Useful Gyan

National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) states that 29% of world’s population is going to hypertensive by 2025. Hypertension is called as high blood pressure and people suffering from it show no evident symptoms in the initial stages. It is this lack of symptoms that makes it undetectable and the course of treatment gets delayed.

Your heart pumps blood in the full body by way of arteries or network of vessels. High blood pressure occurs when the force of blood on the artery wall is excessively high. When the blood flows, it applies pressure on the artery walls and this is termed as blood pressure. When more blood gets pumped by the heart, the possibility of the arteries getting narrow is high, thus increasing the blood pressure.

Stages of blood pressure:

Normal blood pressure is 120/80 mm Hg.

Pre-hypertension is 120/80 mm Hg to 139/89 mm Hg.
Stage 1 hypertension is 140/90 to 159/99 mm Hg.
Stage 2 hypertension is ≥160/100 or higher.

Among people above 50 years of age high systolic blood pressure above 140 mm Hg is supposed to be risky and they are susceptible to cardiovascular diseases.

What Causes High Blood Pressure?

In majority of cases, unhealthy diet and lifestyle choices lead to high blood pressure. We live a highly stressful life and this is another common reason for high blood pressure.

You need to identify the food that you often eat and what kind of food you need to avoid. Also, exercising regularly can help in controlling blood pressure. Yoga, breathing exercises, pranayama, meditation can relieve your stress levels.

Let’s list a few common factors that cause blood pressure:

Smoking - If you are smoking cigarettes daily in moderate or heavy amounts and high consumption of alcohol.
Poor diet – Consumption of processed food containing high amounts of sodium, low in potassium.
Lack of physical activity – sedentary lifestyle with absolutely no physical activity or exercise.
Stress – High stress levels and inability to cope with stress or daily life challenges

7 Tips to manage blood pressure:

• Avoid excessive salt in your diet.
• Restrict consumption of high sodium processed food.
• Reduce sodium in your diet.
• Maintain your body weight.
• Exercise regularly.
• Eat a healthy diet and potassium rich foods
• Quit smoking and limit the amount of alcohol you consume.