Are you physically active but not living a healthy lifestyle? If your answer is ‘YES’ then, you are more likely to acquire high blood pressure or hypertension. This is a common health condition where the long-term blood force against the artery walls is quite high that it can result in health problems like heart failure and kidney disease, to name a couple.
Since many people worldwide consider this as a common ailment, hypertension is more often than not, ignored, or taken for granted. It is vital that you know the signs and symptoms of this sickness. You need to know the risk factors, too, so you can do what is necessary so as not to elevate blood pressure.
Bur first, you must learn what high blood pressure is, and its causes. And when you’re familiar with it already, it’s time to know how you can prevent your blood pressure from rising. Knowing more about high blood pressure also means knowing what food to eat and avoid
Understanding Hypertension
Aside from it, being another term for high blood pressure, hypertension can result in severe complications and increases the risk of hypertensive crisis. Medical experts consider this sickness as a global concern. And, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the increased consumption of processed food has affected the amount of salt in every diet globally. This then plays a vital role in high blood pressure.
You’ll know from the blood pressure checks or blood pressure readings that normal that the normal pressure of blood is 120 over mmHg or mm of mercury. The pressure is dependent on the work which the heart does. It also depends on the resistance coming from the blood vessels.
Severe cases of hypertension include failure in managing stress. More so, it can also be a result of an underlying medical condition like kidney disease for one. If this happens, it is ideal to consult with a doctor for further treatments and medications.
If you are unable to manage hypertension, it might lead to much more serious complications like stroke and heart attack. The best way, however, to deal with high blood pressure is a lifestyle change, for someone who’s not living a healthy life. You might want to start with the DASH Diet to address hypertension. This is a diet plan designed especially for people with high blood pressure.
DASH Diet for Lower Blood Pressure
The term hypertension may no longer be new to you. But Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension or DASH, though a lot of people already practice this, is something you may not have been familiar with yet. This type of high blood diet plan is ideal for the lowering of blood pressure sans all the medications.
With this diet program, you are encouraged to reduce sodium in your food. One should eat foods in variety, as well, when he is doing the Dash diet. This variety includes nutritious foods rich in magnesium and calcium that the help pump the blood for normal pressure.
Causes of hypertension Depending on its Type
The causes of high blood pressure vary according to the type of hypertension an individual has. There are two types of this ailment: primary or essential hypertension and secondary hypertension. For essential high blood pressure among adults, there is no determining cause of this common sickness. It just tends to progress over the years gradually.
For secondary Hypertension, causes can be some underlying conditions such as:
- Thyroid problems
- Kidney problems
- Disruptive sleep apnea
- Some congenital disabilities in the blood vessels
- Side effects of certain medicines such as decongestants, birth control pills, some subscription medicines, and over-the-counter pain relievers, among others
Risk Factors that may lead to acquiring the sickness
Since high blood pressure is a common illness, anyone, regardless of age and gender, has a significant chance of acquiring it. This is due to several factors, such as:
- Age – Even though hypertension chooses no age, most the people who have it are those whose age is 64 years old among men and 65 in women.
- Family history – This illness usually tends to run in the family.
- Obesity – The more you gain weight, all the more chances of acquiring the ailment.
- Physically inactive – If you are consistently inactive, you have a bigger chance of having hypertension.
- Frequent use of cigarette or tobacco – smoking or tobacco chewing temporarily increases the blood pressure. Even secondhand smoke can increase the risk of having heart disease.
- Excessive sodium in food – Too much salt in every meal can result in retention of fluid, and this can increase blood pressure.
- Stress – This is one of the main reasons why a person is suffering from high blood pressure.
How to treat the ailment or prevent it from occurring
Lifestyle and diet are the two main factors that lead to high blood pressure. However, there are more ways to treat the illness or preempt it from taking place. These remedies need not require too many physical activities. There is no need to spend extra to stop hypertension.
There are different types of medicines to address this illness. One of the most common is Diuretics that help the body remove the excess salt and water. It helps control the blood pressure, too. These medicines are frequently used to combine with the other added prescription therapies.
Some patients take the beta-blockers help in reducing heart rate, the workload of the heart, as well as the heart’s blood output, which is lowering the blood pressure.
Here are natural ways to prevent hypertension:
- Exercise regularly – Health and fitness experts recommend that there should be at least 150 minutes each week, of moderate workout, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week.
- Avoid stress – If you avoid stress, or at least reduce it, it will help you control your blood pressure
- Take blood pressure medications – Hypertension patients with reading that’s higher than 130 over 80 may take medicine and treat the illness.
- Drink less alcohol – Alcohol drinking can lead to increased blood pressure. That is why research studies suggest that a low-to-moderate amount of alcohol may safeguard the heart.
- Lessen the caffeine or coffee consumption – If you are a coffee drinker who drinks the hot beverage more than twice, now is the best time to change that attitude. It’s a common knowledge that caffeine may result in instant boost.
- Eat dark chocolates – Even though this eating chocolate is part of the recommendation, you should do this in moderation. Don’t overeat of this because dark chocolates, as well as cocoa powder, are rich in flavonoids that cause the blood vessels to dilate.
- Lose a lot of weight – By doing so, you can make a difference for your health. In a 2016 study, it is indicated that around 5% of the body mass can remarkably lower blood pressure.
