Earlier this year, I took the “Going for Zero Pledge” and joined Omron Healthcare to support their goal of going for zero heart attacks and strokes. The pledge notes, “Every one of us can play a valuable role in the Going for Zero goal by starting conversations and sharing important information about heart health.”
At The Good Men Project, we’re all about having important conversations, and conversations about health are important to have.
As luck would have it, the opportunity for me to take the pledge came at a time where I was personally experiencing a change in my blood pressure and my existing blood pressure monitor stopped working.
As part of the program, I received a new-fangled monitor—EVOLV, a wireless, upper arm blood pressure monitor. This isn’t your standard blood pressure monitor though. It’s Bluetooth compatible and syncs with the Omron Connect app.
Here’s a preview of the screen that appears when you enter the app (and my imperfect blood pressure reading):
The Omron Connect App syncs with the monitor, allowing you to download and store a history of your blood pressure readings. You can also share that history with your doctor by downloading a CSV report with all your readings.
The other thing I love about syncing my blood pressure on my iPhone, is you can choose your own settings so your readings can automatically sync with the Health app to consolidate step tracking, sleep, and vitals. Here’s a sample of what that looks like:
As someone who uses data frequently to make business decisions, having consolidated access to my blood pressure is important. The phrases, “You can’t change what you don’t measure,” and “What you measure is what you manage,” come to mind.
Because recognizing blood pressure fluctuations can be somewhat elusive, and also why high blood pressure is often referred to as a “silent killer,” regular monitoring is imperative. According to The American Heart Association, “…high blood pressure (HBP or hypertension) has no obvious symptoms to indicate that something’s wrong.” For me personally, high blood pressure induces headaches, pounding in my chest, and a general feeling of being “off.”
Having the ability to test my blood pressure multiple times throughout the day when I’m feeling any of those symptoms is really helping me determine what impacts my blood pressure and how to best manage those things for long-term health.
Here are the correlations I’ve found to be most relevant to me:
- Minimizing Stress and Anxiety — I wouldn’t say I experience a ton of stress and anxiety, but what I do experience regularly is passion and excitement. I’m so happy to be doing work that I love. However, I often get excited about it, my heart rate increases. What’s become clear is the impact of passion and excitement has the same detrimental effects on my body as stress and anxiety. The best way for me to combat this negative impact is through breathing exercises. I take a deep breath in while counting to five and then concentrate on exhaling for a full seven seconds. When I combine visual imagery and words with breathing, the response is more immediate and lasting. As I’m breathing in, I imagine I’m breathing in peace, joy, and calm while exhaling stress, anxiety, and all other things that don’t serve me.
- Getting Productive Sleep — As an entrepreneur, I often work long days and nights and have been known to pull all-nighters frequently. A lack of productive sleep impacts my overall stress level, so getting a minimum of six to eight hours of sleep is important for me.
- Increasing Physical Exercise — When I recognized the change in my blood pressure, I began a quest to move my body more and ensure I was getting in 10,000 or more steps daily. Not only does this help with my blood pressure, but it also impacts my stress level, energy level, and ability to sleep soundly.
In addition to the above, Rob Schneider of Omron Healthcare noted the following ways to maintain healthy blood pressure in a recent article with The Good Men Project:
- Eating a healthy diet
- Maintaining a healthy weight
- Getting enough physical activity
- Not smoking
- Limiting alcohol use
Thankfully, I’ve never been a smoker and rarely drink. I’ve been incorporating more veggies into my meals after moving to California and believe increasing physical exercise will help me achieve and maintain a healthier weight.
As with everything, it’s a process and every process begins with awareness. Success with any process requires frequent measuring. I’m grateful to have such a great tool with EVOLV to monitor my progress and ultimately improve my overall health.
For your reference, following are the new guidelines published by American Heart Association News in November of 2017:
To help monitor your blood pressure, order EVOLV.
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Article photos courtesy of author
The post How ‘Going for Zero’ Helped Me Change Daily Habits for Better Overall Health appeared first on The Good Men Project.