Hypertension And Ways To Manage It
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Hypertension And Ways To Manage It
If you suffer from hypertension, and there is an unknown cause of its appearance, like in 95% of the patients that have this diagnostic, you need to get used to the fact that you will have it for the rest of your life. There is no cure for hypertension, that is obvious, because the exact trigger hasn’t been discovered yet.
Chances of a cure are less than 5% at patients who suffer form secondary hypertension that has a known trigger. In other words from the moment your blood pressure exceeded 140/90 mm Hg , and decides to stay there after repeated determinations, you have to accept the idea that it isn’t going to abandon you. The only solution you have is trying to control day by day.
The easiest way is to swallow pills. It gets harder when you have to take a hand full of them or several times times every day. If you are lucky enough you will find a good cardiologist that will establish a good treatment scheme for you and all your problems are solved. Not quite…All pails have side effects, I bet you knew that.
The hard way is to try, but mostly to succeed in changing your lifestyle , and it’s a must, regardless you suffer or not from high blood pressure. Firstly many patients do not know that losing weight , regular physical exercise, quitting smoking, and low salt diets, will determine a reduction in their blood pressure values. Secondly, foods that contain large quantities of salt, or fats, continue to be a mystery for the majority of patients. Even though they know that a low salt diet is essential for controlling their blood pressure, and even what they should and should not eat, many do not even try to adopt such a diet. By principle. I am not talking here about hypertensive patients that also suffer from diabetes and dyslipidemias. Instead of asking for advice at the nutritionist they eat what they think is good and safe, what they heard from others or seen on TV ,resulting in poorly controlled blood pressure (prolific killer here).
Now here is what you can really do:
Stop Smoking! Cigarettes are harmful. Everywhere.This is not a new thing right? Smoking raises blood pressure, not to mention faster evolving atherosclerosis. The conclusion is simple: if you do not smoke, the blood pressures does not grow and you will end up taking fewer pills. I know it is very hard to achieve but it is worth it. Don’t drink as much as you used to, and when i say do not drink I am not referring to lemonade. Heavy drinking raises the risk of stroke, not to mention the fact that alcohol reduces the efficiency of antihypertensive drugs. 20-30 g of alcohol per day for men and 10-20g of alcohol for women, represents a slightly increased consumption. On the other part a component found in the red wine (Resveratrol) has cardiovascular protective properties only if consumed in civilized amounts.
Lose weight. The idea is to reach a body mass index (BMI) of under 25. Regardless the initial stage of high blood pressure , a decrease in weight of about 5kg lowers the systolic and diastolic blood pressure with 4,4 mm Hg respectively 3,6 mm Hg.
Eat without salt. Between salt consumption and high blood pressure a direct relationship can be established. A normal adult who eats normaly consumes daily 10-12 g of salt. The ideal target for hypertension is under 2,5 g of salt per day, for the rest of your life . 2,5 g of salt per day is very hard to achieve, and that is why the European Guide For Hypertension embraces as a good result, a consumption under 5 g.
Aliments with low fat, no sugar and salt can be found everywhere and if you are interested, surely you can find solutions. Controlling your hypertension will give you many headaches but it is worth it.
The really bad thing is that hypertension does not cause pain, and many hypertensive patients don’t find motivation for controlling it. One day “out from the blue” they may wake up with angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, or strokes and a question is borned : Why did this had to happen? And why haven’t I prevented it?