HYPERTENSION AND DIET

Blood pressure

2012-01-16T01:22:00.000-08:00

The function of blood is to transport materials around the body, mainly to take oxygen and food substances a body cells to keep them alive and well, and remove their waste products such as carbon dioxide.

It is a major component of the cardiovascular system and is important for the performance of all the functions of the cardiovascular system.

Blood pressure is needed to maintain circulation in the body so that oxygen and other nutrients can be transported to the cells. When the blood pressure is too high, it can damage the tissues and cells on the body.

It is one of the most widely recorded physiological functions of the body.

When the heart contracts blood pressure increases. But as the heart relaxes in preparation for the next contraction, blood pressure decreases. The result is that a person’s blood pressure changes in a periodic fashion, each period corresponding to a single heartbeat.

Physicians refer to the maximum of this pressure as the systolic blood pressure and it the minimum pressure as the diastolic pressure. Systolic pressure means that the peak pressure reached in the arterial system.

If the blood were not under the same pressure it could just stay where it is stagnant, neither nourishing nor cleansing the cells of the body, so that within about 7 minutes first they and the people would die.

Blood pressure

Strawberries and blood cholesterol

2011-10-19T05:05:00.000-07:00

Cholesterol is a lipid so it has very low solubility in water and blood. It is commonly associated with cardiovascular disease and its routine measurement is used to measure it potential health risk.

High blood serum cholesterol levels are often correlated with excessive plaque deposits in the arteries, a condition known as atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries.

Strawberries have a compelling health story that features emerging evidence of their ability to lower the risk of various disease: high blood cholesterol associated vascular disease, including coronary artery disease; chronic inflammation.Strawberries contain salicylates, the same compounds used to make aspirin.

Researches also believe these compounds may discourage the formation of unwanted blood clots.

At the University of Toronto, studies examining specific dietary effects related to lowering blood cholesterol that people adhere to prescribed diet more faithfully and have reduced cholesterol levels when strawberries are included in daily meals.

Omega fatty acids, the only fat group which have been claimed as having beneficial medicinal effects on metabolism. Strawberry is one of the richest omega 3 sources among the fruits.Omega 3 fatty acids in strawberry dilate the blood vessels, decrease the cholesterol and bad cholesterol, protect from arteriosclerosis and hypertension.

Strawberries also contain vitamin P, also known as rutin. It is a valuable blood thinner and it increases the strength of blood vessel, plus promotes circulation. Fresh strawberries will promote reduced blood pressure.Strawberries and blood cholesterol

Cardiovascular heart disease

2011-09-18T22:10:00.001-07:00

Cardiovascular diseases actually comprise a host of disorders that may involve numerous structures within the heart.

Cardiovascular diseases can affect any or all the parts of the heart as a sequence impair the function of the heart.

The WHO defines coronary heart disease as an acute or chronically impaired performance of the heart caused by a reduction or complete interruption of myocardial blood supply resulting from arthrosclerosis of the cardiac arteries.

Healthy living constitutes an integral part of preventing coronary heart disease. It lowers the risk of coronary heart disease both in free-living, high risk patients and in cardiac patients.

While the evidence clearly shows that modifying one’s lifestyle is often beneficial, most people find it difficult to discard lifelong habits and to adopt and maintain unfamiliar practices.

Rick factors in include inappropriate diet, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, sedentary lifestyle and family history.

Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death, premature death and disability in Australia and New Zealand. In 2002, more than 26,000 people died of coronary heart disease in Australia and more than 5000 in New Zealand.
Cardiovascular heart disease

Blood Pressure Lowering Drug

2011-07-30T19:51:00.001-07:00

The reason taking of taking blood pressure reducing medications is to reduce the blood pressure to a level as low as can be tolerated.

Any hydraulic system will last longer, and be less likely to spring a leak, if it is run at a lower pressure.

Therefore purpose of taking blood pressure lowering drug it is hoping that:
*Decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease (heart attack and stroke, which can raise blood pressure.

*Decrease any risk of coexisting cardiovascular risk factor such as raised cholesterol, diabetes, left ventricular hypertrophy and other conditions that raise the risk of having a cardiovascular problem.

*Improve quality of life and encourage a healthy lifestyle.

Some classes of blood pressure lowering drugs:
-ACE inhibitors
-Alpha blocking agents
-Angiotensin receptor blockers
-Beta blockers
-Calcium-channel blockers
-Centrally acting agents
-Diuretics
-Vasodilators

The risk factors, treatment preferences and social circumstances can be taken into account to match the drugs to ‘risk profile’.

Depending on the risk, BP lowering drugs can be chosen to reduce blood pressure and minimize side effects – so called ‘tailoring’ of blood pressure lowering medication.

In one clinical trial performed on people 60 to 80 years old with well controlled blood pressure, who had been taking a high blood pressure lowering drug for years, found that keeping salt intake to 1,800 milligrams per day or less and losing a moderate amount of weight were responsible for further significant decreases in blood pressure while continuing drug treatment.

The full benefit to be gained from any BP lowering medication will take about 4 weeks to achieve. If after 4 weeks BP control is still suboptimal, the dose of the medication should be titrated up. After this, it is reasonable either to change to an alternative treatment.

Consuming a diet rich in plant foods is one of the best way to reduce blood pressure. There are a few reasons for this. First, plant foods are generally richer in blood pressure lowering potassium than animal products. Second, they are not loaded with sodium, as many packaged foods are.
Blood Pressure Lowering Drug

Functions of Potassium

2011-06-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

Potassium is an dietary mineral that is also known as an electrolyte, essential to both cellular and electrical function.

Intracellular fluid contains about 95 percent of the body’s potassium, with the highest amount in skeletal muscle cells.

The flow of sodium and potassium in and out of cells is an important component of muscle contractions and the transmission of nerve impulses.

The central nervous system (CNS) zealously protects it potassium – CNS potassium levels remain constant even in the face of falling levels in the muscle and blood.

Potassium also helps regulate blood pressure.

Potassium influences the contractility of smooth, skeletal, and cardiac muscle and profoundly affects the excitability of nerve tissue.

It is also plays a critical role in the transmission of electrical impulses in the heart.

It is also important in maintaining electrolyte and pH balance.

Potassium deficiency, also called hypokalemia, established the importance of potassium maintenance in cardiovascular disease.

There is also suggestion that increasing potassium intake may be key in lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of stroke, congestive heart failure and cardiac arrhythmias.
Functions of Potassium

Sodium lead to hypertension

2011-06-01T00:09:00.001-07:00

The consumption of salt and other sodium sources should be limited. Sodium has been shown to lead to hypertension (high blood pressure) and it is recommended to keep daily consumption level between 110 and 3300 mg.

40% of salt is sodium, which seems to be major precipitant of hypertension. The human body needs only about 1/5 teaspoon (220 mg) of salt a day, but most adult consume up to 30 times as much as their bodies actually need.

Diets high in salt can raise blood pressure in at least two ways. First, sodium can cause the body to retain water increasing volume of blood in the arteries and thus increasing blood pressure.

Second, sodium causes small arteries to constrict, which produces a greater resistant to blood flow.

The majority of sodium in the United States diet is from sodium added during food processing and by restaurant and other food service such as cafeterias and catering services.

Most people with hypertension are sodium sensitive, that is, increasing or reducing intake of sodium alters blood pressure.

Some hypertensive people are sodium resistant; that is, changes in sodium intake do not affect blood pressure.

There is hypothesis that aerobic exercise training in older people with hypertension changes sensitivity with individuals switching from being sodium sensitive to sodium resistant.

Among those with hypertension, approximately 30 to 50 percent are sensitive to salt and can improve blood pressure by reducing salt consumption.
Sodium lead to hypertension

Caffeine can increase blood pressure?

2011-04-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

It seems the entire world is addicted to the caffeine in coffee and tea, and this may be the most popular drug of all.

The use of caffeine expanded with explosion of energy drinks in the last few years, especially with the younger people who did not drink coffee.

Caffeine consumption comparable to the most in 2 to 3 cups of coffee may raise blood pressure, particularly in people with hypertension or borderline high blood pressure.

The Okayama University researchers found that caffeine is an angiotensin blocker and increases blood pressure 5 to 10 mmHg.

Caffeine also the important contributor to the extreme incidence of hypertension. It raises blood pressure by elevating vascular resistance.

Excessive caffeine can elevate blood pressure significantly and produce nervous anxiety. This is particularly true when caffeine is combined with phenyl-propanolamine, the appetite suppression in commercial diet pill.

While caffeine produces a sharp spike in blood pressure in people using it for the first time, several studies show that in people with normal blood pressure, the rise is temporary, and blood pressure soon returns to normal.
Caffeine can increase blood pressure?

Hypernatremia

2011-04-15T04:13:00.000-07:00

Rapid intake of large amounts of sodium (e.g., drinking seawater) can cause the retention of sodium and water in the blood.

Hypernatremia usually results from dehydration. If the thirst mechanism is defective, whether through natural causes or because the patient cannot get on water even though he or she is thirsty, homeostasis is altered.

This cause hypernatremia, abnormally high concentration of sodium in the blood and hypervolemia, an abnormal increase in blood volume.

This leads to edema (swelling) and a rise in blood pressure.

A healthy person with normal kidneys and ample water intake rapidly excretes sodium, so hypernatremia usually is seen only in patients with congestive heart failure or kidney disease.

Patient with hypernatremia may be asymptomatic, or they may present with seizures, altered mental status or coma.

Eating too much sodium over a long period of time can contribute to high pressure (hypertension) in some people.

For those with high blood reassure, lowering sodium intake is a useful dietary change that may lower blood pressure.

Excess dietary sodium can also contribute to osteoporosis by increasing calcium loss in the urine.

Other situations associated with or causing hypernatremia include nephrogenic diabetes insipidus when the kidney fails to respond to vasopressin, in diuretic therapy, or by salt poisoning.

Central diabetes insipidus due to failure of the hypothalamus to make vasopressin may occur as a consequence or cerebrovascular disease ischemia and head trauma, resulting in hypernatremia.

Hypernatremia is a serum sodium level greater than 145 mEq/L. It is classified into hypovolemic hypernatremia, isovolemic hypernatremia, and hypervolemic hypernatremia.

Hypernatremia occurs in about one to three percent of elderly persons and in 0.3 to 1 percent of hospitalized patients.
Hypernatremia

Soft Drinks and Hypertension

2011-03-24T19:18:00.000-07:00

Hypertension is one of the top five chronic health disorders suffered by American adults.

In one study a woman’s risk of developing hypertension increased steeply when caffeine was consumed in soft rinks – even with sugar free diet colas.

There are strong positive association between cola beverage intake and hypertension risk.

Fructose consumption has been on explosive rise and has paralleled the epidemics of hypertension. The yearly intake of high fructose corn syrup as an added sugar to be as high as 62.4 pounds per person.

Soft drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup such as colas and fruit drinks are the primary source of sugar in the American’s diet.

One the risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease is high blood pressure. High blood pressure have also have been linked to high amount of sodium in diet. Incidentally, diet drinks generally contain more sodium than regular soft drinks.

In populations with low sodium intakes, hypertension is rare. Sodium is present in many beverages including soft drinks. Americans consume about two teaspoons of salt per day, most of which is hidden in prepared foods, preservatives and flavorings.

Soft drinks also contain caffeine. Caffeine induces hypercalciuria, affects hydration and may aggravate hypertension.

Apart from hypertension caffeinated soft drinks also linked to depression, bone fracture, and neurological damage.
Soft Drinks and Hypertension

Protective Effects of Alcohol to Blood Pressure and Stroke

2010-12-02T08:24:00.000-08:00

Protective Effects of Alcohol to Blood Pressure and Stroke
A relatively high alcohol intake (>4 drinks/d) is associated with elevated blood pressure and an increased risk of stroke.

Recent evidence from cohort studies suggest that the association between alcohol and hypertension may be J-shaped, such that light and moderate drinkers have a modestly reduced risk of developing hypertension, although the exact mechanism for this effect is unknown.

Studies on the association between moderate alcohol consumption and stroke have been mixed.

Several case control and cohort studies have seen a reduced risk of stroke among moderate drinkers.

In that studies that found benefit, the reduction is usually limited to ischemic rather than hemorrhagic stroke.

Clearly the data support no increase in ischemic risk at moderate levels, but more work is needed to determine if drinking patterns if influence risk of stroke.
Protective Effects of Alcohol to Blood Pressure and Stroke

Tests needed if Suffer from High Blood Pressure

2010-09-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

The classical causes of secondary high blood pressure are all rare, accounting for less than 1% of all cases of treated high blood pressure.

In practice this means that detailed tests are not usually necessary when high blood pressure is first diagnosed.

Raised blood pressure may be result of a number of conditions apart from essential hypertension. Many kidney diseases cause high blood pressure.

Therefore people are suspected of having this problem, their kidneys are usually checked. In most cases with a single blood and urine test.

Urine test
Urine test to check for protein and sugar in the urine. Leakage of protein may indicate that the kidneys have been damaged from high blood pressure, chronic kidney infection or disease and will need more detail assessment of kidney function.

Testing for sugar is a relatively straight forward way of checking for diabetes.

Similarly, of sugar is present, then blood tests will be needed to confirmed or rule out diabetes.

High blood pressure and diabetes are associated with serious complications and increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, eye problems, kidney problems, nerve disease and premature death.

Blood tests
Blood tests for urea, electrolytes and creatinine levels total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol.

Creatinine is a waste product of muscle and usually your kidneys lose their filtering ability, creatinine excretion falls, and blood levels rise from a normal range of 0.5 to 1.5 mg/dL to as high as 10 to 15 mg/dL.

For this reason, the blood creatinine level is a useful gauge of kidney health.
Tests needed if Suffer from High Blood Pressure

Measuring blood pressure

2010-08-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

Measuring blood pressure
Accurate blood pressure measurement is important for diagnosis.

Raised blood pressure is a symptomless condition that, if left untreated, contributes to substantial risk of heart disease and stroke.

Clinical trials of blood pressure lowering drugs have shown that reducing blood pressure the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Blood pressure can be measured in several ways: by means of an electronic, mercury or aneroid sphygmomanometer.

Electronic monitors are being increasingly used in GP’s surgeries.

Provided that machine is selected that has been shown to be accurate and reliable, electronic monitoring offers several advantages over the older mercury sphygmomanometers.

Aneroid sphygmomanometers are unreliable and ar not recommended.
Measuring blood pressure

Hypertension as a Cardiovascular Risk Factor

2010-07-25T02:41:00.000-07:00

Hypertension as a Cardiovascular Risk Factor
It has long been recognized that elevated blood pressure is a risk factor for future cardiovascular events and that lowering it may save lives.

The relationship is strong, continuous and graded without any distinct threshold level; it is present, in both men and women, in younger and older adults and in those with and without known coronary heart disease; it is present in different countries and in different ethnic and racial groups.

Hypertension is also a risk marker for other cardiovascular risk factors (dyslipidemia, diabetes, obesity etc), which generally tend to cluster with hypertension.

In the presence of these other risk factors, there is a steeper relation between levels of blood pressure elevation and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

There is evidence of the age-related increase in blood pressure throughout adulthood, so that even persons who are normotensive at age 55 have a 90% lifetime risk from developing hypertension.

However, the rate of age-related rise in blood pressure varies greatly between individuals.

Age related tracking of increased blood pressure over time in an individual in relation to his or her peer.

There is evidence of disparate rather than parallel tracking of blood pressure, whereby an individual in the upper percentile of blood pressure will have a much steeper age-related increase in blood pressure than one in the lower percentile of blood pressure.

This is referred to as the “horse racing effect,” there being a close correlation between the speed of the horse and its position on the race.

Labiltiy of blood pressure, defined as large random variations of blood pressure measurements from one visits to the next, is directly related to aging and to the severity of blood pressure, suggesting that labile blood pressure is associated with increased risk.

However, when other risk factors are accounted for by multivariate analysis, risk is largely unaffected by lability of blood pressure.

It is the average blood pressure over the day and night cycle, no lability that determines cardiovascular risk.
Hypertension as a Cardiovascular Risk Factor

Juice Ingredient Recommendation for Stress

2010-06-25T15:38:00.000-07:00

Juice Ingredient Recommendation for Stress
Modern life is filled with stressors – job pressures, relationship problems, financial worries.

Actually, a stressor is almost anything that creates a bodily disturbance.

Stressors include environmental or microbial toxins, physical trauma, exposure to heat or cold, and strong emotional reactions.

Physical symptoms can include headache fatigue insomnia, digestives disturbance, neck and back pain and either loss of appetite or overeating.

Celery Juice
Celery juice has a calming effect an support the nervous system

Fennel Juice
Fennel juice helps promote the release of endorphins, the “feel good” brain chemicals.

Garlic Juice
Garlic juice helps prevent infections

Lettuce Juice
Lettuces juice calms digestion

Parsley Juice
Parsley juice is a source of a number or important nutrients, including bioflavonoids, magnesium, potassium and vitamin C.

Intake should be limited to a safe, therapeutic does of ½ to 1 cup per day.

Parsley can be toxic in overdose and should be especially avoided by pregnant women.
Juice Ingredient Recommendation for Stress

Stress Management to Lower High Blood Pressure

2010-05-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

Stress Management to Lower High Blood Pressure
Stress-reduction techniques or the various disciplines of mind/body medicine, such as biofeedback, yoga, meditation, Qigong, relaxation exercises and hypnotherapy, have all proved successful in lowering blood pressure.

Biofeedback has proven particularly in working to lower hypertension. Patients in one study were able to sustain lower blood pressure reading after three years of using biofeedback.

Biofeedback is a technique in which people learn how to gain control internal over body processes that normally occur involuntarily, such as blood pressure heart rate muscle tension and skin temperature.

Combining biofeedback with other stress-reduction techniques can also help patients achieve results.

A study of mildly hypertensive men treated with biofeedback, autogenetic training, or breathing relaxation training showed a significant reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

The higher the pretreatment blood pressure level, the greater the effects types of relaxation training.

Self guided relaxation techniques can be quick and effective way to lower blood pressure according to researcher at the National Taiwan University, in Taiwan.

Hypertension in widespread there with 27% of men and 13% of women having reading of at least 140/90.

Based on a study group of 590 individuals with high blood pressure, researchers found that practicing progressive relaxation techniques (from an audio cassette) coupled with home study of healthful practices led to an average drop of blood pressure to 130/65 after two months.

A study led by professor and registered nurse at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas found that patients could drop blood pressure by as much as 10 pints by simply thinking about it.

Patients with high and normal blood pressure were taught basic relaxation techniques and biofeedback. In a biofeedback session, patents monitor their pulse, blood pressure and temperature as they practice deep breathing.

The findings was that people with high blood pressure, low fingertip temperature and a tendency to react quickly or negatively to stressful situations reaped the most benefits from biofeedback.
Stress Management to Lower High Blood Pressure

Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring

2010-05-03T07:55:00.000-07:00

Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring
Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is a much better way of measuring blood pressure in somebody who has one of the following factors:

*White coat hypertension

*Unusual variability in the measurement of blood pressure at the clinic

*Uncontrolled hypertension – this is high blood pressure that has not been reduced to a target blood pressure level after intensive drug treatment has been given

*Very low blood pressure, particularly after suddenly standing up when someone may feel dizzy or light headed (postural hypo-tension): in more severe cases this can cause fainting or a fall.
Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring

Trace Metals Hypertension

2010-04-05T04:15:00.001-07:00

Trace Metals Hypertension
It has been claim that both cadmium and lead, which are environmental, pollutants, may cause high blood pressure.

Many of these associations have not been confirmed by detailed studies that have taken concurrent alcohol intake into account.

The main source of cadmium to the human body is cigarette smoke.

The evidence for the trace metal hypertension hypothesis must now be regarded as very fragile although a positive correlation between blood lead and blood pressure does appear to be genuine even after correction for possible confounding variables.

Conversely however, there is fairly good evidence that blood pressures are lower in areas where the drinking water is hard (i.e., has a higher calcium content), although the mechanisms for this association unknown.
Trace Metals Hypertension

How to Defined Hypertension?

2010-03-07T02:32:00.000-08:00

How to Defined Hypertension?
Blood pressure is a continuous variable with a skewed normal distribution and without distinct separation between normotensive and hypertensive values.

Therefore an operational definition of hypertension is necessary to identify individuals at risk for cardiovascular disease.

It has been suggested that the best operational definition of hypertension is the level of arterial blood pressure at which the benefits of intervention exceed the risk of no treatment.

More recently, the blood pressure target for treatment has decreased below 140/90 in the presence of other associated cardiovascular risk factors.

There is a growing recognition of the importance of “high normal” blood pressure (systolic blood pressure 130 to 139 and diastolic blood pressure 85 to 89 mm Hg), “prehypertension” (systolic blood pressure 120-139 mm Hg or diastolic of 85-89 mm Hg), and especially, isolated systolic hypertension (isolated systolic hypertension >140 and diastolic blood pressure <90 mm Hg).
How to Defined Hypertension?

Exercise for reducing and controlling hypertension

2010-02-23T22:24:00.000-08:00

Exercise for reducing and controlling hypertension
Regular exercise reduces stress and blood pressure, so it is highly recommended as an integral part of your life.

Consistent aerobic exercise can both present and lower hypertension.

In one study of 902 with hypertension, 45 to 69 years old positive long term effects on blood pressure and cholesterol levels were achieved with increased exercise along with a lower fat diet.

Swimming which is frequently prescribed as a nonimpact exercise to lower high blood pressure can produce a significant decrease in resting heart rate (a sign of cardiovascular health) and systolic blood pressure in previously sedentary people with elevated blood pressure.
Exercise for reducing and controlling hypertension

The meaning of white coat hypertension

2010-02-06T17:52:00.000-08:00

The meaning of white coat hypertension
This is when your blood pressure is high when measured during a surgery or outpatient clinic but is otherwise normal.

It usually occurs in response to the measurement of blood pressure by a doctor or nurse.

In people with normal blood pressure there is generally little or no difference between their blood pressure reading at a clinic or in a surgery compared to their usual blood pressure.

However, in some people, substantial differences between clinic and usual blood pressure are consistently found, with the higher readings occurring in situations where a doctor or nurse has made the blood pressure reading.

This phenomenon of ‘white coat hypertension’ is more commonly seen in women and older people.

As many as 20% of people diagnosed with high blood pressure at clinics or in surgery may have entirely normal blood pressures while it is measures during the rest of the day.

Other blood pressure measuring techniques are recommended in these people so that their usual pressure is accurately recorded.
The meaning of white coat hypertension

The Autonomic Nervous System and High Blood Pressure

2010-01-18T22:54:00.000-08:00

The Autonomic Nervous System and High Blood Pressure
A major way by which the mid and body communication is through the autonomic nervous system (ANS), a group of nerves that regulate many of the body’s physiological processes, such as heart rate, blood pressure, constipation, sweating and incontinence.

Centers in the brain, principally the brain stem and hypothalamus, receive information about the state of the body and in response activate the nerve fibers of the ANS to maintain appropriate physiological balance.

For example, when you exercise, the ANS stimulates the heart’s pacemaker cells to increase your heart rate, thus increasing the amount of blood pumped to moving muscles.

The autonomic nervous system derives its name for the fact that its activities normally operate without conscious control.

Thus, you do not think about how fast your heart should beat or whether you should sweat to cool yourself when jogging.

Even though the ANS functions without conscious control the signal it sends to the body can be affected by thoughts and feelings.

For example, nearly all students are familiar with the nervous stomach and sweaty palms that accompany taking an important exam.

Realizing that it is possible to do poorly in an exam (a thought) leads to anxiety (an emotion), which activates the ANS to produce symptoms.

Panic has an immediate effect on breathing and heart rate, and stress can constrict blood vessels, causing headaches or high blood pressure.

Many students live fast-paced hectic lives that full of time pressures and stress. Besides doing school assignments many students work at jobs and nearly all try to maintain harmonious social relationship with family and friends, and which take time and attention.

More over, the modern environment is filled with cell phones, the Internet, TV video games, iPods, and other stimuli that compete for one’s attention.

Trying to accommodate all of life’s demands produces near continuous physiologic arousal mediated by the sympathetic nerves of the ANS, causing among other things, sleep disturbances, muscle tension, gastrointestinal symptoms and an increased risk for cardiovascular disease.
The Autonomic Nervous System and High Blood Pressure

Exercise

2010-01-17T03:14:00.001-08:00

Exercise
Dynamic exercise raises blood pressure and isometric exercise raises blood pressure a lot.

Despite this, there is good evidence that people who take regular exercise are healthier and have lower blood pressures than those who take none.

There is evidence that regular exercise decreases coronary heart disease in normotensive and hypertensive people.

This may be partly because they are thinner and tend to have more sensible dietary, drinking and smoking habits.

Recently, a study of the affects of different levels of exercise lowers blood pressure independently from any other dietary manoeuvres.
Exercise

Treating Hypertension

2009-11-20T00:17:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-01T19:10:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

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

What causes high blood pressure?

2009-10-10T06:40:00.000-07:00

What causes high blood pressure?
There is still a lot of uncertainly about the causes of high blood pressure.

For the vast majority of people, over 95% an underlying cause is not found.

These are the people also have ‘essential’ hypertension. It is likely that several factors contribute to high blood pressure in most people.

The chief suspects include:

An overactive hormone system that relates to the kidney (the rennin-angiotensin system)
An overactive autonomic nervous system (the part of the nervous system responsible for our unconscious nervous response)
A fault in the cells of the smaller blood vessels that produce substances leading to blood vessel and increased blood pressure (endothelial cell dysfunction)
Genetic predisposition (when you may have inherited a tendency to high blood pressure)
Intrauterine factors, particularly birth weight, that may reflect undernourishment in the fetus and that ‘programme’ our body to develop high blood pressure in later life.

What causes high blood pressure?

Does Alcohol Lower Blood Pressure?

2009-09-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

Does Alcohol Lower Blood Pressure?
Alcohol actually has two effects on blood pressure. One of these effects was initially hidden from earlier researchers, because they often performed blood pressure measurements 12 to 15 hour after the original alcohol intake.

It turns out that this point coincides with the maximal effect that alcohol has increasing blood pressure.

However, when researches attached a monitor that took study participants’ blood pressures multiple times each hour and measured their blood pressure responses during the time immediately following alcohol ingestion, and then continued on to take their blood pressure measurements 12 to 15 hours or more after alcohol intake, a different picture emerged.

Shortly after alcohol ingestion, there is actually a decline in blood pressure. After a few hours, blood pressure returns to its baseline values. As some of the metabolites (the breakdown products of alcohol) the n enter into the circulation, there is actually an increase in blood pressure that is evident about 12 to 15 hours after the original alcohol ingestion.

Overall, the net effect of alcohol is an increase in blood pressure of about two points, or 2 mm Hg.

If you look at the blood pressure 12 to 15 hours after ingestion, this effect appears to be more like 6 mm Hg.

Because a 4 mm Hg decrease in blood pressure occurs after ingestion, however, the net increase from alcohol is actually about 2 mm Hg.
Does Alcohol Lower Blood Pressure?

Exercise Helps Normalize Blood Pressure

2009-09-06T20:04:00.000-07:00

Exercise Helps Normalize Blood Pressure
Exercise helps to normalize blood pressure and create a healthy pulse.

Exercise is an anticoagulant, meaning that it keeps the blood flowing smoothly and not clotting (called a “thrombus” which could cause a heart attack).

Every creature seeking to eliminate internal waste does so by means of muscular action.

Inside your intestines there are 3 muscular layers which undergo a rhythmic, wavelike action called peristalsis.

A serious condition results if you allow the internal and external muscles, though inactivity, to become flabby and fat instead of muscular.

The muscles lose their tone and power to contract resulting in intestinal clogging.

The abdominal muscles play an important role in the evacuation role in the evacuation effort.

What happens when the internal and external muscles become flabby, soft, sick and infiltrated with fat? They refuse to work and we pile up intestinal waste that should have been eliminated.

This brings about autointoxication, or the building of large amounts of toxic poison. Again, inactivity the avoidable cause of many diseases.

Fasting and diet are two allies in your struggle for long lasting youth, health and symmetry. When it comes to fighting fat, diet and fasting come first.

But when it comes to keeping fit, it is exercise that matters most. However, they all help each other, for by exercise regularly you may be more generous in your diet and up to a certain point, your extra food will make for increased vitality.

The human machine loves exercise, outdoor activities, and can work at top performance when fit and healthy.

As with all machines, it improve with intelligent use. Nothing betrays its weal spots like inactivity and rust.
Exercise Helps Normalize Blood Pressure

Stress

2009-08-31T17:06:00.000-07:00

Stress
As hypertension is a disease of Westernized, and particularly of urban societies (although large urban/rural differences are not seen much in Europe and the USA), it is tempting to attribute high blood pressure to the stress of modern living.

Certainly, acutely stressful stimuli raise blood pressure and may be more pressor in subjects who have hypertension.

However, there remains considerable doubt as to whether chronic stress raises blood pressure.

Investigation of environmental stress and high blood pressure in population surveys is founded by other social factors, including poverty, dietary fats, calorie, electrolyte and alcohol intake and cigarette smoking.

Studies of various psychological indices, including aggression, neuroticism and introversion, have produced conflicting results.

Many reliable studies have found no clear-cut effect.

In individuals, there is some evidence of a relationship between stress and hypertension.

The type A/type B classification of personality has demonstrated with many exceptions, that type A (stressed) people have higher blood pressure and a relatively higher risk of death than type B people.

However, hypertensive patients may only develop higher stress levels once they have been diagnosed and made to worry about their health.

The term ‘hypertensive personality’ is misleading and may only be an accurate description of people who are called frequently to attend the blood pressure clinic.
Stress

Treatment

2009-07-31T11:42:00.000-07:00

Treatment
Treatment strategies are often difficult because hypertension is an asymptomatic disease.

Patients are not always happy about being told they have a medical problem that could lead to a life-ending event.

Many go through a period of denial and are resistant to education and the best efforts of physicians, but it is important for patients to know early on why they need to be treated and what the appropriate treatment goals should be.

It is critical that patients understand why certain blood pressure goals are chosen and what is necessary to achieve them.

Lifestyle modification should always be utilized to achieve better blood pressure control even when pharmacotherapy is also required.

Patients should be told that most medications only reduce blood pressure by about 10 mm Hg, which is why they may need more than one medication to control their blood pressure.

At the same time, the clinician can also evaluate which pharmacotherapies are appropriate for the individual patient.

Blood pressure medications that are well tolerated and effective make an important difference in risk for cardiovascular events, and frequent use of medicine combinations in single tablets may help facilitate patient compliance.

Renin-angiotensin system blocking drugs as part of a multidrug regimen uniformly reduce risk in patients with heart or kidney disease.

Blood pressure must always be met: in preventing or treating cardiovascular events no drugs are so good that the need for controlled blood pressure is eliminated.

Substantial controversy surrounds pharmacotherapy for blood pressure control. There is even debate about appropriate blood pressure in individual patients and how blood pressure should be lowered.

From an epidemiologic standpoint blood pressures below 120/80 mm Hg are least likely o be associated with cardiovascular events.

Yet it is unknown whether it is appropriate to lower everyone’s blood pressure to this level.
Treatment

Minerals that Lower Blood Pressure

2009-07-25T23:44:00.000-07:00

Minerals that Lower Blood Pressure
Studies have shown that nutritional supplementation, particularly with potassium, calcium and magnesium (non-chloride salts), along with antioxidants and zinc, can help reduce hypertension.

Sodium and Potassium
In order to reduce blood pressure sodium intake must be restricted while potassium intake is increased.

Individuals with high blood pressure should be aware of hidden salt in processed foods.

Although their salt intake is comparable, vegetarian generally have less hypertension and cardiovascular than non-vegetarian because their diet contain more potassium, complex carbohydrates, polyunsaturated fat, fiber, calcium, magnesium and vitamin A and C.

According to expert, regular consumption of potassium-rich-fruits such as avocadoes, bananas, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, grapefruit, nectarine, orange and vegetables such as asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, green peas, potatoes and squash can lower high blood pressure.

Steaming rather than boiling vegetables helps prevent vital nutrient loss.

Calcium
Calcium has been shown to lower blood pressure in hypertensive.

Because many with high blood pressure have a lower daily calcium intake than people with normal blood pressure, calcium rich foods, including nits and leafy green vegetables such as watercress and kale, should also supplement the diet.

A recent analysis of the research on calcium and hypertension shows that either increasing calcium in the diet or using calcium supplements will usually have a positive effect in systolic blood pressure.

Magnesium
In one study, magnesium supplementation lowered blood pressure in 19 of 20 hypertensive. Dietary magnesium is found in nuts (almonds, cashews, pecans), rice, bananas, potatoes, wheat germ, kidney and lima beans soy products and molasses.

Antioxidants and Zinc
Research has found that antioxidants are linked to an increase in nitric oxide activity.

Nitric oxide helps open blood vessels which in turn may help lower blood pressure.

Zinc may helpful because it activates superoxide dismutase (SOD), an antioxidant enzyme.
Minerals that Lower Blood Pressure

Blood Pressure-Lowering Drugs

2009-07-12T01:37:00.000-07:00

Blood Pressure-Lowering Drugs
When severe high blood pressure is reduced by drugs, people love longer than if they are left untreated.

Their treatment will not affect how they feel – it seldom makes people feel better and they may sometimes even worse.

The aim of all present treatments for high blood pressure is not to cure it, but to prevent its consequences by keeping pressure down to a safer level (whatever the underlying causes of high blood pressure are, they seem almost always to be permanent and are not affect by any of the treatments now available).

Treatment must therefore nearly always continue for life – if you stop taking your tablets, your blood pressure will probably rise again, although this may take several months.

Unfortunately, all the drug used for high blood pressure can cause unpleasant side effects in some people, although the newer blood pressure lowering drugs are generally easier to live with than the older ones.

If you thinks your drugs are upsetting you, then say so, as there are alternatives. With so many blood pressure-lowering drugs now available your doctor should be able to tailor an individual treatment for you that minimizes side effects or even eliminates them altogether.

Included among the side effects of blood pressure lowering drugs are tiredness, depression and failure of erecting: if any of theses happen to you, then tell your doctor or nurse, as of they really are caused by your drugs, thy will clear up soon after your medication is changed.

If you have any wheezing or asthma, then some blood pressure-lowering drugs can be very dangerous, so make sure your doctor knows about this.

Some drugs for back and joint pains can interfere with the effect of drugs given for high blood pressure and you should ask you doctor about these if you take them.

The contraceptive pill occasionally raises blood pressure very seriously, so women with high blood pressure should discuss other methods of birth control.
Blood Pressure-Lowering Drugs

Potassium Role in Blood Pressure

2009-07-03T21:24:00.001-07:00

Potassium Role in Blood Pressure
The role of potassium in lowering blood pressure has received less attention until recently.

International comparisons of blood pressure and potassium intake, have shown that a higher potassium intake appears to be associated with a lower prevalence of hypertension.

It is also probable that a low potassium intake has an independent effect on stroke mortality, which is separate from the effect of blood pressure.

Sodium and potassium cannot easily be considered separately, and when assessing their effects, potassium it is probably best to examine dietary or urinary sodium/potassium ratios.

It is interesting to note that in the USA, where hypertension is common in blacks, there are virtually no differences in sodium intake or urinary sodium excretion between blacks and whites but there are marked differences in potassium intake and excretion.

Black people tend to consume lower quantities of potassium rich foods which are usually of high quality and expensive.

This may explain partly some of the social and economic factors causing racial differences in blood pressure.
Potassium Role in Blood Pressure

Pathogenesis

2009-05-31T03:37:00.001-07:00

Pathogenesis
Changes in blood pressure tend to occur over time. Development of hypertension is a slow insidious process. We have been taught to wait and to plan for treatment once the blood pressure reaches a level we deem appropriate for treatment.

Traditionally, this level has been 140/90 mm Hg. Studies are currently underway to determine whether it makes sense to intervene sooner and thus preventing development of true hypertension with behavioral techniques and pharmacotherapy.

For example, it would be helpful to know whether treatment started at 130 mm Hg would prevent progression to systolic levels in the 140s: this information could have an important impact on determining risk of cardiovascular events and on decisions regarding expensive pharmacotherapy.

This intriguing issue delves into the pathogeneses of hypertensive cardiovascular disease. Why is a high blood pressure injurious to the circulation?

Although not known with certainty, most experts would suggest that rising arterial pressures creates increase mechanical stretch and strain on vascular beds, which results in localized areas of injuries.

With repetitive injury and subsequent repair over time, remodeling and restructuring occurs, which affects compliance if the elastic vessels and leads to a loss of distensibility. Subsequent calcification ensues.

The net result is increasing peripheral vascular resistance and higher levels of arterial pressure.

There is also increasing evidence that subtle derangements in sodium and water handling by the kidney may lead to development of higher levels of blood pressure through increasing blood volume.

It is also theorized that hypertension could injure the kidney and interfere with sodium and water excretion.

Thus it is a combination of factors that result in increasing levels of blood pressure and subsequent vascular and target organ injury.

Many factors are involved in the injury process. For example, dietary salt is a substantial concern especially in people who have measurable increases in blood pressure in response to increased ingestion of salt.

There are also data suggesting that dietary salt may cause non-hemodynamic injury to the circulation and heart.

Neurohormones such as angiotensin II and norepinephrine have been implicated in leading to vascular disease.

Angiotensin II, in particular, has been identified as a major factor in the injury and repair responses that occur in blood vessels, the heart, and the kidneys.

Drugs that block the rennin-angiotensin system have a potent capability of attenuating structural changes that occur in vascular beds.

The sympathetic nervous system employs catecholamines, such as norepinephrine, to raise blood pressure.

Catecholamines have also been linked to the pathogenesis of hypertension. They increase heart rate and cardiac output and raise blood pressure. The impact of stress and hyperexcitability on raising blood pressure mediated through effects of both the renin-angiotensin system and the sympathetic nervous system.

Therefore, there is great interest in targeting neurohormonal systems with various pharmacotherapies to prevent progression of hypertensive cardiovascular disease.

Other hormones such as insulin and cytokines may contribute to development of vascular disease, as well.
Pathogenesis

Oatmeal for Your Heart

2009-05-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

Oatmeal for Your Heart
In recent years, clinical studies have affirmed the ability of oatmeal and oat bran to reduce blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure and generally reduce the long term risk of hart disease.

In recognition of these well-established benefits, in 1996 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted manufacturers/packagers of oatmeal the right to make specific health claim about this food, stating that diets high in oat meal or oat bran may reduce the risk of heart disease.

It was the first permissible health claim ever accorded to a food by the FDA, an agency that generally has favored drugs over natural substance.

In 1995, researchers at John Hopkins, in Baltimore, Maryland, reported that people who regularly consumed even a modest portion of oatmeal (one ounce cooked daily) had lower blood pressure and cholesterol readings than those who never ate oatmeal.

The study was based in the evaluation of 850 men, 17 – 77 years old living in China; their oatmeal consumption was 25 – 90 g daily.

The researchers stated that “the higher the oats intake, the lower the blood pressure,” regardless of other factors such as age and weight or alcohol sodium, or potassium intake, which are known to affect blood pressure.

According to researcher, it is oatmeal’s high content of water soluble fiber (beta glucan) that can produces the heart benefits.

A six-year study involving 22,000 middle-aged Finnish males showed that consuming as little as 3 g daily of soluble fiber (from the beta glucan fiber component of oats, barley or rye) reduce the risk of death from heart disease by 27%.
Oatmeal for Your Heart

Secondary Causes of Hypertension

2009-04-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

Secondary Causes of Hypertension

Chronic kidney disease

Coarctation of aorta

Cushing syndrome and other glucocorticoid excess states including chronic steroid therapy

Drug induced or drug-related

Pheochromocytoma

Primary aldosteronism and other mineralocorticoid excess states

Renovascualr hypertension

Sleep apnea

Thyroid/parathyroid disease

Secondary Causes of Hypertension

Lifestyle – Exercise

2009-03-22T18:28:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

Weight loss reduces blood pressure in this with and without hypertension and be primary goal for hypertensive who are obese or moderately overweight.

Other factors for reducing and controlling hypertension are increased exercise and stress management.

Regular exercise reduces stress and blood pressure, so it is highly recommended as an integral part of your life.

Consistent aerobic exercise can both prevent and lower hypertension.

Swimming, which is frequently prescribed as a non impact exercise to lower high blood pressure, can produce a significant decrease in resting heart rate (a sign of cardiovascular health) and systolic blood pressure in previously sedentary people with elevated blood pressure.
Lifestyle – Exercise

Drug Treatment

2009-02-18T23:45:00.001-08:00

Drug Treatment
You will probably be advised to have drug treatment for your high blood pressure if there is already evidence of damage to your arteries, brain, heart, eyes or kidneys or if you also have diabetes.

As a very rough guide, drug treatment is otherwise rarely justified unless your average blood pressure (averaged from at least three reading on separate days) is at least 160/100 mmHg.

While you don’t need to know exactly what these figures mean, you should know what they are in your own case, just as you do your own height and weight.

This threshold figure (plus or minus 5 mmHg either way) is based on evidence from large controlled trials in Britain, Australia, Scandinavia and the USA, which have shown worthwhile saving of life in many thousands of people.

The benefits of drug treatment are greatest in the people with the highest pressures, or those who already have evidence of organ damage.

Most of the benefits has been in reducing strokes, heart failure and kidney damage; the effects on coronary heart attacks have been much smaller (more important ways to prevent heart attacks are to stop smoking, maintain regular exercise and stick to diet low in saturated fats).
Drug Treatment

Avocado and blood cholesterol

2009-01-26T01:25:00.000-08:00

Avocado and blood cholesterol
Avocado is a very dense fruit, packed with nutrients. It is especially rich in vitamin A. It also contains plenty of B vitamins, especially, folic acid, calcium, iron, 9 essential amino acids and a mountain of potassium.

The avocado has shown to benefit circulation, lower cholesterol and dilate blood vessels. It’s true that avocados are high in fat – one reason they’ve earned the nick name “butter pear.” But it’s primary fat, monounsaturated oleic acid ((also concentrated in olive oil), acts as an antioxidant to block LDL cholesterol.

In 1996 study in Mexico showed that from 45 subjects who ate avocados every day for just one week experienced an average of 17 percent drop in total blood cholesterol. They cholesterol ratio also changed in a healthy way: Their LDL (low density lipoprotein) and triglycerides dropped significantly while their HDL (high density lipoprotein) levels climbed.

Avocados are also rich in beta-sitosterol which was shown to reduce cholesterol in human studies. Beta sitosterol is a widely prescribed anti-cholesterol drug that interferes with cholesterol absorption, but has serious side effects. Avocados have four times the amount found in oranges that had previously been cited as the richest fruit source of beta sitosterol.

Avocado has been found to have three times the amount of glutathione than in any other fruit. Glutathione is a powerful antioxidant shown to block thirty different carcinogens and to block the proliferation of the AIDS virus in test tube experiments. Studies have revealed a strong correlation between increased glutathione intakes (from food) an decreased risk of oral and pharyngeal cancer.
Avocado and blood cholesterol

Salt

2009-01-21T10:03:00.000-08:00

Salt
The first suggestion that a high salt intake gives rise to high blood pressure goes back 4000 years to the ancient Chinese yellow Emperor, Huang Ti.

He suggested that people who ate too much salt developed harder pulses. More recent epidemiological evidence is so impressive that the salt hypothesis can no longer be considered controversial.

Primitive rural societies in Africa and also the South Pacific islands consume very little salt (below 50 mmol/day) and have hardly any hypertension and no rise in blood pressure with age.

Conversely, European, American and Japanese populations consume a lot of salt (200 – 300 mmol/day) and have high average blood pressures.

The very incidence of strokes amongst the northern Japanese may well be related to their very high salt intake and the recent impressive reduction in stroke rates may well be attributable to the reduction in salt intake that has occurred over the last 20 years.

The INTERSALT project was a major international collaborative study in which directly comparable data were obtained form 52 different populations in 32 countries. All the important confounding differences between urban or westernized population and primitive groups were taken into account.

The study showed unequivocally that the rise in blood pressure seen with advancing age in urban but no rural populations was related to the amount of salt in the diet.

Similarly meta-analysis of all the reliable individual population surveys of blood pressure in relation to salt intake confirmed the close relationship between salt intake and the height of the blood pressure and demonstrated that this effect was independent of the degree of urbanization.

There is evidence that over the last 50 years dietary salt consumption in the USA and Europe has fallen and this has been paralleled by a fall in stroke incidence. The fall in stroke incidence since the Second World War is only partly due to the more frequent use of antihypertensive medication.

Also, there is now evidence that high salt intake may cause strokes, partly through a direct effect on cerebral vessels and partly by a concomitant high prevalence of hypertension.
Salt

Etiology of Hypertension

2009-01-06T20:40:00.001-08:00

Etiology of Hypertension
Hypertension observed in clinical practice is usually essential. That is, the hypertension is probably of genetic origin. Most data indicate that subtle disturbance in sodium handling by the kidney lead to increases in arterial pressure.

Approximately 10% of hypertension of secondary in nature, which can be attributed to either a kidneys or an endocrine cause. The most common secondary causes are renal parenchymal or vascular disease. Subtle degrees of kidney dysfunction are almost always associated with blood pressure elevation. Likewise renal artery disease can also occur at any age and can be associated with increased blood pressure.

Endocrine causes of hypertension are approximately 1% of the total and include diseases of the thyroid, parathyroid, or adrenal glands.

Clinical clues suggesting a secondary cause of hypertension include early onset hypertension (before age 30), sudden development of hypertension, or sudden loss of blood pressure control in patients whose blood pressure was previously well controlled.

Typically, most patients have essential hypertension and commonly have a parent or first degree relative with history of hypertension. The patient evaluation process helps discriminate between essential hypertension and secondary hypertension.

Evaluation should assess lifestyle and identify additional cardiovascular risk factors and concomitant disorders that could affect prognosis and treatment of hypertension.

One should identify possible secondary causes of hypertension such as chronic kidney disease, endocrinopathies, sleep apnea syndrome, or drug related hypertension and assess for the presence or absence of target organ damage.

Physical examination and thorough medical history are of the utmost importance. Routine laboratory tests and other diagnostic procedures may also be indicated.

Routine laboratory testing, including a comprehensive chemistry panel, complete blood count, and urinalysis, will provide important clues about estimated glomerular filtration rate and the presence or absence of abnormalities in the urinalysis such as red cells, white cells, or proteinuria, which could suggest kidney disease.

An ECG could give clues as to left ventricular hypertrophy. A lipoprotein profile can elucidate cardiovascular risks.
Etiology of Hypertension

Hypertension, Diet and Nutritional Supplement

2008-12-25T04:58:00.000-08:00

Hypertension, Diet and Nutritional Supplement
There is a suggestion to recommend diets that consist of 30% fats, 20% - 25% protein and 45% - 50% carbohydrates. The fats should come from fish such as salmon, mackerel, Greenland halibut, cod and blue fish. This is o basically the so-called Mediterranean diet.

One study conducted in 1980s, investigating the rate of heart attacks over a ten year period for individual in European nations, revealed that the island of Crete reported no heart attacks as a cause of death, even though many of the residents had dangerously high cholesterol levels, a presumed risk factor for heart disease.

According to expert, the Mediterranean diet, rich in monounsaturated fat (olive oil) and antioxidants, has proved to be crucial in cardiovascular protection. This diet is low in saturated fats (such as dairy products and meats), high in fiber and antioxidants (vitamin C, beta carotene, and vitamin E) from fresh fruits and vegetables, and high in essential fatty acids, found in fish, flaxseed oil and other omega-3 oils.

Avocado and asparagus, commonly eaten in this diet, are rich in L-glutathione, an amino acid that can scavenge for harmful free radicals. An olive oil is the healthiest of oils as expert said. Also garlic and other members of the onion family (prominent in this diet) help because the significantly reduce blood pressure.
Hypertension, Diet and Nutritional Supplement

Smoking and High Blood Pressure

2008-12-17T05:57:00.000-08:00

Smoking and High Blood Pressure
Smoking is not a cause of high blood pressure, but it enormously increases the risks associated with it. If you have high blood pressure already, then if you also smoke you are three times more likely to have heart attack than non smokers if you are less than 50 years old, and twice as likely to have one if you are over 50. Heart attacks in people under 45, and in women at all ages, happen much more frequently in smokers.

Smoking is a powerful risk factor in its own right, not only for coronary heart disease and stroke, but also for cancer of the mouth, nose, throat, lung, bladder and pancreas, and for asthma and other lung diseases. Unlike all other risk factors, it also affects your colleagues, family and friends (through passive smoking and the example you set to your children) and it costs as lot of money you could spend better in other ways.
Smoking and High Blood Pressure

Salt, Sodium and High Blood Pressure

2008-12-03T19:20:00.000-08:00

Salt, Sodium and High Blood Pressure
Table salt is sodium chloride: it is the sodium which is important for your blood pressure, not the chloride. High blood pressure is unknown among those peoples of the world which normal diet contains about 20 times less sodium than a normal Western diet, and even very high blood pressure can be controlled by reducing sodium intake to this level. The diet required for this consists entirely of rice, fruit, and vegetable and would be intolerable to most people.

The usual daily diet contains much more salt than anyone needs, it certainly does no harm to reduce sodium intake by not adding salt to cooked meals, and by reducing or avoiding high sodium processed foods (crisps, sausages, sauces, tinned meats and beans and ‘convenience’ food generally), Chinese take-away (which contain huge quantities of sodium glutamate) and strong cheeses. Salt can be found in the most unexpected foods for example, both milk and bread contain salt in amounts which would surprise most people.

There is no convincing evidence that the roughly one third reductions in sodium intake you can achieve by these dietary changes is an effective alternative to drug treatment for severe high blood pressure. Reducing fat in your diet by about a quarter reduces the potential complications of high blood pressure much more effectively than reducing your salt intake by about half. Most people find it difficult to reduce fat and salt at the same time, and fat reduction deserved a higher priority (especially as cutting down in fats will help you lose weight).

However, people whose blood pressure is high enough for them to need to take drugs for it may manage on lower dosage of their tablets if they reduce their sodium intake, and very heavy salt eaters should try to cut down.
Salt, Sodium and High Blood Pressure

Hypertension and Obesity

2008-11-11T20:17:00.000-08:00

Hypertension and Obesity
Fat people have higher blood pressure. There is, however, an important confounding factor to be taken into account. There is a tendency to overestimate blood pressure in people with fat arms particularly if the blood pressure cuffs are too small. The fatter the arm, the greater the overestimation. However, after correction for arm circumstance, there still remains a positive relationship between body mass index (BMI) and both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. There is a suggestion that BMI exerts its effects mainly on diastolic blood pressure with little independent effect on the systolic pressure, which is mainly related to age.

The mechanism by which obese people have a high blood pressure is uncertain. It is probable that obese people eat more sodium and less potassium and, therefore, may develop a rise in blood pressure due to dietary factors. It is probable also that high blood pressure is more closely correlated with central obesity than with BMI alone. Intravenous glucose tolerance tests have demonstrated that obese people are relatively resistant to insulin, and this concept is now the subject of a great deal of research. It has been postulated that insulin resistance leads to a rise in intracellular sodium concentration and to renal retention of salt and water. Thus insulin itself may play some role in the aetiology of essential hypertension, particularly in obese individuals.

Since obesity is itself associated with high blood lipids levels, glucose intolerance and high blood pressure, fat people are more prone to coronary heart disease. It is possible, however, that after allowing for these factor. BMI alone may not itself be an independent cardiovascular risks factor. This is only a theoretical consideration as most obese people do have the other cardiovascular risk factors and thus have a high risk of death. When people lose weight, their blood pressures tend to fall at a rate of 1 mm Hg/kg reduction of body weight.
Hypertension and Obesity

Stress and High Blood Pressure

2008-11-08T12:08:00.000-08:00

Stress and High Blood Pressure
If you are anxious, angry, have been hurrying, have a full bladder or if you are cold then your BP will rise for a few minutes or even a few hours – but none of these things seem to be causes of permanently raised high blood pressure. High blood pressure seems to be just as common in peaceable, even tempered people without worries as it is in excitable people with short fuses, however, feeling pushed at work or at home may be an important cause in some people, if not for everyone.

The word hypertension is used in medical jargon with exactly the same meaning as high blood pressure. This does not mean that feeling tense necessarily raises blood pressure, nor does it mean that most people with high blood pressure feel tense. Blood pressure falls considerably during normal sleep, both in people with normal blood pressure and in those whose blood pressure is high. Training in relaxation certainly lowers blood pressure for a while, and may have a useful long term effect on high blood pressure in people who learn how to switch off often during the day, but there is no evidence that treatment by relaxation along is an effective or safe alternative to drug treatment for people with severe high blood pressure.
Stress and High Blood Pressure

Barriers of Prevention Hypertension

2008-10-26T20:37:00.000-07:00

Barriers of Prevention Hypertension
Clinical evidence solidly indicates that hypertension increases the mortality and morbidity associated with coronary heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, and end stage kidney disease. Therefore, early identification of patients at risk for hypertension and therapy to prevent hypertension are ever more important.

The most important causal important factors for development of hypertension include obesity, excessive dietary salt consumption, reduced physical activity, excess alcohol intake, cigarette smoking, and inadequate intake of fruits, vegetables and potassium. Fewer than 20% of Americans engage in regular exercise, and only 25% consume five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Mean sodium intake is approximately 4100 mg per day for men and 2750 mg per day for women, most of which comes from processed foods. A healthier lifestyle could dramatically decrease the risk for developing hypertension.

The major barriers for effective prevention of hypertension include insufficient attention to education by health care providers and perhaps more important, lack of reimbursement for health education services. Many restaurants serve increasingly large helpings and patients often rapidly consume their food, both of which result in a substantial caloric intake. There is lack of availability of healthy food choices in many school, work sites, and restaurants. Salt is added to food by industry and restaurants to enhance taste and flavor, and foods lower in salt and calories are frequently more expensive. These factors confound public health, clinician and patient effort to reduce blood pressure though diet.
Barriers of Prevention Hypertension

Dietary and Environmental Factors

2008-10-08T06:28:00.000-07:00

Dietary and Environmental Factors
Hypertension is closely associated with the Western diet and found almost entirely in developed countries. Residents in remote areas of China, New Guinea, Panama, Brazil, and Africa show virtually no evidence of hypertension, even with advanced age. But when individuals within these groups moved to more industrialized area, the incidence of hypertension among them rose. This concluded that changes in lifestyles, including dietary changes and increased body mass and fat, significant contributed to the higher levels of pressure. And obesity, regardless of the presence of other factors, increases the risk of hypertension.

Although a combination of genetic and environmental factors such as behavior pattern and stress contribute to hypertension, the main cause appears to be a diet high in animal fat and salt, especially if high in relation to potassium and magnesium. Research concurs, that high in sodium chloride and deficient in potassium has been associated with hypertension. Lack of potassium and nutritional deficiencies play significant role in the development of hypertension, magnesium levels have been found to be consistently low in patients with high blood pressure.

Environmental factors such as lead contamination from drinking water, as well as residues of heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury, have been shown to promote hypertension. Even a low level of lead exposure and accumulation in tissues in adults is now linked to both hypertension and impaired kidney function. There were a study involving over 1000 men, the exposure to lead was at levels previously considered safe. Those with the highest bone levels of lead were 50% more, likely to have hypertension than those with the lowest. Researchers found that high levels of childhood exposure to lead are linked to adult obesity. Adult who had absorbed high leads levels as children gained the most weight between the ages of seven and 20. Both excess weight and high lead concentrations are associated with high blood pressure in adults. People with hypertension have been shown to have blood cadmium levels three or four times higher than those with normal blood pressure. It is important to rule out lead, cadmium and mercury toxicity when treating hypertension.
Dietary and Environmental Factors

Atherosclerosis and Food Diet

2008-09-25T02:51:00.000-07:00

Atherosclerosis and Food Diet
Atherosclerosis is used to describe several pathological processes occurring in a number of arteries and is responsible for coronary heart disease, stroke and diseases of the peripheral circulatory system. Atherosclerosis is a disease characterized by deposition of a fatty material on the walls of the arteries. Their material consists essentially of cholesterol, triglycerides fats, fibrous tissue and red blood cells. As the deposit continues to build, it restricts blood flow through the artery. When the coronary artery is involved, heart attack and death may follow.

Human studies have indicated a link between atherosclerosis and diet exists. The intake of saturated fat s and cholesterol increases the likehoods of having elevated serum cholesterol which is associated with arthrosclerosis. Other factors in addition to diet are associated with the occurrence of atherosclerosis. Among them are obesity, hypertension, diabetes, sedentary living, cigarette smoking, and high blood cholesterol levels. The latter may be cause by diet or be of hereditary origin. Although diet does appear to be involved, it must be emphasized that its relative importance in contributing to atherosclerosis is not entirely clear. Since cholesterol, a sterol found in all animal tissues, eggs, milk and other foods of animal origin, is a component of the atherosclerosis deposit, it has been reasonable to hypothesize that foods high in cholesterol can contributed to atherosclerosis. Such food may increase the level of cholesterol in the blood. But other components of diet especially large quantities of saturated fats and sugars – also can result in high levels of blood cholesterol.

Furthermore, some investigators find that high levels of blood triglycerides correlate even more closely with coronary disease than do high levels of blood cholesterol. High levels of blood triglycerides also result from the consumption of large quantities of saturated fats and sugars. Whereas consumption of large quantities of saturated fats can increase levels of both cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood, liberal quantities of polyunsaturated vegetable oils tend to decrease blood cholesterol.
Atherosclerosis and Food Diet

Causes of High Blood Pressure

2008-09-21T17:25:00.000-07:00

Causes of High Blood Pressure
The causes of short term rises in blood pressure high last only seconds or minutes are well understood, but these are not what we normally mean by high blood pressure. High blood pressure is important only when it is maintained for months or years – it is a high average pressure which is significant, not occasional high peaks. The causes of a long term rises in average pressure are not fully known, but we do know that it runs in families. This inherited tendency seems to account for about half the differences between people; the rest seems to depend on how they live and what they eat (not just in adult life, but they ate in infancy and childhood and how well nourished they were before they born).

One cause we do know about is overweight and weight reduction is a sensible first step in treatment. Weight loss depends mainly on using up more energy by taking more exercise and reducing energy input. In practice the most healthy way to do this is by reducing the amount of fats, oils, meats, sugar and alcohol in the diet, and instead eating more fruit, vegetables, cereal foods and fish. Eating less fat and oil is by far the most important of these changes. Another benefit from these changes in diet is that they help lower blood cholesterol levels and so reduce the risk of developing coronary heart disease.

Another known cause us excessive alcohol (which means more than 4 units of alcohol a day for a man or 3 units a day for woman – a unit alcohol is one glass of wine or one single measure of spirits or half a pint of average strength beer or lager). Again the biggest effect is in young people, limiting alcohol intake often brings high blood pressure back to normal without any other treatment.
Causes of High Blood Pressure

Risks of High Blood Pressure

2008-09-09T14:54:00.000-07:00

Risks of High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure is the most common continuing medical condition seen by family doctors. At just what measurement ‘normal’ blood pressure becomes ‘high’ blood pressure that justifies action taken to reduce it is still a subject among doctors. Whatever the definition, the numbers of people needing some sort of treatment for high blood pressure include at least 10% of any larger group of all adult, up to 33% of poorer city adults, and about 50% of all people over 65 years of age.

What high blood pressure is and what it is not?
Everybody’s blood is under pressure, otherwise it wouldn’t circulate around the body. If blood pressure is too high it damages walls of the arteries. After many years, this damage increase risks of coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, bleeding or detachment of the retina, and kidney failure, High blood pressure itself is not a disease, but a treatable cause of these serious disease, which are thereby partly preventable. All these risks are greatly increased if the person also smoke or have diabetes.

Unless it has already caused damage, high blood pressure seldom makes the person feel unwell. It can be very high without causing headaches, breathless, palpitations, faintness, giddiness or any of the symptoms which were once thought to be typical of high blood pressure.
Risks of High Blood Pressure

Definition of Hypertension

2008-09-01T02:02:00.000-07:00

Definition of Hypertension
The World Health Organization defined hypertension as: systolic blood pressure > or equal 160mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure > or equal 95mmHg and border line hypertension as systolic <160 and diastolic pressure 90-94mmHg or systolic 141-159 and diastolic pressure < 90 mmHg. The remainder of the population was considered ‘normotensive’.

Such definitions however are arbitrary because of the continuous nature of the blood pressure distribution. For most cases of hypertension, no underlying clinical case is found on investigation i.e., so called ‘essential’ hypertension. Essential hypertension is type of disease not hitherto recognized in medicine in which the defect is one of degree not of kind, quantitative not qualitative. It is apparently difficult for doctors to understand because it is departure from the ordinary process of binary thought to which they are brought up.

Definitions of hypertension are essentially pragmatic. They may be used to characterize groups of individuals that may benefit from specific treatment regimens – no pharmacologic and pharmacologic. For example, the cut points for ‘hypertension’ may be chosen at the level of blood pressure for which evidence of a treatment benefit is supported by data from randomized controlled clinical trials, and benefits of treatment outweighs risk. However these criteria will exclude the large numbers of people at excess risk from their blood pressure levels, but who are at or below the threshold for therapeutic intervention.
Definition of Hypertension

Blood Pressure and Age Relationship

2008-08-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

Blood Pressure and Age Relationship
In most westernized cultures blood pressure rises with age but this trend depends on gender, race and initial level of blood pressure, as well as on an individual’s genetic background and environmental.

Systolic and diastolic blood pressures are approximately 70 to 50 mmHg respectively at birth. Systolic blood pressure on average rises to 94 mmHg at the end of the 1st year, and diastolic blood pressure to 52mmHg. Blood pressure is then unchanged for the next 2-3 years but rises through out childhood and adolescence. Systolic blood pressure (1-2 mmHg) rises more rapidly than diastolic blood pressure so that pulse pressure slowly increases during childhood. Blood pressure in both sexes remains the same until teenage years when girl’s blood pressure rise more slowly than boy’s, so that by 18 years boys have a blood pressure 10mmHg systolic and 5 mmHg diastolic higher than girls.

During adulthood both systolic and diastolic blood pressure rise steadily, although systolic tends to increase more rapidly than diastolic. The age related rise in blood pressure in adults is slightly steeper for women so that by the 7th decade blood pressure in the two sexes is equal: beyond this age it is slightly higher than women. While some of this differential may be explained by selective survival of women with higher blood pressures, the longitudinal study indicates that the same difference is seen in individuals. Similar longitudinal studies indicate that the flattening and slight fall in diastolic blood pressure observed in the elderly is also genuine sequential change.
Blood Pressure and Age Relationship

Hypertension and Calcium linked

2008-07-12T23:40:00.000-07:00

Hypertension and Calcium linked
The high incidence of osteoporosis among the elderly, particularly women, has implicated a need for generous calcium intakes throughout life. Now another disease, hypertension, which affects as many as 58 million Americans and is particularly prevalent among the elderly, is being linked by some researchers to an inadequate intake of calcium.

Hypertension is an increase in vascular resistance most often due to a decreased luminal diameter of the arteries or arterioles. This decrease in luminal diameters is caused by excessive shortening of the vascular smooth muscle actomyosin; the initiator for the contraction (or shortening) is intracellular calcium. At first glance it seems quite incongruous that a deficiency of dietary calcium could be a cause of hypertension.

Many researches attempt to link hypertension to dietary factors and to treat the disorder by dietary manipulations. Dietary factors which have been investigated in relation to hypertension include, in addition to sodium and protein, total calories, fats, alcohol, chloride, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. Intensive research concerning the role of sodium in the development or treatment of hypertension has been particularly fruitful because through establishing the fact that certain populations of hypertensives (approximately 30% to 50%) are much more sensitive to an excess of sodium than others, it has strongly suggested that hypertension is a heterogeneous disease, having a variety precipitating factors.
Hypertension and Calcium linked

Vegetable and Blood Pressure

2008-06-15T00:43:00.000-07:00

Vegetable and Blood Pressure
Vegetables are plant foods that include various edible parts such as leaves, shoots, roots, tubers, flowers, and stems. They normally do not include fruit. However tomatoes and olives which are technically fruit are included, because their culinary role is related more to vegetables than the fruits. Vegetables belong to an important class of foods that supply us with many nutritive requirements, including nutrients, starches, fats, minerals, sugars, and vitamins. Vegetables also supply bulk to the diet, as well as a large variety of flavors and odors that provide the knowledgeable chef with repertoire of culinary tricks.

There are news that vegetable protein could prevent hypertension and the related disease. There are a number of common vegetables and spices have beneficial effects in controlling hypertension. Among them:
Tomato
Broccoli
Carrot
Saffron
The results were consistent with the recommendations that a diet high in vegetable products be part of a healthy lifestyle for prevention of high blood pressure and related diseases. Previous research also showed that blood pressure was better controlled with a vegetable diet. Vegetable contain less salt and more antioxidant vitamins, are low in calories, high in fiber and also help to control diabetes.
Vegetable and Blood Pressure

Hypertension Supplements

2008-05-09T02:24:00.000-07:00

Hypertension Supplements
Hypertension is commonly known as high blood pressure. A healthy young adult resting blood pressure should be around 120/80 mmHg, blood pressure rises with age, a typically healthy 50 year old should have blood pressure reading of 150/90 mmHg at rest. Hypertension (high blood pressure) is diagnosed when the blood pressure is constantly above 160/95 mmHg at rest.

The contributing factors to hypertension (high blood pressure) are kidney and hormonal disease, a genetically predisposed family history to high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, high consumption of dietary salt (sodium chloride), low dietary calcium, depletion in magnesium, obesity, low intake of potassium salts, a high consumption of sugar , high alcohol consumption, high consumption of caffeine especially in beverages such as tea and coffee, smoking, high saturated fats intake, consumption of liquorice, non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, the taking of the contractive pill, toxic material such as lead and cadmium, food allergy, lack of exercise and stress.

Usually, hypertension (high blood pressure) is without symptoms but typical symptoms of hypertension (high blood pressure) which are reported are feeling dizzy, tired and having headaches. If hypertension (high blood pressure) is left unchecked then blood vessels in the eyes, kidneys, heart and brain can become damaged causing serious conditions such as impaired eyesight, kidney failure, heart attacks and strokes. A man with hypertension (high blood pressure) in his 40’s is 30 times more likely to have a stroke than a man not suffering from hypertension (high blood pressure).

Changing your dieting and lifestyle can reduce the health risks associated with hypertension (high blood pressure). Avoid salt, excess alcohol, caffeine, stress and quit smoking, keep to a low fat, low cholesterol diet which is high in fresh organic fruit and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, this should provide plenty of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, potassium and fibre, take up regular exercise, if overweight try to loss it and try not to reuse vegetable oil for frying.

Supplements that have shown good results in reducing hypertension (high blood pressure) are Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), fish oil, garlic tablets and potassium.

The following supplements may help if you are suffering from hypertension (high blood pressure)
Achillea wilhelmsii
Coenzyme Q10
Evening primrose oil
Fibre
Fish oil (EPA/DHA)
Garlic
Hibiscus
By Stewart Hare Article
Source: http://EzineArticles.com
Hypertension Supplements

Foods That Lower Blood Pressure

2008-04-12T06:16:00.000-07:00

Foods That Lower Blood Pressure
The various causes that may lead to blood pressure also include the type of food you intake. It is therefore very important to include foods that lower blood pressure in your diet. All that you need to do is to eat simple. You do not need to go for some special natural foods to lower high blood pressure. Just a few dietary regulations could very well help you keep your blood pressure under control.

Remember that the food that is rich in minerals, low in saturated fats and high in fiber can help you lower blood pressure considerably. Try to avoid salt as much as possible. Although sodium forms an important part of the daily diet, its increased intake could further aggravate the blood pressure levels. Try to avoid fast food, red meat and all other food stuffs that are high in fat content.

The foods that you must try to avoid are cheese, canned foods, salted snacks and processed meats. You must include fruits and vegetables like banana, potatoes, avocados, tomato juice, grapefruit juice and acorn squash that are high in potassium. They are beneficial in fighting against the condition of high blood pressure. You could also use salt substitutes and eat calcium rich foods like green beans, sardines with bones, spinach, broccoli, tofu and low fat milk.

Sunflower seeds and navy beans are rich sources of magnesium and highly recommended to treat the condition of high blood pressure. You could also go for a DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet to control blood pressure. A DASH diet plan would help you know what all to eat at different timings. You would know about the foods that you must avoid and it would help you regulate your blood pressure via diet. Also, be careful while eating out. Go for low fat delicacies and do not succumb to temptations.

You could also try out some low fat recipes at home and enjoy your food to its best while keeping it low on harmful contents. It is advisable to go for boiled, steamed or baked food rather than fried. Such food has all the essential components intact while being beneficial for health.

Fish is another great option that the non vegetarian sufferers can opt for. But, do not go for the fried version. You could go for lean and healthy fish types like Salmon. It is high in fatty acid Omega 3 and is good to control your condition of high blood pressure. But do not take it more than twice a week, as it has high mercury content. Also, include celery which is a popular vegetable that is often included in salads and soups. It is not very good in taste but is surely a boon for high blood pressure sufferers.

So, now you know about the foods that lower blood pressure and you can easily make your pick. You must remember that a little control over your diet could take you places in fighting back your high blood pressure levels.
Foods That Lower Blood Pressure
By Louis T Zhang
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Diets for High Cholesterol

2008-02-21T18:31:00.000-08:00

Diets for High Cholesterol
Being health conscious is more important now than ever before. When people neglect their body by eating high fat foods and not exercising people will run the risk of a whole host of health issues, including obesity and heart disease. Many people don't pay any attention to what they eat until their doctor tells them that their cholesterol level is too high. In most cases, if it's only moderately high the physician will suggest one of the diets for high cholesterol. If it's alarmingly high, medication may also be prescribed to lower it quickly.

One reason people are a little standoffish about the medications used to lower bad cholesterol is because some of them are allegedly causing liver damage. This is why doctor may simply tell to change the way people eat. A diet to lower cholesterol can be really effective if the person is serious and sticks to it. Although we have to change the way we view food, and give up certain foods, the benefits are well worth it.

Common sense plays a big part in healthy meal planning. If we're trying to get in better shape, there are many fatty foods that we need to avoid. Diets for high cholesterol suggest staying away from things like red meat and heavy cream sauces. Eggs are also another source of cholesterol so be sure to limit the number we eat each week.

Whole grain foods are something we'll need to get used to when we want to follow a meal plan like this. They have a positive impact on cholesterol in a short period of time. It's easy to make the change to whole grains and many of the diets for high cholesterol suggest eating whole grain cereals and making sandwiches from seven grain bread.

Fruits and vegetables are really the staple of any diet that is designed for optimum health. Fruit flavored yogurt is also found in many diets for high cholesterol but do be careful to avoid any that are sweetened with sugar.

Drink a lot of water each day. This is a good rule of thumb for everyone. If get tired of plain water, try adding a little juice of lemon or lime to it. Once we adjust our palate and become accustomed with the new way of eating, for sure we’ll never want to switch back to the French fries and burgers.
Diets for High Cholesterol

Blood Pressure

2007-12-05T12:19:00.000-08:00

Blood Pressure
Very often doctors and other experts cannot even decide between them what an ideal blood pressure range is for an adult. However it is usually agreed that somewhere between 110/70 and 125/80 is considered to be an average blood pressure for a grown person, though someone with naturally low blood pressure may be closer to a range of 100/60 A blood pressure of 140/90 is considered to be high, though as a person gets older, this falls into the more normal range for people.

Blood doesn’t circulate in an even stream around the body, but travels in a constant series of spurts. Therefore the pressure peaks in the blood vessels just after a heart beat and then ebbs until the next one. This is a continuous process.

The two blood pressure figures represent the pressures when the forces are at their peak and at their lowest ebb. The stronger the arteries are, the more they resist the force of the blood and the lower the blood pressure.

As a person gets older, and the elasticity of their arteries weakens, the figures tend to rise. However the lower figure should still be less than 90 until that person at least reaches their sixties.

Many studies looking at blood pressure in both black and white people have found there is a higher prevalence of hypertension (High blood pressure) in black people than there is in white. This has led to further research in determining whether this is racially determined or just based on socioeconomic and dietary factors.

Some people suffering high blood pressure may find they just can’t pinpoint a cause for their problem. They may be fit, have a very healthy lifestyle yet their blood pressure remains consistently high for no apparent reason. This is called Primary or essential high blood pressure. However if the raised blood pressure is due to an underlying medical problem, it is known as Secondary High Blood Pressure.

Nearly one in four people in the Western world have high blood pressure. Many people don’t appreciate it is a dangerous condition that can lead to a heart attack kidney failure or stroke if it is left untreated. Yet there are thousands of people unaware they have high blood pressure who are walking around with a lethal time bomb ticking away inside them.
Blood Pressure

Hypertension and high blood pressure

2007-10-05T22:43:00.000-07:00

Hypertension and high blood pressure
Hypertension is a medical disorder in which the blood pressure is raised to high levels. It is one of the signs that an individual may have a stroke, heart attack, or heart failure. Some patients who have hypertension have been known to have aneurysms as well, and this can lead to serious kidney problems. The level of a person's blood pressure will determine their risk for developing a number of diseases. Because the blood pressure of a patient may vary greatly, a diagnoses for hypertension should not be made unless two or more readings have been taken.

If a person has a blood pressure level that is at 120/80 or 139/89, they are considered to be at a prehypertension level. Prehypertension is not a condition, but is a category which can help identify patients who are greatly at risk for getting hypertension. If a person is suffering from diabetes, a blood pressure level which is higher than 130/80 will put them at risk for developing hypertension. There are a number of factors that will determine the risk of a person getting hypertension. The age is one of the primary factors. Older people have a higher likelihood of developing hypertension compared to those that are young.

Individuals who consume excessive amounts of salt are greatly at risk. People who live a sedentary lifestyle and don't get sufficient amounts of exercise may also have a high risk for getting hypertension. The use of cigarettes or large amounts of alcohol will also play a role in a persons risk. In addition to this, obesity, stress, and saturated fat are important factors as well. The underlying structures that are connected to these factors and hypertension are well understood by doctors and scientists.

There are three common causes that most experts believe is connected to hypertension.

The first is the failure of kidneys to get rid of excess sodium.
The second is a highly active renin that causes the vasoconstriction of water and sodium.
The third cause is believed to be a sympathetic nervous system which is too active, and causes an abnormal amount of stress.

Hypertension is a condition that produces virtually not symptoms. Patients who are at an advanced stage of this disorder may have headaches and their vision may be blurred as well. Advanced levels of hypertension can also cause kidney failure,and this is one of the most serious symptoms. When a patient is suffering from renal failure, the term accelerated hypertension will often be used.

While young women don't generally have high levels of blood pressure, many of them will get hypertension while they are pregnant. These women will need to be given medication, as hypertension can lead to a number of complications with their pregnancy. A diagnosis for hypertension will often be made based on the blood pressure levels of the patient. Multiple measurments should be taken, and they will all need to be spaced weeks apart. However, if organ damage has occured, the diagnosis and treatment may need to be made quickly.
Hypertension and high blood pressure

HYPERTENSION

2007-05-02T00:57:00.000-07:00

Hypertension and You
If a person is said to suffer from hypertension, this expression means that the average arterial pressure of that person is above the level which is accepted as normal. The increase in blood pressure is an interesting health problem for three reasons; it is frequently seen, its effects are sometimes destructive and its symptoms are not recognizable even in the later phases of the clinical course.

Its effects are common and seen in all organs and it is determined as the only and most important factor of risk for especially both the coronary heart attacks and the cerebrovascular diseases. Also, it may cause direct congestive heart failure and renal inadequacy. There is not a threshold value, high level of which can be regarded as hypertensive and low level, safe for individuals, women and men.

Infact, this value increases gradually as the destructive effects of the blood pressure increases. Therefore, hypertension should be determined subjectively, in a way. Several people agree with the idea that the basic criterion of the diastolic pressure is always to be above 90 mmHg. That the systolic pressure is always 140 mmHg is defined as hypertension, but the clinical results of this, are different from diastolic hypertension for some reasons.

When these criteria are considered to be base, the ratio of people suffering from hypertension to the general population is found to be 25% in a comprehensive scanning program. However, the systolic and the diastolic values which are regarded as limit for adults are considered as 160/95. Even with these values, the frequency rate is frighteningly found to be 18% during this program above. Despite the fact that hypertension tends to be much more severe for young adults, the frequency of hypertension increases with age.

Approximately 90% of hypertension is idiopathic and it is specifically seen as primary (essential) hypertension. 10% of the rest is secondary for most renal diseases and coarctation of the renal artery (renovascular hypertension) which is generally caused by an atheroma plaque. Secondary hypertension develops as a result of primary aldosteronism at a low rate, and some surrenal disorders such as Cushing’s syndrome and feochromositoma.
Hypertension and You

High Blood Pressure

2007-04-10T06:38:00.000-07:00

Hypertension and You
High blood pressure (hypertension) is designated as either essential (primary) hypertension or secondary hypertension and is defined as a consistently elevated blood pressure exceeding 140/90 mm Hg.

In essential hypertension (95% of people with hypertension), no specific cause is found, while secondary hypertension (5% of people with hypertension) is caused by an abnormality somewhere in the body, such as in the kidney, adrenal gland, or aortic artery.

Essential hypertension may run in some families and occurs more often in the black population, although the genes for essential hypertension have not yet been identified.

High salt intake, obesity, lack of regular exercise, excessive alcohol or coffee intake, and smoking may all adversely affect the outlook for the health of an individual with hypertension.

High blood pressure is called "the silent killer" because it usually causes no symptoms for many years, even decades, until it finally damages certain critical organs.

Poorly controlled hypertension ultimately can cause damage to blood vessels in the eye, thickening of the heart muscle and heart attacks, hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis), kidney failure, and strokes.

Heightened public awareness and screening of the population are necessary to detect hypertension early enough so that it can be treated before damage has occurred to the critical organs.

Lifestyle adjustments in diet and exercise and compliance with medication regimes are important factors in determining the outcome for people with hypertension.

Several classes of anti-hypertensive medications are available, including ACE inhibitors, ARB drugs, beta-blockers, diuretics, calcium channel blockers, alpha-blockers, and peripheral vasodilators.

Most anti-hypertensive medications can be used alone or in combination: some are used only in combination; some are preferred over others in certain specific medical situations; and some are not to be used (contraindicated) in other situations.

The goal of therapy for hypertension is to bring the blood pressure down to 140/85 in the general population and to even lower levels in diabetics, blacks, and people with certain chronic kidney diseases.

Screening, diagnosing, treating, and controlling hypertension early in its course can significantly reduce the risk of developing strokes, heart attacks, or kidney failure.
Hypertension and You

Statistic - High Blood Pressure (HBP) or Hypertension

2007-02-13T00:40:00.000-08:00

Hypertension And You
• The WHO estimates that 600 million people with high blood pressure (HBP) are at risk of heart attack, stroke and cardiac failure.

• A study of hypertension in six European countries, Canada and the United States showed the average blood pressure (BP) was 136/83 mm Hg in the European countries and 127/77 mm Hg in Canada and the United States, among men and women ages 35–74. For all age groups, BP measurements were lowest in the United States and highest in Germany. The European countries were Germany, Finland, Sweden, England, Spain and Italy.

• About 15–37 percent of the global adult population has hypertension. In those older than age 60, as many as one-half in some populations are hypertensive.

• About 140 million people in the Americas suffer from hypertension. In Mexico (1997) female deaths from hypertension surpassed those for males, starting at age 35. The prevalence of hypertension in Latin America
and the Caribbean has been estimated at between 8 and 30 percent.

• The Heart Health Surveys of 1985–90 found that 22 percent of Canadian adults had HBP, but only 13 percent had been diagnosed. The overall rate for 1994-95 was 9 percent.

• In England, 34 percent of men and 30 percent of women have HBP (140/90 mmHg or higher) or are being treated for hypertension. About 78 percent of men and 67 percent of women with HBP are not being treated. Of those being treated, just under 60 percent remain hypertensive.

• In Africa the prevalence of hypertension is estimated at 20 million. Some 250,000 deaths could be prevented each year through effective case management. The hypertension-related stroke rate is high in Africa, and victims are relatively young.

• In South Africa, a 1998 survey found that 36.6 percent of women known to be hypertensive had their illness controlled with medication. In general, awareness of hypertension and use of medication increased with income. Hypertension was only half as common among rural as among urban women. In Asia, a steep increase in stroke mortality has accompanied a rapid rise in the prevalence of hypertension. Projections suggest that in China, hypertension will increase from 18.6 percent to 25 percent between 1995 and 2025. In India, the equivalent figures are 16.3 percent to 19.4 percent.

• Worldwide, HBP is estimated to cause 7.1 million deaths, about 13 percent of the global fatality total. Across WHO regions, research indicates that about 62 percent of strokes and 49 percent of heart attacks are caused by HBP.

• Hypertension causes 5 million premature deaths a year worldwide. (WHO World Health Report, 2002)

• A study conducted by the Tulane University School of Public Health stated that the prevalence of HBP will soar to1.56 billion by the year 2025.
Hypertension And You

Cocoa, Diabetes and Hypertension

2007-01-15T06:15:00.000-08:00

Hypertension and You
Biochemical and physiologic associations among hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease have grown steadily, supported by basic, clinical, and epidemiologic research.

The possibilities for treating these pathologies include pharmacologic approaches, lifestyle adjustment, and diet modification. The identification of foods that have cardiovascular health benefits has become a major public health objective. There is now a large body of epidemiologic evidence that supports the concept that diets rich in fruit and vegetables attenuate or delay the onset of certain chronic diseases, including cardiovascular and related diseases.

However, the physiologic and molecular mechanisms by which fruit and vegetables act to reduce the risk of vascular disease remain elusive. The existence of data showing that the health benefits of fruit and vegetables are causally linked to their flavonoid content is a starting point from which to address such mechanistic uncertainties.

With respect to cardiovascular health, one class of flavonoids, the flavanols, is receiving increasing attention. Cacao, tea, grapes, and grapefruit are examples of edible plants that are rich in flavanols. Translational research that relates the consumption of these foods to cardiovascular health is very interesting research now a day.
Hypertension and You

Hypertension in Teens

2006-12-10T05:20:00.000-08:00

Hypertension and You
Hypertension is synonymous to high blood pressure. If you are diagnosed with hypertension, you had better take it seriously as your life can be put in risk. Hypertension can even lead to chronic renal failure. It also poses some great risks to people prone to heart attacks, heart problems and strokes.

Most people believe that hypertension is a medical condition that is limited to adults. This is not always the case. It may not be a common ailment in kids and teens, but still it is not impossible. It would be advisable to bring your kids to the doctor for occasional blood pressure test as often as you can.

High blood pressure in teens may be relatively low compared to the reading considered as high in adults. For teens below 18 years of age, a person having a blood pressure that is higher than 95% of teens of their age, gender and height is considered to have hypertension. As these kids grow older, they are projected to have blood pressure readings thrice as high as an average person.

Hypertension can be rooted from kidney malfunctions, aorta troubles and hormonal problems. High blood pressure can also be genetically passed on to children. If your family have a history of hypertension, it is only sensible to check on your kids’ blood pressure. It advisable that older kids get their blood pressure checked every two years at a minimum and kids who are overweight are in greater risk of having hypertension. This is why it is important, even at a young age, to exercise everyday to shed off some pounds.

For teenagers, taking prohibited drugs and alcohol can also increase the risk of hypertension. Birth control pills are also found to increase blood pressure in teens.

Parents play a vital role in creating awareness of the possibility of hypertension in teens. It is their responsibility to ensure that their kids have a proper diet and regular exercise. Steering them away from vices like alcohol and drugs would not only keep them away from hypertension, but would help them live a better and healthier life.
Hypertension and You

Changing Your Salt Habit Starts at the Grocery Store

2006-11-20T07:21:00.000-08:00

Hypertension and You
Many medical experts would agree that being worth your weight in salt in today's society is not quite as valuable as it may have been at one time. In fact, researchers and doctors across the world have found that a diet high in sodium contributes to a number of health risks, including high blood pressure.

This is not breaking news to many Americans, especially those already at a high risk of heart disease, stroke and certain kinds of cancers. The number of Americans at a high risk for high blood pressure alone has grown to nearly 50 million. It also may not come as a surprise to the many people whose doctors have continuously recommended a low-sodium diet in an attempt to decrease these and other health conditions. But this may be harder than simply removing the salt shaker from the dinner table.

Over 70 percent of a person's salt intake is derived from processed foods, so skipping that sprinkling of salt at dinner is not a sufficient way to cut the salt in your diet. Using salt substitutes or alternatives like NoSalt is an easy way to add flavor to your food without the sodium. Another way to prevent sodium from entering your kitchen and your body is to keep your eyes open at the food source itself, the grocery store.

Following these grocery shopping tips can help reduce the salt in you and your family's diet:

Always Read the Label
Salt is a substance with many different names. So even if you make the extra effort to read food labels and search for the amount of salt in the product, it can be difficult to determine. The following list contains a few of salt's aliases: sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, sodium benzoate, monosodium glutamate (MSG), sodium nitrate and disodium. Other products with a large sodium content include hydrolyzed vegetable protein, soy sauce, miso and brine.

Interpreting the Labels
The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) is making an effort to create public awareness of the amount of salt in store products. "By appropriately labeling, we are attempting to inform the public and those who want to keep their sodium intake down as to the amount of sodium they are consuming," says Ida Yoder, a chemist with the FDA's over-the-counter drug products division.

But some salt descriptors are not so cut and dry. Use the flowing list as a guideline to help determine the approximate number of milligrams of salt in a product:
Sodium free - Contains less than 5 mg of sodium per serving
Very low sodium - 35 mg or less per serving
Low Sodium - 140 mg or less per serving
Reduced Sodium - Contains at least 25 percent less sodium than the original product

Without added salt - No salt is added during processing to a product which would normally have salt added

No salt added - Unsalted

Fresh is Best
Avoid processed foods in the grocery store and head directly to the fresh fruit and vegetable aisle instead. Rather than adding salt to these fresh food items while cooking, use unsalted butter or salt alternatives. Many salt substitutes, such as NoSalt, are sodium-free but taste like the real thing. "By incorporating salt substitutes and other spices into your cooking, you can still add flavor to food while skipping the sodium," says Janet Andreas, a Home Economist with Reckitt Benckiser. She also recommends using a variety of spice substitutes as salt alternatives like Seasoned NoSalt.

If you do buy canned vegetables, rinsing them in water for one minute can reduce their sodium content by 40 percent. Also, it is important to resist the temptation of fast food, which also usually has a high salt content.

While making these tips habits on your trips to the grocery store can help reduce your sodium intake, health professionals recommend an even larger, overall change in diet. One diet that specifically addresses the issue of hypertension is the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH), a diet formulated by clinicians and researchers at Harvard University.
The DASH diet is based on increased servings of fruits and vegetables and the inclusion of low fat dairy products, lean meats, poultry and fish. The diet provides the right amount of fiber, adequate vitamins and antioxidants while limiting sodium and fat intake.

Consulting with your physician is the best and safest ways to address high blood pressure and the treatment of other health concerns. But by taking the initiative to start eating a healthier diet, you begin taking responsibility for your own health and well-being.
Hypertension and You

High Blood Pressure Medication

2006-11-07T21:48:00.000-08:00

Hypertension and You
The treatment of High Blood Pressure or Hypertension is essential. The course of treatment can be decided by the patient in consultation with his doctor. Leaving a High Blood Pressure untreated can prove fatal. Therefore, treatment of High Blood Pressure cannot be neglected. Thus, medication for High Blood Pressure is essential to prevent further complications.

Not all cases of High Blood Pressure can be medicated in the same form. The High Blood Pressure types are classified into three major groups. High blood pressure medication is different for each of them. The drugs used for the medication of high blood pressure are generally divided into eight categories. These categories are arranged, according to the stage of Hypertension.

In Stage I type of Hypertension, there are no other major health problems. The Systolic Pressure is between 140 and 159, while the Diastolic Pressure is between 90 to 99.The medication prescribed for High Blood Pressure is a simple Diuretic. Along with a healthy lifestyle to go with the medication, the High Blood Pressure is kept well under control.

In Stage II type of Hypertension, the Systolic Pressure is 159 and above, while the Diastolic Pressure is 100 and above. For this category of patients, High Blood Pressure Medication, a Diuretic and an ACE Inhibitor is recommended. The two drug formula works faster and keeps blood pressure in control. In this category, other High Blood Pressure Medications include Beta Blockers, CCBs and Angiotensin II receptor blockers.

In the Stage III type of blood pressure, the patient usually has serious health problems along with High Blood Pressure. The common problems are diabetes, heart and kidney problems, previous stroke, coronary artery disease and even previous heart attack. Medication for High Blood Pressure in such cases is usually fixed after other forms of medications have been tried out. Usually, the doctor tries to put a different High Blood Pressure Medication Strategy, where he tries to reduce blood pressure to a fixed goal.
Source:articlecity
Hypertension and You

What do you know about pulmonary hypertension

2006-10-17T22:04:00.000-07:00

Hypertension and You
Pulmonary (PULL-mun-ary) arterial hypertension (PAH) is continuous high blood pressure in the pulmonary artery. The average blood pressure in a normal pulmonary artery is about 14 mmHg when the person is resting. In PAH, the average is usually greater than 25 mmHg.
PAH is a serious condition for which there are treatments but no cure. Treatment benefits many patients.

The pulmonary arteries are the blood vessels that carry oxygen-poor blood from the right ventricle (VEN-trih-kul) in the heart to the small arteries in the lungs. In PAH, three types of changes may occur in the pulmonary arteries:

*The muscles within the walls of the arteries may tighten up. This makes the inside of the arteries narrower.

*The walls of the pulmonary arteries may thicken as the amount of muscle increases in some arteries. Scar tissue may form in the walls of arteries. As the walls thicken and scar, the arteries become increasingly narrow.

*Tiny blood clots may form within the smaller arteries, causing blockages.

There is less room for the blood to flow through these narrower arteries. The arteries may also stiffen. Over time, some of the arteries may become completely blocked.
The narrowing of the pulmonary arteries causes the right side of heart to work harder to pump blood through the lungs. Over time, the heart muscle weakens and loses its ability to pump enough blood for the body's needs. This is called right heart failure. Heart failure is the most common cause of death in people with PAH.

There are two types of PAH:
*Primary pulmonary arterial hypertension (PPAH) is inherited or occurs for no known reason.
*Secondary pulmonary arterial hypertension (SPAH) either is caused by or occurs because of another condition. The conditions include chronic heart or lung disease, blood clots in the lungs, or a disease like scleroderma (skler-o-DER-ma).
About 300 new cases of PPAH are diagnosed in the United States each year. SPAH is much more common.
Doctors have learned a lot about PAH in recent years. More treatments are now available. Researchers are also studying several promising new treatments that may prolong lives as well as improve the quality of life for people living with PAH.
Hypertension and You