How to Deal with a Blood Pressure Pregnancy

Problems with blood pressure pregnancy can expose the mother and the fetus to several complications. High blood pressure is a serious and life threatening condition and in the U.S., between 6% and 8% of all women have blood pressure problems during pregnancy.

Some women are at a greater risk of getting high blood pressure while pregnant than others.this problem can occur especially:

• if you are under 20 or over 40,
• if you were obese before the pregnancy,
• if you are carrying more than one baby,
• if you have conditions that cause high blood pressure such as lupus and kidney ailments
• if you had chronic hypertension before the pregnancy.

That’s not to say that there will be problem if you are in a risk group. Many of the women who have babies while suffering from high blood pressure deliver healthy babies.
You should start controlling your high blood pressure the moment you decide you want to have a baby.
Most of the measures taken to control of blood pressure are also important in preventing and curing other conditions diabetes, for example.

The usual way of controlling high blood pressure is with medication, however, you should talk to your medical practitioner before you become pregnant because some medications are unsafe for pregnancies.
You can also stabilize high blood pressure by exercising to reduce your weight or by taking natural medications or with diet.

Note that all methods used to control high blood pressure before the pregnancy are also used to control the blood pressure while pregnant and to prevent high blood pressure in the first place.
Dieting is an important factor in controlling high blood pressure before and after the pregnancy. The diet should be low in sodium – most of the sodium we consume is found in table salt. You should avoid processed foods and instead go for whole grains. Avoid alcohol, tobacco, saturated fats and eat plenty of vegetables and fruits.

There are also many herbal preparations that can assist in reducing blood pressure.

Some women get preeclampsia in the 20th week of the pregnancy or thereabouts and this will usually lead to gestational hypertension in women who were healthy before the pregnancy. Gestational hypertension can be controlled just like the high blood pressure that was evident before the pregnancy.

Even though you are controlling high blood pressure, be on the lookout for low blood pressure.
This will help you better manage the condition.
You should always have a blood pressure monitor to keep track of your BP and to avoid constant visits to your doctor.
Knowing your blood pressure is important for a healthy pregnancy and indeed for a healthy life.

Prevent Hypertension

The best way to prevent hypertension (high blood pressure) is to maintain a healthy weight, don’t smoke and do eat sensibly. Eat plenty of vegetables and fruit and in spite of what the dairy industry may tell you, dairy is not an essential food group and should be avoided because of the fat content. Foods low in sodium chloride, (processed salt) are best. The body does require some salt but it should be sea salt or similar that is balanced with other minerals. Alcohol is is slightly contentious. Many doctors recommend a small amount, say a couple of standard drinks a day because at that level it can act as a relaxant. Any more that it can actually cause a rise in blood pressure so some doctors would say don’t touch it.

Here are some steps you can take to help prevent hypertension

1. Get into a healthy eating pattern. Research has shown that getting into to a healthy eating pattern reduces the risk of getting high blood pressure and can help in lowering a preexisting high blood pressure.
2. Although the body does require some salt to function, the western diet has far too much in it. Be aware of how much salt you take in especially in processed foods. Eat unprocessed foods and use salt in the form of sea salt or similar that is not just sodium chloride and contains other natural minerals and salts. Not consuming excess salt  will help control high blood pressure.
3.  Obesity will result in high blood pressure (hypertension). As soon as body weight increases, so does blood pressure. Just losing 10 pounds (4.5 kilos) will decrease the blood pressure of an overweight hypertensive person.
4. Become physically active. A sedentary lifestyle will tend to result in increased blood pressure. Just walking 4 or 5 kilometers (2.5 miles) a day would be a big help.
5. Alcohol intake, as I said before, can be a contentious issue. Just one or two glasses of wine, or equivalent, per day can help relaxation some medical practitioners say. On the other hand any thing more than that on a regular basis will cause stress to the kidneys and liver as well as damage to the brain. Also remember that alcoholic drinks contain calories and so will tend to increase your weight. Step 5 then is to drink in moderation, two drinks a day for men and one for women.
6. Smoking is disastrous to health. It damages the walls of the blood vessels and promotes hardening of the arteries. Hardened inflexible arteries increases blood pressure. Apart from high blood pressure, smoking causes a whole variety of cancers in the lungs, mouth, throat, pancreas, this list goes on and on. Step 6 is simple DON’T SMOKE!

Hypertension (high blood pressure) is one of the major killers today. There are no symptoms. Unless you monitor you blood pressure you won’t know you have it. It will kill you silently with no warning.

To sum up, don’t smoke, eat properly, excercise and drink in moderation. If you do this you are well on your way to prevent hypertension.

Oh .. and get a blood pressure monitor. They’re inexpensive and very easy to use.

Go on a Diet for High Blood Pressure

There are many ways of controlling high blood pressure and for preventing it, medical and natural. But going on a diet for high blood pressure in conjunction with exercise is the preferred method.

Dieting is important because unlike medication, there is no risk of side effects.

Medicines are made from synthetic substances and since our bodies are designed to ingest organic substances only, side effects are inevitable.

Dieting gives permanent results while some medicines do not. Dieting also solves other health problems associated with being overweight and obese such as diabetes. Another advantage of dieting to control and prevent high blood pressure is that it is inexpensive, but for the best results, you should combine different approaches.

To prevent or control high blood pressure, you should eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables for their vitamins.

Your diet should be rich in vitamins and so you should eat fresh fruits and veggies of different colors.

Fish is high in protein and other nutrients, it is low in saturated fats and it is high in omega-3 fatty acids, making it the best animal product to control and prevent high blood pressure.
You should drink celery juice since it has several anti-inflammatory agents, flaxseed oil since it is also rich in omega-3, olive oil since it is proven to combat high and low blood pressure and cucumber, which hydrates the arteries.

Ensure that the food you take is cholesterol free.
Develop the habit of checking the packaging for the ingredients when buying food.

Make sure your diet is rich in potassium and only eat whole grains. Other foods that can help with high blood pressure are green tea and honey.

Just as important as knowing the foods you should eat to control high blood pressure or to prevent it, is knowing the foods you should avoid. You should reduce alcohol consumption if you are at risk and you should avoid alcohol altogether if you have high blood pressure.

Equally dangerous is high amounts of sodium, found in large quantities in table salt, because it directly raises the blood pressure and causes damage to the heart.

You should avoid the consumption of saturated fats such as trans-fats since they clog the blood vessels, meaning they not only make your high blood pressure worse, they also cause other cardiovascular ailments.

Caffeine stimulates the gland responsible for the release of adrenaline and cortisol and blocks the effect of the hormone responsible for the widening of blood vessels, thereby leading to high blood pressure.

You should avoid refined sugars as they are converted into fat and these fats clog your heart and your blood vessels.

By being conscious of your diet and eating and drinking the right things you should be able to stabilise and control your high blood pressure.

Going on a diet for high blood pressure can be very effective.