HYPERTENSION AND THE HEART
1. Reducing blood pressure
· High blood pressure can drastically increase risks of strokes, kidney failure and heart disease.
· With increasing sugar, salt and saturated fats in our fast food culture, it gains prominence.
2. What is blood pressure?
· The term simply refers to the pressure of blood as it flows through the body’s arteries.
· It rises when blood has to force its way through these vessels with greater exertion.
· Pressure is stated as two figures (in millimeters of mercury) – like 120/80.
· The first number is ‘systolic’ pressure, i.e. how effective your heart is at pumping blood around the arteries, and is measured as our heart contracts and pushes blood through the arteries.
· The second number is ‘diastolic’ pressure, i.e. how efficiently your heart relaxes between beats, and is measured when the heart relaxes between beats to refill the blood.
· A blood pressure level of 140/90 or more can signal potential health problems, when blood struggles to get round the arteries fast enough.
3. Lowering the risks of high blood pressure
· Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is called a ‘silent killer’ with no initial symptoms.
· Its poor treatment can lead to heart attack, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, artery disease, and hypertensive retinopathy.
· While risk factors like age and family history are not controllable, other factors like smoking, obesity, excessive alcohol intake, lack of exercise, and certain medications are controllable.
· Soaring blood pressure levels are often caused by fatty deposits in the arteries, and a change in lifestyle and diet is therefore essential in combating the risks of high blood pressure.
4. Cutting down on alcohol
· Try and avoid binge drinking, especially on social gatherings, to control your blood pressure.
5. Reducing salt intake
· Salty meals or snacks like chips and pop corn cause fatty deposits to form in the arteries.
· Reduce the salt in your diet to avoid high blood pressure.
6. Get some quality exercise
· The best way to burn off fatty flab is to get some regular exercise.
7. Increasing potassium intake
· Potassium helps balance the water in your body, control acidity and muscular growth.
· Potassium-rich foods help in regulating blood flow through the arteries more efficiently.
· Potassium-rich foods include bananas, oranges, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumber, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, spinach, broccoli, and tuna.
8. Stop smoking
· Tar and toxic fumes of smoking damage blood cells and vessels, increasing blood pressure.
9. Eating more fruit and vegetables
· Increasing the volume of fruit and green vegetables in your diet could really cut your blood pressure, as well as boosting your general health with essential minerals and vitamins.
10. Finding out your blood pressure
· The best way to measure your blood pressure is to make an appointment with your doctor.
· The general guidelines of blood pressure measurements are:
o Normal BP – less than 120 / 80
o Pre-hypertension – 120-139 / 80-89
o High BP (Stage 1) – 140-159 / 90-99
o High BP (Stage 2) – 160 and higher / 100.
· Blood pressure normally varies throughout the day.
· To confirm hypertension, 24-hour BP monitoring and 2D echocardiography are very critical.
· 2D echocardiography is done to evaluate heart muscle condition and the efficiency of pumping.