Professor Sarah Berry

I feel like I'm about to do an exam.

So the thing that I'm actually most amazed by is this new discovery that there are specific bugs in our gut linked to high blood pressure and low blood pressure, which is extraordinary.

We don't fully understand why, but we think it might be linked to this long-term inflammation.

About a quarter of people are told by their doctor they have high blood pressure, but they don't because when you go in and see your doctor, you're really anxious and your heart rate goes up.

And so you have this measurement that is higher than your average would be.

And I think you said about 30% of people globally have high blood pressures.

That short-term high blood pressure is fine.

Like I run for the bus, it's nothing to worry about.

But this like long-term high blood pressure over years and decades can be really harmful.

And...

That affects things like my brain.

So dementia could be starting 15 or 20 years earlier with these like tiny damage to blood vessels from the high blood pressure, strokes, heart attack, heart failure, but also, you know, your eyes could get damaged, your kidneys.

So this is really important.

The numbers that we use to measure it, they have these two numbers, and the first one is the one that you're saying I should really worry about, the big number, the systolic number, because that's what happens when my heart is pressing really high.

But interestingly, doctors do not agree around the world even about what that number is that you should worry about.

So in America, it's 130.

In Europe, doctors are more relaxed, and you can get up to 140.

that it is good to measure your own blood pressure, but not to obsess about it.

And, you know, if you're going to measure it at home, then you said multiple times in the day, that each time you do sort of three recordings, sort of write down the last one, do it for a couple of days, that gives you sort of average, which is going to be much more accurate than this sort of one single measurement.

And I think you said, well, you know, if that is above the guidelines in your country, then it's worth going and talking to your physician and share this data.