How to Prevent High Blood Pressure
Knowing how to prevent high blood pressure is one thing, doing it is another. Present day living trends favour developing high blood pressure. The questions and answers below will help you understand the complexities involved and how you can take control of your own situation.
Q - Can high blood pressure be prevented?
A - Yes, but not all the time. Some causes of high blood pressure e.g. narrowing of the kidney vessels or coarctation of the aorta are beyond the influence of the person affected. Nevertheless, there are others that are preventable.
Q - How can high blood pressure be prevented?
A - It can be prevented by avoiding the risk factors for the development of high blood pressure. Risk factors are those characteristics that increase the chances of an individual developing a disease.
Q - What are the risk factors for high blood pressure?
A - The common risk factors for high blood pressure include
- Increasing age.
- Obesity.
- Male sex.
- Race.
- Smoking.
- A blood relative who was diagnosed with high blood pressure.
- Alcohol.
- Stress.
- Diets with high fat content.
- High salt intake.
- Presence of some disease that can cause high blood pressure. E.g. diabetes mellitus and Hyperlipidaemia.
Q - How can these risk factors be reduced, avoided or treated?
A - It's obvious that there are some risk factors which you can't do anything about. For example, you can't change your race, your age, or the fact that a blood relative has already been diagnosed with high blood pressure in the past. However, there are still many risk factors that are within your control. A good understanding of how to prevent high blood pressure involves identifying these risk factors and doing something positive about them.
The process is called lifestyle modification and it will require making a few changes to your way of living. Some changes like:
- Maintaining the right weight
- Eating right
- Exercising
- Stopping the smoking cigarettes/cigars
- Decreasing or stopping of alcohol in-take.
- Avoiding stressful situations and adopting measures for relieving stress.
- Carefully following your treatment protocol if you have an illness that can cause hypertension. Diabetics should adhere to their diabetes treatment protocol.
Q - What kind of foods should be avoided?
A - In general, salty foods - which have high sodium content - and fatty foods should be taken sparingly. Discuss with your physician or local dietician about the food options available where you live. For most people, the hardest part of learning how to prevent high blood pressure is in identifying the foods to eat and those not to. That's why you should talk to your doctor.
Q - What is the best weight to have that will prevent high blood pressure?
A - There is NO ideal body weight that fits ALL people. Each individual has an ideal body weight to maintain that has been found to prevent development of some diseases including high blood pressure. This ideal weight is called the Body Mass Index (BMI) of 20 to 25 and is calculated by dividing the weight of an individual (in Kilograms) by the square of the height (in metres).
Weight(Kg)/Height(m) X Height(m)
The BMI considered to be ideal is any value between 20 and 25. Below 20 is underweight, between 25 and 29.9 is overweight, and 30 and above is obesity.
To decrease your chances of getting high blood pressure, you should aim at a BMI of between 20 and 25.
Q - What kind of exercise is good?
A - Any exercise that involves physical exertion is good. The aim is to discourage physical inactivity and encourage weight loss if you're overweight or obese. It doesn't have to be so strenuous and you don't have to go to the gym. Exercises like gardening and walking have been shown to be equally effective. Exercise has many benefits among which are, improving blood circulation, strengthening the heart and increasing the amount of HDL ("good cholesterol") in the body.
Q - How often should I exercise?
A - The key here is to be consistent. Doing it daily for one week and then stopping the next week isn't as effective as exercising twice a week and being consistent.
Q - How can I stop smoking and taking alcohol?
A - Talk to your physician about your plans and ask for recommendations. Other useful resources you could use include Alcoholics Anonymous or Nicotine Anonymous.
Q -
Where can I get more information on how to prevent high blood pressure?
A - You can find more information on
how to prevent high blood pressure using the DASH plan here. We recommend that you also talk to your physician.
Created - June, 2006
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