Get ready for Know Your Numbers Week! We're promoting free blood pressure checks across the borough to help residents beat hypertension.
Published: Thursday, 31st August 2023
Make the time and ease the pressure.
This is the message from health chiefs at Hounslow Council as they urge borough residents to get to grips with their blood pressure and get it checked out.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, can cause significant problems if left unchecked. In many cases, there are no symptoms of high blood pressure, until it’s too late.
The condition can lead to serious illnesses such as heart attacks, stroke and kidney disease.
As part of the national Know Your Numbers Week, which starts on Monday, 4 September, Hounslow Council and its partners are offering everyone in the borough who is over 18 the chance to get their blood pressure checked for free.
Know Your Numbers Week is an annual event which is organised by the Blood Pressure UK charity.
The theme for this year’s event is: make the time and ease the pressure. The aim is to get everyone in the UK to think about their blood pressure and to take the steps to start managing it.
As of last year, almost 40,000 Hounslow residents had been diagnosed with hypertension.
Once identified high blood pressure is easily treated through medication and lifestyle changes.
These include eating healthily, being more active, cutting your alcohol intake, reducing the salt in your diet and managing your stress levels. For Know Your Numbers Week, the Council and its health partners have set up a network of ‘pressure points’ across the borough where residents can get checked out and receive some great advice on what to do next.
Anyone who is aged 18 or over can get their blood pressure checked with Healthy Hounslow on its roving health bus. The bus will visit venues across the borough during Know Your Numbers Week.
Residents who are aged 40 and over can get their blood pressure checked at any of the borough’s participating pharmacies.
You can find the full details of Hounslow’s pressure points on the Council’s special Know Your Numbers webpage.
Hounslow Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Public Health and Transformation, Councillor Samia Chaudhary, said: “High blood pressure can affect anyone, however, the risks increase with age. Many people will not be aware that they have high blood pressure because there are few symptoms but the health implications can be serious. That’s why it’s important that everyone in Hounslow takes action and gets their blood pressure checked out. The process is completely painless and takes just a few minutes. So please make time to ease the pressure during Know Your Numbers Week.”
“High blood pressure can be treated through medication but also through lifestyle changes such as eating healthily, lowering your salt intake, being more active and managing your stress.
“I would urge everyone to make time to ease the pressure during Know Your Numbers Week.”
To help residents understand how easy the process is, we followed Hounslow residents Bobby and Andrea as they went to get their blood pressure checked with Healthy Hounslow.
You can see how they got on here:
