Remembering To Take Blood Pressure Medication

If you are suffering from high blood pressure, otherwise known as hypertension, and you failed to manage it by introducing lifestyle alterations, then you will almost certainly be taking blood pressure medication. This medicine is important to keep the ‘Silent Killer’ at bay. Therefore, it is equally vital 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 medical doctor? It can become a problem for those people 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 people.

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 idea to get into the habit of taking your tablets at the same time each day.

However, some tablets should be taken with or just after eating food to reduce the chances of upsetting your stomach. So, if you brush you teeth after breakfast, all well and good. Otherwise, you could keep 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 way of remembering to take your tablets. After even a short time, you will reach for them automatically like Pavlov’s dogs when 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 start working.

This works if you work from home, but it is not a useful concept to have one set of tablets on the go in your employer’s office and another one at home. You should never double up on this sort of tablets – it is normally 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 jot the date the pill has to be taken on the back of the foil with a felt tip pen so that I can see easily where I am.

Attempt to associate taking your tablets with an action or make it a part of another action. For example, if you maintain a diary, make a point of putting a mark each day to show that you have taken your tablets and keep 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 every 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.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on a number of subjects, but is currently involved with work on foods for high blood pressure. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, just go to our website at High Blood Pressure Recipes.