High blood pressure, or hypertension, is one disease where your bad habits can really make you sorry. Except in cases where aging or genetics are the cause, people with high blood pressure usually have no one to blame but themselves. For ages, doctors have been preaching about leading a healthier lifestyle, yet Americans, including children, grow unrelentingly fatter every year. Obese, of course, is the PC term for it, but call it what you will, it is claiming Americans by the millions.
We have been warned-repeatedly. There are so many bad behaviors underlying high blood pressure, yet Americans seem unable to give them up until disaster strikes. We demand our cigarettes, caffeine, alcohol, salty snacks, and fast food. We would much rather sit on our sofas, pop potato chips and candy, and watch other people exercise on Biggest Loser. We run here and there, work way too many hours at stressful jobs, and struggle to keep things clicking at home. Then we have the nerve to be surprised when our hearts give up.
As there are no symptoms to high blood pressure, it has earned the sinister name "the silent killer." It is in every person's best interest to have regular blood pressure checks. High blood pressure can be regulated if you are aware you have it. For some, drastic lifestyle changes in the areas mentioned above can lower blood pressure. Regular aerobic exercise, for example, is a dependable way to lower your heart rate and extend your life. Many people may fail to achieve results without medication or some kind of supplements. One thing is certain, this is not something you want to ignore.
With one in three Americans living with high blood pressure, one third of them unaware, it pays to be safe. Do not wait until you are hospitalized for a heart attack to learn you suffer from this killer. It is horrifying to know you have high blood pressure, but it is scarier NOT to be diagnosed. In this day of modern technology, you need not be a statistic.
How many times have we said to ourselves "I'm going to go on that diet and I'm going to lose the extra few pounds or so" only to fail dismally and find ourselves even more depressed and quite often worse off than we were when we started out.
The trouble is that quite often we set ourselves totally unrealistic targets and then wonder why we continually fail to hit them. The answer to this cycle of boom-bust personal healthcare management is to be slightly smarter at the outset and not set our goals too high.
Now this is not to countenance mediocrity and appeasement with regards to personal health matters rather it is an attempt to create an environment where we can be more honest with ourselves and at the end of the day accomplish more of what we set out to do at the very start.
I make this comment as somebody who can talk about this matter with a fair amount of experience. In my own personal case it was after being diagnosed or being told that I suffered from malignant hypertension and if I didn't start to take better care of myself sooner rather than later then I would have to confine myself having to rely on some fairly serious and powerful drugs for the rest of my life and all that entailed.
I had to make the lifestyle changes and looking back after some five years some of them turned out to be fairly drastic ones but at least some five years later those lifestyle changes have started to develop a routine of their own.
It wasn't easy and I wouldn't want to start by saying that it was but in my case I started small and built gradually. Going back to the maxim "success by the yard is hard", some of the lifestyle changes took several years to accomplish while some of them took several weeks.
The important thing is that at all times stay focused on the big picture and expect that in some cases that for every two steps forward you take, you wind up taking one step backward. In my case my initial blood pressure reading was 216/160 (the generally accepted target level should be 120/80) and so I fell fairly and squarely into the middle of the bracket entitled "Malignant Hypertension".
Here we are five years later and as a result of an entire campaign of lifestyle changes some bigger than others and conversely some smaller than others I now find myself with that ideal blood pressure reading of 116/76.
As I said some lifestyle changes were easier to accomplish than others but in all cases the end result has been worth it.
So the message of all of this has to be if you are confronted by necessity of a situation where you have to make lifestyle changes then plan your changes across the board and if necessary start slowly and build up.
Both Fabian Toulouse & Stephen Morgan are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Fabian Toulouse has sinced written about articles on various topics from Recreation and Sports, Motorola Cell Phone and Health. Go to RealFoodNutrients.com to learn more about .. Fabian Toulouse's top article generates over 673000 views. to your Favourites.
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