Lifestyle And Blood Pressure - What You Can Do

High blood pressure is associated with an increased risk of stroke. If you have a history of stroke or heart disease in your family, or other risk factors of heart disease you need to keep an eye on your blood pressure.

High blood pressure may be completely symptomless – you don’t know you have it unless you have your blood pressure measured. It is important to treat high blood pressure even if you feel well.

High blood pressure medication is not without risks or side-effects. Your doctor will assess the risk/benefit of any medication you are prescribed, but if you have just been diagnosed with mild hypertension (high blood pressure) you may respond well to a natural treatment strategy. If you are under fifty, for example, and have high blood pressure you will, if you go on medication, be taking drugs for another forty years or so. That’s a lot of medication, so it’s worth making a few lifestyle changes to reduce the need for drug treatment. Blood pressure is a condition you can do something about.

What can you do about it?

1. Exercise (check with your doctor before starting an exercise regime). If you haven’t exercised for a while you should start slowly. You may feel your exercise attempts won’t make a difference, but even moderate exercise works if you do it regularly.

2. Eat the DASH(1) diet – chicken, oily fish, wholegrains, fruits, vegetables and low fat dairy produce. This should be the major portion of your diet. Fill your plate with these foods first, before you add other foods – you may find that these foods are so filling and tasty that you don’t want to eat anything else. This healthy diet will go a long way towards lowering your blood pressure.

3. Reduce or remove caffeine (coffee, tea, cola drinks) from your diet. Caffeine is a stimulant that will not help your blood pressure.

4. Reduce or remove alcohol from your diet. A small amount of alcohol seems to lower blood pressure – this is about 120ml/3-4 fluid ounces per day, not very much. If you can drink only this small amount then alcohol is fine. If you find you want to drink more, best avoid it altogether because a small excess of alcohol increases blood pressure.

5. Relax. Chilling out and de-stressing is a good way to control blood pressure. Easier said than done, but it’s worth finding a relaxation tape you like or some relaxing music and listening to it daily. Relaxation induces slow, deep breathing and this changes the hormone profile in the body. These biochemical changes lower blood pressure.

6. Lose weight. If you are overweight this alone can put up blood pressure, as the heart has to pump blood to a lot more tissue. The DASH diet and some exercise should take you a long way towards weight loss and after a few weeks you’ll have shed pounds and look healthier and fitter.

All of these changes will lower blood pressure by a small amount. By changing your diet, exercising and learning to relax the cumulative effect on blood pressure can allow you to avoid or reduce medication. So it’s well worthwhile making these changes to your life.