Home is where the heart is ...

With heart disease still remaining as one of the country's top killer, it is imperative that we take good care of our heart. After all, heart diseases are like a thief in the night, they come and take away life without any warning leaving the people you love behind feeling lost and betrayed.

This is something that Pfizer aims to help people by launching a campaign to push for having home blood pressure monitoring. Hypertension represents a major burden in Asia, with a high prevalence rate but poor level of awareness and control reported in many countries in the region. Home Blood Pressure monitoring has been validated as an accurate and reliable measure of blood presure that can help guide hypertension treatment as well as idenitify masked and white coat hypertension.

So why should you have home blood pressure monitoring?

Dr. Alberto A. Atilano, PSH President, said, "High blood pressure is a silent killer. It is the number one contributing risk factor for global death, causing many cardiovascular complications.” He furthers that people often don’t know they have high blood pressure because there are no symptoms. In line with PSH participation in the global initiative called May Measurement Month, which is spearheaded by the International Society of Hypertension, Dr Atilano shared how the local society is reaching out to all Filipinos to encourage  screening for hypertension.

Personally, I've had friends who have died from this disease and it is always a startling knife in the heart kind of feeling. To avoid this happening, it is best to always monitor your blood pressure.