Welcome to the Younger Longer 14-Day Blood Pressure Challenge. My name is Dr. Warrick Bishop. I'm a preventative cardiologist and I'm super excited that you're looking to look after your blood pressure. It is one of the most important and really one of the simplest things you can look after to look after your heart for the rest of your life.

During this 14-Day Challenge I'm going to share with you a whole lot of stuff. Every day, a video, some resources, a challenge or a task for you to complete and a fun fact. Stay tuned, your blood pressure is super important. Let me explain to you how, what you're going to do about it and how you're going to look after yourself for the years ahead 

Transcript

Well, here we are at Day 14 — and congratulations! You've made it through the Younger Longer Blood Pressure Challenge. I really appreciate you for tuning in, and more importantly, for making the effort to look after yourself. So, good on you!

Let’s wrap it all up. Let’s step back and think about some of the incredible things we’ve learned over these 14 days.

Remember, your heart beats about 100,000 times a day, 700,000 times a week, and over the course of a lifetime, somewhere between 2.5 and 3 billion times. That’s why every beat matters — especially when it comes to blood pressure.

If your heart is working just a little bit too hard, that stress is repeated again and again every day. Over time, that excess pressure damages the delicate linings of your arteries. It puts you at increased risk of stroke, heart attack, kidney disease, dementia, and it places strain on your heart, increasing the risk of cardiac failure and atrial fibrillation.

That’s why even small improvements in blood pressure are so powerful. Just a few millimetres here and there add up over a lifetime and can make a massive difference.

So please — don’t be complacent about your blood pressure. Managing it is a lifelong commitment. It doesn’t have to be perfect overnight, but it does need attention. Small steps, regularly checking in — because if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it.

Now let’s review the 10 Commandments of Blood Pressure Control that you've learned over the past 14 days:

1. Know your numbers.

2. Measure accurately.

3. Move more.

4. Eat real food.

5. Sleep well.

6. Manage stress.

7. Alcohol and caffeine.

8. Watch for hidden sugars and salts.

9. Work with your doctor.

10. Think long term.

Since you've come this far, I’d love to give you a bonus — an interactive eBook version of my book, The 10 Commandments of Heart Health Explained. You’ll find a link to that in the resources section.

As you probably know by now, blood pressure doesn’t stand alone. It’s one part of your broader heart health, and that’s why I’ve compiled these 10 Commandments of Heart Health for you to enjoy and benefit from.

So once again, thank you for joining me on this journey. I truly hope that, through this Younger Longer campaign, you’re empowered to live as well as possible, for as long as possible.

Take care, and bye for now.

Are You at Risk of a Sudden Heart Attack? How Healthy is Your Heart? Really?

Heart disease is the #1 killer in the Western World. In Australia, someone dies every 28 minutes from heart disease. That’s 51 people a day. In the US, someone has a heart attack every 40 SECONDS! Fortunately, many heart attacks are preventable. However, regular exercise and eating healthy are no guarantee you won’t succumb to this silent killer.

Do the free heart check today at www.virtualheartcheck.com.au

Join the Healthy Heart Network and become part of our growing community!

Do You Want to Improve Your Heart’s Health and Reduce Your Risk of Suffering a Heart Attack? Join The Healthy Heart Network For Only $5 Lifetime Access (Valued at over $55)!

The Healthy Heart Network is designed to help members:

Visit https://healthyheartnetwork.com/ and click on the JOIN THE FAMILY BUTTON

Welcome to the Younger Longer 14-Day Blood Pressure Challenge. My name is Dr. Warrick Bishop. I'm a preventative cardiologist and I'm super excited that you're looking to look after your blood pressure. It is one of the most important and really one of the simplest things you can look after to look after your heart for the rest of your life.

During this 14-Day Challenge I'm going to share with you a whole lot of stuff. Every day, a video, some resources, a challenge or a task for you to complete and a fun fact. Stay tuned, your blood pressure is super important. Let me explain to you how, what you're going to do about it and how you're going to look after yourself for the years ahead 

Transcript

Hi and welcome to Day 13 — and today is a really important one.

We often talk about blood pressure being a silent killer. It can lead to serious conditions like stroke, heart attack, cardiac failure, atrial fibrillation, renal (kidney) failure, and even dementia.

But can we tell if any damage has already been done?

Well, it turns out that we can. One way to assess this is through a test called a Coronary Artery Calcium Score — also known as a CAC.

A CAC scan measures the amount of calcium built up in the heart arteries. It’s a direct marker of atherosclerosis — or, in simpler terms, plaque buildup in the arteries. This scan is one of the most accurate predictors of future heart attacks and, in many cases, it outperforms traditional risk assessments.

So instead of guessing your heart attack risk based on cholesterol or blood pressure alone, a CAC scan gives us a much clearer picture.

If your score is zero, your risk of a heart attack over the next five years is remarkably low. But if the score is elevated, it helps guide our decisions about how aggressive we need to be with treatments — whether it’s managing cholesterol, blood pressure, or other cardiovascular risk factors.

To help make this accessible, I created the Virtual Heart Check platform. You can go online, answer a few questions, and book a Coronary Artery Calcium Score — all without needing to see a GP or specialist. It saves both time and money and works in every major centre across Australia.

I highly recommend getting a CAC scan. It breaks down barriers and makes this important test more readily available.

If you're unsure, have a conversation with your doctor about getting a coronary artery calcium score.

In my opinion, just about every man aged 45 to 50 and above should be getting this scan — and every woman aged 55 to 60 should as well. I see it as a rite of passage in your health journey. If you have family history or other significant risk factors, it’s worth considering getting the scan even earlier.

So, check it out, and take action.

Tomorrow, I’ll be talking about the final wrap-up for this 14-day challenge. Just remember — your heart beats 35 million times a year, so we really do want to look after it.

I look forward to speaking with you again tomorrow.

Until then, I hope you live as well as possible, for as long as possible.

Take care and bye for now.

Are You at Risk of a Sudden Heart Attack? How Healthy is Your Heart? Really?

Heart disease is the #1 killer in the Western World. In Australia, someone dies every 28 minutes from heart disease. That’s 51 people a day. In the US, someone has a heart attack every 40 SECONDS! Fortunately, many heart attacks are preventable. However, regular exercise and eating healthy are no guarantee you won’t succumb to this silent killer.

Do the free heart check today at www.virtualheartcheck.com.au

Join the Healthy Heart Network and become part of our growing community!

Do You Want to Improve Your Heart’s Health and Reduce Your Risk of Suffering a Heart Attack? Join The Healthy Heart Network For Only $5 Lifetime Access (Valued at over $55)!

The Healthy Heart Network is designed to help members:

Visit https://healthyheartnetwork.com/ and click on the JOIN THE FAMILY BUTTON

Welcome to the Younger Longer 14-Day Blood Pressure Challenge. My name is Dr. Warrick Bishop. I'm a preventative cardiologist and I'm super excited that you're looking to look after your blood pressure. It is one of the most important and really one of the simplest things you can look after to look after your heart for the rest of your life.

During this 14-Day Challenge I'm going to share with you a whole lot of stuff. Every day, a video, some resources, a challenge or a task for you to complete and a fun fact. Stay tuned, your blood pressure is super important. Let me explain to you how, what you're going to do about it and how you're going to look after yourself for the years ahead 

Transcript

G'day and welcome to Day 12 of the challenge. We're nearly finished!

Today we're talking about a very important component of blood pressure control — and that's weight and waist circumference.

Now, if you're a little bit overweight and find this topic a bit edgy, please know I’m not having a go. But it is super important. If you're slim and have no extra weight or waist circumference concerns, you can simply listen and learn. Either way, this is a topic that matters for everyone.

I spend a fair bit of time with my patients — particularly middle-aged blokes who tend to carry weight around the middle — discussing this crucial issue, especially when their blood pressure is starting to creep up.

That’s because every kilogram of body weight does add to your blood pressure. More importantly, extra weight is often associated with visceral fat — the fat that surrounds your organs. This isn’t the healthy kind of fat. Visceral fat is metabolically active, causes inflammation, disrupts hormones, and is known to significantly impact blood pressure.

The really encouraging news? You don’t have to lose massive amounts of weight to see a real improvement in blood pressure.

There’s a great rule of thumb: for every one kilogram of weight lost, you can expect approximately one millimeter of systolic blood pressure reduction. So, if you're carrying an extra five to ten kilograms, losing that weight could lower your systolic blood pressure by five to ten millimeters. That’s equivalent to the effect of many prescription medications!

Now, if you combine weight loss with good sleep, regular exercise, and managing your stress, then you’re really hitting home runs — not just for your blood pressure, but for your overall cardiovascular risk, stroke risk, and your quality of life.

As the weight comes off, your waist circumference will also tighten — and that tells us that visceral fat is reducing too.

So, what's the key message here?

Every kilogram matters. Every centimetre around the waist matters. Carrying too much fat isn’t just bad for blood pressure — it’s simply not good for you, full stop.

See if you can find ways to make a difference. The good news is, if you're feeling stuck, there are now effective medications that can make a meaningful impact in the long term.

Tomorrow, I'm going to be talking about how we can assess the risk of high blood pressure acting as a silent killer — before it causes any harm.

So, tune in for that. Until tomorrow, I hope you live as well as possible, for as long as possible.

Take care and bye for now.

Are You at Risk of a Sudden Heart Attack? How Healthy is Your Heart? Really?

Heart disease is the #1 killer in the Western World. In Australia, someone dies every 28 minutes from heart disease. That’s 51 people a day. In the US, someone has a heart attack every 40 SECONDS! Fortunately, many heart attacks are preventable. However, regular exercise and eating healthy are no guarantee you won’t succumb to this silent killer.

Do the free heart check today at www.virtualheartcheck.com.au

Join the Healthy Heart Network and become part of our growing community!

Do You Want to Improve Your Heart’s Health and Reduce Your Risk of Suffering a Heart Attack? Join The Healthy Heart Network For Only $5 Lifetime Access (Valued at over $55)!

The Healthy Heart Network is designed to help members:

Visit https://healthyheartnetwork.com/ and click on the JOIN THE FAMILY BUTTON

Welcome to the Younger Longer 14-Day Blood Pressure Challenge. My name is Dr. Warrick Bishop. I'm a preventative cardiologist and I'm super excited that you're looking to look after your blood pressure. It is one of the most important and really one of the simplest things you can look after to look after your heart for the rest of your life.

During this 14-Day Challenge I'm going to share with you a whole lot of stuff. Every day, a video, some resources, a challenge or a task for you to complete and a fun fact. Stay tuned, your blood pressure is super important. Let me explain to you how, what you're going to do about it and how you're going to look after yourself for the years ahead 

Transcript

Welcome, and here we are at Day 11. Well done for getting this far, and thanks for tuning in.

We're talking sugars and processed foods today—specifically, the traps that can catch us out in that regard, particularly when it comes to our blood pressure.

Often, we only think about salt when it comes to blood pressure. And while there's no question that salt is important—we’ve already covered it—sugars are equally important and often sneak into processed foods left, right, and center.

So many processed foods are double-loaded with sugar and salt, and that double hit is not good for your blood pressure. We’ve already touched on the salt component, but sugars play a significant role too. They can contribute to weight gain because they stimulate insulin. Over time, with repeated exposure, this can lead to insulin resistance. That’s when the body just doesn’t process sugar as efficiently.

The problem with that? It pushes up your blood pressure and alters your cholesterol profile. That’s not good in the long term.

And it’s not just the obviously sweet foods you have to be wary of. Added sugars are often hidden in things like sauces, breakfast cereals, flavored yoghurt, smoothies, energy bars, and salad dressings. Imagine trying to have a healthy salad, only to drizzle on a manufactured dressing filled with sugar!

So what’s the advice?

Be aware. Read the labels. It really is valuable and informative—you might be surprised.

Check the ingredients list and look out for terms like syrup, malt, cane juice, and anything ending in “-ose” (like dextrose, sucrose, glucose). These are all forms of sugar. You’ll also often see salt listed—so bring your attention to that as well.

Try to replace processed and manufactured foods with things you can make from your own cupboard or pantry. Making that switch can make a big difference over the long term.

Tomorrow, I’m going to be talking about weight—a consequence of too much sugar, too much fat, too much oil, and too many processed foods—and how weight interacts with blood pressure.

So I look forward to speaking with you then. Until then, I hope you live as well as possible, for as long as possible.

Take care, and bye for now.

Are You at Risk of a Sudden Heart Attack? How Healthy is Your Heart? Really?

Heart disease is the #1 killer in the Western World. In Australia, someone dies every 28 minutes from heart disease. That’s 51 people a day. In the US, someone has a heart attack every 40 SECONDS! Fortunately, many heart attacks are preventable. However, regular exercise and eating healthy are no guarantee you won’t succumb to this silent killer.

Do the free heart check today at www.virtualheartcheck.com.au

Join the Healthy Heart Network and become part of our growing community!

Do You Want to Improve Your Heart’s Health and Reduce Your Risk of Suffering a Heart Attack? Join The Healthy Heart Network For Only $5 Lifetime Access (Valued at over $55)!

The Healthy Heart Network is designed to help members:

Visit https://healthyheartnetwork.com/ and click on the JOIN THE FAMILY BUTTON

Welcome to the Younger Longer 14-Day Blood Pressure Challenge. My name is Dr. Warrick Bishop. I'm a preventative cardiologist and I'm super excited that you're looking to look after your blood pressure. It is one of the most important and really one of the simplest things you can look after to look after your heart for the rest of your life.

During this 14-Day Challenge I'm going to share with you a whole lot of stuff. Every day, a video, some resources, a challenge or a task for you to complete and a fun fact. Stay tuned, your blood pressure is super important. Let me explain to you how, what you're going to do about it and how you're going to look after yourself for the years ahead 

Transcript

G'day and welcome back to Day 10. Today, we're talking about alcohol, caffeine, and water.

Let’s start with alcohol. You probably don't want to hear this if you enjoy a couple of glasses at night, but unfortunately, there is no amount of alcohol that is considered good for you. In fact, even relatively small amounts — just a couple of standard drinks a day — can start to increase your blood pressure.

It’s also possible that alcohol could affect some of your medications, so be aware of that. It’s probably a good idea to have alcohol-free days here and there. There is no truly safe amount of alcohol, so just be mindful of your intake. If alcohol is an important component of your lifestyle, respect it by consuming it wisely.

Now, let’s move on to caffeine. Personally, caffeine is my go-to in the morning, and I know I'm not alone — millions of people feel the same way. However, if blood pressure is a concern for you, it’s worth considering whether you’re someone who is more sensitive to the effects of caffeine.

You might want to reassess your consumption and perhaps mix things up a little — maybe by switching to decaffeinated coffee occasionally. This could help reduce those caffeine-related spikes in blood pressure. You probably don’t have to give up coffee altogether. It’s more about knowing your body and managing your intake appropriately.

One of my own strategies is to combine an espresso shot with a decaf, making a long black. That way, I get a strong flavor without the heavy hit of caffeine.

Tomorrow, I’ll be talking about sugar and the sugar traps we often fall into. But before we get into that, I want to emphasize something important while we are on the topic of drinking wisely — and that’s hydration.

Water, and good quality water, is incredibly important. Staying hydrated will take care of your kidneys in the long run and help regulate your blood pressure. It allows your body to flush out sodium chloride and helps your kidneys remove toxins effectively.

So, while it’s important to be cautious with your alcohol and caffeine consumption, please also make sure you’re drinking plenty of water and staying well-hydrated.

Tomorrow, we’ll dive into sugar. Until then, I hope you live as well as possible for as long as possible.

Take care, and bye for now.

Are You at Risk of a Sudden Heart Attack? How Healthy is Your Heart? Really?

Heart disease is the #1 killer in the Western World. In Australia, someone dies every 28 minutes from heart disease. That’s 51 people a day. In the US, someone has a heart attack every 40 SECONDS! Fortunately, many heart attacks are preventable. However, regular exercise and eating healthy are no guarantee you won’t succumb to this silent killer.

Do the free heart check today at www.virtualheartcheck.com.au

Join the Healthy Heart Network and become part of our growing community!

Do You Want to Improve Your Heart’s Health and Reduce Your Risk of Suffering a Heart Attack? Join The Healthy Heart Network For Only $5 Lifetime Access (Valued at over $55)!

The Healthy Heart Network is designed to help members:

Visit https://healthyheartnetwork.com/ and click on the JOIN THE FAMILY BUTTON

Welcome to the Younger Longer 14-Day Blood Pressure Challenge. My name is Dr. Warrick Bishop. I'm a preventative cardiologist and I'm super excited that you're looking to look after your blood pressure. It is one of the most important and really one of the simplest things you can look after to look after your heart for the rest of your life.

During this 14-Day Challenge I'm going to share with you a whole lot of stuff. Every day, a video, some resources, a challenge or a task for you to complete and a fun fact. Stay tuned, your blood pressure is super important. Let me explain to you how, what you're going to do about it and how you're going to look after yourself for the years ahead 

Transcript

Hi Dr Warrick here and welcome to day 7. Today we're talking about salt, specifically sodium chloride salt which drives high blood pressure therefore causing problems. 

The problem is if we do consume too much salt then that salt means that the body retains more water increasing blood volume therefore raising blood pressure. As we increase the pressure the heart has to work harder and that is wear and tear on the heart but it's also wear and tear on the vasculature and we've talked about that to a large degree already. 

That damage to the vasculature leads to plaque formation and even inflammation and heart attack and stroke. Interestingly though excessive salt doesn't just affect the blood vessels directly it also affects the blood vessels via the gut and here's something you may not be aware of that increased salt could actually disrupt the gut microbiome particularly beneficial bacteria like the lactobacillus species. 

This disruption to the gut microbiome then exposes the lining of the gut to the contents of the gastrointestinal tract the inside of your gullet and that exposure of the lining cells of the gut gut directly directly to the contents of the gut can lead to what's called leaky gut syndrome. That means that inflammatory molecules within the gut can pass between connectors of the cells lining the intestine and those molecules can get into the bloodstream. 

As those molecules get into the bloodstream they can be shipped around the body but can end up in blood vessels of their own leading to inflammation within those blood vessels. The consequence being thickened blood vessels, narrowed blood vessels and you guessed it contributing to raised blood pressure. So when we think about salt as a problem people will say but I don't do much salt on my food and truth be told it's not the salt in your salt shaker that we're concerned about. 

It turns out that about 75% of consumed sodium in most people's diets comes from processed foods and this includes things that you may not even be aware of. Things like bread, packaged snacks, canned items, even takeaway meals. So pay attention, look at labels, be aware. We know that reducing sodium by about three grams a day or half a teaspoon can reduce your systolic blood pressure by up to five millimeters of mercury. This is really significant and on a population basis is a huge thing to be considering. So look for low sodium or no added salt. 

Even think about sodium chloride replacement salts that perhaps have potassium in there instead or use other flavorings, coriander, turmeric, chili, all of those. Try and just start to cut down where that salt is. Remember it can disrupt the gut microbiome and it's a big driver and one that we should be able to change in our lifestyle on a daily basis. 

Tomorrow we talk about sleep and stress, super important when it comes to blood pressure and I'll look forward to speaking with you then. I hope you live as well as possible for as long as possible. Take care and bye for now.

Are You at Risk of a Sudden Heart Attack? How Healthy is Your Heart? Really?

Heart disease is the #1 killer in the Western World. In Australia, someone dies every 28 minutes from heart disease. That’s 51 people a day. In the US, someone has a heart attack every 40 SECONDS! Fortunately, many heart attacks are preventable. However, regular exercise and eating healthy are no guarantee you won’t succumb to this silent killer.

Do the free heart check today at www.virtualheartcheck.com.au

Join the Healthy Heart Network and become part of our growing community!

Do You Want to Improve Your Heart’s Health and Reduce Your Risk of Suffering a Heart Attack? Join The Healthy Heart Network For Only $5 Lifetime Access (Valued at over $55)!

The Healthy Heart Network is designed to help members:

Visit https://healthyheartnetwork.com/ and click on the JOIN THE FAMILY BUTTON

Welcome to the Younger Longer 14-Day Blood Pressure Challenge. My name is Dr. Warrick Bishop. I'm a preventative cardiologist and I'm super excited that you're looking to look after your blood pressure. It is one of the most important and really one of the simplest things you can look after to look after your heart for the rest of your life.

During this 14-Day Challenge I'm going to share with you a whole lot of stuff. Every day, a video, some resources, a challenge or a task for you to complete and a fun fact. Stay tuned, your blood pressure is super important. Let me explain to you how, what you're going to do about it and how you're going to look after yourself for the years ahead 

Transcript

Hi, Dr. Warrick here and welcome to day five. Today we're talking food, not calories or taste, but the impact food can have on your blood pressure. And unbelievably, what you put on your plate, what you put therefore in your mouth, can in fact impact your blood pressure and therefore your cardiovascular system. 

Let's start with potassium. Most people consume too much sodium chloride or salt and not enough potassium. And potassium is a key mineral that helps your body, your kidneys, excrete excess sodium and so lower blood pressure. Foods like bananas, leafy greens, legumes and sweet potatoes. Even salmon are all rich in potassium. And these foods can be helpful in moderating blood pressure. 

Let's talk about fibre next. And there's more to this than just digestion because fibre slows absorption of different foods, particularly sugar. And this is good because it reduces insulin response and reduces potential weight gain. 

But fibre also protects the integrity of the gut lining and reduces leaky gut syndrome. And this is really important because leaky gut syndrome allows inflammatory molecules from within the gut to get into the bloodstream, which can then lodge within the arteries causing inflammation and driving blood pressure changes. So fibre to protect the gut, really, really important. 

Let's talk colour. And you probably, if you're listening to this, are aware already that the pigments, the colours, the antioxidants, the anthocyanes, the lycopene, etc. are powerful antioxidants that help with blood pressure control and reduce inflammation. So we often use the term, eat the rainbow, which is sort of visually appealing on the plate, but good for your heart and your blood pressure. 

Not sure if you're aware of it or heard of it, but there is a diet called the DASH, D-A-S-H diet, short for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. And this has been shown to lower blood pressure as effectively as low dose medication for many people. And it's built almost entirely on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and lean proteins. Not supplements, not processed foods, but real food. 

So what's on your plate has a direct connection to your arteries and your blood pressure and your heart health. So think about it. And tomorrow we'll talk about the sort of importance of exercising in maintaining a healthy blood pressure till then. I wish you the very best. Live as well as possible for as long as possible. Take care and bye for now. Thank you.

Are You at Risk of a Sudden Heart Attack? How Healthy is Your Heart? Really?

Heart disease is the #1 killer in the Western World. In Australia, someone dies every 28 minutes from heart disease. That’s 51 people a day. In the US, someone has a heart attack every 40 SECONDS! Fortunately, many heart attacks are preventable. However, regular exercise and eating healthy are no guarantee you won’t succumb to this silent killer.

Do the free heart check today at www.virtualheartcheck.com.au

Join the Healthy Heart Network and become part of our growing community!

Do You Want to Improve Your Heart’s Health and Reduce Your Risk of Suffering a Heart Attack? Join The Healthy Heart Network For Only $5 Lifetime Access (Valued at over $55)!

The Healthy Heart Network is designed to help members:

Visit https://healthyheartnetwork.com/ and click on the JOIN THE FAMILY BUTTON

Welcome to the Younger Longer 14-Day Blood Pressure Challenge. My name is Dr. Warrick Bishop. I'm a preventative cardiologist and I'm super excited that you're looking to look after your blood pressure. It is one of the most important and really one of the simplest things you can look after to look after your heart for the rest of your life.

During this 14-Day Challenge I'm going to share with you a whole lot of stuff. Every day, a video, some resources, a challenge or a task for you to complete and a fun fact. Stay tuned, your blood pressure is super important. Let me explain to you how, what you're going to do about it and how you're going to look after yourself for the years ahead 

Transcript

Hi, Dr Warrick here and welcome to day four. Now we're going to talk about measuring blood pressure and how we get around to doing that and why getting it right can make all the difference. 

Well, here's something that might surprise you. Up to 30% of people diagnosed with high blood pressure in the clinic don't actually have it. We call that white coat hypertension where the presence of a doctor or the anxiety of being in a clinic setting itself temporarily elevates blood pressure during that visit. These people will have basically normal readings outside of that clinic. So, we really need to be able to measure these people in a way that allows us to figure that out. 

On the flip side, of course, we find people who have masked hypertension where their clinic readings look okay, but they're often a little bit too high and maybe don't fluctuate overnight or reduce at other times. And therefore, they may be actually running a greater burden than we may have guessed from a clinic measurement. 

Well, that's where 24-hour blood pressure monitoring comes in. These small portable devices, they basically are a blood pressure cuff that you carry around and they go off every 30 minutes during the day and then every hour overnight. By getting multiple data points, we just get a much better picture of what's going on. Most people's blood pressure goes up and down. 

It is quite erratic, not dissimilar to watching the share market during a Trump presidency. But how do you really figure out what's going on with the individual? Well, you track them over time. More data, better information, better decisions. 

So, nighttime blood pressure is actually a better predictor of future heart attack and stroke than daytime readings. So, seeing a nighttime dip, which is what we normally expect with people, that blood pressure sinks overnight to let the body rest is really valuable. 

It's also incredibly useful when someone's blood pressure readings fluctuate a lot. And I get patients who come in from time to time with their home measurements and they're all over the place. 

But a 24-hour monitor gives us a beautiful set of data that we can often put on a graph and gives us really good insights into what's going on over time so we can start to make best decisions. 24-hour blood pressure monitoring is available in Australia with a Medicare rebate once a year. If you're in any doubt whatsoever, please talk to your doctor about it. 

Tomorrow we're talking about food. I look forward to catching up then. Until then, I hope you live as well as possible for as long as possible. Take care and bye for now.

Are You at Risk of a Sudden Heart Attack? How Healthy is Your Heart? Really?

Heart disease is the #1 killer in the Western World. In Australia, someone dies every 28 minutes from heart disease. That’s 51 people a day. In the US, someone has a heart attack every 40 SECONDS! Fortunately, many heart attacks are preventable. However, regular exercise and eating healthy are no guarantee you won’t succumb to this silent killer.

Do the free heart check today at www.virtualheartcheck.com.au

Join the Healthy Heart Network and become part of our growing community!

Do You Want to Improve Your Heart’s Health and Reduce Your Risk of Suffering a Heart Attack? Join The Healthy Heart Network For Only $5 Lifetime Access (Valued at over $55)!

The Healthy Heart Network is designed to help members:

Visit https://healthyheartnetwork.com/ and click on the JOIN THE FAMILY BUTTON

Welcome to the Younger Longer 14-Day Blood Pressure Challenge. My name is Dr. Warrick Bishop. I'm a preventative cardiologist and I'm super excited that you're looking to look after your blood pressure. It is one of the most important and really one of the simplest things you can look after to look after your heart for the rest of your life.

During this 14-Day Challenge I'm going to share with you a whole lot of stuff. Every day, a video, some resources, a challenge or a task for you to complete and a fun fact. Stay tuned, your blood pressure is super important. Let me explain to you how, what you're going to do about it and how you're going to look after yourself for the years ahead 

Transcript

Hi, Dr. Warrick here and welcome to day three and we're talking about one of my bug bears which is small increments in blood pressure management can have a huge bearing. Why? Because blood pressure is a direct reflection of how hard your heart is working. Every beat, all day, every day. 

Here's something you may not have thought about. Your heart beats a hundred thousand times a day, seven hundred thousand times a week, nearly three million times a month and 35 million times in a year. Now imagine that with every beat your heart is pushing against more pressure than it needs to, more resistance than it needs to, more effort to get blood where it needs to go. That extra strain doesn't get your heart fitter, it doesn't go away, it accumulates and leads to wear and tear. 

Over time it takes a serious toll on your heart and blood vessels. Look even a modest elevation in blood pressure, say 10 millimeters of mercury higher than it needs to be and we're talking someone whose blood pressure is say 130 when ideally it'd be 120 or less. That might not sound like much and you might have a doctor who says oh look let's just watch it but if you multiply that extra 10 millimeters of mercury over tens of millions of heartbeats, it's profound. 

So we know that lowering systolic blood pressure by as little as 10 millimeters of mercury can reduce the risk of heart attack by as much as 25%, stroke by as much as 40%. That's no small benefit. So I really, really want you to get near enough isn't good enough and someone watching your blood pressure being borderline high is someone not doing you an appropriate service. The really good thing is that blood pressure does respond to intervention things like diet, exercise and really importantly our blood pressure tablets really do work. 

So when we talk about lowering blood pressure we're really talking about reducing the work that your heart's doing and we're talking about reducing the wear and tear on your heart and the blood vessels. Do get that work and that load and that wear and tear down as low as possible. Until next time I look forward to catching up. I hope you live as well as possible for as long as possible. Take care and bye for now.

Are You at Risk of a Sudden Heart Attack? How Healthy is Your Heart? Really?

Heart disease is the #1 killer in the Western World. In Australia, someone dies every 28 minutes from heart disease. That’s 51 people a day. In the US, someone has a heart attack every 40 SECONDS! Fortunately, many heart attacks are preventable. However, regular exercise and eating healthy are no guarantee you won’t succumb to this silent killer.

Do the free heart check today at www.virtualheartcheck.com.au

Join the Healthy Heart Network and become part of our growing community!

Do You Want to Improve Your Heart’s Health and Reduce Your Risk of Suffering a Heart Attack? Join The Healthy Heart Network For Only $5 Lifetime Access (Valued at over $55)!

The Healthy Heart Network is designed to help members:

Visit https://healthyheartnetwork.com/ and click on the JOIN THE FAMILY BUTTON

Welcome to the Younger Longer 14-Day Blood Pressure Challenge. My name is Dr. Warrick Bishop. I'm a preventative cardiologist and I'm super excited that you're looking to look after your blood pressure. It is one of the most important and really one of the simplest things you can look after to look after your heart for the rest of your life.

During this 14-Day Challenge I'm going to share with you a whole lot of stuff. Every day, a video, some resources, a challenge or a task for you to complete and a fun fact. Stay tuned, your blood pressure is super important. Let me explain to you how, what you're going to do about it and how you're going to look after yourself for the years ahead 

Transcript

Hi and welcome to day two. It's Dr. Warrick here and we're talking blood pressure. We're talking about something you can't see and you can't feel. It's really important and if it's too high it can be silently harming your body every day. 

So we're talking about raised chronic high blood pressure and the damage it can do. Not just to your heart or your heart arteries but actually your entire body. You probably didn't realize it but if you lined up all the blood vessels in your body they'd stretch over 100,000 kilometres enough to circle the earth twice which is a pretty cool fact. The important thing though if your blood pressure is too high you can have consequences to all of that 100,000 kilometre system. So let's break it down. When your blood pressure is consistently elevated of course it puts strain on your heart. 

That can thicken the heart muscle and make it stiff and a thick stiff heart is no good. That can lead to cardiac failure. Particularly in the later years of life. That raised blood pressure can also affect your kidneys which are full of delicate blood vessels. High blood pressure narrows and weakens those blood vessels and impacts the filtration that the kidneys do and can eventually lead to chronic kidney disease. In fact high blood pressure is the top cause of kidney failure worldwide. 

In the brain, high blood pressure increases the risk of stroke by impacting the large blood vessels that go into the brain leading to plaque development and making those blood vessels more prone to rupture. Unfortunately the impact of blood pressure doesn't stop there either. It can affect your eyes and your memory and it's been linked to dementia and cognitive decline of course. That's right blood pressure. 

Raised blood pressure is linked with progression of dementia. Reducing blood pressure can slow that progression. And yet people feel fine. So this is why it's so dangerous and so important. You can walk around for years with high blood pressure not even being aware. So what's the takeaway? High blood pressure is not just a number. It is the work of your heart and the wear and tear on the entire system. It can damage your organs from head to toe. Please get it checked.

And I look forward to speaking with you tomorrow about the power of small changes.

Are You at Risk of a Sudden Heart Attack? How Healthy is Your Heart? Really?

Heart disease is the #1 killer in the Western World. In Australia, someone dies every 28 minutes from heart disease. That’s 51 people a day. In the US, someone has a heart attack every 40 SECONDS! Fortunately, many heart attacks are preventable. However, regular exercise and eating healthy are no guarantee you won’t succumb to this silent killer.

Do the free heart check today at www.virtualheartcheck.com.au

Join the Healthy Heart Network and become part of our growing community!

Do You Want to Improve Your Heart’s Health and Reduce Your Risk of Suffering a Heart Attack? Join The Healthy Heart Network For Only $5 Lifetime Access (Valued at over $55)!

The Healthy Heart Network is designed to help members:

Visit https://healthyheartnetwork.com/ and click on the JOIN THE FAMILY BUTTON