Archive for hypertension dialogues

Turmeric for lower blood pressure

30/07/2011 admin Good Food = Lower Blood Pressure, high blood pressure solutions, hypertension dialogues One comment

I recently received some feedback regarding tumeric and its beneficial effects on our blood pressure. I’ve heard this before although haven’t used it enough to gauge it effectiveness.

Maybe I should start collecting some curry recipes that uses tumeric.

It would be interesting to hear from other people and about tumeric and its effect on the cardiovascular system.

The feedback I am referring to is pasted below.

Simon,

I’ve known about the health benefits of turmeric for years.
It has powerful immune boosting properties & is a natural
anti-inflammatory agent. It is available in capsules at
health food stores.

My wife hates curry (I love it) but she does take the
capsules. I did not know, however, that it helps lower BP.
Unfortunately, I recently had to go on Lopressor for high
BP after years of keeping it down naturally.

One day it spiked to 161/130! Stress & excess weight are
the two main culprits, I think. I’m working on reducing both.

I printed out your book & it got me having organic oatmeal
with lots of seeds & nuts for breakfast most mornings. A
little low GI fruit. That’s pretty much all the carbs I eat
for the day. I avoid white stuff (bread, sugar, pasta,
potatoes, etc). Lunch is usually some kind of salad & dinner
is poultry, fish or sometimes steak with a vegetable.
The scale is finally moving in the right direction.

Keeping blood presure down

03/06/2011 admin blood pressure readings, Breatheasy, causes of hypertension, Food & Exercise to lower blood pressure naturally, how to lower high blood pressure, hypertension dialogues, lower high blood pressure No comments

It’s been over two years now since my battle with high blood pressure began and I started this blog – both to help myself and others who are in the same boat.

Here are some reflections two years on:

The main cause of hypertension is modern life.

Life in the 21st century leads to high blood pressure by a number of means.

  • First of there is increasing stress levels that come with increasing levels of personal debt. There are far fewer home owners (people without a mortgage) than there ever was in the previous century. Debt, increased competition, less opportunity, struggling finances, etc., all equal greater stress levels which result in hypertension and poorer all-round health.
  • The increasing dominance of the car and other ‘labour-saving’ devices result in us moving our bodies less and less. We are starving for exercise. As our muscles, lungs, and heart get neglected our ability to keep our cardiovascular system in good health decreases. Result: weaker heart working harder to pump blood around constricted blood vessels.
  • The food industry is not helping us either. Processed foods containing large doses of hidden salt, sugar and fat clog our veins, reduce our overall health, and jack up our blood pressure.

So what’s the solution to the ailments caused by modern life? Buck the trend. Live within your means and try to eliminate those nagging credit card bills and the stress that come with them. Learn to relax. Try meditation, yoga, breathing exercises, whatever interests you. Leave the car keys at home and take a walk to the store the next time. Buy wholesome basic foods and rediscover the joys of home cooking.

Sure, these solutions may seem rather flippant and may not apply to everyone reading this but I’m sure you get the jist. Reducing high blood pressure is really a mater of making changes to your life style – taking back control of your life.

Healthy blood pressure is a long-term committement

If you make the necessary changes your blood pressure will come down over time – without the need of taking a daily dose of hypertension medications (and dealing with the many negative side effects that come with these pills).

But the catch is it’s not a ‘do-it-once’ solution. It requires a change in lifestyle and that change has to be permanent. No going back to sitting on the couch all day eating junk food worrying about the next credit card bill.

The shift to a more healthy lifestyle must be a permanent one if you want to see your blood pressure levels come down to an acceptable range and stay there. The good news is that one you move to a healthier lifestyle not only will your blood pressure improve but so will your general outlook on life. You’ll feel in  a better mood generally. Living is simple better and more enjoyable when you are healthier.

So what gives me the authority to make such sweeping statements? In one word – experience. Two years ago I was suffering dangerously high blood pressure with a reading of 190+ systolic and 120+ diastolic.

After a year of switching to a healthier lifestyle without the use of high blood pressure medication, my reading came down to a 135 / 90 level. A little highr than the ideal of 120/80 but within an acceptable range and well out of the danger range. This year my reading regularly go a little below the ideal such as 115/75 region.

I never would have believed it two years ago. I and didn’t try too hard. just switched to a healthier diet and dusted off my bicycle. I also take supplements every day – Vitimin C, and multi-vitimin, and calcium/magnesium. If you stick to it blood pressure will drop and your health will increase.

That’s what has worked for me, my solution to high bloood pressure and I’m confident it will work for you too.

 

 

How to Lower Blood Pressure the Easy Way

08/11/2010 admin causes of hypertension, hypertension dialogues, lower high blood pressure 2 comments

A growing number of people are looking to find out how to lower high blood pressure naturally without the use of anti-hypertensive medications. I’m happy to announce that there exists a few effective ways to reduce blood pressure as alternatives to anti-hypertensive medications and each of these methods is linked to the causes of hypertension.

Three main causes of hypertension are lack of exercise, high stress, and deficient diet. When you know how to deal with the three causes directly  you know how to lower high blood pressure without the use of anti-hypertensive medications.

Talking about stress, many people will concur that we live in an increasingly stressful world. A lot of people now experience high stress without even knowing it. Thankfully there are methods of lowering stress to better levels as well as  blood pressure. Meditation and yoga are the standard methods however slow breathing exercises with the assistance of an audio recording like BreathEasy is becoming very popular. Another stress relief technique is Christian Goodman’s three exercises.

The bottom line is this: lessen stress and you will lessen blood pressure because it is a known fact that stress is one of the major causes of hypertension.

Looking at bad diet, it’s indisputable that eating choices in the industrial world isn’t the healthiest. Fried and fast food with an excess of salt and bad cholesterol is a main cause of hypertension. Switching to a more healthy diet with sufficient fruit, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains including a decrease of salt and cholesterol can significantly lower blood pressure in time.

These days we endure too much time driving our cars or slouched in front of the computers and televisions, physically inactive. We no longer pass sufficient time getting sufficient exercise. A lack of exercise is one of the major causes of hypertension.

The solution is straightforward: get some exercise. You could start with simply a a short walk a couple of times daily to lead off if you feel unfit. Work your way up to a more stringent regime when you believe you are prepared. You will look better, feel better and be on the road to eliminating one of the major causes of hypertension.

From the above you can see that how to lower high blood pressure without needing anti-hypertensive medications isn’t rocket-science. The important thing is to stop worrying about it – and just put it into your life! Go for a stroll, pause for fifteen minutes and practice a slow breathing exercise, create a healthy meal for yourself – and you’re on your way to a lower pressure life. Make it part of your life and you will never have to fret about how to lower your high blood pressure again. Your BP will be down and you can look ahead to a more stress-free future.

To sum it up, the 3 principle causes of hypertension can be dealt with and abolished.

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Dementia and High Blood Pressure – Is there a connection?

02/11/2010 admin hypertension dialogues No comments

From the desk of highbloodpressuremed.com

If you have high blood pressure, then you should keep in mind that it may also lead to loss of memory with time (Dementia). According to recent studies, managing your blood pressure could be the best protective action against loss of memory (Dementia)

Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, and cognitive dysfunction in middle-aged and elderly populations are related with high blood pressure. It is wellknown that high blood pressure is a risk factor for infarcts in brain and ischaemic subcortical white-matter lesions. Blood-brain barrier dysfunction is also seen in hypertensive patients which has been suggested to be involved in the cause and pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. Psychological stress, and the formation of free oxygen radicals may also play a role in this regard. The findings of relationship between dementia and hypertension may have implications for prevention and treatment.

Closed relationship between high blood pressure and brain has been established according to recent research and studies. These studies revealed a kind of scarring or scars in brain due to hypertension or high blood pressure. In later years of hypertensive patients these scars can lead to diseases like Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia. Although these hypertensive scars appear in early ages but memory loss can accur much later. So if you have high blood pressure but have no memory disturbances, it does not mean that in future you will not have such problem.

There is very simple relationship between dementia and high blood pressure. Our brain has lot of white matter lesions which act as telephone network for the brain. These white matter lesions do provide a system of nerve fibers and axons that allows communication of various brain cells with one another. Even marginal blood pressure increase may destroy blood cells that nourish this white matter. This interrupts the signals that brain cells send to one another and leads to issues like loss of memory.

Many experts do endorse this medical fact althogh this is relatively a new study and needs the backing of recognized healthcare professionals. If aggressive management of hypertension can help protect the brain, National Institute of health may soon start a research in this regard. The basic aim of this research will be to make sure if lowering blood pressure levels than the currently advised values is usefull for both brain and the heart.

The basic premise of this study is not exactly novel as the findings of this recent study may come across as new. Primary factor is always the high blood pressure that can be managed to avert cognitive decline in old age. So we will admit here that by simply controlling blood pressure can assist in delaying behavioral changes that occur in old age such as impatience, restlessness, memory loss and managing blood pressure properly can be a substantial aid in keeping memory problems like Dementia at bay in elderly.

Quality of your life can be disturbed badly by this serious problem like dementia. So, it only makes sense that you try to prevent the problem by keeping your blood pressure in normal range.

Causes of Hypertension

22/10/2010 admin Breatheasy, causes of hypertension, hypertension dialogues, lower high blood pressure 2 comments

If you want to tackle the problem it helps to know the cause. That’s certainly the case with high blood pressure (a.k.a. hypertension). The causes of hypertension can be neatly summed up in 5 main categories:

  • poor diet
  • lack of exercise
  • stress
  • age
  • genetics

The first three causes of hypertension can be easily dealt with as out lined in How to Lower High Blood Pressure. Or to put it succinctly – get moving, eat the good stuff, and learn to relax.

The last two causes of hypertension are a bit more complicated – but can be dealt with too.

Starting with aging – it’s a fact that as we age our circulatory system doesn’t work as good as it used to. Our veins tend to narrow and harden pushing our blood pressure up.

But don’t despair. There are still are range of things you can due to stave off the ravages of time. Simply eating better, exercising and relaxing (see above) can keep you looking and feeling younger than your age along with your blood pressure levels.

Recently put on the market are concentrated antioxidant supplements like Resvertrol, often sold as fat burning / quick weight loss pills, these antioxidants can help reverse the effects of aging on your circulatory system – cleaning out your veins and lowering your blood pressure.

So aging can’t be stopped, bet the damaging effects of aging can be slowed down and even reversed in many cases :-) .

The most stubborn cause of hypertension is your genetic makeup. Some families seem to suffer hypertension and some families don’t. I belong to the former camp – both my parents suffered from high blood pressure and I too am prone to it too.

However I managed to bring my blood pressure down despite my genetic propensity to develop hypertension via the methods outlined above.

Being genetically predisposed to having high blood pressure is not the same as saying your are condemned to it. It just means that you have to work harder at getting it down and keeping it down. It means that people who have no ‘hypertensive genes’ in their genetic makeup can get away with things that you can’t.

To sum up – the causes of hypertension can be dealt with and overcome without needing to be on a daily round of prescription medications. It takes some attention and commitment to life a healthier life but if you make the switch you’ll be happy you did.

A healthy stress-free life is a happy life. :-)

Lower blood pressure with celery

08/09/2010 admin Food & Exercise to lower blood pressure naturally, Good Food = Lower Blood Pressure, hypertension dialogues No comments

There are a number of basic foods we can add to our diet that help reduce blood pressure. One of the best is celery. An unpretentious garden vegetable, celery has a number of great health benefits.

Below is a video from a Californian lass who explains the benefits of celery and all the good things it can do for you – including helping lower blood pressure.

Benefits of celery include;

  • high levels of potassium  (helps lower blood pressure)
  • natural diuretic (helps lower blood pressure)
  • high in fiber (natural de-toxifier)
  • low in calories (helper you to lose weight)

Celery is a good way to lose weight cause it fills you up yet has very few calories. It is claimed that you burn more calories chewing celery up and digesting it than it returns. Hence a steady diet of celery could make you slim fast.

The definite guide in lowering your blood pressure through good eating is Kevin Riley’ Get  Natural. If you love food and love eating and need to lower your blood pressure you’ll enjoy his book. Written by a man who loves food but knows how to use it to stay healthy and fit.

Smoking and high blood pressure

07/09/2010 admin hypertension dialogues, smoking and high blood pressure No comments

love smoking and quitContrary to rumors, there is no definite established link between smoking tobacco and high blood pressure. What I mean by that is that smoking is not a main causal factor of high blood pressure.

I know of one chain smoker that who’s only concern is that their blood pressure is too low.

However, if you suffer from hypertension then smoking tobacco can make it worse without a doubt. Nicotine has the effect of restricting arteries which of course raises the pressure.

The bottom line is this: If you are prone to high blood pressure and you smoke then quitting smoking is definitely a good step to take to get your health back in shape. It will help lower your blood pressure.

But stopping smoking isn’t easy. I should know, I smoked for more years than I care to count – starting at the age of 14. That’s why I put together the Preach-Free Guide to Smoking and Quitting. For those of you who love smoking find it hard to imagine life without your long-time companion, a cigarette, there for you when you need it, the Preach-Free Guide is for you.

Why Preach-Free? Well let’s put it this way – if knowing that smoking was bad for your long-term health made you stop smoking, there wouldn’t be many smokers left on the planet. Preaching, finger-wagging, warnings of ill health and premature death simply don’t work for the majority of us committed smokers.

Or like my friend used say after watching an anti-smoking message on TV – “Anyone can quit smoking. You gotta be brave to face lung cancer everyday”.

OK, that was only a dark joke – but it shows the degree of mental gymnastics we can accomplish to justify continuation of smoking. Preaching the anti-smoking message simply doesn’t work on committed smokers.

The preach-free guide is a humorous look at the habit. Smokers will enjoy reading the text and comics. When they are ready to stub out for the last time they’ll know how to do it and be successful – as easy as “jumping over a large puddle” as the guide will show.

Check it out: onelastpuff.com

Hidden salt and high blood pressure.

30/08/2010 admin Food & Exercise to lower blood pressure naturally, Good Food = Lower Blood Pressure, high blood pressure solutions, how to lower high blood pressure, hypertension dialogues No comments

The link between excessive salt intake and high blood pressure have been firmly established. In response a lot of people will sprinkle less salt on their meals or stop using salt altogether. Yet the high blood pressure remains. Why?

First of all, its important to point out that high blood pressure has a lot of causes such as stress, genetics, high cholesterol, genetics, etc. If too much salt is the main cause of your hypertension then cutting down on salt should lower your blood pressure. But for many of us it’s simply not enough. we need to incorporate a range of healthy measures into our daily lives.

Secondly, salt effects people and their blood pressure differently. Some people display a high ‘sodium intolerance’ which means that their bodies can not tolerate the same salt levels as others without developing negative symptoms such as elevated blood pressure. However, the majority of us do not suffer from sodium intolerance – but that’s not the same things as saying we can consume all the slat we want with no ill effects. Moderation is always the key when it comes to salt.

The recommended intake of salt a day per adult is below 6 grams – although 3 or less grams considered safer. By the way, there is approximately 6 grams salt  in 1 teaspoon of table salt  and around 2 grams of salt in 1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt.

Very few of use sprinkle more than 3 grams a day on our meals with a salt shaker. I would suspect that very few of us would even reach 1 gram a day with the shaker. Even 1 gram is a lot of shaking.

We overdose on salt no t with the shaker but with the salt content hidden in a lot of food we buy. I’m not just talking about fast food, restaurant food, or highly processed ‘treats’ like crisps / chips. Take you everyday white sliced bread for example. On average there is 0.4 grams of salt in each slice. Have a few slices, with salted butter and a preservative and you are soon exceeding your daily recommended salt intake – without ever touching the salt shaker.

Many breakfast cereals are also another  high salt food meal that we normally would consider healthy. So what’s on to do?

First, shop for food wisely and choose the ‘low salt/sodium’ variety over the standard one. Secondly go back to basics and prepare more meals yourself from simple unprocessed food. Learn to bake bread and control the amount salt, if any, you care to put in.

If you do this you can get out the old salt shaker and start using it again. After all it’s good to have some salt in your diet. if you lived solely on a diet of raw food prepared by yourself you could suffer salt deprivation.

sel de guerande harvesting

Harvesting salt in Brittany

Personally I like salt, good salt that is, genuine harvested sea salt from the shores of Brittany – Sel de Guerande. Unlike the bleached chemical sodium available in stores, genuine sea salt is a light grayish color, full of all the trace elements and nutrients from the sea. It cost more, (around $14 for a 1,000 grams), but a kilogram should last me for many years.

So there you have it. Don’t be a victim of overconsumption of hidden salt in common foods. Choose low salt varieties or prepare food yourself. You’ll then be able to enjoy salt on your food again in much smaller and healthier quantities.

For the ultimate guide in good eating and healthy eating that will help you lower your blood pressure and enjoy your food more, I can give no higher recommendation than Kevin Riley’s Get Natural. This book and food guide has changed the way I eat and look at food forever – all for the better. If you already have a copy you know what I mean. If not you can grab one thriough the link below:

Get Natural! by Kevin Riley

Smoking and high blood pressure

25/08/2010 admin hypertension dialogues, smoking and high blood pressure No comments

stop smoking hypertensionI don’t think anyone would deny that habitually smoking tobacco helps to raise your blood pressure. There have been many studies done that show how nicotine and other chemicals can cause arteries to constrict. You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to know that constricted arteries means it’s harder for the blood to get through. The heart has to work harder and the blood pressure increases.

Yet how many of us may know people in their seventies and eighties still puffing away as they have for decades. Smoking clearly isn’t an inescapable early death sentence.

But statistically you are far more likely to have chronic high blood pressure and die prematurely of heart disease, or stroke, or cancer, or any number of fatal ailments if you are a smoker than a nonsmoker.

There’s no escaping that fact.

But smoking isn’t the main cause of high blood pressure in the modern world. Stress is. Stress from debts, work, family, relationships … stress from living!

And there are a few things more stressful than being a smoker in the twenty first century! Smokers have become the modern social outcasts – the new lepers. That’s stressful.

Now the sensible advice from the non-smoker is simple “just quit”. But what if you love smoking. What if you need that smoke to relax and de-stress? To a person who as never smoked that probably sounds silly. But I think most smokers can relate.

I know because I smoked for more years than I care to count. And I still struggle with it at times. You never know when a cigarette is going to ambush you when your guard is down and demand to be smoked!

Hence I have put a book on smoking – The Preach-Free Guide to Smoking and Quitting

It serves two purposes:

  1. It takes a fun look at the smoking habit and explores the psychology of a smoker  (the first version of this book was writes by a former smoker). It does it with humor, empathy and cartoons. It’ll help you understand why you smoke. s a stress  buster it should help reduce those feelings of shame and guilt we feel for smoking. This book will help reduce your stress related high blood pressure – whether you quit or not.
  2. If you are minded to butt out the cigarettes for the last time, this book will significantly up put the odds in your favor for success. It’s all a psychological battle really, as you’ll discover. You’ll learn how and why quitting smoking is no more difficult than jumping over a big puddle. It’s really that easy when you know how.

The preach-free guide to smoking and quitting has it’s own website: OneLastPuff.com

If you smoke check it out – guilt-free.

If you don’t smoke but know someone who does, it could be one of the best nag-free quit smoking help you could offer.

All the best,

Simon

Stress and hypertension

19/07/2010 admin hypertension dialogues No comments

The link between stress and hypertension is undeniable. The very simple fact is that if you live a high stress life then that fact is going to reflect in a higher blood pressure (and probably a shorter life span).

Another thing about stress and stress-related blood pressure is that it’s not always evident. You can be a sufferer of stress and not even realize it. Stress builds up slowly in the dark recesses of your nervous system. over the course of years. What feels ‘normal’ to you may actually be a stressful existence.

But stress doesn’t affect us all equally. Some of us can get away with a lot more stress than others when it comes to blood pressure and health in general. I’m not one of those people and stress will always show up in my blood pressure so I’ve had to take remedies to reduce stress.

That’s easier said than done. Wanting to reduce stress and actually accomplishing it are two different things. You can’t ‘think’ your stress levels down – you have to DO something.

If you suffer from stress and high blood pressure you want to get both levels down. To start, take a walk, preferably in nature, like a path through the woods or your local park if you have one nearby. Get away from load mechanical noises like cars if possible. The tranquility of nature can be very soothing for you nerves.

Yoga, Tai Chi, and acupuncture have been noted as good for reducing stress and lowering blood pressure – although I haven’t tried then myself.

An increasingly popular way to reduce stress and blood pressure is slow breathing. High Street drug stores here in the UK are now selling a special machine called ‘Resperate‘ which assists you in calming down the system through slow, regulated\breathing. These machines aren’t cheap – selling for around £100 + – but they do seem to be effective given their popularity.

Personally I use the BreathEasy tapes to do stress-reducing slow breathing exercises. Just following along for 15 minutes a day helps restore sanity into my life, relaxes my nervous system, and helps keep my blood pressure withing healthy ranges. If you interested in trying out a sample click to my BreathEasy Review

Another popular approach to stress reduction and blood pressure normalization is Christian Goodman’s 3 exercises. These exercises are also largely based on breathing techniques but incorporate additional measures such as muscle relaxation and mild physical exercise. You can read more about these techniques in my Christian Goodman Review.

Mind you, stress isn’t the only factor that can cause high blood pressure. There’s also bad diet, lack of exercise, and genetics that can contribute to hypertension. Thankfully all these factors can be dealt with. Of course you can’t change your genetic code but adopting a healthy blood pressure lifestyle can counteract any genetic propensities towards developing high blood pressure you may have inherited.

But stress remains a central contributing factor with most people with hypertension. You’ll want to reduce stress in your life one way or the other. Too much stress can cause all sorts of health complications later on in life.

Life stress-free. Live happy. Live healthy.

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