Healthy Eating Plan for Blood Pressure



Extremely important to take every step to control or lower your blood pressure. It is important to understand why taking control of blood pressure is good for body and other body organs. The goal is to keep blood pressure reading below or around 120/80. This becomes more important for those people having other medical complications such as diabetes, kidney and heart problems. The first and most important change needed in your life is lifestyle change. The healthy lifestyle changes and medication can bring the level down or help in controlling hypertension.

This is now well known fact that following healthy eating plan helps in reducing the risk of high blood pressure or lowers elevated high blood pressure. The recommended eating plan is DASH. The acronym for DASH is "Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension". The DASH is a lab test and clinical study detailing results of different foods and nutrients in blood. The DASH plan emphasizes more inclusion of vegetables, fruits, low fat diary products, low saturated fat and low in cholesterol. The eating plan also includes whole grain, poultry, fish and recommends reduction in red meat, sweets and alcoholic beverages. This plan also advises to take food in low salt and sodium.

Medications for Blood Pressure

There are many medications for blood pressure. The medications are often given based on individual medical conditions. The blood pressure medications are doctor prescribed and not available on counter. It is advisable to check with your doctor for medication. The list presented here is common medication used in controlling it. Depending on medical condition and elevation of blood pressure, doctor may advise one or combination of blood. This coupled with changes in lifestyle will help in lowering already elevated or helps in controlling hypertension, another name for high blood pressure.

1. Diuretics - also known as water pills, removes excess water and sodium from body.

2. Beta-blockers - reduce nerve impulses to the heart and blood vessels.

3. ACE inhibitors - prevent the formation of a hormone called angiotensin II, which normally causes blood vessels to narrow.

4. Angiotensin antagonists - shield blood vessels from angiotensin II

5. Calcium channel blockers (CCBs) - Stops calcium from entering the muscle cells of the heart and blood vessels.

6. Vasodilators - Helps in opening blood vessels by relaxing the muscle in the vessel walls.

7. Nervous system inhibitors - relax blood vessels by controlling nerve impulses.

High Blood Pressure and Exercise

It is important to know how small changes in your daily routine can make a big difference in your life. We get everyday older and the risk of high blood pressure increases as we age in life. Daily 30 minutes of exercise will reduce risk of it or will help in reducing already elevated blood pressure.

Wondering - How Exercise helps

By doing exercise daily helps in building strong, so is heart. The stronger body can lift weight with little excretion; similarly stronger heart will pump more blood into arteries with minimum effort. With less pressure on heart and little force to pump it in arteries reduces pressure on blood vessels.

Anyway doing exercise is helpful to body, Even though you are healthy it still can help in stopping blood pressure to rise. As age advances our physical activities start decreasing thus it is becomes more important to do minimum 30 minutes of exercise. Start with stretching, walking, dog walking, swimming or running. If you are stating exercise after long gap, start with 10 minutes daily and keep increasing to minimum 30 minutes. Take extra cautious in doing exercise, you don't want to break and injured yourself. The best option will be to contact your doctor who can advise you for lifestyle changes, medication and can guide for suitable exercise for your age.