Off with big bags - down with high blood pressure

Carrying a large heavy bag over the shoulder compresses the veins and causes an increase in your Blood Pressure within ten minutes it is claimed by the anti-heavy-bag-brigade.
The article chuck that bag on Healthbot continues to explain that heavy bag wearers should consider giving your massive over shoulder bag the push to help lower blood pressure - and changes in blood pressure readings are almost instantly noticeable.

Wearing a heavy bag compresses the veins in your shoulders and increases your BP in as little as 10 minutes! So imagine the kind of damage you could be doing during an all-day shopping marathon.

Solution? A smaller, less heavy bag or using a thicker strap at least 2 inches wide would help distribute the pressure form the bag more evenly.

Another gem from Easy Health Tips - encourages "sticking your buns out" to lower high blood pressure.

Pants that measure blood pressure.

Leading electrical development company Philips has begun its campaign to become a recognised authority in the health care market and has announced that it has made a patent application of undergarments that can measure blood pressure. The so called 'smarty pants' contain electronic sensors stitched into the waist band elastic and are designed to measure the speed of the pulse - by measuring this velocity and the time taken for the same pulse to go from one sensor to another the pants will calculate the wearers systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

High blood pressure has no visible symptoms and pants like these will allow the wearers to discretely check their blood pressure and seek medical help should they continue to record high readings.

These smart pants are part of a 4 year programme that Philips hopes will incorporate monitoring systems into clothes, bedding, home appliances and vehicles - Land Rover have been using similar terrain sensor technologies in their best selling SUV's to improve its safety and intend to extend this into other models.

The next time your GP asks you to drop your pants - it could be to check your blood pressure.