Preventing high blood pressure is highly important as elevated blood pressure can result in many more serious ailments. High blood pressure has been associated with your genetics, diet and lifestyle. The best way to keep your blood pressure at a healthy level is to live a healthy lifestyle and exercise on a regular basis. It is also important to keep the heart in shape.
The key technique for successful high blood pressure treatment is to modify your diet. There are a few diets or eating plans that have been developed specifically to decrease blood pressure as many foods can cause high blood pressure. One of these diets, called DASH, focuses on eating low fat foods, low cholesterol foods, fruits, vegetables and low fat dairy products. Whole grains, fish, nuts and poultry are all recommended sources of protein.
Another diet specifically designed for preventing high blood pressure is the DASH-sodium diet. This diet limits the amount of sodium you eat on a daily basis as sodium is directly associated with high blood pressure. This diet allows just 1,500 mg of salt on a daily basis, which can decrease your blood pressure significantly.
It is also known that being obese will raise your risk of hypertension. Losing as little as ten pounds is an effective way of preventing hypertension. Being obese also increases your risk of heart disease and developing cholesterol problems and diabetes. So it is in your best interests to lose even just ten pounds.
Other than losing weight, you also want to get regular physical activity, as the more you work out the lower your resting heart rate will be when you are not exercising. You don’t have to go all out; just start moderately. Simply walking 30 minutes a day is enough to help lower your blood pressure though it is recommended that you do different things to keep it interesting. Physical activity also helps you when looking to lose weight.
Alcohol consumption is also associated with blood pressure. You want to have just one drink a day to keep your high blood pressure under control. One drink is the same as 5 ounces of wine, 1.5 ounces of liquor and 12 ounces of beer. Men can have up to 2 drinks in a day and women up to 1 drink a day. If you are also trying to lose weight to decrease your blood pressure, then excessive alcohol consumption can make this challenging.
Smoking also causes high blood pressure and if you’re a smoker then you should quit in order to prevent high blood pressure. You can bring your blood pressure back to normal in a year merely by quitting smoking.
Hypertension and high blood pressure are two names for the same condition. Due to our sedentary lives and easy access to junk food, the problem is escalating. And if left unchecked, it can lead to heart disease. Learn more about treatment for high blood pressure at the High Blood Pressure Control site.
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Tags: Hypertension