Tuesday, September 16, 2008

10 Simple ways to reduce blood pressure

Lowering your blood pressure & avoiding the organ damage that high blood pressure can cause is'nt difficult.You can do so many things to lower your blood pressure.You can consider your blood pressure to be under control if your measurement is 140/90 mm Hg or lower.

The lower you get your blood pressure, assuming you dont have dizziness, the better off you are.Dont smirk just because your blood pressure is 138/88mm Hg.You would be better off with a blood pressure of135/85 mm Hg or even better,130/80 mm Hg



Making sure you have high blood pressure : Step one for reducing your blood pressure is to be certain that your blood pressure is persistently elevated. Blood pressure measurements can vary so that a single high reading is not acceptable for a diagnosis of high blood pressure.It should be confirmed with additional readings several weeks apart.

Make sure your doctor is measuring your BP properly.Numerous aspects of a BP measurement can affect the accuracy of the reading as well.

Determining if you have secondary high blood pressure : A patient is more likely to have secondary high BP if her high BP develops suddenly in childhood or past the age of 50 or if she is resistant to treatment with drugs.Changes in the shape and pigmentation of the body suggest that high BP is associated with another disease.Also high BP tends to run in families.Thus the doctor should have a specific diagnosis in mind and then do the tests for the diagnosis.

Giving up tobacco and excess alcohol : Both tobacco and alcohol raise blood pressure.Tobacco in any form whether smoked, chewed or snuffed does this. Drinking excessive amount of alcohol, i.e more than 2 glasses of wine for a man or a glass of wine for a woman every night, raises BP.

Reducing salt in your diet : So you do have high BP overall, and you want to bring it under control because you are aware of the damage that itr can do to your body.The easiest change you can make is to take as much salt out of your diet as possible.

Starting an exercise program :If you dont want to lose weight or curb your salt intake you can still lower your BP with exercise. But have to choosean exerciseprogram that you can stick to.Make up a program that starts slow for short distances and builds up until you're doing 45 minutes of exercise three or four times a week. This sounds like a walking or jogging program and that's works best for most people. A walking or jogging program is certainly an attainable goal, but you still have to make yourself do it.

Adopting the DASH Diet : You can lower your BP by the same amount as one of the good drugs of high BP can. DASH Diet requires you to eat a mix of grains, fruits and vegetables and low fat or non fat dairy products, while you reduce the intake of high fat dairy products.The diet also encourages a weekly ration of nuts & seeds.When the program is followed properly, the results are remarkable.People with the highest BP seem to benefit the most. One of the best features of the DASH Diet is that the recommended foods are the ones you eat each day. Combining DASH with a reduction in salt can double the lowering effects on your high BP.If you follow the DASH Diet salt reduction takes place automatically.Thus DASH contains foods that you usually prepare

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