According to a survey, in our country, about half of the elderly people over the age of 60 have high blood pressure. Many people believe that high blood pressure in the elderly is a normal phenomenon and does not need to be dealt with. In fact, no matter how old, as long as three measurements of blood pressure (not measured on the same day) is higher than 140/90 mmHg, you can diagnose hypertension. Hypertension is a major health hazard. If poorly controlled, myocardial infarction, heart failure, cerebral hemorrhage and cerebral infarction occur, which can seriously affect the quality of life. Compared with young and middle-aged people, hypertension in the elderly has some other characteristics, and family members need to take targeted measures according to these characteristics to better help the elderly. Large pulse pressure Pulse pressure, the difference between two values derived when measuring blood pressure. Hypertension in the elderly is more common in simple systolic hypertension, and diastolic blood pressure is mostly normal. Only when the systolic blood pressure is higher than 140 mmHg, the difference between the two pressures increases. This is related to the characteristics of the blood vessels in the elderly, atherosclerosis leads to weakening of the elasticity of blood vessels, and the regulation of blood pressure is also weakened, resulting in higher systolic blood pressure, lower diastolic blood pressure, and increased pulse pressure as a result. Why does blood vessel elasticity have such a big impact on blood pressure? Human large blood vessels, not water pipes so simple, large arteries are elastic, in addition to being a channel for blood flow, but also the role of regulation. When the heart contracts, the large blood vessels will expand under the impact of the blood flow, the heart pumps out a portion of the blood stored, the blood flow outside the blood vessels do not increase at once, the peripheral blood pressure (systolic blood pressure) does not rise too high. When the heart is not pumping blood outward in diastole, the large blood vessels will retract under the effect of elasticity, and the blood stored just now will flow outward, so that the peripheral blood vessels will not be “cut off”, and the blood pressure (diastolic blood pressure) will not fall too fast at once. When the elasticity of blood vessels is not good, the regulation of blood pressure naturally decreases, so the phenomenon of two values of blood pressure, “high for high and low for low, with a big difference,” occurs. Blood pressure fluctuates greatly Blood pressure fluctuation is mainly reflected in the following aspects: 1. The blood pressure of the elderly in the early morning is often higher than that at night obviously; 2. When standing up suddenly, it is more likely to have a significant drop in blood pressure, and some of the elderly have obvious dizziness and vertigo, etc.; 3. After a meal, the elderly are also more prone to have lower blood pressure than the young people, and some series of symptoms, and some of them will also have cardiovascular and cerebral vascular ischemic symptoms such as slight dizziness. Therefore, it is recommended that the elderly should not get up immediately after waking up in the morning, and should not get up and move around immediately after getting up. After meals, pay attention to monitoring blood pressure, if the blood pressure decreases significantly after meals, you can adjust your diet appropriately and reduce some of the starch-rich foods. Conditional can be 24 hours dynamic blood pressure monitoring, understand the specific situation of blood pressure fluctuations, more targeted treatment. Eating more salt People older, taste sensitivity has also declined, eating always feel no taste, it is easy to cook more salt, eating food taste is also more and more heavy. This habit is very affect the effect of antihypertensive drugs, family members should find ways to cook more fresh ingredients, with a variety of lower salt content of seasonings, such as vinegar, lemon juice, etc., in the case of less salt to make the elderly eat more flavorful. There is no need to deliberately emphasize light taste, sometimes adjusting the pattern of meals can also have the effect of eating less salt. For example, I recognize an old man, especially like to drink congee with salted vegetables, think the congee has no taste, can not drink. Later, the family bought a grinder for the elderly, walnuts, cashews and other nuts into powder, porridge when the bowl with a spoonful of nut powder, the elderly especially like, said and fragrant and flavor, much better than salted vegetables. The pressure to smooth, safe priority hypertension in the elderly in the treatment is also slightly different. Compared with the young and middle-aged patients, hypertensive patients older than 65 years of age, the goal of lowering blood pressure can be relaxed a little bit, control at 150/90 mmHg or less, after reaching this standard, if the elderly do not have obvious adverse reactions, and then gradually reduced to 140/90 mmHg or less. In terms of medication, the five commonly used antihypertensive drugs can be used, with the emphasis on starting with a small dose, gradually adjusting the appropriate dosage according to the effect of lowering blood pressure, and gradually controlling the blood pressure in the normal range without pursuing the speed of lowering blood pressure. Some elderly people have systolic blood pressure less than 60 mmHg, but the systolic blood pressure is higher than the normal level (more than 140 mmHg), and they are very confused about whether to lower the blood pressure or not. For this situation, a more unified view is that the systolic blood pressure is less than 150 mmHg, can be observed, without drugs; when the systolic blood pressure is higher than 150 mmHg, according to the doctor’s guidance, small doses of antihypertensive drugs, to closely monitor blood pressure changes. Timely use of medication is very critical Also we have to pay attention to one point, the elderly often more than hypertension a disease, eat more than one kind of medicine, a variety of meals, meals, bedtime, get up and take the medicine, miss a meal, eat the wrong one is too easy. As a family member, you should set a good alarm clock for the elderly, and set the “medication reminder” in it to remind the elderly of what medication to take and how much to take.