The silver bullets to kill high blood pressure

High blood pressure is a major health problem around the world.  It is estimated that around 1 in every 5 adults suffer high blood pressure.  Due to the fact that there are hardly any symptoms for high blood pressure, most of these sufferers only become aware of their condition after it has reached an alarming stage.  Medication is usually the main treatment for these people whose high blood pressure is diagnosed at a late stage.  However, if high blood pressure has not resulted in irreversible damages to some of the bodily organs of the sufferer there are ways in which blood pressure can be controlled without resorting to medications. 

High blood pressure can be lowered by exercise.  Sedentary lifestyle (lack of exercise) is one of the major risk factors for high blood pressure which occurs when the blood pressure readings are above 139/89 mm Hg.  Exercise makes the heart stronger and enables it to pump blood with less effort.  If the heart can pump blood with less difficulty the pressure in the heart arteries is reduced and this decreases the overall blood pressure.   Any kind of exercise that you may do to control your blood pressure will fall into one of two categories.  These are comprised of aerobic and anaerobic exercise. 

Aerobic exercise involves physical activities sustained for a long period of time with low-intensity.  It includes activities such as dancing, fast walking, swimming, jogging, running and cycling.  Unlike aerobic exercise, anaerobic exercise involves short but high-intensity physical activities designed to strengthen the muscles.  It includes activities such as weight lifting, push-ups, and sit-ups.  Aerobic exercise is better for controlling blood pressure than anaerobic exercise.  For it to be effective in controlling blood pressure, however, exercise must be done weekly for a minimum of 150 minutes involving moderate kinds of activities, and should be sustained for a lifetime. 

Exercise is good for controlling blood pressure but also dieting can play a significant role in regulating blood pressure.  Bad diet increases high blood pressure while good diet decreases it.   Bad diet includes consuming food such as those high in salt, saturated fat, and low in fibre.  Food considered to be high in saturated fat includes egg yolks, hard cheeses, whole milk, cream, ice cream, butter, and fried food such as those obtained at take away restaurants.  Good diet involves consuming food which is opposite to food considered to be bad diet.  This entails consuming food such as those low in salt, saturated fat, and food high in fibre such as fruit and vegetables.  

There are a few things to bear in mind when aiming for a balanced diet.  Try and establish the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for salt in your country.  This can vary from one country to another depending on whether the country has a hot or cold weather.  The RDA for salt for adults in the United Kingdom is 6g (2.4g sodium) or 1 teaspoon of salt.   

Look at the food labels to identify food high in salt, saturated fat or high in sugar and avoid them.  In some countries such as Britain there is colour coding of food labels.  A red label for saturated fat indicates that the food is high in saturated fat, a yellow label indicates that the content of saturated fat in the food is moderate while a green label signals that the food is low in saturated fat.  Be aware of how you buy food without such colour coding on the label.   A food labelled as 70% reduced fat is not necessarily low in fat.  It suggests that there is 70 % less of fat in the food compared to its equivalent standard.   Thirty per cent of the saturated fat content of the food is still intact.

An additional factor for controlling blood pressure is having sufficient amount of sleep daily.  Sufficient sleep for adults involves sleeping for between 6 and 8 hours a day.   Too much sleep involves sleeping for more than 8 hours a day, while less sleep involves sleeping for less than 6 hours each day.  Regardless of what you do try and have a sleep for at least 6 hours a day to help maintain your normal blood pressure.

This is not an exhaustive list of everything that you need to do to control your blood pressure.  Avoiding alcohol and smoking is also important for controlling blood pressure but is not included in this list.  However, this list contains the major things that you can do to reduce your risk of high blood pressure or maintain a normal blood pressure.