Why Do We Develop High Blood Pressure?

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 serious medical condition which can kill if not treated, but it is often an indication of leading a poor lifestyle, so a sufferer can usually avoid hypertension by introducing a couple of lifestyle changes. The time to implement these alterations is as soon as you can, because the alterations are sensible ones, but young bodies can endure 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, but the other factors are beneficial for everybody, because they merely involve living a healthier lifestyle.

Being overweight is a major factor in producing hypertension. The answer is evident – if you are overweight, lose those surplus pounds. Losing just ten pounds can reduce your blood pressure significantly.

Being inactive is another key factor in developing 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 too much sodium (table salt) is another factor in high blood pressure, so this offers another opportunity to ‘double up’.

While you are trying to lose weight in order to help reduce your hypertension, incorporate reduced-sodium recipes into your cooking habits. There are plenty of low-sodium or low-salt recipes on the Net and once you have been eating low-sodium for a week or ten days you will ask yourself why you ever used salt in the first place.

Salt is naturally present in some foods more than others, so you will have to have some guidance in the beginning, but merely not adding any salt or sugar to any of your food or drink is a good 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 bad for you. We all know that, however it also increases blood pressure and so does drinking too much alcohol on a frequent basis. These are problematic lifestyle alterations to master, yet you could at least cut down.

Stress, fear, anger, anxiety and sleeplessness are also factors that increase hypertension and it is simple to see that they could all be interrelated. It is frequently said that exercise reduces stress and so that might now have a triple benefit. If you suffer from stress, meditation or yoga might help you as well.

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

Owen Jones, the author of this article 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, please go to our site at High Blood Pressure Recipes.