Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Remembering To Take Blood Pressure Medication

By Owen Jones


If you are suffering from high blood pressure, otherwise known as hypertension, and you failed to control it by making lifestyle alterations, then you will probably be taking blood pressure medication. This medication is important to hold the 'Silent Killer' at bay. Therefore, it is equally important to take the tablets on a regular basis, because otherwise your blood pressure will begin to increase fairly rapidly even within twenty-four hours of missing taking the blood pressure medication.

So, how do you make certain that you remember to take the tablets as prescribed by your doctor? It can become difficult for those individuals who have a bad memory, a busy lifestyle or many tablets to take. Some individuals buy pill boxes with the numbers one to thirty-one on different compartments, so that they can see whether they have missed a day. This is a good idea which works for most individuals.

Others keep their medication on the rack in the bathroom next to their toothbrush, so that they cannot avoid seeing their blood pressure medication. It is also a good concept to get into the routine of taking your tablets at the same time each day.

However, some tablets should be taken with or right after eating food to minimize the chances of upsetting your stomach. So, if you brush you teeth after breakfast, all well and good. Otherwise, you could leave your pills where you normally eat your breakfast or evening meal, so that you can take them with or after food.

Regularity or routine is the best method of remembering to take your tablets. After even a short time, you will reach for them automatically like Pavlov's dogs if you take the action that triggers taking the tablets. I work from home and any tablets that I have to take, I leave by my computer so that I take them with coffee as soon as I begin work.

This works if you work from home, yet it is not a useful idea to have one set of tablets on the go in your employer's office and another one at home. You ought to never double up on this type of tablets - it is usually better to miss a day than risk taking them twice if you are definitely not sure. Taking them late however is better than not taking them.

I do not have a pill box, so I simply write the date the pill has to be taken on the back of the foil with a felt tip pen so that I can see effortlessly where I am.

Try to associate taking your tablets with an action or make it a part of another action. For instance, if you maintain a diary, make a point of making a mark each day to indicate that you have taken your tablets and store the tablets by the diary. If the strips of tablets are small, you can keep them with your money - literally in with your money, so that you see them a number of times a day.

If you use a computer each day, you can easily (very easily, honest) set up a daily reminder in Outlook or some other electronic organizer to tell you each day by pop-up to take your blood pressure medication.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment