Blood check a healthy success

HALTON Borough Council have hailed its health improvement team’s free health fair in Widnes as a success.

151 blood pressure checks and 100 lung age checks were completed and plenty of health advice was given out.

A council spokesman said: “High blood pressure affects more than one in four adults in England.

“At least half of all heart attacks and strokes are associated with high blood pressure, and it is a major risk factor for chronic kidney disease, heart failure and dementia.”

Halton Borough Council’s executive board member for health and wellbeing Cllr Marie Wright said: “In Halton, it is estimated that around 13,000 people have undiagnosed high blood pressure.

“Many of these people will have no symptoms and won’t visit a GP, Rebekah, Matt and Alan Edge point the way to the Health Fair ● so our fantastic health h improveimprove ment team has been going out into the community offering the public free blood pressure and lung age checks at events like this.”

On Saturday, June 30, the team set up a stall in Widnes town centre to offer local residents free blood pressure and lung age checks and advice about how to reduce the risk of heart and lung disease, maintain a healthy blood pressure, quitting smoking and keeping active.

On the day, more than 30 people who visited the team had raised blood pressure.

Normal blood pressure should be between 90/60 and 140/90.

The first number is your systolic blood pressure – the highest level your blood pressure reaches when your heart beats.

The second number is your diastolic blood pressure – the lowest level your blood pressure reaches as your heart relaxes between beats.

Halton Borough Council said: “A high reading on one day does not necessarily mean you have high blood pressure; lots of factors can influence this but with any high reading it is important to get checked again and keep an eye on the results.”

The health improvement team advised anyone with a higher than normal result to have a follow-up check with their GP or at a pharmacy, while one person whose result was alarmingly high was advised to visit the Widnes Urgent Care Centre as soon as possible.

The health improvement team will be organising more events in Halton

Details will be posted on the HIT website and our Facebook and Twitter pages.