Having a healthy blood pressure is essential to maintaining a healthy heart.

More than 20,000 people living in Scarborough and Ryedale are known to have high blood pressure (hypertension), a leading cause of heart attack and stroke.

What’s your blood pressure? Do you know your numbers? Next time you see your doctor or practice nurse, ask them to check. High blood pressure testing can be accessed at your local pharmacy, to check whether your pharmacy provide BP check, please click here - This service may be chargeable please check with your pharmacy.

Giving up smoking is the single biggest thing you can do to improve your heart health.

That’s because people who smoke are twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who don’t smoke.

The Stop Smoking Services within North Yorkshire will help you quit. It's free and easy to use. Click here for more information, call 01609 797272 or email stop.smoking@northsyorks.gov.uk

You could also download this free NHS stop smoking app to your mobile phone.

In next to no time you will feel the health and financial benefits of stopping smoking, including:

• Reducing the risk of developing illnesses and death caused by cancer, heart and lung disease – 90 per cent of all cases of lung cancer are caused by smoking;
• Getting rid of the nicotine in your body: after stopping smoking for 48 hours there is none left, which will make a huge difference to your sense of smell and taste;
• Improved fitness levels making it easier to run or play with your children, family or friends;
• Saving money: giving up a 20-a-day habit will save you over £45 a week. Quitters will save over £2,000 in a single year!

Some tips to help you quit:

• Use your local stop smoking service. North Yorkshire County Council offer…..
• Write down all the reasons you want to stop and stick it on the fridge to help you stay motivated;
• Keep yourself busy;
• Talk to your friends, family and workmates – support from them is essential. Why not quit together to help keep each other motivated?

Cholesterol is a fatty substance known as a lipid and is vital for the normal functioning of the body. It's mainly made by the liver, but can also be found in some foods.

High cholesterol itself doesn't usually cause any CVD symptoms, but if you have too much cholesterol in your blood, it can increase your risk of heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases.

The first step in reduce cholesterol is to maintain a healthy, balanced diet. It's important to eat a diet low in fatty food.

You can swap food containing saturated fat for fruit, vegetables and wholegrain cereals. This will also help prevent high cholesterol reoccurring.

Other lifestyle changes, such as exercising regularly and stopping smoking (if you do smoke), can also significantly help to lower cholesterol.

If these measures don't reduce your cholesterol and you continue to have a high risk of developing heart disease, your GP may prescribe a cholesterol-lowering medication, such as statins.

Read more about how cholesterol is treated.

Have a look at the NHS BMI healthy weight calculator to help you decide.

If you’d like free local support to help you lose weight, you can use the adult weight management service funded by North Yorkshire County Council which supports adults across Scarborough and Ryedale to lose weight, or get started on the NHS weight loss plan.

You can also download the NHS weight loss plan to your smartphone.

Healthy Weight Pathway for Children, Young People and Families in North Yorkshire 

This resource has been developed in partnership by North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust and York Teaching Hospitals Trust, to support professionals in navigating the children and families obesity offer in the County. The resource builds on good practice and offers evidence-based standardised guidance for practitioners to help them identify and raise the issue of overweight and obesity, deliver healthy lifestyle brief advice, and know how and where to signpost their service users for further information and programmes that help them achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

People with diabetes have a higher chance of developing cardiovascular disease.

Diabetes makes it difficult for the body to control blood sugar levels.  High blood sugar levels can damage blood vessels and cause a range of complications such as heart attack, heart failure, stroke and angina.

If you have diabetes make sure that you have all of your regular check-ups with your doctor and/or practice nurse.  These include:

• Measuring your blood glucose level (HbA1c) this checks your average blood sugar levels and how close they are to normal. You have these checks every 3 months when newly diagnosed, then every 6 months once you're stable.
• Blood pressure and cholesterol you should have your cholesterol (blood fats) and blood pressure checked at least once a year. Diabetes increases your risk of heart disease and stroke, so it's important that high blood pressure and high cholesterol are spotted and treated early.
• Retinal (eye) screening if you have diabetes, your eyes are at risk from diabetic retinopathy, a condition that can lead to sight loss if it's not treated.
• Foot and leg check takes place once a year and checks if you've lost any feeling in your feet, and for ulcers and infections.
• Blood and urine test to check kidney function takes place once a year to check for kidney disease this is common in people who have diabetes if caught early enough Kidney disease is treatable.
• Weight check-weight monitoring, get into the habit of measuring your waist and weighing yourself regularly. This will help you keep a close eye on any changes. You can work out your body mass index (BMI) using this NHS tool. It helps protect your blood pressure and cholesterol, and reduces your risk of developing serious problems with your eyes, feet and heart.
• Smoking status, consider stopping smoking, diabetes worsens the effects of smoking on your heart. Get help to quit smoking.

You can find out more information about diabetes and cardiovascular disease from:

Diabetes UK

British Heart Foundation

Diabetes Choices 

NHS UK - Regular check ups

Whatever your age, there's strong scientific evidence that being physically active can help you lead a healthier and happier life.

People who are active regularly are less likely to develop many chronic diseases, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and some cancers.

Research shows that physical activity can also boost self-esteem, mood, sleep quality and energy. It can also reduce the risk of developing stress, depression, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

What counts?

To stay healthy, adults should try to be active every day and try to be physically active (through a variety of activities) for at least 150 minutes in total every week. A regular regime will help you to achieve this, you could aim to do 30 minutes exercise five times a week.

For most people, the easiest way to get moving is to make activity part of everyday life. Why not walk or cycle instead of using the car to get around? The more you do, the healthier you'll feel, while taking part in activities such as sports and exercise will make you even healthier.

For any type of activity to benefit your health, you need to be moving quick enough to raise your heart rate, breathe faster and feel warmer. This level of effort is called moderate intensity activity. One way to tell if you're working at a moderate intensity is if you can still talk but you can't sing the words to a song.

Information on local exercise referrals can be found here.

There’s lots of information about building up and maintaining your fitness on the Live Well pages at NHS Choices.

Click below to find out if you're doing enough for your age:

• early childhood (under five years old)
• young people (five to 18)
• adults (19 to 64)
• older adults (65 and over)

Do you know how much you are drinking?  Keep a drinks diary for a week to help you find out.  You might be surprised!

Drinking more than the recommended units of alcohol can have a harmful effect on your heart and on your health generally.

It can cause abnormal heart rhythms, high blood pressure, heart failure, as well as stroke, liver problems and some cancers.

Find out more about managing the amount of alcohol you drink at NHS Choices.

If you think you may have a problem with the amount of alcohol you drink contact the North Yorkshire Drug and Alcohol Service on 01723 330730 (for North Yorkshire residents). Click here for information on more drug and alcohol services.

There’s lots of ways you can help to reduce your risk of developing heart disease, such as lowering blood pressure and cholesterol.

We recommend eating a healthy, balanced, high-fibre diet – that includes plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables (five portions a day) and whole grains.

Too much salt will increase your blood pressure, so it’s best to limit the amount of salt you eat to no more than about a teaspoon (6g) a day.

There are two types of fat: saturated and unsaturated. You should avoid food containing saturated fats because these will increase the levels of bad cholesterol in your blood.

Foods high in saturated fat include:

• meat pies
• sausages and fatty cuts of meat
• butter
• ghee, a type of butter often used in Indian cooking
• lard
• cream
• hard cheese
• cakes and biscuits
• foods that contain coconut or palm oil

But a balanced diet should still include unsaturated fats, which increase levels of good cholesterol and help reduce any blockage in your arteries.  Foods high in unsaturated fat include:

• oily fish
• avocados
• nuts and seeds
• sunflower, rapeseed, olive and vegetable oils

You should also try to avoid too much sugar in your diet as this can increase your chances of developing diabetes, which is proven to dramatically increase your chances of developing CHD. There is some really useful tips in this weight management leaflet.

Read more about:

healthy eating

eating less saturated fat

the facts about sugar

the facts about salt

Stress contributes to high blood pressure, which is also a risk factor for heart attack and stroke.

Spotting the early signs of stress will also help prevent it getting worse and potentially causing serious complications, such as high blood pressure.

If you’re struggling with stress, there’s lots of useful information about how to manage it at NHS Choices.

Access to more information on Scarborough and Ryedales mental health services can be found here.