What is high blood pressure?
Blood pressure is the force of blood as it moves through the blood vessels. If blood cannot flow easily through the vessels, the force increases. If the force is too great, you have high blood pressure.
High blood pressure is a serious disease. It increases the workload on the heart and blood vessels and can lead to heart disease, stroke, kidney problems and even blindness.
The medical term for high blood pressure is hypertension. High blood pressure is dangerous because it makes the heart work too hard and contributes to atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). It increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, the first and third leading causes of death among Americans.

How can I tell if I have high blood pressure?
High blood pressure usually has no symptoms. In fact, many people have high blood pressure for years without knowing it. That’s why it’s called the “silent killer”. In 90-95 percent of cases, the cause of high blood pressure is unknown.
A single elevated blood pressure reading doesn’t mean you have high blood pressure, but it’s a sign that further observation is required. The only way to find out if you have high blood pressure is to have your blood pressure checked.

Who is affected?
High blood pressure affects about 50 million (or one in four) American adults. It is especially common among African Americans, who tend to develop it earlier and more often than whites. Also, many Americans tend to develop high blood pressure as they get older; however hypertension is not a part of healthy aging. About 60 percent of all Americans age 60 and older have high blood pressure.
Others at high risk of developing hypertension are persons who are overweight, those with a family history of high blood pressure, and those with a high-normal blood pressure.

What do blood pressure numbers indicate?
The higher (systolic) number represents the pressure while the heart is beating.
The lower (diastolic) number represents the pressure when the heart is resting between beats.
The systolic pressure is always stated first and the diastolic pressure second. For example; if a person’s blood pressure is 122/76 (122 over 76), the systolic pressure is 122 and the diastolic pressure is 76.

How often should I have my blood pressure checked?
If you do not have high blood pressure then you should have your pressure checked at least every two years. If you have high blood pressure consult with your health care provider.
What are Factors that contribute to high blood pressure?
Because medical science doesn’t understand why most cases of high blood pressure occur, it’s hard to say how to prevent it. However, we do know of several factors that may contribute to high blood pressure and put you at risk for heart attack and stroke.

Controllable risk factors?
Obesity – People with a body mass index (BMI)* of 30.0 or higher are more likely to develop high blood pressure.

Eating too much salt – This increases blood much salt pressure in some people.

Alcohol – Heavy and regular use of alcohol can increase blood pressure dramatically.

Lack of exercise – An inactive lifestyle makes it exercise easier to become overweight and increases the chance of high blood pressure.

Stress – This is often mentioned as a risk factor. However, stress levels are hard to measure, and responses to stress vary from person to person.

What are uncontrollable risk factors?

Race – African Americans develop high blood pressure more often than whites, and it tends to occur earlier and be more severe.

Heredity – A tendency to have high blood pressure runs in families. If your parents or other close blood relatives have it, you’re more likely to develop it.

Age – In general, the older you get, the greater your chance of developing high blood pressure. It occurs most often in people over age 35. Men seem to develop it most often between age 35 and 50. Women are more likely to develop it after menopause.

*BMI (body mass index) is used to define nutritional status and is derived from the following formula:
BMI=703 x Body Weight ÷ (Height ix Height) (in pounds) (in inches)
The standards are the same for men and women. A BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight.

Source: American Heart Association National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Beck’s welcomes all current customers, community health care workers, friends, family and future customers to come by and enjoy free food and drinks, giveaways, health screenings, product demonstrations, or just to come by and visit and check out our showroom.
Beck’s takes advantage of this day not only to show our appreciation to our customers and the community, but to help educate them by having some of our vendors on hand answering questions and showing off some of their newest products. We also will be offering a Medication Disposal: Bring in your expired or unwanted medication, and we will dispose of them with our new TakeAway Environmental Return System. NO CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES PERMITTED.
On behalf of Beck’s, we look forward to seeing you on Friday, Sept. 24th, and we wish you great health and happiness.
Philip Newton

On October 2^nd Beck’s Drugs Oxygen & Medical Equipment held its annual customer appreciation day.  Along with unseasonably warm weather Beck’s offered its customers and the surrounding community a free lunch of grilled Hamburgers, Hot dogs, chips and soft drinks. Along with lunch and free giveaways’ such as  personal-sized, tissues, hand sanitizer, lip balm, pens, cups, etc…, Beck’s held drawings for several prizes including $50 fuel cards, Health Baskets, and a 26” flat screen HD television.

Beck’s uses its customer appreciation day not only to thank our customers, friends, and community but to take the opportunity to introduce our customers and community to some of our suppliers and partners in health care by way of  in-services and education.  Julie Walker and Terry Neckel from Amerisource Bergen and Good Neighbor Pharmacy helped serve and set up, Caleb Nehring from The American Cancer Society came out to educate the public about Breast Cancer Awareness, Diane Osbourne from Phillips Respironics brought the newest sleep therapy equipment and answered questions about sleep apnea and the various treatments, our friend Lisa Anderson from Ferrell Hospital did Blood Pressure Checks, and Paula Reeves came from the American Arthritis Foundation to demonstrate exercises to relieve and prevent symptoms of arthritis.

Beck’s tries to reach out not only to our customers but to the surrounding region and businesses to form a strong community bond which helps develop lasting friendships and a stronger community for everyone involved. The Eldorado Rotary Club donated their concessions trailer for us to serve the food. Country Financial and Insurance’s Eric Brannock and Jared Meacham from Edward Jones Investments spent their day grilling the 300 Hamburgers and 400 plus Hot dogs that we served. Mike Brown from Ferrell Hospital brought the Ferrell Hos”PIT”al BBQ wagon down and set it up for us to grill all the delicious food.

Beck’s Drugs Oxygen & Medical Equipment would like to thank everyone that pitched in to help out or just came by to visit to make our Customer Appreciation Day a success. We look forward to doing it again next year.