It seems that everyone over the age of about forty is having issues 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 called hypertension in medical terminology.
Hypertension is a dangerous 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 making a couple of lifestyle alterations. The time to instigate these alterations is as soon as you can, because the alterations are sensible ones, however young bodies can take more abuse than older ones, so it is a good idea to keep an eye on your blood pressure from your mid thirties.
Age and ethnicity are factors in hypertension but there is obviously nothing you can do about that, yet the other factors are beneficial for everybody, because they merely involve living a better lifestyle.
Being overweight is a major factor in producing hypertension. The answer is evident - if you are overweight, lose those surplus pounds. Losing merely ten pounds can reduce your blood pressure significantly.
Being inactive is another key factor in developing hypertension and is obviously 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 in high blood pressure, so this offers another chance to 'double up'.
While 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 instance.
Salt is of course in some foods more than others, so you will have to get some assistance in the beginning, but only 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 canned foods as salt is frequently used to 'pump up the flavour' and preserve cheap ingredients in cans.
Smoking is not good 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 raise hypertension and it is easy to see that they could all be interconnected. It is frequently said that exercise reduces stress and so that may now have a triple benefit. If you suffer from stress, meditation or yoga may help you as well.
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 effect and perhaps keep you off medication for the remainder of your life.
