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Blood pressure is determined by the amount of blood your heart pumps and the amount of resistance to blood flow in your arteries. The more blood your heart pumps and the narrower your arteries, the higher your blood pressure.High blood pressure is also called hypertension. High blood pressure is a blood pressure reading of 140/90 mmHg or higher. Nearly 1 in 3 American adults has high blood pressure. Once high blood pressure develops, it usually lasts a lifetime. Hypertension can be classified as either essential (primary) or secondary. Essential hypertension indicates that no specific medical cause can be found to explain a patient's condition. Secondary hypertension indicates that the high blood pressure is a result of another condition, such as kidney disease or certain tumors.
People with hypertension had greater declines in all three functional measures than those with normal blood pressure. High blood pressure might also be caused by another medical problem. Regardless of race, age, or gender, anyone can develop high blood pressure. At severely high pressures, defined as mean arterial pressures 50% or more above average. Sodium is an environmental factor that has received the greatest attention. Hypertension is one of the most common complex disorders, with genetic heritability averaging 30%. Approximately 60% of the essential hypertension population is responsive to sodium intake. Sleep apnea is a common, under-recognized cause of hypertension. Another claimed cause of hypertension is the misalignment of vertebrae within the spinal column.
Certain medications including birth control pills, cold remedies, decongestants also may cause secondary hypertension. You can control high blood pressure through healthy lifestyle habits and taking medicines. Calcium channel blockers (CCBs) keep calcium from entering the muscle cells of your heart and blood vessels. Nervous system inhibitors relax blood vessels by controlling nerve impulses from the brain. Vasodilators open blood vessels by directly relaxing the muscle in the vessel walls, causing blood pressure to go down. Reducing sodium (salt) diet is proven very effective. Weight reduction and regular aerobic exercise (e.g. jogging) are recommended as the first steps in treating mild to moderate hypertension. Avoid tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking has been shown to lower blood pressure.
High Blood Pressure Treatment and Prevention Tips
1. Beta blockers medications reduce the workload on your heart.
2. Reducing sodium (salt) diet is proven very effective.
3. Nervous system inhibitors relax blood vessels by controlling nerve impulses from the brain.
4. Thiazide diuretics medications act on your kidneys to help your body eliminate sodium and water.
5. Angiotensin II receptor blockers medications help relax blood vessels by blocking the action.
6. Weight reduction and regular aerobic exercise (e.g. jogging) are recommended.
7. Avoid tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking has been shown to lower blood pressure.
According to recent studies about 1 in 3 American adults have high blood pressure. But unfortunately as they rarely show any symptoms about 1/3 of these do not even know that they have it. So where will people like this go to get information on high blood pressure to understand the condition better and find methods to regulate blood pressure levels?
High blood pressure has become known as the "silent killer". Many people do not show any symptoms until the condition has reached a much later stage of development.
In fact the only real way a person can ever tell if they have high blood pressure is by getting a blood pressure reading, generally from a doctor or health professional.
Normally, if a doctor thinks that a patient may have high blood pressure then they may ask them to return to the surgery potentially a few times to have the reading checked again. This is so that an accurate baseline can be established.
There are a number of factors that can temporarily increase blood pressure levels, including stress and anxiety, caffeine, physical activity and posture, and as much as possible temporary fluctuations need to be excluded from a reading to ensure it is accurate.
A good example of this is when someone suffers with "white coat" hypertension, which is when anxiety or stress raises the blood pressure levels above normal when a person visits the doctor's surgery.
Once diagnosed as hypertensive (or pre hypertensive) then, dependent upon the severity of the condition, the doctor may prescribe medication, and lifestyle changes that are designed to help the person bring their blood pressure levels to normal, quickly but safely.
It is believed that about 50% of those that are prescribed medication do not take it as prescribed, they either stop or take it intermittently. This may be a symptom of the high blood pressure not showing any symptoms and the person not realising the risks they are facing by having elevated blood pressure.
Also, not following medication poses the highest risk to a person's condition progressing into malignant hypertension. This is a life threatening condition when the blood pressure rises abnormally and there is a grave risk of major organ problems and failure.
Continue reading to discover natural methods to lower high blood pressure and sign up for our free newsletter.
More natural methods can and should be employed, which can help alleviate high blood pressure for those with essential hypertension, these include:
-Changing diet to restrict the levels of salt/ sodium, reduce the levels of high fat foods and processed foods, increase the levels of fruit and vegetables.
-Take regular exercise, especially cardiovascular exercise
-Learn relaxation techniques to reduce the levels of stress and anxiety you may have in your life
-Reduce the levels of alcohol consumption and stop smoking
-Start to supplement the diet with some of the foods and herbs that have been shown in studies to have a beneficial effect on lowering blood pressure
Information on high blood pressure is available, but be sure that the information is applicable to your situation, and that any methods adopted complement mediation that you may have been prescribed. If in doubt speak to your physician.