High Blood Pressure - The Silent Killer

By fionajean, 19th Jun 2010 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/1dd9r8s7/
Posted in Wikinut>Health>General Health>Diseases & Infections

You could be sitting at your desk right now and have high blood pressure. Feel fine? It doesn’t matter - high blood pressure is very sneaky and doesn’t present any symptoms at all. Read on for more information.

Introduction
What causes High Blood Pressure?
What can I do?

Introduction

So now maybe you’re thinking,”No symptoms, I feel just fine, what’s there to worry about? If it were dangerous, I’d be feeling ill.” That’s were high blood pressure is sneakiest, it seems so innocuous but, untreated, increases your risk of cardiovascular disease - heart attacks, angina and heart failure; strokes and can cause deterioration of eyesight. It is also the second leading cause of kidney failure.

What is very frightening is the fact that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause for hospitalization in North America. What’s even scarier is that a study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that cardiovascular disease in Canada in the under-fifty age group was on the rise. Just goes to show, no one is too young for heart disease anymore. High blood pressure doesn’t look so harmless anymore, does it?

What causes High Blood Pressure?

Blood pressure is the pressure of the blood in your body, up against the arterial walls. Young arteries are flexible and elastic but as they age, they can stiffen and so cannot dilate and constrict properly to get blood flowing. They can also become clogged with plaque. When under stress, the body requires more oxygenated blood and so the heart pumps harder. If the blood vessels can’t dilate or are clogged, the increased blood volume causes increased pressure. A simple way of looking at it is to view the arteries as the water pipes of your home. If the pipes at home become clogged, the water at the end comes out very slowly but causes pressure at the area that is clogged. This can lead to a burst water pipe – not good. Looking at the blood vessels again, this increased blood volume can dislodge the plaque and this can lead to the formation of a blood clot and subsequent stroke or heart attack.

What can I do?

First off, don’t panic, high blood pressure is treatable.

The first step is to find out what your blood pressure is. Measuring blood pressure is quick and painless. The doctor will then give you a reading, for example, 120/80mmHG. The first relates to your systolic blood pressure (a fancy term meaning that the pressure of the blood against the artery walls is being measured while the heart is contracting.) this will always be the higher number). The second is your diastolic blood pressure (another reading, as above, but when the heart is resting between contractions.)

For these results, lower is better. If you end up boasting about having a blood pressure of over 140/90mmHG, your doctor will be prescribing meds and suggesting some serious lifestyle changes. If the results are between 121–130 systolic or 81-89 diastolic, you’re not quite in the clear. These readings can indicate pre-hypertension and your doctor will probably want you to monitor them periodically and also start looking at lifestyle changes so that the problem doesn’t escalate.

If your results are fine, that’s great, but remember to keep having them checked out periodically. From the age of 18 onwards, everyone should have their blood pressure checked at least every two years. If you feel you are at risk, have it checked every six months.

As I said before, high blood pressure is sneaky; it can affect almost anyone from a top athlete to an average couch potato. However, the following are particularly high risk factors:

1) High levels of untreated stress.
2) Too little exercise.
3) Being overweight.
4) Too much salt in the diet.
5) Smoking.
6) Abuse of alcohol, over the counter drugs and illegal substances.
7) Genetics – Family history of hypertension can serve as a warning that you may develop it as well. However, don’t use that as an excuse not to do anything.

You may feel that it’s too late to do anything about it now but it’s never too late.

The first thing you want to look at is what your particular risk factors are. Chances are, you probably don’t eat properly, have a bit sedentary lifestyle, too much stress and are thus overweight. You may even smoke and, if you do, I’m not recommending that you quit – not for now at least. If you are a smoker and have a highly stressful lifestyle, leave quitting smoking to the last lifestyle improvement as you don’t want to push stress levels over the top. The same goes for people with substance abuse problems – you need to find other ways to deal with your stress before you go cold turkey.

To start off with, make small changes that are simple – switch full fat milk for low fat, go for a walk around the garden - and gradually build up from there. You know the basics of good nutrition already but did you know that too much processed food is a killer? Processed food is generally lacking in nutrients, high in trans-fats (the bad fats that increase cholesterol), low in fiber and has lots of salt. With high blood pressure, you need to keep your sodium and potassium levels in balance. Do this by eating processed foods only occasionally and getting your 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Also, use spices to flavor your food instead of salt. Sound too hard? Start with baby steps. Eat one apple a day before breakfast and add one vegetable to supper. So, eat your cheeseburger but have a salad with it, not chips. As you start getting the hang of it, replace more and more processed foods with healthier options.

Exercise as well should be started with baby steps. It’s pointless to be in so much pain after exercise that you refuse to do it again. Make yourself a promise this week to walk to the end of the garden/ parking lot and back every day. Park your car further from the shops and walk the extra distance. During your lunch hour, walk to the end of the block and back. Just get yourself moving a little more every day. When you feel comfortable, increase the amount. Add some weight training – you don’t need fancy equipment, do bicep curls using tinned food or bottled water.

Now we get to the next risk factor on the list – stress. You should already be feeling calmer and less stressed because of the healthier eating and exercise but maybe you just need a little more help stress-wise. Stress is a factor of modern living, too little and we have no drive in life, too much and it can kill us. You may feel that there is nothing you can do about stress but that is nearly always untrue. First off, identify what is causing stress. Be specific – it doesn’t help to say, “I have a stressful job.” because the solution to that problem would be to quit. (Not at all helpful.) Identify what it is about your job that stresses you.

Keep a stress diary for a week. Is it that there are too many emails? Are there too many interruptions? Is Mike from Accounting a pain in the behind? You will find that there are many little things during the day that contribute to your stress levels. Next, is there anything you can do about any of them? You can’t run Mike from Accounting over, legally, but you can avoid him. You can also say to yourself, “Mike is annoying – there’s nothing I can do to change that so I’m just going to accept it.”

Knowing what your stressors are and learning to control your reactions to them is the key to stress management. No one can annoy you without you allowing them to do so. You need to take the decision that you will no longer allow Mike to annoy you. If you have too much work to do, analyze why. Are others generally complaining of the same thing? If not, are your time management skills up to scratch? Is there anything you could be doing faster or in a smarter way? Can a business case be made to hire another staff member?

The next thing to look at is what you do with your leisure time. Most of us try to squeeze so much into our annual vacation that we need another vacation just to recover. In the same way, many people live for the weekend. You need to realize that you need some time for yourself every day, even if it’s just 15 minutes. 15 minutes a day in which you’re not worrying about your job, your kids, your spouse or even getting the most out life. Your 15 minutes can be spent sitting doing nothing if you want to but you need to have some “me-time”. You need to do something that is absorbing and interests you.

When you’ve set aside your “me-time”, look at the way you spend the rest of your leisure time. Are you doing things you “should” be doing but not really wanting to do? Your friends say you “should” come out with them instead of staying at home alone. If you don’t want to go, don’t go. If you don’t want to vacuum every day, is anyone really going to notice? Life is too short to be doing too much of what other people think you should be doing. It’s what you think that counts.

Now, next risk factor - if you’re overweight, start addressing it. The healthy changes you’ve made in terms of diet and exercise should already be evident. You now need to know whether or not you’re overweight and the exact extent of the problem. Calculating your BMI is a good tool in assisting you here but is not the be-all and end-all of weight control. You have to account for what is realistic and healthy. Perhaps you’ve gained twenty pounds since high school. The weight usually just creeps up on you and wham, there’s much more of you to love. Don’t panic and don’t look for a quick fix answer. As Oprah said,”If there was a weight-loss pill that worked for everyone, I’d know about it and I’d have told you about it.” Short-term weight-loss usually means long-term weight gain because the measures you have to employ to maintain the weight-loss are unsustainable. It is far better to lose weight slowly - after all, that is how you gained it in the first place. Aim for a weight loss of maximum 4 pounds a week. Make sure that any diet plan you follow is not overly restrictive and allows for some treats as well. If you are able to, it is a great idea to consult a dietician who can plan a personalized eating plan for you. Plan little non-food rewards for yourself at every weight-loss milestone.

Now for the smokers, sorry guys, it’s time to quit. I’m not going to list all the reasons to stop – you know them already. I realize that it’s hard to face the day without a smoke but imagine facing it with half your body paralyzed or with the crushing pain of angina. It just isn’t worth the risk.

Lastly, if you have an alcohol or substance abuse problem, you need to seek help. If you’re concerned that admitting it means that “others” will know, I’m afraid that you may find that they already do. Most people know when someone they work with drinks too much – working with someone for over 6 months should give you more than enough clues. People are also a lot less judgmental than you think. Your company may even have a program to help employees into rehab. They cannot fire you for getting help but can fire you for being drunk on duty.

In summary, high blood pressure is a disease with serious consequences but also a disease that can be improved through simple lifestyle changes.