This Week @ Harvard Health

7 ways to keep stress — and blood pressure — down

When it comes to preventing and treating high blood pressure, one often-overlooked strategy is managing stress. If you often find yourself tense and on-edge, try these seven strategies to reduce stress.

Get your copy of Controlling Your Blood Pressure

Product Page - Controlling Your Blood Pressure

An alarming one in three American adults has high blood pressure. Known medically as hypertension, many people don't even know they have it, because high blood pressure has no symptoms or warning signs. But when elevated blood pressure is accompanied by abnormal cholesterol and blood sugar levels, the damage to your arteries, kidneys, and heart accelerates exponentially. Fortunately, high blood pressure is easy to detect and treat. Sometimes people can keep blood pressure in a healthy range simply by making lifestyle changes, such as losing weight, increasing activity, and eating more healthfully.

The empowering potential of end-of-life care

When we scan the medical journals for research to report, we often ask ourselves whether an article suggests something many of us can do to improve our health or well-being. It might come as a surprise, but the articles on end-of-life care in recent issues of the Journal of the American Medical Association and The New England Journal of Medicine actually fit that bill. And they delivered good news.

Get your copy of Living Wills

Living wills and health care proxies — documents known as advance care directives — give you a voice in decisions about your medical care at the end of life. Without these documents, choices may be left up to a doctor or a judge — someone who does not know your values, beliefs, or preferences. This Special Health Report, Living Wills: A guide to advance directives, the health care power of attorney, and other key documents, will help you plan ahead and create legal documents to guide decision makers at this important time.