What is blood pressure
When your heart beats it pumps blood round your body to give it the energy and oxygen it needs. As the blood moves it pushes against the sides of the blood vessels. The strength of this pushing is your blood pressure. If your blood pressure is too high, it puts extra strain on your arteries and this may lead to heart attacks and strokes.
Blood pressure is the force at which blood pumps from the heart into the arteries. A normal blood pressure reading is less than 120/80 mm Hg
Hypertension is popularly known as high blood pressure (High BP).
Our blood pressure normally rises and falls throughout the day. When hypertension or high blood pressure occurs the blood flows through the blood vessels with greater force than normal.
It is possible to divide the causes of high blood pressure into two categories:
• Essential high blood pressure: This type of high blood pressure has no established cause.
• Secondary high blood pressure: Another health problem is causing increased blood pressure.
Causes of blood pressure
The heart is a muscle that pumps blood around the body. It pumps blood with low oxygen levels toward the lungs, which replenish oxygen supplies.
• A family history of High BP
• A stressful lifestyle
• A sedentary lifestyle
• Obesity
• unhealthy food habits
• high salt intake
• smoking
• drinking large amounts of alcohol
• sleep deprivation
• lack of exercise etc.
• Drugs such as steroids, contraceptive pills, anti-depressant, recreational drugs, anti-inflammatory medicines such as ibuprofen etc. The blood pressure returns to normal as soon as the medications are stopped.
• Mental Stress
Symptoms of Blood Pressure
Most people with high blood pressure will not experience any symptoms. People often call hypertension the “silent killer” for this reason. Rarely do some people experience symptoms such as:
• Anxiety
• Dizziness
• Headache
• heart palpitations
• breathlessness
• shortness of breath
• nosebleeds
• fatigue
• Vomiting
When these symptoms occur it is because of a sudden spike in blood pressure which is nothing short of a medical emergency.
Continuous blood pressure readings between 160/110 and 180/110 indicate Stage II hypertension.
Stage II Hypertension is a cause for concern as it can lead to heart attacks and strokes.
Treatment
Sometimes only lifestyle changes are not enough to treat high blood pressure
The doctor will recommend different treatments as blood pressure increases:
• Slightly
• Moderately high
• Severe
Precautions:
Apart from eating healthy, there are also some precautions you need to take such as cutting down on:
• table salt
• smoking
• drinking an unhealthy amount of alcohol
• leading a sedentary lifestyle
Relaxation techniques: Some low-quality studies have shown that certain relaxation techniques, including yoga, meditation and guided breathing can have a short-term and low-level impact on blood pressure.
Exercise: Following an exercise routine daily will bring about a tremendous change in your blood pressure levels. Aerobics, especially, is an ideal form of exercise to counter hypertension.
Sleep: Although increasing sleep alone cannot treat hypertension, sleep deprivation and poor sleep quality have strong links to high blood pressure.
Home remedies to control High Blood Pressure
1. Simply drink a cup of warm water with the juice from half a lemon added to it each morning on an empty stomach. For best results do not add salt or sugar.
2. Eating bananas regularly help people with high blood pressure control it.
Garlic helps relax blood vessels by stimulating the production of nitric oxide and hydrogen sulfide. Eat 1 0r 2 garlic cloves daily in the morning.
3. Fenugreek seeds and Water melon seeds have shown anti-hypertensive effects
4. Coconut water is particularly beneficial for lowering systolic blood pressure.
5. Exercise 30 to 50 minutes a day is important part of healthy living
6. Eating low-fat dairy products, lean meats, fish and nuts
7. eating fruits, vegetables and whole grains