Heart Attack And Heart Disease
High blood pressure can damage your arteries by making them less elastic, which decreases the flow of blood and oxygen to your heart and leads to heart disease. In addition, decreased blood flow to the heart can cause:
- Chest pain, also called angina.
- Heart attack, which happens when the blood supply to your heart is blocked and heart muscle begins to die without enough oxygen. The longer the blood flow is blocked, the greater the damage to the heart.
- Heart failure, a condition that means your heart cant pump enough blood and oxygen to your other organs.
What Foods Should You Eat To Lower Blood Pressure
To lower blood pressure eat a diet that is rich in minerals like calcium, magnesium and potassium.
Besides this, it is good to take short meals that are low in curbs. Instead of deep-fried products, it will be good if you were to incline towards a diet that is mainly consisting of vegetables like spinach, broccoli, and other leafy green vegetables.
Consume lots of low-fat poultry and dairy products. These will help enable a healthy diet for you and help you lean towards a healthy lifestyle.
So You Have High Blood Pressure What Else Could Be Wrong
If you have high blood pressure, get checked for diabetes and high cholesterol. Most people who have high blood pressure also have some of the other risks for heart disease and stroke, such as not getting enough physical activity, having unhealthy eating habits, smoking, being overweight or drinking too much alcohol. Ask your doctor to test your kidney function through a blood and urine test, and through the electrolytes in your blood kidney problems can cause high blood pressure.
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What Your Blood Pressure Numbers Mean
Blood pressure is the force that blood applies to the walls of arteries as it’s pumped throughout the body.
“Your arteries are built to withstand some pressure, but there’s a limit to what they can handle,” says Dr. Nasir.
This is why blood pressure is measured and segmented based on how it affects our health. The four blood pressure categories are:
- Normal blood pressure: Lower than 120/80 mmHg
- Elevated blood pressure: Between 120-129/80 mmHg
- High blood pressure, stage 1: Between 130-139/80-90 mmHg
- High blood pressure, stage 2: 140/90 mmHg or higher
Only normal blood pressure is considered healthy. Having elevated or high blood pressure damages your heart and arteries by:
- Forcing your heart to pump harder. Over time, this causes heart muscle to thicken, making it harder for the heart to fill with and pump blood.
- Narrowing and hardening your arteries. This can limit the normal flow of blood.
What Is The Link Between High Blood Pressure And Stroke
High blood pressure can lead to stroke in different ways. It can lead to blood clots in the brain, and can damage the tiny blood vessels deep inside the brain. It can also make a stroke due to bleeding in the brain more likely.
Strokes due to a clot
High blood pressure damages your blood vessels by making them become narrower and stiffer, and causing a build-up of fatty material. This process is called atherosclerosis. Clots can form on the areas of fatty material, and if a clot travels to the brain it causes a stroke or transient ischaemic attack .
Stroke and cognitive problems due to small vessel disease
Small vessel diseases means having damage to the tiny blood vessels deep inside the brain. This makes a stroke more likely, and it can affect your thinking ability . Its often caused by high blood pressure.
Stroke due to bleeding in or around the brain
High blood pressure can damage blood vessels inside the brain, causing bleeding in the brain. This is called a haemorrhagic stroke.
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Regular Blood Pressure Checks If Diagnosed With High Blood Pressure
If you are diagnosed with high blood pressure, your blood pressure will need to be closely monitored until it is brought under control.
After your blood pressure has been controlled, your GP or practice nurse will measure your blood pressure at agreed regular intervals .
It is important you attend these appointments to ensure your blood pressure is being maintained within an acceptable range.
What Is The Blood Pressure And What Are The Normal Values
Blood pressure is the pressure that is exerted by the blood flowing through arteries over those. Alongside that, this is the efficiency with which the blood is pumped by the heart to all the parts of the body through the circulatory system.
The normal values for blood pressure are between and . If a person has a blood pressure equivalent to this much, then it means that the blood will be flowing through the arteries relatively easily.
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Who Can Get High Blood Pressure
The chance of having high blood pressure goes up as we get older. Youre more likely to develop it if you have a family history of high blood pressure. And people of black African or black Caribbean origins are more likely to have high blood pressure than the rest of the population.
Some things that put you at greater risk of high blood pressure include:
- Eating too much salt.
- Drinking more than the safe limits for alcohol.
Some health conditions can cause high blood pressure, including:
- Kidney disease.
- Obstructive sleep apnoea .
Some medications can affect blood pressure including the combined oral contraceptive pill and steroids. Illegal drugs such as cocaine and amphetamines can also raise blood pressure.
Stress and high blood pressure
Feeling stressed can raise your blood pressure for a short time, but it isnt a direct cause of high blood pressure. However, if youre under stress you might eat unhealthy food, drink too much or lose out on sleep. All these things can eventually lead to high blood pressure. So it is a good idea to reduce your stress levels as part of a healthy lifestyle.
High blood pressure in pregnancy
If you have high blood pressure during pregnancy, your blood pressure will be monitored during pregnancy, labour and after the birth. If its very high you may need to stay in hospital until it improves.
What Are Some Of The Symptoms To Watch Out For In High Blood Pressure
The symptoms of high blood pressure are not something that can be ignored readily. These symptoms include severe headache, anxiety attacks, shortness of breath, nosebleeds, blood spots in the eyes, intense fatigue, blurred or distorted vision, and vomiting or nausea. These symptoms are not something to be taken lightly.
High blood pressure is not an incurable problem, but measures are needed to be taken against it in the due time. So, dont make light of the symptoms and consult a physiotherapist regarding these.
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The Definition For What Is Considered High Blood Pressure Has Been Tightened Here’s What You Need To Know
If you didn’t have high blood pressure before, there’s a good chance you do now.
In 2017, new guidelines from the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, and nine other health organizations lowered the numbers for the diagnosis of hypertension to 130/80 millimeters of mercury and higher for all adults. The previous guidelines set the threshold at 140/90 mm Hg for people younger than age 65 and 150/80 mm Hg for those ages 65 and older.
This means 70% to 79% of men ages 55 and older are now classified as having hypertension. That includes many men whose blood pressure had previously been considered healthy. Why the change?
What Affects A Blood Pressure Reading
Many things can affect a blood pressure reading, including:
- Nervousness about having your blood pressure taken. This is called white coat syndrome. As many as 1 in 3 people who have a high blood pressure reading at the doctors office may have normal blood pressure readings outside of it.1
- What you ate, drank, or did before your reading. If you smoked, drank alcohol or caffeine, or exercised within 30 minutes of having your blood pressure measured, your reading might be higher.2
- How you are sitting. Crossing your legs and letting your arm droop at your side rather than rest on a table at chest height can make your blood pressure go up.2
Its important to get an accurate blood pressure reading so that you have a clearer picture of your risk for heart disease and stroke.
A reading that says your blood pressure is lower than it actually is may give you a false sense of security about your health. A reading that says your blood pressure is higher than it actually is may lead to treatment you dont need.
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How Do Health Care Professionals Measure My Blood Pressure
First, a health care professional wraps an inflatable cuff around your arm. The health care professional then inflates the cuff, which gently tightens on your arm. The cuff has a gauge on it that will measure your blood pressure.
The health care professional will slowly let air out of the cuff while listening to your pulse with a stethoscope and watching the gauge. This process is quick and painless. If using a digital or automatic blood pressure cuff, the health care professional will not need to use a stethoscope.
The gauge uses a unit of measurement called millimeters of mercury to measure the pressure in your blood vessels.
If you have high blood pressure, talk to your health care team about steps to take to control your blood pressure to lower your risk for heart disease and stroke.
Use this list of questions to ask your health care team to help you manage your blood pressure.
High Blood Pressure And Older Adults
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High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a major health problem that is common in older adults. Your bodys network of blood vessels, known as the vascular system, changes with age. Arteries get stiffer, causing blood pressure to go up. This can be true even for people who have heart-healthy habits and feel just fine. High blood pressure, sometimes called “the silent killer,” often doesn’t cause signs of illness that you can see or feel. Though high blood pressure affects nearly half of all adults, many may not even be aware they have it.
If high blood pressure isn’t controlled with lifestyle changes and medication, it can lead to serious health problems, including cardiovascular disease , vascular dementia, eye problems, and kidney disease. The good news is that blood pressure can be controlled in most people.
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If You Now Have High Blood Pressure You May Not Need Meds Yet
The guidelines also outline very clearly when a diet-and-lifestyle approach is the recommended, first-line treatment, and when medications are simply just what you have to do. Thankfully, the decision is largely based on facts and statistics. For the elevated blood pressure category, medications are actually not recommended rather, a long list of evidence-based, non-drug interventions are. What are these interventions? Things that really work: a diet high in fruits and vegetables decreased salt and bad fats more activity weight loss if one is overweight or obese and no more than two alcoholic drinks per day for men, and one for women. Simply changing what you eat can bring down systolic blood pressure by as much as 11 points, and each additional healthy habit you adopt can bring it down another four to five points.
For people with stage 1 hypertension who dont have cardiovascular disease and are at low risk for developing it , lifestyle changes are still the way to go.
However, if a patient has any kind of cardiovascular disease and stage 1 hypertension , or no existing cardiovascular disease but a significant risk of developing it , then lifestyle changes plus medications are recommended. And, even if someone has less than a 10% risk, if their blood pressure is over 140 systolic or 90 diastolic, which is now stage 2 high blood pressure, they ought to be treated with medication as well.
Natural Supplements For Your Rescue
Sometimes managing blood pressure is all about supplementing your body with the right diet. Food is undoubtedly the best primary source to supplement your body.
However, in the current scenarios, we all know how much adultered our foodstuff is, and most of us are pushed towards processed foods to feed ourselves in this fast-paced world.
All these food are high in sugar and sodium and doesnt contain any vital nutrients that are important for a healthy heart.
This is where some of the nutraceutical-based blood pressure supplements come in handy. These products combine all critical nutrients your heart craves, thereby assisting the better function of your cardiovascular system.
Generally, these supplements are a concoction of herbs, plant-based products, dairy products, and some animal products. They are 100% organic and natural and dont contain any harmful chemicals.
If you are hearing about these segments of products for the first time, to start with, you may blindly go for Blood Pressure Support from Vita Balance Inc, Blood Pressure Optimizer from HFL, or Corsanum, marketed by PLT Group.
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Blood Pressure Support |
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Only one thing to keep in mind is that, choose thebest blood pressure-lowering supplement, because when it comes to heart, there is no taking of risk!
All the above practices are supposed to be followed in conjunction with the clinical treatment regimen your doctor chooses for you.
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Keep Yourself At A Healthy Weight
Having overweight or obesity increases your risk for high blood pressure. To determine whether your weight is in a healthy range, doctors often calculate your body mass index . If you know your weight and height, you can calculate your BMI at CDCs Assessing Your Weight website. Doctors sometimes also use waist and hip measurements to assess body fat.
Talk with your health care team about ways to reach a healthy weight, including choosing healthy foods and getting regular physical activity.
High Blood Pressure Medications
Treating high blood pressure will help prevent problems such as heart disease, stroke, loss of eyesight, chronic kidney disease, and other blood vessel diseases.
You may need to take medicines to lower your blood pressure if lifestyle changes are not enough to bring your blood pressure to the target level.
WHEN ARE MEDICINES FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE USED
Most of the time, your health care provider will try lifestyle changes first and check your BP two or more times.
If your blood pressure is 120/80 to 129/80 mm Hg, you have elevated blood pressure.
- Your provider will recommend lifestyle changes to bring your blood pressure down to a normal range.
- Medicines are rarely used at this stage.
If your blood pressure is equal to or higher than 130/80 but lower than 140/90 mm Hg, you have Stage 1 high blood pressure. When thinking about the best treatment, you and your provider must consider:
- If you have no other diseases or risk factors, your provider may recommend lifestyle changes and repeat the measurements after a few months.
- If your blood pressure remains equal to or higher than 130/80 but lower than 140/90 mm Hg, your provider may recommend medicines to treat high blood pressure.
- If you have other diseases or risk factors, your provider may be more likely to recommend medicines at the same time as lifestyle changes.
MEDICINES FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
Most of the time, only a single drug will be used at first. Two drugs may be started if you have stage 2 high blood pressure.
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How Can I Measure My Blood Pressure At Home
Talk with your health care team about regularly measuring your blood pressure at home, also called self-measured blood pressure monitoring.
SMBP means you regularly use a personal blood pressure measurement device away from a doctors office or hospitalusually at home. These blood pressure monitors are easy and safe to use. A health care team member can show you how to use one if you need help.
Evidence shows that people with high blood pressure are more likely to lower their blood pressure if they use SMBP combined with support from their health care team than if they dont use SMBP.3
Use these additional tips for SMBP:4
- Use a blood pressure log to record your blood pressure measurements.
- Take your blood pressure at the same time every day.
- Take at least two readings, 1 or 2 minutes apart.
What If Lifestyle Changes Dont Help Lower My Blood Pressure
If diet, exercise and other lifestyle changes dont work to lower your blood pressure, your healthcare provider will prescribe medications to help lower your blood pressure. Your provider will take into account other conditions you may have, such as heart or kidney disease and other drugs youre taking when prescribing medications to treat your high blood pressure. Be sure to follow your providers dosing directions exactly.
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What Is The Correct Way To Measure Blood Pressure
Learn the correct way to have your blood pressure taken, whether youre getting it checked at the doctors office or checking it yourself at home. Use this checklist:
- Dont eat or drink anything 30 minutes before you take your blood pressure.
- Empty your bladder before your reading.
- Sit in a comfortable chair with your back supported for at least 5 minutes before your reading.
- Put both feet flat on the ground and keep your legs uncrossed.
- Rest your arm with the cuff on a table at chest height.
- Make sure the blood pressure cuff is snug but not too tight. The cuff should be against your bare skin, not over clothing.
- Do not talk while your blood pressure is being measured.
If you are keeping track of your blood pressure at home, use these additional tips.