Treating Hypertension

Treating Hypertension
Hypertension is a problem that clinicians face many of their patients. Its prevalence is increasing because of the obesity epidemic and because of the aging of the population.

Hypertension compounds the risk for cardiovascular events and contributes to negative outcomes of cardiovascular disease.

Thus, it must be treated. Lifestyle modification and pharmacotherapy can be employed to gain control of blood pressure in hypertensive, and pre-hypertensive, patients.

Research is examining new ways to measure blood pressure, new ways to interpret those measurement and new approaches to treatment.

By incorporating available treatment approaches and the latest guideline into treatment of these patients it is possible to lessen and even prevent, many of the sequel of uncontrolled blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
Treating Hypertension

Lifestyles Changes

Lifestyles Changes
Lifestyle plays a major role in the development of hypertension and any program to reduce blood pressure must take this into consideration.

Experts note that any changes that are implemented must be maintained if blood pressure is to be controlled on a long term basis.

Smoking should be moderated, or totally avoided and alcohol intake should be kept to a minimum.

Weight loss reduces blood pressure in those with and without hypertension and should be a primary goal for hypertensives who are obese or moderately overweight.

Other factors for reducing and controlling hypertension are infrared exercise and stress management.
Lifestyles Changes

Shake the Salt Habit

Shake the Salt Habit
The health of your arteries is critically important to virtually every aspect of your health.

Too much salt (sodium) ages your cardiovascular system by raising your blood pressure and hardening, stiffening and thickening your arteries and the walls of your heart.

You want to keep your blood vessel soft, smooth and supple like they were when you were a child and a teenager and avoid developing the rigid, inflamed and crusty pipes that can lead to heart attack, stroke, and congestion heart failure.

As an American adult, chances of developing high blood pressure during lifetime are 90 percent.

If you continue to follow your current lifestyle, sooner or later you will probably get hypertension – the medical term for high blood pressure.

Why? For starters, the average American consumer about 4000 mg of sodium daily, which is about six to ten times more salt than we were designed to eat.

Add the fact that blood pressure rises in response to too much body fat, stress and sugar and too little sleep and exercise and you have to the recipe for high blood pressure.

Excess sodium does much more than just raises your blood pressure. A study shows that high sodium intake reduced blood vessel wall function.

In addition, salt leaches the calcium from your bones, making you prone to osteoporosis and fractures, and also appears to increase cancer risk – especially in gastrointestinal tract.

A recent study found that extra salt the diet increased the like-hood of heartburn (also known as esophageal reflux) by as much as 70 percent.

A good place to start lowering the sodium in our diet is by removing the salt shaker from the table and hiding it in an inconvenient spot.

But only about 5 percent of the salt in our diet comes from the salt shaker; 75 percent comes from processed and restaurant foods.

Most people do not choose to eat high sodium product – they jut eat the foods that are readily available in our culture.

Salt is everywhere in our modern diet even in foods such as bread that don’t taste salty.

Processed foods are loaded with salt to help preserve freshness, and the more sodium you eat, the more you will crave salt. When you eliminate highly processed, high sodium foods from your diet, you will take a huge step toward a healthier, more vigorous life.
Shake the Salt Habit