Lowering Your Blood Pressure: The Options

What Do You Know About Your Heart Disease Risk?

High blood pressure is a risk factor for heart disease, but there are also other factors to take into consideration. Obviously, not every individual who has high blood pressure develops heart disease, but the negative contribution that high blood pressure has on your overall heart health is too great to ignore.

Keep Your Heart Healthy

Keeping your heart healthy is an important goal even more so if you have high blood pressure. The problem is that not many Americans even know what their risk of developing heart disease actually is. In addition to high blood pressure, there are many factors that are taken into consideration when determining an individual’s risk factor for heart disease. Cholesterol levels are important for determining an individual’s risk of heart disease. It used to be that total cholesterol was the main concern. Nowadays, physicians consider a few other levels are as equally important.

HDL vs. LDL

HDL cholesterol is generally referred to as the “good” cholesterol. HDL is the only cholesterol level that you will want to have high. The higher the better. HDL transports unused cholesterol out of your blood vessels. Your HDL level should be 40 or above. Anything less than 40 will increase your risk of heart disease, and 60 or greater is ideal. However, doctors determine your heart disease ratio by measuring your HDL level against your total cholesterol. Individuals should aim to keep their ratio below 5:1. This is where it can get really complicated. It is possible to have high total cholesterol but still have a good heart disease ratio as long as your HDL number is high. You can increase your HDL by exercising which incidentally is also a good way to lower blood pressure.

LDL cholesterol is usually referred to as the “bad” cholesterol, although it still serves an important function. LDL should be less than 130 but less than 100 is ideal. Regular exercise can help lower your LDL too, so you can easily see the relationship exercise has on heart disease risk and on improving blood pressure. Triglycerides should be less than 150. Triglycerides serve a necessary function of fueling your muscles to do their job, but there is still an upper recommended limit for healthy triglycerides.

Hopefully, you’ve seen the importance of keeping your heart healthy by knowing your cholesterol levels. High blood pressure is certainly a contributing factor to heart disease, but managing your cholesterol levels is also important.

Posted by Henry at 12:14 PM | Permalink

Individuals with High Blood Pressure Can Benefit from Slower Breathing

What do blood pressure and breathing have in common? Apparently, researchers believe that the two are closely connected. A new product called RESPeRATE helps to address the connection between fast breathing and high blood pressure. RESPeRATE is a new medical device that is intended to slow an individual’s breathing down. This new device potentially would allow individuals who suffer from high blood pressure to achieve lower blood pressure without the use of medications.

Let's Resperate

RESPeRATE is sold by a company called InterCure. It seems intuitive that fast breathing would have an impact on blood pressure. So many of us live extremely busy lives, and we usually have little time for rest and relaxation. Without even being aware of it, our breathing can become rather shallow and fast rather than long and deep. Plus stress does contribute to high blood pressure, and when an individual is stressed he or she tends to breathe too quickly.

It's Still Early

RESPeRATE at this points sounds like a product that high blood pressure patients are going to have to suggest to their doctors. It seems many doctors want more evidence available that RESPeRATE can work before they recommend it. However, for most individuals this product has no side effects. Obviously, individuals who have serious breathing difficulties such as emphysema will have to check with their doctors first, but the majority of patients who suffer from high blood pressure won’t have difficulties with RESPeRATE.

Other Alternatives

If you are looking for other ways to reduce stress and regulate your breathing, try yoga. The meditative quality that yoga offers can be very beneficial for regulating breathing and in turn lowering blood pressure. Many gyms offer yoga classes, and there might be other options in your community too. Definitely consider yourself lucky if you have an entire studio devoted to yoga. I’ve found yoga to be the one thing that can clam my frazzled nerves. Ultimately, your blood pressure will improve if you have any stress-relief activity build into your daily life, but it doesn’t have to be yoga. Your blood pressure can benefit from any activity that you find to be stress-relieving.

Posted by Henry at 9:48 PM | Permalink

The Relationship Between Heart Disease and High Blood Pressure

February is American Heart Month, and that distinction is important and closely related to the topic of high blood pressure. Many Americans suffer from high blood pressure; some estimates put the figure at over 60 million. Maintaining a healthy blood pressure is an incredibly important step to reducing your risk of heart disease, and fortunately American Heart Month helps to bring this serious issue into the spotlight.

It's Better Than a Blue-Light Special

It’s very likely your community will have events to inform the public about the dangers of heart disease and high blood pressure. National retailer Kmart plans to host Heart Healthy Events during the month of February. Customers will be able to receive free blood pressure screenings by their pharmacists. They will also receive free information about what they can to reduce their risk of heart disease. So if you have a Kmart in your area you should definitely stop on by.

Make Some Changes

Heart disease kills millions of Americans every year, and high blood pressure is one risk factor for the development of heart disease. A lot of people with high blood pressure understand the steps needed to lower their blood pressure. Diet and exercise are the two most important lifestyle changes required to lower your blood pressure.

If you have high blood pressure, you must establish an exercise routine. This routine doesn’t have to be something extremely complex. It basically needs to be a program that includes aerobic activity three times week for at least 20 minute sessions. Aerobic activity could be a brisk walk, jog, swimming, or bicycling.

The second step for lowering your blood pressure is diet modification. Dieting is a very complicated subject on its own, but the following on some pointers. Eliminate high sodium products from your diet. High sodium products typically are canned items. Also, increase your water intake. Avoid processed foods in favor of whole foods in their natural state such as raw fruits and vegetables. Keeping the above tips in mind will help you keep your blood pressure in check. If not, your doctor can provide you with more information and treatment recommendations for controlling your blood pressure.

Posted by Henry at 11:47 AM | Permalink

Certain Disorders are Associated with Low Blood Pressure

There is so much emphasis on eating right and exercising enough to keep your blood pressure in check that we tend to forget blood pressure problems can be associated with various different illnesses. Blood pressure problems can be related to all sorts of different disorders, and today we’ll take a look at low blood pressure and hypothyroidism.

Watch That Blood Pressure (Even If It's Not High)

Many individuals who have hypothyroidism also have low blood pressure. So much emphasis is put on high blood pressure that we often forget the negative aspects of having low blood pressure. Endocrine problems such as an underactive or overactive thyroid can occur in conjunction with low blood pressure. Having hypothyroidism means that your thyroid gland is underactive. Individuals who suffer from hypothyroidism often have low blood pressure which might alert a doctor to possible health problems and result in their thyroid condition being diagnosed in the first place. Thyroid problems sometimes go undetected for a period of time. In some cases, it can take years for a person to be diagnosed with a thyroid disorder. Thyroid problems are more prevalent in women.

What's the Scale Doing?

One of the side effects of an underactive thyroid is weight gain. This weight gain could eventually lead to obesity. Situations like this require immediate medical attention. You physician should be contacted to provide appropriate treatment. If you have been diagnosed with low blood pressure, you might want to ask your physician whether you need to be tested for thyroid problems.

A Serious As A Heart Attack

Acute low blood pressure may be a serious medical condition. This could be a sign of a heart attack or some type of heart failure. Also, fainting or shock could be caused by extreme low blood pressure. If you experience these conditions, you must seek immediate medical attention.

For the most part, the lower the blood pressure, the healthier the individual will be. However, extreme low blood pressure is a serious medical condition. The medical community established normal blood pressure to be 120 over 80. If you haven’t had your blood pressure tested recently, make arrangements to get it tested soon.

Posted by Henry at 10:22 PM | Permalink

How Often Does High Blood Pressure Go Undetected?

It’s often said that high blood pressure doesn’t really show any symptoms in the millions of Americans who are affected by it but don’t yet realize it. However, it seems that for individuals who have been diagnosed with high blood pressure do recognize when their blood pressure goes high.

Misdiagnosing Is Easy

Blood pressure can be similar in some ways to lactose intolerance. Some individuals can’t tolerate dairy products such as milk and ice cream, but for some reason they don’t even recognize it until they stop eating the products. Over the course of your lifetime you just become used to subtle differences that you fail to recognize them and think they are just normal. That is what makes high blood pressure dangerous. Ultimately the symptoms are there, but individuals think the symptoms are normal and eventually no longer recognize the discomfort. When blood pressure goes high, a person can experience a headache or dizziness.

You Need To Stay On Top Of It

Because the symptoms of high blood pressure go unrecognized and undetected by so many individuals it is very important to get regular blood pressure checks. If you have a parent or sibling with high blood pressure, you should definitely keep a close eye on your blood pressure.

Blood pressure is linked to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke. Heart disease occurs gradually over time. Someone who needs heart surgery in their forties obviously had early development of the disease in their twenties or possibly even earlier. So if you’re young, don’t wait until you hit middle age to be concerned about your blood pressure. If you detect high blood pressure in your twenties, you can take steps to lower it. Making dietary changes and getting enough exercise can help your blood pressure return to normal. If diet and exercise are ineffective, you can always try blood pressure medication.

Posted by Henry at 9:40 PM | Permalink