacy team.
• Put both feet flat on the ground and keep your legs uncrossed.
• You will be advised not to talk during the reading.
• Rest your arm on the table so that it is at chest level.
• A trained member of our team will wrap and secure an inflatable cuff around your arm. The machine will then inflate the cuff so that it will gently tighten on your arm. The cuff has a gauge on it that will measure your blood pressure.
• The cuff will feel tight for a few seconds before it then slowly deflates. This process is quick and painless.
• The machine will then display your blood pressure reading and pulse rate (the number of times your heart beats per minute) on its screen.

After your appointment

A pharmacist will then review your questionnaire and depending on the results will either:

• Wait 5 minutes and measure your blood pressure on your other arm.
• Offer no new advice but reinforce the importance of a healthy lifestyle and diet.
• Offer lifestyle and dietary advice.
• Offer lifestyle and dietary advice and ask you to return for a further reading on another day.
• Offer lifestyle and dietary advice and refer you to your GP.

The pharmacy will retain a copy of the questionnaire and also provide you with a copy to retain or bring to your GP or other relevant health care professional.