Lifestyle Modification To Help Manage High Blood Pressure

Wed, 06 Mar 2019 07:10:53 +0000

High blood pressure or hypertension is an unusual condition which has almost no symptoms. Since the medical condition has no warning symptoms; high blood pressure is also called the silent killer.

The only way to find it is one should get their blood pressure checked regularly. Nowadays many people suffer from high blood pressure. Blood pressure is measured in ‘millimeters of mercury’ (mm Hg). If high blood pressure is not managed on time, it can create havoc on your health and lead to several heart diseases like stroke or heart attack.

Apart from medications, modifying your lifestyle can also help lower your risk for hypertension. Let us quickly have a look at some lifestyle changes which can help manage hypertension well.

Manage your weight

Blood pressure often increases when weight increases. Therefore, managing your weight is extremely important if you have high blood pressure. Regular physical exercise and a healthy diet is the key to maintain a healthy weight. Not only hypertension, but a healthy body weight can also help you get rid of several other diseases.

Lower the intake of salt

Excessive salt in your diet is a major risk factor of high blood pressure. Thus, lowering your sodium intake is important as sodium increases blood pressure by causing the body to retain excess fluid. This puts the burden on your heart and puts more pressure on your blood vessels. Instead of salt, you could use some other healthy alternatives like pepper, lemon or lemon zest, vinegar, mint or chilies.

Limit the intake of alcohol

Even drinking too much alcohol can lead to an increase in blood pressure. Limiting the intake of alcohol can reduce high blood pressure. This will be a significant lifestyle change for people suffering from high blood pressure.

Healthy diet

A healthy diet is an effective way to lower blood pressure. Your diet should include fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains. Junk and processed food should be avoided at all costs. You should also include the three vital nutrients to manage high blood pressure. These nutrients are potassium, magnesium, and calcium.

Regular physical activity

In addition to helping you lose weight, engaging in regular physical activity can also help lower blood pressure. In fact, making the lifestyle change to exercise moderately, like walking briskly, for at least 30 minutes or cycling or maybe playing any sport. Some other exercises could be swimming, running or yoga.

The post Lifestyle Modification To Help Manage High Blood Pressure appeared first on The Correspondent.

This Protein Rich Food Can Help Lower High Blood Pressure

Thu, 28 Feb 2019 05:43:19 +0000

People with high blood pressure are recommended to keep their salt intake in control. A study published in Hypertension found out who between men or women benefit from a low-salt diet for regulating blood pressure. There have been studies done previously that mention that women are more salt-sensitive. Intake of salt can contribute to an increase in blood pressure, which is dangerous for the heart and can result in heart disease. People who are salt-sensitive and have high blood pressure are thus advised to have a low-salt diet.

Women have higher aldosterone

Aldosterone is a hormone which regulates salt and affects blood pressure. It is naturally higher in females as compared to males and can be higher in case of a high salt diet. It was thus hypothesised that females have higher levels of aldosterone than males, and they are more likely to be salt-sensitive.

Consuming high amounts of salt can be easy and even unintentional. Under usual circumstances, our body tries to balance this salt intake by reducing aldosterone levels and ensures that the body does not retain too much salt. However, this may result in fluid retention and high blood pressure.

Salt retention may not be the reason behind high blood pressure in women with a high-salt diet

As part of the study, it was found that high blood pressure may be caused because of aldosterone impairing the ability of blood vessels to relax. This study reports Medical News Bulletin – provides evidence that aldosterone is responsible for high blood pressure in women who consume a high-salt diet, and salt retention may actually not be the cause for it.

The study may suggest that there is a need to target adolsterone for treatment of conditions like high blood pressure, obesity in women.

How to deal with blood pressure

The basics of dealing with blood pressure is to consume a low-salt diet and avoid foods that have high salt content. People with high blood pressure should make the attempt of checking their blood pressure regularly. Poor lifestyle and diet, lack of physical activity and increased consumption of processed food are some of the major culprits behind high blood pressure.

Bananas: Potassium-rich bananas can be helpful in keeping your blood pressure under control. Potassium can lower the effect of sodium, thus preventing an increase in blood pressure.
Coconut water: People with high blood pressure should make sure that they keep themselves properly hydrated. Along with drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water, you can also drink coconut water to improve your hydration levels.
Garlic: Studies have shown that garlic has properties that can lower blood pressure. You should make the effort of consuming one or two garlic cloves daily. It will not only help in controlling blood pressure but will also improve blood flow, prevent gas and indigestion.
Avoid alcohol abuse and quit smoking: Alcohol and smoking should be completely off the table if you have high blood pressure. Both these sedentary lifestyle habits can harm your health in more ways than you can imagine. They can increase the risk of fatty liver disease, cancer, heart disease and much more.
Avoid processed and packaged food: No matter the convenience that these foods provide, processed and packaged food do very little in terms of providing you with nutrition. In order to increase their shelf life, they are packed with salt and harmful preservatives. Include lots of fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet if you want to control high blood pressure.