Ways to Reduce High Blood Pressure | Nash Tipoff - Fitness World

A diagnosis of high blood pressure, or hyper-tension, can be a prompt to make positive changes in your life. With hindsight you can see the bad news was a positive rather than a negative.

The things which cause high blood pressure are by and large the things that we know are bad for us. We acquire habits in younger life when the risk to health seems distant. They then become entrenched over the years. The diagnosis of hypertension is a good reason to look at the way we live, and think about some changes for the better. ?They do not have to be all that painful or difficult.

Your doctor will advise you that there is a marked correlation between alcohol consumption and high blood pressure, although the mechanics of the link are not well understood. Nonetheless the connection is there, and the best advice is to drink strictly in moderation.

That is sensible advice for the middle-aged in all sorts of ways. As we grow older, our toleration for alcohol declines. The habit of regularly drinking to excess, if not curbed in middle age, can lead later to other health problems, for example dementia, as well as to high blood pressure. The low cost of alcohol means that high consumption barely makes a dent in the budget of many middle aged drinkers, so the temptation is to carry on as though one was still seventeen. A psychological dependence can develop without one being fully aware of it.

The good news is that there is no need to cut alcohol out completely. A low to moderate amount of red wine is actually recommended in the latest research, but a routine of two alcohol-free days a week is also highly recommended. So we can drink a couple of glasses of red wine or beer, on up to 5 nights a week, and be fairly confident that our level of consumption is safe.

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Your doctor will also recommend exercise. Walk part of the way to work every day. Be as active as you can in small ways. Go or a walk at lunch-time. It is unhealthy for your heart if you spend a large part of each day sitting down, so do whatever you can to keep in motion. A person who is desk-bound can still make an effort to move around to the maximum degree possible. Every little really does help.?Ideally you should do some harder exercise as well, get yourself a gym membership and set yourself healthy fitness goals.

High Intensity Training involves short bursts of very hard exercise, and recent research rather surprisingly suggests that as little as three minutes in total of such exercise per week can radically improve fitness and cardio-vascular function.

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• Be More Aware of Your Diet

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Reduce your salt intake. That means eating less pre-prepared food which tends to be very high in salt. Use ?low sodium? salt at table and for cooking. It only takes a few days to get used to a lower level of salt in food: this is a change which really becomes painless in a very short time.?Consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables is also associated with good cardio-vascular health so keep an eye on your daily consumption, and keep your fruit bowl filled.

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• Find ways to reduce stress

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Studies have suggested that the practice of transcendental meditation has a marked and measurable effect on blood pressure. There have been a number of studies which support the hypothesis, which prompted a meta-analysis by Anderson J. W. and others (Blood pressure response to Transcendental Meditation) reported in the American Journal of Hypertension 21 (3): 310-6, 2008. The meta-analysis evaluated the quality of the various studies of the topic, and looked at the strength of the overall conclusions.

The authors concluded as follows: ?The regular practice of Transcendental Meditation may have the potential to reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure by approximately 4.7 and 3.2 mm Hg, respectively. These are clinically meaningful changes.?

There is no need to subscribe to any particular belief set in order to reap the benefits of meditation: it is a technique whose effect is to calm and de-stress the mind.

If the mystical associations of TM are too off-putting, then try to devote fifteen minutes a day to complete calm and unwinding. Don?t think about the past or the future: just concentrate on enjoying the here and now. Some play or grooming time with your pet may help: animals live in the present.

If you haven?t got one, consider getting a pet. The love, physical activity and sociability involved in caring for a pet have been shown to improve cardio-vascular health and promote longevity. Dogs have the greatest impact, but all pets bring health benefits.

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***These suggestions are no more than common-sense, but they are all supported by good evidence. The point is to realise that knowing what is good for you is not the same as practising it. There is no time like the present for actually making these changes.****

Source: http://www.stevenashfitnessclubs.com/blog/2012/07/ways-to-reduce-high-blood-pressure/

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