Eat Some Dark Chocolate
Yes, chocolate lovers: Dark chocolate has been shown to lower blood pressure.
But the dark chocolate should be 60 to 70 percent cacao. A review of studies on dark chocolate has found that eating one to two squares of dark chocolate per day may help lower the risk of heart disease by lowering blood pressure and inflammation.
The benefits are thought to come from the flavonoids present in chocolate with more cocoa solids. The flavonoids help dilate, or widen, your blood vessels .
High Blood Pressure Prevention And Control
Learn how to reduce your risk for high blood pressure/hypertension.
1 in 3 adults has high blood pressure. You can reduce your risk for high blood pressure with healthy lifestyle changes. If you already have high blood pressure, these same lifestyle changes combined with medication therapy can also help you control high blood pressure. Learn more about reducing your risk for high blood pressure and controlling your high blood pressure.
I Am A Doctor And Here’s How To Tell You Have High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a serious yet common condition that affects an alarming number of people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Nearly half of adults in the United States have hypertension, defined as a systolic blood pressure greater than 130 mmHg or a diastolic blood pressure greater than 80 mmHg or are taking medication for hypertension.” To make the situation worse, the CDC says “Only about 1 in 4 adults with hypertension have their condition under control,” and many don’t even realize they have high blood pressure because there’s often no signs.
The Mayo Clinic states, “Most people with high blood pressure have no symptoms, even if blood pressure readings reach dangerously high levels. You can have high blood pressure for years without any symptoms. A few people with high blood pressure may have:
-Headaches
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How To Prevent High Blood Pressure
About 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. has high blood pressure, or hypertension, but many don’t realize it. High blood pressure usually has no warning signs, yet it can lead to life-threatening conditions like heart attack or stroke. The good news is that you can often prevent or treat high blood pressure. Early diagnosis and simple, healthy changes can keep high blood pressure from seriously damaging your health.
Can High Blood Pressure Be Prevented Or Avoided
If your high blood pressure is caused by lifestyle factors, you can take steps to reduce your risk:
- Reduce your alcohol consumption.
- Learn relaxation methods.
If your high blood pressure is caused by disease or the medicine you take, talk to your doctor. He or she may be able to prescribe a different medicine. Additionally, treating any underlying disease can help reduce your high blood pressure.
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Watch The Blood Sugar
Diabetes mellitus is one of the main causes of kidney disease. Elevated blood sugar levels damage the kidneys in the long term. Like kidney disease, elevated blood sugar levels may not cause any symptoms. This makes early recognition all the more important. Educated advice on a healthy and balanced diet should therefore be given to reduce the risk of diabetes.
If your patient already has diabetes, daily self-monitoring of blood glucose levels are essential. In addition, the patient should have their kidney function and urine albumin levels checked at least once a year so that any kidney damage can be detected early.
Limit Your Alcohol Intake
Regularly drinking too much alcohol can raise your blood pressure over time.
Staying within the recommended levels is the best way to reduce your risk of developing high blood pressure:
- men and women are advised not to regularly drink more than 14 units a week
- spread your drinking over 3 days or more if you drink as much as 14 units a week
Alcohol is also high in calories, which will make you gain weight and can further increase your blood pressure.
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Heart Attack And Heart Disease
High blood pressure can damage your arteries by making them less elastic, which decreases the flow of blood and oxygen to your heart and leads to heart disease. In addition, decreased blood flow to the heart can cause:
- Chest pain, also called angina.
- Heart attack, which happens when the blood supply to your heart is blocked and heart muscle begins to die without enough oxygen. The longer the blood flow is blocked, the greater the damage to the heart.
- Heart failure, a condition that means your heart cant pump enough blood and oxygen to your other organs.
The Chronic Care Model
Schematic Illustration of the CCM, Including Multilevel Interventions to Prevent and Control Hypertension.
Adapted with permission from Wagner . CCM = chronic care model HT = hypertension.
Team-based care
Team-based care incorporates a multidisciplinary team, centered on the patient, to optimize the quality of hypertension care and includes the patient, the primary care clinician, and other professionals such as nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, dieticians, social workers, and community health workers, each with predefined responsibilities in care . These professionals complement the primary care clinician by providing process support and sharing the responsibilities of hypertension care. When the primary care provider can delegate routine matters to the team, more time is available to manage complex and critical patient-care problems. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of 100 randomized trials determined that team-based care, involving medication titration by either nonphysicians or physicians, is highly effective compared with other implementation strategies for BP control in hypertensive patients .
Community involvement
Health care policy
Examples of multilevel interventions for hypertension
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High Blood Pressure: Prevention Treatment And Research
We all have blood pressure. This simply refers to the way blood pushes against the walls of your arteries as your heart pumps. However, one in three American adults have a potentially dangerous condition known as high blood pressure, also called hypertension. For those with high blood pressure, blood moves more forcefully through the arteries than it should.
Its normal for blood pressure to increase when you exercise or are under stress. But when the pressure is too high even when youre at rest, and stays too high for too long, it can stretch and damage your arteries. The resulting health problems from high blood pressure can include heart disease, heart failure, stroke, kidney damage, vision loss, and memory loss and cognitive decline.
Follow A Healthy Diet
A healthy diet with a variety of nutritious foods, in line with the Australian Dietary Guidelines, will help keep blood pressure under control as well as your cholesterol and weight.
- Eat 5 serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit every day.
- Limit your fat intake to 20 to 35% of your total energy intake. Consume healthy unsaturated fats instead of saturated fats.
- Reduce your salt intake to fewer than 4 grams per day if you have high blood pressure. This is less than one teaspoon of salt. Salt contains sodium, which is linked to high blood pressure.
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What Causes High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure usually develops over time. It can happen because of unhealthy lifestyle choices, such as not getting enough regular physical activity. Certain health conditions, such as diabetes and having obesity, can also increase the risk for developing high blood pressure. High blood pressure can also happen during pregnancy.
You can manage your blood pressure to lower your risk for serious health problems that may affect your heart, brain, kidneys, and eyes.
How Can I Prevent High Blood Pressure
You can help prevent high blood pressure by having a healthy lifestyle. This means:
If you already have high blood pressure, it is important to prevent it from getting worse or causing complications. You should get regular medical care and follow your prescribed treatment plan. Your plan will include healthy lifestyle habit recommendations and possibly medicines.
NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
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Living With High Blood Pressure
Controlling your high blood pressure is a lifelong commitment. You will always need to monitor your weight, make healthy food choices, exercise, learn to cope with stress, avoid smoking, and limit your alcohol intake. If you need medicine to control your high blood pressure, you will likely need it all your life.
Additionally, you will need to get used to regular blood pressure checks. Your doctor may want you to come to the office regularly. Or you may be asked to check your blood pressure at home and keep track of your numbers for your doctor. Some pharmacies and retail clinics have blood pressure machines on site. You can buy your own, automated arm blood pressure cuff for use at home. Your doctor may want you to check your blood pressure several times a day. Another option is to use an ambulatory blood pressure monitor.
How Do You Get Checked For High Blood Pressure
Checking your blood pressure is simple. Your provider places a fabric cuff around your upper arm and pumps it full of air. Your provider then listens to your heartbeat while the air lets out of the cuff.
Follow these steps to help your provider correctly measure your blood pressure:
- Wear a short-sleeved shirt or blouse.
- Empty your bladder.
- For at least 30 minutes before your appointment, don’t:
- Do any vigorous activity
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Prevent And Manage High Blood Pressure
Whatever your age, you can take steps each day to keep your blood pressure in a healthy range.
You can help prevent high blood pressurealso called hypertensionby making healthy choices and managing other health conditions you may have.
Health care professionals and other partners can help by visiting The Surgeon Generals Call to Action to Control Hypertension. Learn about specific steps that key sectors can take to make a substantial, positive impact on the health of Americans.
Read The Surgeon Generals Call to Action to Control Hypertension and share it with your colleagues, peers, and loved ones. Incorporate actionable steps into your work, community, or personal life to help reduce high blood pressure.
Pathophysiological Determinants Of High Bp
Hypertension can be divided into primary and secondary forms. Primary hypertension accounts for the vast majority of cases, and poor diet and insufficient physical activity seem to be important and potentially reversible environmental causes. A specific, sometimes remediable cause of hypertension can be identified in approximately 10% of adults with hypertension, termed secondary hypertension . If the cause can be accurately diagnosed and treated, patients with secondary hypertension can achieve normalization of BP or marked improvement in BP control, with concomitant reduction in CVD risk . The majority of patients with secondary hypertension have primary aldosteronism or renal parenchymal or renal vascular disease, whereas the remainder may have more unusual endocrine disorders or drug- or alcohol-induced hypertension.
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Blood Pressure Checks During Pregnancy
If you are pregnant, you should have your blood pressure checked on a regular basis, even if it is not high.
Watching your blood pressure while you are pregnant reduces your risk of developing pregnancy-induced hypertension. This can lead to a serious condition called pre-eclampsia where there is a problem with the placenta .
What Ages Does Hypertension Affect
It is surprising that even teenagers can develop the problem of high blood pressure. Teenagers are most likely to develop high blood pressure in the case of obesity and other underlying medical conditions such as, type 2 diabetes, kidney disease, endocrine diseases, vascular diseases, or neurological diseases. Even newborns can have high blood pressure due to an underlying health condition.
Older people must make it a habit to monitor their blood pressure readings. People aged between 18-39 are at a higher risk of high blood pressure. The risk of the condition increases with age.
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What Do Your Blood Pressure Numbers Mean
Blood pressure is measured by two numbers.
The first number”systolic”is the pressure in your blood vessels when your heart beats. The second number”diastolic”is the pressure in your blood vessels between heartbeats.
If your blood pressure is normal, that’s great! You should have it rechecked every year or so to be sure it stays within the normal range.If your blood pressure is normal, that’s great! You should have it rechecked every year or so to be sure it stays within the normal range.
If your blood pressure is pre-high or high, it should be rechecked to determine whether you have hypertension. Ask your provider the following questions:
- When should I have my blood pressure checked again?
- Do I need treatment for high blood pressure?
How Can I Be More Active
- Check first with your healthcare provider before increasing your physical activity. Ask your provider what type and amount of exercise is right for you.
- Choose aerobic activities such as walking, biking or swimming.
- Start slowly and increase activity gradually. Aim for a regular routine of activity five times a week for 30 to 45 minutes each session.
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What Can I Do To Prevent Or Manage High Blood Pressure
Many people with high blood pressure can lower their blood pressure into a healthy range or keep their numbers in a healthy range by making lifestyle changes. Talk with your health care team about
- Getting at least 150 minutes of physical activity each week
- Managing stress
Learn more about ways to manage and prevent high blood pressure.
In addition to making positive lifestyle changes, some people with high blood pressure need to take medicine to manage their blood pressure. Learn more about medicines for high blood pressure.
Talk with your health care team right away if you think you have high blood pressure or if youve been told you have high blood pressure but do not have it under control.
What Should I Do If I Have High Blood Pressure
If your healthcare provider has diagnosed you with high blood pressure, they will talk with you about your recommended blood pressure target or goal. They may suggest that you:
- Check your blood pressure regularly with a home blood pressure monitor. These are automated electronic monitors and are available at most pharmacies or online.
- Quit smoking and/or using tobacco products.
- Work on controlling anger and managing stress.
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Home Blood Pressure Monitoring
Your doctor may recommend you take measurements yourself while at home. This may help them understand how your blood pressure changes throughout the day or how its responding to treatment.
Some pharmacies offer blood pressure checks too.
Do Regular Physical Activity
Regular aerobic exercise reduces blood pressure. The reductions are greater for people who start with higher blood pressure. Even relatively small increases in physical activity have been shown to lower blood pressure.
- People aged 18-64 years should do a total of 2.5 to 5 hours of moderate-intensity activity or 1.25 to 2.5 hours of vigorous activity every week. You can achieve this in shorter periods of activity. Moderate-intensity activity includes brisk walking, golf, swimming and mowing the lawn. Vigorous activity includes jogging, aerobics, soccer, netball or fast cycling.
- People aged 18-64 years should also do muscle strengthening exercises at least 2 days per week, such as squats, lunges, pull-ups, push-ups, lifting weights, carrying things or digging. When doing resistance exercises, its important to breathe normally and not hold your breath since this raises blood pressure.
- People aged 65 and older should aim for some physical activity every week preferably 30 minutes of moderate intensity on most days. Any activity is better than none, and you can gradually build up to the target total.
If you experience any chest pain, palpitations or unexpected breathlessness during exercise, stop the activity and seek medical advice.
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Keep Yourself At A Healthy Weight
Having overweight or obesity increases your risk for high blood pressure. To determine whether your weight is in a healthy range, doctors often calculate your body mass index . If you know your weight and height, you can calculate your BMI at CDCs Assessing Your Weight website. Doctors sometimes also use waist and hip measurements to assess body fat.
Talk with your health care team about ways to reach a healthy weight, including choosing healthy foods and getting regular physical activity.
What Can You Do To Prevent Or Control High Blood Pressure
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