If you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure (a systolic pressure — the top number — of 140 or above or a diastolic pressure — the bottom number — of 90 or above), you might be worried about taking medication to bring your numbers down.
Lifestyle plays an important role in treating your high blood pressure. If you successfully control your blood pressure with a healthy lifestyle, you may avoid, delay or reduce the need for medication.
Here are 10 lifestyle changes you can make to lower your blood pressure and keep it down.
1. LOSE EXTRA POUNDS AND WATCH YOUR WAISTLINE
Blood pressure often increases as weight increases. Losing just 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) can help reduce your blood pressure. In general, the more weight you lose, the lower your blood pressure. Losing weight also makes any blood pressure medications you’re taking more effective. You and your doctor can determine your target weight and the best way to achieve it.
Besides shedding pounds, you should also keep an eye on your waistline. Carrying too much weight around your waist can put you at greater risk of high blood pressure. In general:
Men are at risk if their waist measurement is greater than 40 inches (102 centimeters, or cm).
Women are at risk if their waist measurement is greater than 35 inches (89 cm).
Asian men are at risk if their waist measurement is greater than 36 inches (91 cm).
Asian women are at risk if their waist measurement is greater than 32 inches (81 cm).
2. EXERCISE REGULARLY
Regular physical activity — at least 30 to 60 minutes most days of the week — can lower your blood pressure by 4 to 9 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). And it doesn’t take long to see a difference. If you haven’t been active, increasing your exercise level can lower your blood pressure within just a few weeks.
imagesIf you have prehypertension — systolic pressure between 120 and 139 or diastolic pressure between 80 and 89 — exercise can help you avoid developing full-blown hypertension. If you already have hypertension, regular physical activity can bring your blood pressure down to safer levels.
Talk to your doctor about developing an exercise program. Your doctor can help determine whether you need any exercise restrictions. Even moderate activity for 10 minutes at a time, such as walking and light strength training, can help.
But avoid being a “weekend warrior.” Trying to squeeze all your exercise in on the weekends to make up for weekday inactivity isn’t a good strategy. Those sudden bursts of activity could actually be risky.
3. EAT A HEALTHY DIET
Eating a diet that is rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products and skimps on saturated fat and cholesterol can lower your blood pressure by up to 14 mm Hg. This eating plan is known as the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet.
It isn’t easy to change your eating habits, but with these tips, you can adopt a healthy diet:
Keep a food diary. Writing down what you eat, even for just a week, can shed surprising light on your true eating habits. Monitor what you eat, how much, when and why.
Consider boosting potassium. Potassium can lessen the effects of sodium on blood pressure. The best source of potassium is food, such as fruits and vegetables, rather than supplements. Talk to your doctor about the potassium level that’s best for you.
Be a smart shopper. Make a shopping list before heading to the supermarket to avoid picking up junk food. Read food labels when you shop and stick to your healthy-eating plan when you’re dining out, too.
Cut yourself some slack. Although the DASH diet is a lifelong eating guide, it doesn’t mean you have to cut out all of the foods you love. It’s OK to treat yourself occasionally to foods you wouldn’t find on a DASH diet menu, such as a candy bar or mashed potatoes with gravy.
4. REDUCE SODIUM IN YOUR DIET
Even a small reduction in the sodium in your diet can reduce blood pressure by 2 to 8 mm Hg. The recommendations for reducing sodium are:
Limit sodium to 2,300 milligrams (mg) a day or less.
A lower sodium level — 1,500 mg a day or less — is appropriate for people 51 years of age or older, and individuals of any age who are African-American or who have high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease.
images
To decrease sodium in your diet, consider these tips:
Track how much salt is in your diet. Keep a food diary to estimate how much sodium is in what you eat and drink each day.
Read food labels. If possible, choose low-sodium alternatives of the foods and beverages you normally buy.
Eat fewer processed foods. Potato chips, frozen dinners, bacon and processed lunch meats are high in sodium.
Don’t add salt. Just 1 level teaspoon of salt has 2,300 mg of sodium. Use herbs or spices, rather than salt, to add more flavor to your foods.
Ease into it. If you don’t feel like you can drastically reduce the sodium in your diet suddenly, cut back gradually. Your palate will adjust over time.
5. LIMIT THE AMOUNT OF ALCOHOL YOU DRINK
images (4)
Alcohol can be both good and bad for your health. In small amounts, it can potentially lower your blood pressure by 2 to 4 mm Hg. But that protective effect is lost if you drink too much alcohol — generally more than one drink a day for women and men older than age 65, or more than two a day for men age 65 and younger. Also, if you don’t normally drink alcohol, you shouldn’t start drinking as a way to lower your blood pressure. There’s more potential harm than benefit to drinking alcohol.
If you drink more than moderate amounts of it, alcohol can actually raise blood pressure by several points. It can also reduce the effectiveness of high blood pressure medications.
Track your drinking patterns. Along with your food diary, keep an alcohol diary to track your true drinking patterns. One drink equals 12 ounces (355 milliliters, or mL) of beer, 5 ounces of wine (148 mL) or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquor (45 mL). If you’re drinking more than the suggested amounts, cut back.
Consider tapering off. If you’re a heavy drinker, suddenly eliminating all alcohol can actually trigger severe high blood pressure for several days. So when you stop drinking, do it with the supervision of your doctor or taper off slowly, over one to two weeks.
Don’t binge. Binge drinking — having four or more drinks in a row — can cause large and sudden increases in blood pressure, in addition to other health problems.
6. AVOID TOBACCO PRODUCTS AND SECONDHAND SMOKE
On top of all the other dangers of smoking, the nicotine in tobacco products can raise your blood pressure by 10 mm Hg or more for up to an hour after you smoke. Smoking throughout the day means your blood pressure may remain constantly high.
You should also avoid secondhand smoke. Inhaling smoke from others also puts you at risk of health problems, including high blood pressure and heart disease.
7. CUT BACK ON CAFFEINE
The role caffeine plays in blood pressure is still debatable. Drinking caffeinated beverages can temporarily cause a spike in your blood pressure, but it’s unclear whether the effect is temporary or long lasting.
To see if caffeine raises your blood pressure, check your pressure within 30 minutes of drinking a cup of coffee or another caffeinated beverage you regularly drink. If your blood pressure increases by five to 10 points, you may be sensitive to the blood pressure raising effects of caffeine.
8. REDUCE YOUR STRESS
Stress or anxiety can temporarily increase blood pressure. Take some time to think about what causes you to feel stressed, such as work, family, finances or illness. Once you know what’s causing your stress, consider how you can eliminate or reduce stress.
If you can’t eliminate all of your stressors, you can at least cope with them in a healthier way. Take breaks for deep-breathing exercises. Get a massage or take up yoga or meditation. If self-help doesn’t work, seek out a professional for counseling.
9. MONITOR YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE AT HOME AND MAKE REGULAR DOCTOR’S APPOINTMENTS
If you have high blood pressure, you may need to monitor your blood pressure at home. Learning to self-monitor your blood pressure with an upper arm monitor can help motivate you. Talk to your doctor about home monitoring before getting started.
imagesRegular visits to your doctor are also likely to become a part of your normal routine. These visits will help keep tabs on your blood pressure.
Have a primary care doctor. People who don’t have a primary care doctor find it harder to control their blood pressure. If you can, visit the same health care facility or professional for all of your health care needs.
Visit your doctor regularly. If your blood pressure isn’t well controlled, or if you have other medical problems, you might need to visit your doctor every month to review your treatment and make adjustments. If your blood pressure is under control, you might need to visit your doctor only every six to 12 months, depending on other conditions you might have.
10. GET SUPPORT FROM FAMILY AND FRIENDS
Supportive family and friends can help improve your health. They may encourage you to take care of yourself, drive you to the doctor’s office or embark on an exercise program with you to keep your blood pressure low. Talk to your family and friends about the dangers of high blood pressure.
If you find you need support beyond your family and friends, consider joining a support group. This may put you in touch with people who can give you an emotional or morale boost and who can offer practical tips to cope with your condition.
SUNBATHING MORE EFFECTIVE THAN DRUGS AT LOWERING HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
A few minutes each day topping up our tan would be a very convenient way of lowering our high blood pressure. Nor would we have the side effects associated with prescription drugs. Is sunbathing more effective than drugs? The popular press’ reaction to the recent publication of research in this field would have us believe so, but is it fact or fiction?
What we are really talking about is Vitamin D deficiency, which, whilst being a far cry from sunbathing is not unrelated to it as our main source of Vitamin D is synthesized by our bodies from sunlight.
High blood pressure and lifestyle choices
When we think about our lifestyles and high blood pressure, we more often than not focus on the effects of our modern ‘Western” diet or as it is also called SAD – Standard American Diet, and our sedentary lifestyles.
Research recently published by academics from the University of South Australia has put the spotlight on how hypertension is affected by other lifestyle choices – keeping out of the sun and the use of UV blockers.
There was a time when having a suntan was considered healthy, but the rise in skin cancers, even in countries with a temperate climate, has changed that perception. There is now a general fear that sunbathing might cause skin cancer and the current advice is to use a strong sunscreen or UV blocker. This has contributed to a general deficiency in Vitamin D.
There are other aspects of our modern lifestyle that have had an effect on our production of Vitamin D. Most notably are our working arrangements.
We drive from home to work and spend the whole day inside. We then drive home again where we might spend a short time outside late in the day if the weather is fine, before spending the rest of the evening indoors. As a result, our bodies get insufficient sunlight to make enough Vitamin D.
The new research suggests that Vitamin D deficiency might be a contributing factor in the hypertension epidemic.
Sunbathing
Sunbathing without using a sunscreen carries the risk of ultra violet radiation damage to the skin. We call this sunburn. That does not mean to say we should not sit out in the sun for a short while and relaxing before moving into the shade. We should, however, move into the shade before there is any reddening of the skin. In this way we also get a double benefit: increased synthesis of Vitamin D; and, a period of relaxation, both of which can lower our high blood pressure.
Having sufficient Vitamin D can lower our high blood pressure. That much is a fact. Is it more effective than prescription drugs? The research is still in its infancy so it is too early to make such a bold claim.
However, the best way of lowering our high blood pressure to normal levels is by having a healthy balanced diet and by taking regular out-door exercise. That way we will ensure a sufficient supply of Vitamin D from sunlight and from our diet.
Can Vitamin D lower high blood pressure?
The research shows that increasing Vitamin D in the blood by 10% lowers high blood pressure and reduces the risk of the condition developing by 8.1%. The best way for us to get sufficient Vitamin D is to spend a little time in the sunlight each day without using a sunscreen.
Killing two hypertension birds with one stone
An effective way of getting sufficient Vitamin D is take some outdoor exercise, such as going for a brisk walk, jogging or cycling in the sunshine but without applying any sunscreen. We know that exercise can lower high blood pressure and that the benefits last for almost 24 hours. Add to that the benefit of increasing Vitamin D in the blood by 10% and your hypertension will be reduced by an even greater amount.
Hypertension Related Articles
Did you know that you can create short urls with BCVC and earn dollars for every click on your shortened links.
ReplyDelete