A Healthy Diet is Important for a Healthy Heart

This article is to help you understand some of the problems caused by high blood pressure and hypertension and to give you some dietary instructions to eat healthy to stay healthy.

The blood pressure of a resting, healthy adult should be 120/80 or lower. If levels between 120/80 and 140/90, then you are considered in the pre-hypertensive stage.  If you blood pressure is above 140/90, then you are considered in the hypertensive stage. Both pre-hypertensive and hypertensive patients must make diet, exercise and lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of hypertension and heart disease.

There are tremendous hazards associated with hypertension and high blood pressure.

Globally, about thirty percent of adults have consistent high blood pressure. It puts a strain on the heart which then causes thickening of the vessels, also known as atherosclerosis. This results in severe heart damage.  Other complications are: kidney failure, coronary artery disease, stroke, and eye damage. Hypertension exhibits itself and it damage silently and once you become aware that you have it, your organs can already be in danger. You do have a choice:  Control your blood pressure and limit the damage to your important organs.

The first step to controlling your blood pressure, is educating yourself about some basics.

First, know that extra weight increases blood pressure. Obese people have twice the risk of being diagnosed with the disorder than their thinner counterparts. Weight reduction significantly decreases blood pressure. Losing just ten pounds can make a huge difference in your blood pressure.

Here is some basic dietary advice for controlling your high blood pressure.  First, find a healthy, balanced diet.  If your goal is to lower your levels, your diet should be mostly low-fat dairy products, vegetables and fruits. You should keep it low in fat and cholesterol.  Eat fair amounts of potassium, magnesium, calcium, fiber, and protein. Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, recommended by both the U.S. government and the American Heart Association, is a good guide to lower blood pressure.

A major step is to lessen the amount of salt you consume. Salt really raises blood pressure. When you consume too much salt it causes your body to need a larger fluid amount and then it retains it which leads to, not only high blood pressure, but also swelling of the extremities. It also puts more pressure on the blood vessels that open and close to regulate your blood’s pressure and flow, which are called arterioles. Less than twenty-four hundred milligrams of sodium per day is recommended.

What are some good ways to lessen your sodium intake? Well, start by eating fresh food and not canned or packaged food. Although, fresh foods do have sodium, it is in much smaller amounts than in food that have been processed.

Become a label reader. Look at every label of processed foods. Choose those which are labeled as salt-free, very low sodium or low-sodium. Pay special attention to words that show a high amount of sodium. Most of those scientific sounding and confusing terms, will include the word sodium right in them.

Develop lower sodium eating habits.  Simple things like not adding salt while cooking or eating. In fact, don’t even have a salt shaker on your table.  Rinse any salty, processed foods well before cooking or eating them.  Always choose the low-sodium version of you favorite foods.  These simple steps can make an extremely significant lowering in your blood pressure levels.

Avoid high sodium foods. The following items are very high in sodium. Opt for the low-sodium varieties or, even better, avoid them completely.

Keep an eye out for these salty foods and products:  barbecue sauce, baking soda, baking powder, catsup, mustard, garlic salt, soy sauce, salad dressing, steak sauce,  seasoned salts, mustard, peanuts, onion salt, pork rinds, pretzels, corn chips, tortilla chips, canned soups, instant soups, sauerkraut, olives, relish, pickles, Herring, hot dogs, bologna, ham, luncheon meats, sausage, corned beef, cheeses, cheese spreads, soda flavored with saccharin, club soda, cold cereals, instant hot cereals, scalloped potatoes, boxed rice, frozen dinners, pizza, macaroni and cheese, instant rice, pot pies, butter, and. instant noodles.

While this list seems extensive, it does not contain all of the foods you need to avoid.  The most important thing is to talk with your physician and determine what you need to do to control your blood pressure.  Diet and exercise are two of the best things you can do for your heart.

What Is Hypertension?

Hypertension is the medical name for high blood pressure. The term “blood pressure” is used to describe the pressure within the arterial walls that moves blood from the heart and around the body. When the arterial walls narrow, it makes it harder for the blood to flow through them. The heart has to pump harder to get the blood flowing through and increases the blood pressure, hence the name high blood pressure.

Hypertension is a common medical condition and the most chronic condition in the United States, affecting about twenty-five percent of the adult population. Because hypertension causes very few symptoms, a considerable amount of people have hypertension and do not know it until it has reached a progressive state. This is why it is so important to have your blood pressure checked on a regular basis. But once you are diagnosed with hypertension, you will have it for the rest of your life and will have to take medicine every day to control it.

If hypertension is left untreated, it can open the door to many health problems such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, vision impairment, dementia, and early death by about twenty-five years. It can also cause plaque accumulations around the arterial walls of the heart, decreasing blood flow and possibly causing a heart attack. Although having untreated hypertension can have these medical problems, fifteen percent of the adult population who know they have hypertension will still doing nothing about it.

The chance of being diagnosed with hypertension increases as a person gets older and also depends on a person’s race. For example:

African Americans have about a 33% chance of getting hypertension.
Caucasians have about a 23% chance.
American Indians have about a 21% chance.
Hispanics have about an 18% chance.
Asians or Pacific Islanders have about a 16% chance of getting hypertension.

As with many diseases, family history also plays a role in developing hypertension. If there is a family history of hypertension, it will automatically increase a person’s chance of getting hypertension. Sex should also be taken into consideration; men have a higher chance of developing hypertension if they’re under the age of fifty-five, while women have a higher risk if they’re over the age of fifty-five.

Other factors that may play a role in developing hypertension is being overweight or obesity, diabetes, smoking, drinking an excessive amount of alcohol every day, low potassium levels, heart disease, or even sleep apnea.

There are two types of hypertension- essential hypertension and secondary hypertension. Essential hypertension, or primary high blood pressure, is hypertension with no cause. Causes may be related to genetics or lifestyle. Secondary hypertension is high blood pressure that is caused by another disease such as diabetes, kidney disease, preeclampsia, or a thyroid disorder.

A small percentage of people with hypertension will develop malignant hypertension, a condition in which the blood pressure is so high that it will start to damage the organs.

Exercise Your Heart Muscle

It looks as if most Americans are leading lives that direct them towards hypertension or elevated blood pressure. Almost half of older Americans develop hypertension. This makes people much more apt to suffer strokes, heart attacks, and heart failure. A major problem with it is that about a large number of the people who develop hypertension, don’t even know it.  It rarely causes pain.  Even though it may not cause discomfort, it must be dealt with because, as time passes with this elevated pressure, your blood vessels will become severely damaged.

Sometimes abnormalities of the kidney can be responsible. There have been studies where the researchers identified more common contributing factors such as heredity, obesity, and lack of physical activity. Experts have stated that hypertension does not have to be inevitable. By lowering salt intake, having a healthy diet, losing some weight and adding exercise work together to prevent hypertension. Of course, eating a diet that is low in fat will help.  However, the most important thing is add exercise to your daily life. You heart is a muscle, so it benefits from exercise just like all of your other muscles. 

Exercise for your heart’s health. Exercise encourages the formation of new linkages between damaged and healthier blood vessels. When people exercise, they allow the heart’s muscle tissue to get a healthier blood supply.

Researcher have studied the damage done to the heart during an attack and have come to the conclusion that exercise builds up enough strength to stimulate growth in areas that can react as “detours” when the blood flow becomes altered during an attack. Another study found that medium-level exercise, more than once a week will be more beneficial and is more useful in creating and strengthening supplementary pathways than very rigorous exercise done more often.

Something needs to change to keep blood pressure at lower levels and to lessen the chance of getting hypertension. What can you do? Finding a healthy balance between diet and an exercise plan is a good place to start.

After deciding that exercise is a needed addition to your health plan, look at the list below and find ways that you can easily work them into daily routine. It may be difficult to start but imagine being able to prevent getting hypertension. Be sure to check and re-check this list, to make sure it is something that works for you.

Weight loss through exercise is a terrific starting point if you want to prevent hypertension. Experts say that being overweight is linked to an increased risk of getting hypertension, and losing weight decreases the risk.

1. Talk to your physician. Anytime you make a change in your amount of activity, check back in.  You need to keep your doctor up to date on what you are doing to keep healthy.

2. Don’t rush into a rigorous routine. Start slowly and build up to your comfort level of workout.

3. Get to know your own energy safety limit. Using clues like sleep issues or being extra tired throughout the day, you can determine if you are doing too much. Once you recognize your limit stick with it. Too much exercise can cause as many problems as not exercising enough.

4. Keep a regular exercise schedule.  You should work out between three and five times per week to obtain the maximum benefits. When you reach your best condition, one session a week will keep your muscles healthy. Remember, though, that heart health needs activity more often.

5. Always keep your exercise within your level of capability.

The best benefits for seniors are found when they exercise within forty to sixty percent of their body’s capability.

Whatever exercise program you and your doctor decide is best for you, stick with it.  Remember, your heart is a muscle.  It needs good, regular exercise.