Being diagnosed with hypertension can be downright scary. After all, this health issue can lead to many life threatening conditions like stroke, heart attack, and kidney failure. In 90% of cases, doctors don't now what the causes are, although several lifestyle factors come into play as does family history. Faced with facts like these, its no wonder that doctors are anxious to get people on the powerful medications they use to try and control it. That is an unappealing reality for most people.But it turns out that in many cases, lowering blood pressure is easier than you might think. You just have to know some of the tricks your doctor may not be telling you about. In this article we're going to cover five simple strategies you can use to control the condition-without medication. First, even though doctors can't pinpoint a specific cause of high blood pressure in a given individual, what are some of the causes of this problem that we do know about? These include:
* Family history
* Age
* Race
* Weight
* Level of physical activity
* Salt sensitivity
Some things, like family history and race, we don't have any control over. African Americans are at higher risk than other races. And what about age? As we get older, all of us are at higher risk for developing the condition.
That being said things like family history, age, and race only set the parameters, they don't act as guarantees. That is certain things in your background might make you more likely to get high blood pressure, but that doesn't mean you're condemned to get it or destined to suffer from it forever if you have it now. This is because blood pressure is strongly influenced by many environmental factors. These include stress levels, diet, and exercise. By focusing on things you can control, its possible to get your readings down to normal levels. With that in mind, here are five strategies anyone can use to deal with high blood pressure.
1. Resparate
In what might be called a dramatic medical breakthrough, a company called Intercure has invented a device called Resparate that teaches deep breathing techniques. To see how this might work, think about the "fight or flight" response of the human body. If the body is pumped up and ready for action-ready to run away or turn and fight-you're body is pumping adrenaline into your veins and one of the effects of this is contraction of the blood vessels. In our day to day lives, constant stress has us wound up like this all the time and constant stress can contribute to high blood pressure. But what about the opposite? Proper relaxation-which is the opposite of fight or flight-ought to be able to relax the blood vessels and lower blood pressure. You can try doing this on your own using meditation or deep breathing, but the genius of Resparate is that the device actually trains you to do this in just the right way in 15 minute sessions. The device is FDA approved for blood pressure reduction and results obtained in clinical studies have been dramatic. The top 10% of patients were able to lower the average readings from 160/96 to 124/76. That's probably as good as any medication can do-but this is all without drugs.
2. Eat Lots of Fruit
Another way you can lower your blood pressure naturally is by consuming large amounts of fruit. In particular, you might want to choose oranges and bananas, although apples, cantalope, and peaches are good to include too. The reason that eating fruit helps is that fruit contains a nutrient called potassium which is known to reduce blood pressure. In fact some have theorized that a diet deficient in potassium is the cause of high blood pressure for many people. How hard is eating fruit every day? Many people don't think to do enough of it, but if you plan for it and get 5 servings every day, you might be able to really help lower your readings without much effort. Start with a daily glass of orange juice in the morning. In some patients, its possible to reduce blood pressure by as many as 14 mm Hg with the right balanced diet that is rich in potassium.
3. Take a 30 Minute Walk
You hear it over and over again from doctors-exercise. In the case of high blood pressure, exercise is a vital tool you can use to help reduce blood pressure. The easiest and most effective way to introduce exercise into your daily routine is with a 30 minute walk. Studies have shown you can reduce blood pressure by 4-9 mm Hg just by doing this. If you're ambitious and really want to impact health, challenge yourself by spending 15 minutes a day walking stairs or hiking in the mountains.
4. Lose Weight
In many cases, being overweight-and it might just be 10-15 pounds we aren't necessarily talking obese here-can be a huge factor in blood pressure readings. Just by dropping those unwanted pounds you may be able to reduce your hypertension by as many as 20 mm Hg.
5. Moderate Salt Intake
Potassium lowers blood pressure, and its nemesis is sodium, which raises it. Now for the body to function normally we need a certain amount of salt, the problem is most of us are getting between 10-20 times as much as we really need. About 25% of the population is "salt sensitive" meaning that consuming all that extra salt leads to high blood pressure. By controlling your salt intake, you might lower your blood pressure around 5-8 mm Hg.
By: David McMohan
No comments:
Post a Comment