Blood pressure plays an important role in our heart’s health. Blood pressure is the force of blood against the walls of our arteries, and blood pressure can change throughout the day. When this pressure rises and stays that way over a period of time, it is considered high blood pressure or hypertension. There are often no warning signs or symptoms that you have developed high blood pressure. If your blood pressure is 120/80, this is considered prehypertension. This predisposes you to having high blood pressure in the future. Once your blood pressure numbers reach 140/90, then it is considered high.
Unfortunately, once you get high blood pressure, you’ll usually have it for the rest of your life. Both numbers are important in a blood pressure reading, but the top number (systolic) is more important in ages 50 or over. High blood pressure is extremely dangerous for a number of reasons. It makes the heart work too hard and also can cause hardening of the arteries. It increases the chance of stroke, kidney and heart disease. Heart disease is the number one cause of death in Americans. Almost one in every four adults has high blood pressure.
Develop Healthy Eating Habits
Developing a healthy lifestyle is very important in controlling high blood pressure. One of the best ways we can prevent or help control high blood pressure is by what we put and don’t put into our bodies. Changing our eating habits are a necessity. I realize this is easier said than done and I am speaking from experience. Of course we know we should try to eat a healthy diet including lots of fresh vegetables, fruit and whole grains, but we rarely do. Reducing our intake of saturated fats is crucial to have a healthy heart and lower blood pressure. Try replacing meat in a few meals with high protein dry beans or legumes. They make a good meat substitute, just don’t add any unhealthy ingredients to season or flavor them. Fill up at meals with vegetables, vegetables and more vegetables! Replace unhealthy snacks with fruit and more vegetables! When you eat any grain product, read the label to be sure is whole grain. If you do eat meat, make sure it is as lean as possible and limit the amount of red meat. In America, we have replaced a healthy diet with one of convenience. All of this convenience is wreaking havoc on our health. Once high blood pressure is diagnosed, we will no longer have a choice if we want to live long lives. I found out the hard way, as I have so many lessons in my life. If you are young, right now you can make the decision to choose a healthy lifestyle and drastically decrease your chances of ever developing high blood pressure or heart disease.
Drastically Reduce Salt Intake
I thought I was eating healthily, until I developed high blood pressure. I read labels for calories, fat content, protein, vitamins and minerals, but I never paid any attention to sodium content. I was in for a big shock when I had to go on the sodium restricted diet of 1,500 milligrams a day. The normal recommended daily intake for sodium is 2,400 milligrams. This equals six grams of sodium or one teaspoon of salt. That amount of salt is supposed to be from all sources in our diets, whether it occurs naturally in foods or in added table, sea or kosher salt. Most of us consume so much more sodium than the recommended amount in our daily diets that it is no wonder high blood pressure is becoming so common. Reading food labels for sodium content has made me realize just how dangerous processed foods can be. I am still in shock at all of the foods I can’t eat anymore. So the best advice I can give is to eat fresh products and not add salt at all! There are enough foods that have sodium naturally, so adding it to any vegetables or meats is just asking for trouble. I only wish I had practiced this long before, and it could have lessened my chances of developing high blood pressure.
Increase Low-Fat Dairy Consumption
Research also now suggests consuming low-fat dairy products will lower blood pressure along with reducing any type of saturated fats. This includes low-fat milk, low-fat yogurt and low-fat cheese. Cheese is naturally high in sodium, so small quantities are best. To get the blood pressure lowering benefits, at least three daily servings of low-fat milk or dairy products will give the best results. The potassium and magnesium in milk products are the probable reason along with the overall decrease in saturated fats.
Exercise
Physical activity is also important to lowering blood pressure. It doesn’t matter the type of exercise. Regular exercise of about thirty minutes per day for at least four days a week is beneficial as long as it is doctor-approved. Getting active will also help us to lose weight, which is the next way to combat high blood pressure. Excess body weight makes the heart work harder and extreme weight gains greatly increases the risk for heart disease. Once diagnosed with high blood pressure, just losing ten pounds can help reduce it.
Quit Smoking
This next one is also from personal experience, so I know how hard it is. I don’t think I could be quite so adamant about it if I didn’t understand the difficulty involved. Please give up smoking cigarettes! I did it for years and it was one of the worst things I ever did to my body. Smoking cigarettes injures our blood vessel walls and speeds up hardening of the arteries, and that doesn’t include all of the other dangerous things it does to our bodies. Although it doesn’t actually raise blood pressure, it is extremely dangerous to those who already have it! Once you quit smoking, your risks of having heart disease or heart attack are reduced significantly after only one year!
Miscellaneous
There are also several things that raise our blood pressure on a temporary basis. The first is alcohol consumption, and it does raise the blood pressure. Alcohol is also high in calories and is bad for the liver, so it just may not be worth the risks and side effects. Although caffeine in moderation is usually fine, it does have a temporary effect of raising the blood pressure also. Be very careful when taking any over the counter cold and flu medications. Decongestants are especially dangerous for high blood pressure. Women over the age of 35 also have a small increased risk of high blood pressure from taking oral contraceptives. It is when combined with smoking cigarettes that the risk really increases. Even though they are usually temporary elevations, these things should be taken into consideration if you are already combating high blood pressure. I know I personally want to try to do everything I can to try to continue lowering mine. I will genuinely be happy if even one person reads this, thinks about their blood pressure and decides to make a lifestyle change!
