Blood pressure: know your number
Professional review pending Heart health
Canada's 2025 guideline lowered the diagnosis threshold to 130/80. High blood pressure has no symptoms, validated monitors are cheap, and free checks exist at most Regina pharmacies.
High blood pressure damages arteries for years before anything hurts. It is also the most treatable major cardiovascular risk there is, which makes not knowing your number the most fixable gap in most people's health.
What changed in 2025
- Hypertension Canada lowered the diagnostic threshold: hypertension is now diagnosed at 130/80 mmHg or higher, measured properly with a validated device (previously 135/85).
- Diagnosis should be confirmed outside the clinic, with home or 24-hour monitoring, because "white-coat" readings mislead in both directions.
- For most adults on treatment, the target is systolic below 130, provided treatment is well tolerated.
What moves the number without medication
- Sodium: keep it under 2,000 mg a day. Most dietary sodium comes from processed and restaurant food, not the salt shaker.
- Potassium: eat a produce-heavy diet (unless you have kidney disease, in which case ask your provider first).
- Movement: 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week measurably lowers blood pressure.
- Alcohol: if you drink three or more a day, cutting back produces meaningful blood pressure benefits on its own.
Acting on this in Regina
Most pharmacy kiosks offer free checks, and many kiosk models are on Hypertension Canada's validated list. For home monitoring, buy a validated upper-arm cuff from the list at hypertension.ca (A&D, Omron, BIOS, and Microlife all have listed models). Bring readings to your family doctor, nurse practitioner, or pharmacist; if you have no regular provider, the community clinics on our resource map take new patients in ways the big system doesn't, and any Saskatchewan pharmacist can interpret readings with you.
- Drafted
- 2026-07-19 from the cited public sources
- Review
- awaiting a licensed reviewer in the relevant discipline
- Next review due
- 2027-07-19
- Standard
- General education only, never individual medical advice. See our editorial standard.