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Some help with hypertension…
(Blood Pressure is part of the How to… Series by Owen Jones)
It seems that everybody over the age of around forty is having issues with their blood pressure. There is such a thing as having low blood pressure. however, the difficulty sweeping Western society for the last twenty-five to thirty years is high blood pressure, which is also known as hypertension in medical jargon.
Hypertension is a dangerous medical condition which can kill if not treated, but it is frequently an indication of leading a poor lifestyle, so a sufferer can usually avoid hypertension by making a couple of lifestyle alterations. The time to instigate these changes is as soon as you can, because the changes are sensible ones, but young bodies can endure more abuse than older ones, so it is a good idea to keep an eye on your blood pressure from your mid thirties.
Causes of High Blood Pressure
Age and ethnicity are factors in hypertension, and there is obviously nothing you can do about that. However, the other factors are beneficial for everyone, because they just involve living a healthier lifestyle.
Being plump is a major factor in creating high blood pressure. The answer is evident – if you are overweight, lose those surplus pounds. Losing just ten pounds can reduce your blood pressure significantly.
Being inactive is another major factor in developing hypertension and is, of course linked, with being overweight. Therefore, you can kill two birds with one stone by exercising more in order to lose weight. Eating excessive amounts of sodium (table salt) is another factor, so this offers another chance to ‘double up’.
Junk Food
When 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 ask yourself why you ever used salt in the first place.
Salt is naturally present in some foods more than others. Therefore, you will have to get some guidance in the beginning. However, merely not adding any salt or sugar to any of your food or drink is a decent beginning. Eating more fresh fruit and vegetables is another obvious thing to do. Try not to use tinned foods, as salt is often used to ‘pump up the flavour’ and preserve cheap ingredients in tins.
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 problematic lifestyle changes to master, yet you could at least cut down.
Meditation
Stress, fear, anger, worry and sleeplessness are also factors that raise hypertension. It is easy to see that they are all probably interrelated. Exercise reduces stress and so that might now have a triple benefit. If you suffer from stress, meditation or yoga might help you too.
In short, it is possible to do something about your hypertension. Some of the changes are not simple, yet merely doing something on all these fronts will have an impact and perhaps keep you off medication for the remainder of your life.