High blood pressure’s no joke. Yet far too many people fail to understand what the big deal is. Perhaps we can put it in perspective for you, and, hopefully, inspire you to keep yours below 120/80.
Think about What You Ask of Your Heart
Your body has lots of groups of muscles; each group has specific tasks to perform.
Take the muscles involved in walking and running, for instance. Sometimes you push them to their limit; other times, you don’t. Either way, they perform much better over the long run if you do two things:
- Pace yourself;
- Rest adequately
While we seldom stop to think about it, the heart is itself a muscle group. Of course, the big difference between this group and others is that the heart never gets complete rest — these muscles work non-stop until we die. The best thing we can do to ensure our heart’s good health is to help it “pace” itself efficiently.
If you have high blood pressure, your heart is working harder than it should to pump blood throughout your arteries. In other words, it’s not pacing itself properly. Like any other part, the extra stress will weaken it pre-maturely.
The consequences? Inadequate flow of oxygen-rich blood throughout the body, leading to a variety of problems including stroke and kidney failure; and eventually, heart failure, or heart attack.
You can help your heart pace itself in several ways.
- Exercise regularly.Regular cardiovascular workouts strengthen heart muscle. Like any other muscles in the body, that leads to increased work capacity and endurance.
- Lower your cholesterol level.This is a bit tricky, since there are two kinds of cholesterol, one good, the other bad. Low density lipo-proteins (LDL’s) build up inside blood vessels, blocking blood flow. High density lipo-proteins (HDL’s), on the other hand, actually clear out blood vessels. Your total cholesterol reading should stay below 200; LDL, below 130; and HDL, above 45. These numbers are only guidelines — people with a family history of heart disease will want a lower overall reading. Be sure to read dietary information labels for cholesterol content.
- Watch your intake of salt.High sodium levels in the walls of the blood vessels is another factor contributing to high blood pressure. Lowering your intake of salt will help reduce blood pressure. In some instances, your doctor may prescribe a diuretic to speed up the process.
- Take prescribed medicines as indicated. In instances where lifestyle changes are not sufficient to lower blood pressure, your doctor may prescribe medication. For example, if your high blood pressure is the result of the body’s over-production of adrenaline, a beta blocker will lower blood pressure by countering the effects of the adrenaline. However, it is crucial to stick with the medication schedule to effect long-term change.