High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is not known as the silent killer for nothing. There are no physical indications that you have it, yet it can cause stroke, heart attack, kidney failure and a whole range of other problems and you won’t know until it is too late. That is why it is important to reduce high blood pressure.

Understanding High Blood Pressure

First of all, if you want to take charge of your health then you should get yourself a blood pressure monitor. They are very simple to use, and readily available. This is the one I use. If you have a blood pressure reading lower than 120/80 mm Hg, then your in great shape. No need to take measures to reduce high blood pressure yet. If it is between 120/80 and 139/89 then now is the time to start doing something about it. Start by moderating your diet and exercising more. This should help to reduce high blood pressure. If it is any higher than this, consult your health practitioner because you may need to consider more drastic measures, such a s medication.

Reduce High Blood Pressure: Options

Your best option is to make some lifestyle changes. Some may be difficult, well not so much difficult as challenging! But remember your life could be at stake. The basic changes you need to make include reducing alcohol consumption, consciously choosing what you eat, exercising to loose weight and most importantly, if you are a smoker, QUIT.

In western society we have a tendency to eat a diet that is not very high in vegetables, fruits and whole-grains which means that many diets are low in vitamins and minerals like calcium, potassium, magnesium, B vitamins and vitamin C. All these elements are important to reduce high blood pressure. A good healthy diet will not only reduce high blood pressure but reduce cholesterol as well. Another trait of western society is that we don’t drink enough water. Hydration is important and the average person should drink at least 2 litres of it a day.  Also avoid salty foods, more especially where the salt is just refined sodium chloride. Commercial salt is just sodium chloride, wheras naturally occuring salt such as sea salt contains a whole range of different salts as well as essential minerals. Himalayan rock salt is very good in this respect.

Exercise is also an important part of the lifestyle change if you want to reduce high blood pressure. See if you can incorporate a 2 km walk in the journey to work. Either park the car two kilometres away or take public transport and walk the last couple of ks to work. Use the stairs instead of the lift, take up gardening or any sport where you need to use your body but avoid any form of exercise that will cause you to strain your muscles such as weight lifting. Anything that will cause you to put great tension on your chest muscles and arm muscles and hold your breath will cause a sudden spike in your blood pressure. Not good!

If you are overweight then loose it. Obesity plays a major role in high blood pressure. The other two major risk factors are excessive alcohol and smoking. If you want to reduce high blood pressure them reduce alcohol consumption to one or two drinks a day with at least one day alcohol free per week. Use whatever means you can to stop smoking. Smoking will not only precipitate a plethera of illnesses, including high blood pressure and cancer, but will make any medical operation you have to undergo as a result of illness more difficult and hazardous.

If you don’t have your own blood pressure monitor, then get your doctor or pharmacy to check it regularly. If you discover you have a problem, then you can do something about it.  Awareness and a lifestyle change are the first steps you should use to reduce high blood pressure. If that doesn’t work sufficiently then the next step is medication that you probably will have to take for the rest of your life.

If you are not paying attention to it, hypertension will creep up on you and kill you, or maybe worse cripple you, without any warning. If you are over 40 then make sure you monitor your blood pressure. If you are armed with this knowledge then as soon as you can see a trend to high blood pressure you can take steps to reduce it.

High blood pressure is potentially deadly. If it is detected early enough, though, it’s debilitating effects can be alleviated. Heart attack or stroke can be prevented or at least postponed if a condition of high blood pressure is detected. When it is diagnosed then treatment and lifestyle changes can begin.

The first problem we have with detecting the signs of high blood pressure is that usually there are no signs. That’s why it is often referred to as ‘the silent killer’

If there are no signs that you have high blood pressure then there doesn’t appear to be any reason to do doing anything about finding out. So this is the dilemma. How to diagnose high blood pressure when there are no symptoms. Actually modern science has given us a very easy way, but more of that later.

The Signs Of High Blood Pressure are Vague

Some people may experience signs of high blood pressure but they could be slight and easily attributable to other things.
A headache is a common sign except, of course, the sufferer may just judge it to be ‘just one of those things’ and take a pain killer. Shortness of breath, lightheadedness and vision problems could also be signs of high blood pressure. And they might not. In any case it will do no harm to visit a doctor and get it checked out.

So What If I Have No Signs Of High Blood Pressure?

In general there are no reliable signs of high blood pressure. So what to do? Well most pharmacies and public health offices will do a blood pressure check for you and of course your own doctor should do one on every visit. These days there is a very simple and inexpensive way of keeping an eye on the whole families blood pressure. Your own automatic blood pressure meter. Every first aid kit should have one of these. They are very simple to operate. You simply put the cuff on your arm as described and push the button. The cuff will automatically inflate and then deflate just as the doctor does using the old fashioned sphygmomanometer, and give you reading. Armed with one of these you will have no need to rely on vague or worry about the nonexistent signs of high blood pressure. You can take charge of your own destiny and maybe save yourself from having a heart attack or stroke. Money well spent, I think. As soon as you can see that your blood pressure is a bit high for most of the time go straight to your health practitioner for remedial treatment. As for signs of high blood pressure, you can’t get much clearer.

I have one of these meters.

It will help you detect the signs of high blood pressure.

The inconvenient truth is that no one really knows where high blood pressure comes from. Doctors maintain that mostly it is genetic, but that’s really the same as saying they don’t know. In some cases the cause can be traced to kidney problems but mainly it seems to be a function of advancing years and stressful living. High blood pressure is also known as ‘the silent killer’ for the simple reason that, for most people, there are no symptoms. The only symptoms that are likely to show themselves are when you drop dead from a heart attack or suffer a stroke. Occassionally some symptoms might be apparent in the eyes. (See this article for more details.)

The other inconvenient truth is that, except for those that have regular check ups with their doctors, an enormous number of people have dangerously high blood pressure and don’t know it. This high blood pressure can be resulting in a gradual deterioration of the vascular system and internal organs, eventually leading to death or infirmity.

I know. I had untreated high blood pressure for years. Then one day, with no warning, I narrowly escaped death from a type A aortic dissection, which is usually fatal.(For full gory details read my story.)

An interesting piece of research started in 2007 suggests that one of the causes of high blood pressure could be due to a defect in a protein located in the brain. This defective protein has been shown to cause a blockage in the area of the brain that regulates blood pressure in lab rats. However, for now, we’ll just have to stick with the more conventional view and treatment.

You Can Get High Blood Pressure From Your Kids!

Of course we all know that insanity is heriditory – you get it from your kids! In a similar vein pregnancy can result in high blood pressure. It’s normally known as hypertension of pregnancy. If left untreated it can have dire consequences for mother and baby. Fortunately it is treatable and since most pregnancies are well monitored, a plan of treatment can be put in place to avoid any complications.
As for the high blood pressure caused by the antics of kids after they are born, well you’re on your own with that one. Alcohol is very popular I believe!

Another cause of high blood pressure is simply advancing years. Depending on diet, weight and excercise, plaque may build up on the inside of the main arteries forcing the heart to increase pressure to push the blood through or the walls of the arteries may get stiff and not expand and contract properly. The solution to these problems is sometimes surgery or sometimes medications along with a change in diet and lifestyle. In other words excercise and healthy eating. Be careful with the alcohol as this article explains.

One thing you can do during your forties and fifties is to monitor your own blood pressure. It’s very easy these days with an automated blood pressure meter and they are quite cheap as well as accurate. Personally I would reccomend this one. It’s the one I use. Because of the damage caused to my vascular system I have to monitor my blood pressure closely.

I think every family should have a BP meter as a part of the first aid kit, then if a trend for high blood pressure in any family member is noted, something can be done about it rather than waiting, as I did, for some catastrophic event to take place. High blood pressure is not called ‘the silent killer’ for nothing.