How To Treat High Or Low Blood Pressure

High Blood Pressure Treatment

As you probably already know – Blood pressure is the force of the blood pushing against the walls of the arteries. Each time the heart beats (about 50-60 times a minute at rest), it pumps out blood into the arteries.

Your blood pressure is at its highest when the heart beats, pumping the blood. This is called systolic pressure. When the heart is at rest, between beats, your blood pressure falls. This is the diastolic pressure.

No doubt, there are number of treatments and medicines available for the treatment of high blood pressure. But as it is said, “Precaution is better than cure”.  So, we must consider this saying and follow the recommended rules in order to prevent the high blood pressure.

Blood pressure is often directly proportional to body weight. This means that if your weight increases your blood pressure also rises. Overweight people have an increased risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and other illnesses. Losing weight helps reduce this risk.

Even if you don’t have high or low blood pressure problems due to being overweight, a healthy weight can help you feel active and lower your risk of blood pressure and other diseases.

It’s not just how much you weigh that’s important: It also matters where your body stores extra fat. Just like the other things your body shape is also inherited from your parents. Some people are “Apple-shaped” – they have extra fat at the waist while others are “pear shaped” having more fat at their hips and thighs. The former have higher health risks than the later.

Anyway, wherever that extra weight is stored you can still begin to manage weightloss and control your blood pressure. Even if you are already suffering from high blood pressure losing weight will help to bring your blood pressure back to normal.

But losing weight is no easy task. To loose weight, you should use up more calories than you eat. You need to use up the day’s calories and some of the calories stored in your body fat. Eating 300 to 500 calories less per day may lead to losing between one and two pounds per week. This is a realistic weight loss. It may seem slow, but would add up to a weight loss of more than three stone in a year.

Increase your physical activity if you really want to loose your weight. Being active controls your weight 10 times by eating less. Besides losing weight, there are other reasons to be more active: Being physically active can help lower high blood pressure and your total cholesterol level while raising HDL-cholesterol, and reduces your risk for heart disease. Physically active people have a lower risk of getting high blood pressure (20% to 50% lower) than inactive people.

You don’t need to join a gym but at least try to fit various physical activities into your daily routine in small but important ways. If light physical activities done on regular basis can reduce the risk of blood pressure and heart disease.

Do at least 30 minutes of exercise like swimming or running. If you don’t have 30 minutes for exercising, try to find two 15-minute periods or even three 10-minute periods. Try to do some type of aerobic activity in the course of a week or try brisk walking, most days of the week. These exercises can condition your heart and lungs and can prevent you from diseases.

Most people don’t need to see a doctor before they start exercising, since a gradual, sensible exercise program has few health risks. But in case of any health problem like, heart disease, blood pressure problem or any other you should first consult your physician. Your doctor or other health worker can help you set sensible goals based on a proper weight for your height, build and age and help you prevent high blood pressure. Men and very active women may need up to 2,500 calories daily. Other women and inactive men need only about 2,000 calories daily. A safe plan is to eat 300 to 500 fewer calories a day to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week.

What is High Blood Pressure?

According to statistics, one out of every three adult Americans have high blood pressure. Blood pressure is defined as the amount of force that the blood uses on the veins and arteries as it circulates through the body. A healthy person’s blood pressure should be around 120/80 mm Hg or even lower. Blood pressure that consistently measures 140/90 mm Hg or higher is considered high blood pressure.

If left uncontrolled, it may increase the risk of serious health problems including heart attack, kidney failure or stroke.

There are two types of high blood pressure: First, there is primary high blood pressure in which there is no known underlying cause and second, there is secondary high blood pressure which occurs as the result of a medical condition or as a side effect from medications.

What makes high blood pressure so dangerous is that most people do not experience any symptoms, even when blood pressure readings are dangerously high. This is why it is called the “silent killer.” However, some people may notice one or two of the following symptoms if their levels are consistently raised: headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, nausea, increased nosebleeds.

What Causes High Blood Pressure?

For most people, the cause remains unknown, making primary blood pressure the more prevalent of the two. While it is not entirely known why primary high blood pressure occurs, research is ongoing and a number of factors have been implicated. Since high blood pressure often runs in families, a strong genetic component has been indicated.

Other risk factors for high blood pressure include smoking, alcoholism, high salt intake, being overweight, lack of exercise, and high levels of stress.

Some conditions known to cause secondary hypertension are: diabetic nephropathy, kidney disease, Cushing’s syndrome, hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism, arteriosclerosis (a thickening, hardening and narrowing of the walls of the arteries), underlying heart conditions, sleep apnea, obesity, pregnancy (especially in cases of pre-eclampsia) and side-effects of certain medications or supplements.

Natural Remedies for High Blood Pressure:

Garlic — Eating garlic is a very good way to lower high blood pressure. It has beneficial effects on the whole cardiovascular system. Clinical studies have shown that garlic decreases the systolic pressure by 20-30 mm Hg and the diastolic by 10-20 mm Hg. During one of these studies people with high blood pressure were given one clove of garlic a day for 12 weeks. Their diastolic blood pressure and cholesterol levels were significantly reduced.

Coenzyme Q10 — CoQ10 has been proven to be effective in treating people with a common type of high blood pressure. A clinical trial was done where half the people were given 60 mg of CoQ10 twice daily for 12 weeks and the other half were given, of course, a placebo. The people taking CoQ10 had an 18-point reduction in systolic blood pressure.

Magnesium — It is well known that magnesium deficiency leads to high blood pressure. Because our modern diet lacks magnesium, most Americans are deficient in this mineral. Many studies have shown that it helps significantly to take magnesium daily for the treatment of high blood pressure. Magnesium can also be taken to prevent hypertension.

Lysine, Proline and Vitamin C — This is a protocol by Linus Pauling, a nobel prize winner, to cure plaque build up in the arteries and thus reduce high blood pressure. To find out more about this protocol go to the saveyourheart.com website.

Cinnamon — In recent studies it was shown that cinnamon helps lower high blood pressure as well as reducing serum cholesterol levels. Below is a list of other herbs that are used to lower blood pressure. Herbs can be taken in capsules, as tinctures, you can use them in cooking if appropriate, or your can use them as a tea.

* Hawthorn

* Gingko biloba

* Ginseng

* Gotu Kola

* Skullcap

* Ashwagandha

* Burdock

* Hawthorn

* Nutmeg

* Cardamom

* Kelp

Lifestyle Changes to Reduce High Blood Pressure:

You might want to get your own blood pressure machine and keep track of your blood pressure yourself. This way you can see what causes it to go up or to go down.

Do about 30 minutes of aerobic exercise each day such as walking. Don’t overdue it and exercise too much as it then becomes stressful to your body and may increase blood pressure.

Eat a lot of potassium rich foods such as vegetables and fruits.

Drink lots of water, between 8 to 15 glasses of water a day. Drinking lots of water mimics what the drugs your doctor prescribes are doing. It relaxes your body, including your arteries.

Learn to relax, slow down and manage your stress levels. Stress is a huge influencing factor in high blood pressure.

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