Lower Blood Pressure

Treat high blood pressure with medication

I'm sure you know by now - and you certainly will if you have browsed around this site - that there are lots of ways to treat high blood pressure.



Many people are able to achieve their blood pressure goals by simply changing their diet or by altering their lifestyle.



Salt reduction certainly helps - you'll be horrified at how easy it is for salt to sneak its way into your diet and play havoc with your blood pressure. If you feel up to it then here's a way to test it out: go all out for it and take a diet consisting only of fruit and low fat yogurt for up to a week. You can have as much fruit as you want and as much yogurt as you want - and take your normal fluid intake. In effect you'll be having a diet with almost no fat and almost no salt. I did it and the results were remarkable. My blood pressure levels came down by more than ten points systolic when I checked on my BP monitor.



Weight loss is also now proven as a method to treat high blood pressure. You can expect a ten kilogram weight loss to lower your blood pressure readings by ten on the scale.



But for many of us - medication is still needed to treat high blood pressure and with that comes all the side effects and problems that we are all too familiar with.



Check out the links on this site for lots more about medications for hypertension.

Labels: blood-pressure-medicines, diet-and-blood-pressure, treat-high-blood-pressure, treatment-of-blood-pressure

Blood Pressure Treatment Choices

Blood pressure treatment can seem confusing and the range of options available for anyone with high blood pressure grows day by day.

You or your doctor may choose to treat your blood pressure by medication, by lifestyle advice, by altering your diet or by doing all of these things and more.

This blood pressure site has grown a lot in scope and size since I first started producing it so, if you are visiting for the first time, here's a review of what's available.

You can explore the choice of blood pressure measuring machines now available and read about how to properly check blood pressure at home.

Discover how weight loss lowers blood pressure and find out if changing your diet will improve your heart health.

Read how to understand your blood pressure readings and find out about white coat high blood pressure.

If you look to the bottom of each page you will also find a summary of the most recently published articles.

I hope you enjoy the site and find it useful. Don't forget to sign up for regular blood pressure news updates in the box below

Labels: blood-pressure-medicines, blood-pressure-treatment, diet-and-blood-pressure

Labels: blood-pressure-medicines, diet-and-blood-pressure, heart-attack-risk, high blood pressure, omega-3-blood-pressure

Labels: blood-pressure-medicines, blood-pressure-treatment, diet-and-blood-pressure, high blood pressure

Labels: alcohol-and-blood-pressure, diet-and-blood-pressure, high blood pressure

Treat High Blood Pressure

By the nature of a large site like this I tend to find that the older articles get a bit lost over time.
So - if you're interested -here are a few of the highlights from previous months and years of writing about high blood pressure treatment.

Firstly, and this article about your blood pressure reading was one of the first I published on the subject, you might like to read about what those blood pressure numbers actually mean. Discover the difference between the upper and the lower numbers and learn why they're written the way they are.

Next, take a look at this piece about weight loss and blood pressure. Discover why weight loss can help with blood pressure treatment.

If you have very high blood pressure then you'll be interested in this article and lastly for now, check out this section about combined medication to treat high blood pressure

I'll write these review highlight sections from time to time so check back again or sign up for my regular newsletter.

Stay well.

Labels: blood-pressure-medicines, blood-pressure-treatment, diet-and-blood-pressure, high blood pressure, treatment

Alcohol and Blood Pressure

Is alcohol good or bad for your blood pressure?

People with high blood pressure need not be teetotal and may benefit from a regular tipple, a US study suggests. The research showed that men with high blood pressure reduced their risk of a heart attack by having a drink or two a day.

But experts warned too much alcohol can raise blood pressure and said the findings should not be used as a licence to drink. It's a no brainer really but you need to remember that alcohol can harm and should not be used as a medicine.

On or two glasses of beer or two small glasses of wine or a small glass of spirits reduced the risk of a heart attack, even if they had high blood pressure.

Light drinkers, who consumed less than one drink every two or three days, did not have a lower risk of heart attack than non-drinkers, however.

The study authors stressed that more than three drinks a day raises blood pressure and the risk of hypertension, adding, "so our findings are not a license for men with hypertension to overindulge".

However, lead author Joline Beulens, at the Harvard School of Public Health, added: "Because excess alcohol intake clearly increases blood pressure, many men with hypertension are counselled not to drink, but our results suggest that may not be necessary if men drink safely and responsibly."

Past research has shown that one way alcohol consumption decreases the risk of heart disease is by increasing the levels of "good" cholesterol and possibly thinning the blood.
Judy O'Sullivan of the British Heart Foundation said: "With alcohol consumption there is a fine line between benefit and risk.

"This study concluded that drinking alcohol in moderation is safe for men with high blood pressure. However, alcohol should not be used as a medicine and those who are teetotal do not need to start consuming alcohol to benefit their heart health.

"It should be remembered that drinking to excess carries serious health risks.
"If you want to improve your heart health our advice is to avoid smoking, eat a balanced diet low in salt and saturated fat and take regular physical activity," she advised.

Labels: blood-pressure-medicines, blood-pressure-treatment, diet-and-blood-pressure, salt and blood pressure

Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Blood Pressure

Alter your diet and lower your blood pressure

A diet rich in nutrients called omega-3 fatty acids can help lower a person's blood pressure. Foods rich in Omega 3 include fish and nuts.

A new large study looked at diet and its relation to blood pressure in 4,680 men and women, ages 40 to 59, who lived in Japan, China, Britain and the United States.

They all provided in-depth details about their diets and alcohol consumption, gave urine samples and had their blood pressure measured twice at each of four study visits.

The people who ate diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids had slightly lower blood pressure, on average, than people who ate diets with less of the nutrient, the researchers reported in the American Heart Association Journal Circulation.

"With blood pressure, every millimeter counts. The effect of each nutrient is apparently small but independent, so together they can add up to a substantial impact on blood pressure," said Dr. Hirotsugu Ueshima of Shiga University of Medical Science in Otsu, Japan.

"If you can reduce blood pressure a few millimeters from eating less salt, losing a few pounds, avoiding heavy drinking, eating more vegetables, whole grains and fruits (for their fiber, minerals, vegetable protein and other nutrients) and getting more omega-3 fatty acids, then you've made a big difference," Ueshima said in a statement.

When it comes to omega-3 fatty acids, not all fish or nuts are equal. Fatty fish such as trout, salmon and mackerel are rich in this crucial group of nutrients.

Walnuts, flaxseed and canola oil are also good sources of omega-3 fatty acids and people who got their omega-3s from these sources had just as much benefit as those who get them by eating fish, the study found.

Omega-3 fatty acid intake has also been linked to better brain development and a lower overall risk of cancer and heart disease.

Labels: blood-pressure-treatment, diet-and-blood-pressure, high blood pressure, omega-3-blood-pressure, salt and blood pressure