Having diabetes can increase your risk of developing high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems, because diabetes adversely affects the arteries and can cause atherosclerosis – a narrowing of the arteries. This can cause high blood pressure, which if not treated, can lead to further blood vessel damage, stroke, heart failure, heart attack or kidney failure.
High blood pressure can also increase the risk of diabetes complications such as diabetic eye and kidney problems.
What are the symptoms of high blood pressure?
Usually, high blood pressure causes no symptoms. This is why it is so important to have your blood pressure checked on a regular basis, either during a visit to your doctor or diabetic nurse, or through home blood pressure monitoring – using equipment such as A&D’s UA-767S device ideal for consumer home use.
This model makes it easy to track you blood pressure over time and features an Irregular Heartbeat Indicator and World Hypertension Society blood pressure classification index.
Information on how to correctly measure blood pressure can be found on the British Hypertension Society website. At £36 the monitor can be purchased here
