It appears that everybody over the age of around forty is having problems with their blood pressure. There is such a thing as having low blood pressure but the difficulty sweeping Western society for the last twenty-five to thirty years is high blood pressure, which is also called hypertension in medical jargon.

Hypertension is a dangerous medical condition which can kill if not treated, yet it is frequently an indication of leading a bad 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 changes are sensible ones, but young bodies can take more abuse than older ones, so it is a good concept to keep an eye on your blood pressure from your mid thirties.

Age and ethnicity are factors in hypertension and there is naturally nothing you can do about that, yet the other factors are beneficial for everybody, because they just involve living a better lifestyle.

Being overweight is a major factor in creating hypertension. The answer is obvious – if you are overweight, lose those extra pounds. Losing merely ten pounds can reduce your blood pressure a lot.

Being inactive is another key factor in creating hypertension and is naturally 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 opportunity to ‘double up’.

While you are attempting to lose weight in order to help reduce your hypertension, incorporate reduced-sodium recipes into your cooking habits. 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 place.

Salt is of course in some foods more than others, so you will have to have 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. Strive not to use tinned 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, but it also increases blood pressure and so does drinking too much alcohol on a regular basis. These are difficult lifestyle alterations to master, but you could at least cut down.

Stress, fear, anger, anxiety and sleeplessness are also factors that increase hypertension and it is easy to see that they could all be interconnected. It is often 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 too.

In short, you can to do something about your hypertension. Some of the alterations are not simple, but merely doing something on all these fronts will have an effect and perhaps keep you off medication for the rest of your life.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on several of topics, but is currently involved with work on foods for high blood pressure. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at High Blood Pressure Recipes.

Technorati Tags: aging, Blood Pressure, cooking, Diet, elderly, family, fitness, Health, Heart Disease, Medication, mens issues.womens issues, other, Recipes, self help

If you have been informed that your blood pressure is quite high (that is, that you have hypertension), then what you were actually being told was that your lifestyle is not particularly healthy. This is because, unless your hypertension has come about because of ethnicity, age, sleeplessness or medication, you are doing something wrong in your daily life.

Blood pressure control for most individuals means making lifestyle changes for the better or taking tablets for life. If you have hypertension but you cannot get to see your GP as often as you want, you could always purchase a home blood pressure monitor and keep tabs on your blood pressure yourself.

The best sort to get is an automatic digital monitor with a self-inflating cuff. It should also have a pulse monitor and a number of memories, although you can always use good old-fashioned pen and paper. They are not costly any more and ought to cost between $30 and $100.

Some have a lifetime warranty and are as accurate as your GP’s sphygmomanometer, which is the gold standard of blood pressure monitors. You should take your readings at the same time each day (or two or three times a day at the same times) and make a record of it or them. In this fashion you can compare your progress (or lack of it).

The first thing to do is quit smoking (if you smoke, naturally) and then cut down on excessive drinking sessions, if you do that). Doing that will improve your general health whether you have high blood pressure or not.

The next thing to do is to reduce your weight, if you are overweight by dieting and exercise. If you are not overweight, you will still need to raise your level of exercise and change your diet for the following reasons. Exercise decreases your blood pressure and too much salt (also called sodium) will increase your blood pressure.

So, whichever way you look at it, you will need to exercise more and take on a low-sodium diet. One of the methods of reducing sodium in your diet is by eating fresh fruit and vegetables and stop eating canned and other fast foods, which are stuffed with salt.

These lifestyle alterations are not simple, so if you have to take some of them on board, think about seeking help. For instance, you could use patches to help you stop smoking. You could visit the pub less frequently or just go there later in the evening. You could ask your spouse to go on the diet too or you could join a support group on or off line.

There definitely are plenty of resources out there to help you circumvent hypertension, but if you just cannot be bothered, then nip along to your medical doctor’s and order your first batch or high blood pressure tablets and be sure to make a repeat appointment, because you will be going back and fore for the remainder of your life.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on a number of topics, but is currently involved with work on foods for high blood pressure. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, just go to our website at High Blood Pressure Recipes.

Technorati Tags: aging, Blood Pressure, cooking, Diet, elderly, family, fitness, Health, Heart Disease, Medication, mens issues.womens issues, other, Recipes, self help