Saturday, March 5, 2011

Why Do We Develop High Blood Pressure?

By Owen Jones


It seems that everybody more than the age of about forty is having problems with their blood pressure. There is such a thing as having low blood pressure but the problem sweeping Western society for the last twenty-five to thirty years is high blood pressure, which is also known as hypertension in medical terminology.

Hypertension is a serious medical condition which can kill if not treated, but it is often an indication of leading a poor lifestyle, so a sufferer can usually avoid hypertension by introducing a couple of lifestyle changes. The time to implement these alterations is as soon as you can, because the alterations are sensible ones, but young bodies can endure more abuse than older ones, so it is a good concept to keep an eye on your blood pressure from your mid thirties.

Age and ethnicity are factors in hypertension and there is naturally nothing you can do about that, yet the other factors are beneficial for everybody, because they just involve living a better lifestyle.

Being plump is a major factor in creating hypertension. The answer is obvious - if you are overweight, lose those extra pounds. Losing just ten pounds can reduce your blood pressure significantly.

Being inactive is another key factor in developing hypertension and is naturally linked with being overweight. Therefore, you can kill two birds with one stone by exercising more in order to lose weight. Eating too much sodium (table salt) is another factor in high blood pressure, so this offers another opportunity to 'double up'.

Whilst you are attempting to lose weight in order to help reduce your hypertension, incorporate reduced-sodium recipes into your cooking routine. There are lots of low-sodium or low-salt recipes on the Internet and once you have been eating low-sodium for a week or ten days you will wonder why you ever used salt in the first place.

Salt is of course in some foods more than others, so you will have to have some guidance in the beginning, but only not adding any salt or sugar to any of your food or drink is a good start. Eating more fresh fruit and vegetables is another obvious thing to do. Try not to use canned foods as salt is often used to 'pump up the flavour' and preserve cheap ingredients in cans.

Smoking is bad for you. We all know that, however it also increases blood pressure and so does drinking too much alcohol on a frequent basis. These are difficult lifestyle alterations to master, but you could at least cut down.

Stress, fear, anger, worry and sleeplessness are also factors that increase hypertension but it is easy to see that they could all be interrelated. It is frequently said that exercise reduces stress and so that might now have a triple benefit. If you suffer from stress, meditation or yoga may help you as well.

In short, you can to do something about your hypertension. Some of the alterations are not simple, but merely doing something on all these fronts will have an effect and perhaps keep you off medication for the rest of your life.




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