Blood pressure or hypertension is a very common term used by doctors these days. Even startling is despite the fact that abnormal blood pressure can be life-threatening, many of us actually do not either know steps to control or choose to ignore till it becomes too late.
Deadly diseases of the heart, strokes are all associated with Blood pressure.
However, minimum sensibility and modification of our life style habits would surely go a long way to prevent as well as control your blood pressure. Let us discuss some of the key steps as below:
• Limit your salt intake: Your diet can act as a friend as well as enemy in maintaining your blood pressure. A high salt diet makes your condition worse. Sodium present in salt is directly responsible for increasing your blood pressure. Older people and people suffering from heart disease or diabetes should be particularly watched how much salt they consume. As such, there are different opinions about the exact measurement of salt that one can consume per day. Hence, the lower the better in general. Of course, food without salt would not make your taste buds happy. Therefore, the best way to reduce salt consumption is to avoid certain type of processed foods with high sodium content, pickles and other salty foods. You can also start the habit of NOT adding further salt in your dining table to any of your favorite recipes.
• Keep your weight low : Being overweight contributes to hypertension. If you do want to live, a long, healthy life one of your primary concerns should be to watch your weight. The best thing would be to prevent you being obese first and then exercise. Instead, make exercise as a part of your routine life. Let the excuse of having NO time take the back seat. I am sure you will agree that you have to live first and that too in healthy manner before all other priorities in life. In case, you are already overweight, seek help of a good professional who will train you to specially to loose your weight as well recommend you suitable diet.
• Consume less fat: Diet, which is rich in fat only, leads to weight gain and high blood pressure. Therefore, cut down your diet, which have more fat contents. I know it is painful to leave out those mouth-watering recipes made out of butter, cheese and other dairy products. However, you will agree with me that it is better to consume less than be in a position where you cannot even touch it later on.
• Reduce caffeine and alcohol consumption: Drinking too much of alcohol or caffeine, products contribute to hypertension. Although studies have established that daily intake of a glass of wine or other alcoholic drinks actual reduces the risk of heart attack, consuming more will remove these benefits and only add to you woes of maintaining your blood pressure.
There are further few key points to remember and follow which is being discussed
in Part-2 of this article.
