Over 90% of people will develop hypertension at one point or the other in their lives. Known as the silent killer, and it has to do with increased blood pressure. So today, I want to discuss hypertension and how you can lower your blood pressure to prevent the silent killer from sending you to your early grave.
Similar to water in a hose, blood in our blood vessels need to push against the wall our vessels but the pressure of blood in the vessel can change like when it increases to 120mmHg when the heart contracts known as systolic blood pressure and decreases to 80mmHg when the heart relaxes known as diastolic blood pressure. This pressure against the walls of the blood vessel can be damaging over a long time.
Conditions such as heart attack and stroke have about 50% of its cause by hypertension but how do we even control our blood preasure so we do not become victims of heart attack or stroke? The first is to look at diet.
In our health generally, diet plays a major role in helping us to maintain it and when it comes to hypertension, a diet that has been proven to remove up to six point is the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension. This has to do with eating more whole food, lean protein, less salt, and less processed food.
Doctors usually emphasize on lowering sodium intake daily to about 2000MG or 2G per day. If a person intends to look into this thoroughly, then they need to look into processed foods and foods prepared outside is important as 80% of salt comes from these food.
Asides from reducing sodium, other elements are important. Food rich in potassium should also be promoted. Sodium and potassium do aost opposite functions where sodium stiffens blood vessels, potassium releases the blood vessels. They also help the kidney to release too much sodium in the body. Ao eating food like banana, spinach, sweet potatoes, and oranges do a lot of good for your body than you think.
Asides food, there are better ways of reducing blood pressure by up to 8 points as well and exercise is one of them. Amongst the exercise, isometric exercise is one of the best in reducing this. Exercises like wall squatting and planks are very great at reducing blood pressure and this doesn’t mean that all exercises wouldn’t help reduce blood pressure because they will help. Although exercise is a great way to reduce blood pressure, sleeping is an absolute treatment to reduce blood pressure, so always find sleep when needed.
When you do exercise, you are certinly going to lose weight which is a great tool for reducing blood pressure. About a KG of weight loss to help reduce blood pressure by up to 1mmHg. If you are someone like my friend who like to take buzz a lot, then you are not helping yourself at all. Alcohol although makes you feel relaxed, it increases your blood pressure. Also, smoking is another thing that increases blood pressure as well as damages the inner lining of the blood vessels.
Acute stress has been shown to cause an increase in blood pressure but with chronic stress, researches are still not clear and are ongoing. So it is important to let go of stress in all forms as it alleviates blood pressure and it is not good for your health.
Preventing is better than cure and this is where these activities come in. Your doctor will likely ask you to do these things but it is important to visit the hospital if you have any medical issues and let your doctor tell you what you need to use and how to be treated.
Reference.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4624627/
https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/high-blood-pressure/changes
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/food-types/salt-in-your-diet/
https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/high-blood-pressure/changes-you
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3694268/
https://www.bloodpressureuk.org/your-blood-pressure
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4038773/
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.124.22703