What high blood pressure
High blood pressure (hypertension) puts extra strain on your heart and blood vessels. This can cause them to become weaker or damaged.
The higher your blood pressure, the higher your risk of serious health problems in the future. High blood pressure can affect your body in a number of ways:
- Your heart: high blood pressure can cause you to have a heart attack. It can also cause heart failure.
- Your brain: high blood pressure is a leading cause of strokes. It has also been closely linked to some forms of dementia.
- Your kidneys: high blood pressure can cause kidney disease.
- Your limbs: high blood pressure can cause peripheral arterial disease, which can affect your legs.
If you have other health conditions, such as diabetes or high cholesterol, this increases your risk of health problems even more. It is then even more important to lower your high blood pressure.
An unhealthy lifestyle will raise your blood pressure over time. And the higher your blood pressure becomes, the higher your risk of having a stroke or heart attack in the future.
But the good news is that if you have high blood pressure, healthy changes will help to bring it down. And you don't have to wait until you have high blood pressure to make healthy lifestyle changes. The more you can reduce your blood pressure, the lower your risk of a heart attack or stroke will be.
1. Blood Pressure Diet - Eat less salt
Too much salt raises your blood pressure, so it is important to eat as little as possible. In fact, some people with high blood pressure may be able to avoid blood pressure medicines by cutting down on salt.
Most of the salt you eat is not what you add to your food, but is in prepared foods like bread, breakfast cereals and ready meals.
Don’t add salt to food when cooking or at the table. When shopping for food, check the labels and choose low-salt options when you can.
2. Blood Pressure Diet - Eat more fruit and vegetables
Eating more fruit and vegetables helps to lower your blood pressure. Adults should eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. A portion is 80 grams, or roughly the size of your fist.
Try to eat a range of different fruits and vegetables. Dried, frozen and tinned are fine, but watch out for added salt, sugar or fats.
3. Blood Pressure Diet - Keep to a healthy weight
Losing weight, if you need to, will help lower your blood pressure and reduce your risk of health problems. The best way to lose weight is to choose more low-fat and low-calorie foods, and increase your physical activity.
Set yourself realistic goals. Make small changes to your eating habits and activity levels that you can keep to for life.
4. Blood Pressure Diet - Drink less alcohol
If you drink too much alcohol, this will raise your blood pressure over time. The current recommended limits are 14 units of alcohol a week for men and women. A unit is roughly half a pint of beer or cider, a small glass of wine, or a single pub measure of spirits.
If you keep to the recommended alcohol limits, this should help keep your blood pressure down.
5. Blood Pressure and Exercise - Get more active
Being moderately active for 30 minutes five times a week can keep your heart healthy, and can lower your blood pressure. If you can’t find 30 minutes in your day, increasing your activity by even a small amount can help.
Think about how you can be more active in your daily life. Any activity that leaves you feeling warm and slightly out of breath is ideal.
Being inactive is linked to high blood pressure; therefore increasing your activity levels will reduce your blood pressure.
If you have high blood pressure, your doctor or nurse may suggest that you try to become more active to lower it. However, you may be worried that regular exercise will increase your blood pressure to dangerous levels.
It is true that physical activity (exercise) will cause your blood pressure to rise for a short time. However, when you stop the activity, your blood pressure should soon return to normal. The quicker it does this, the fitter you are likely to be.
Most people with high blood pressure should be able to increase their physical activity levels quite safely.
However, if your blood pressure is relatively high, your doctor or nurse may prefer to lower it with medicines before starting you on an exercise programme. If your blood pressure is very high, you should not start any new activity without consulting your doctor.
The table below gives a general idea of what levels you need to be concerned about, but bear in mind that every person is different, and your doctor or nurse may decide differently.
|