To prevent one of the three main causes of death ‘myocardial infarction’, ‘cerebral infarction’ and ‘pulmonary embolism’, it is necessary to tackle high blood pressure. In itself it is not high blood pressure that causes these diseases, but together with many bad daily influences there is an increased risk. What tips can you use to lower high blood pressure to reduce the risk of serious complications?

Lower high blood pressure

• The heart contracts and relaxes
• The causes of high blood pressure
• Is having the condition a problem?
• Tips for high blood pressure
• Medication use

The heart contracts and relaxes

The heart pumps blood by contracting the heart muscles followed by relaxing with each heartbeat. Pumping blood creates a certain pressure in the veins and arteries. This is called blood pressure. Blood pressure occurs during:

• squeezing the heart muscles so that the blood flows further, creating upper pressure;
• relaxing the heart muscles so that blood flows into the heart chamber, creating negative pressure.

Having high blood pressure is often related to upper pressure. If this value is more than 140, then there is high blood pressure. However, blood pressure changes continuously due to exercise, posture, and so on. Recording blood pressure is therefore only a snapshot. For a good blood pressure reading, measurements must often be taken twice or more, from which the average value is taken. If that average value is also high, then there may be high blood pressure.

The causes of high blood pressure

There is often no clear cause of high blood pressure. It may happen that it is genetically determined, whereby one acquired the condition from one’s parents. Additionally, the following behaviors can additionally increase blood pressure:

• medications and painkillers – of which ibuprofen specifically has adverse effects;
• the contraceptive pill and medications such as prednisone;
• consuming too much salt and too many saturated fats;
• smoking and alcohol consumption;
• stress and diabetes;
• Too much intake of the wrong carbohydrates, causing too much glucose to enter the blood. This increases the viscosity of the blood. This means that the blood flows more slowly and so the heart has to pump harder;
• having kidney problems that prevent waste products from being filtered from the blood.

Is having the condition a problem?

Having high blood pressure causes few problems under normal circumstances. If you have your blood pressure checked, your doctor may tell you to take a little less of this or that in order to lower your blood pressure. High blood pressure significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. Consider diseases such as:

• pulmonary embolism: the lungs do not receive enough oxygen-rich blood;
• myocardial infarction: the blood supply in the coronary artery stops, causing cardiac arrest;
• cerebral infarction or stroke: part of the brain may die if the blood supply stops;
• thrombosis and vasoconstrictions resulting in a thrombosed leg.

You see, there are several diseases that need to be taken into account, but high blood pressure is often not the only problem. Certainly the intake of the wrong saturated fats, smoking and alcohol can cause a fatty streak or arteriosclerosis in the arteries. This is what causes the vast majority of previous diseases.

Tips for high blood pressure

To reduce the risk of these diseases, it is good to lower blood pressure. This can of course be achieved by living a healthier lifestyle. To this end, you can implement the following steps in your daily life:

• switch to more healthy eating and preferably lose weight. You can do this, among other things, by following a strict diet based on healthy carbohydrates and unsaturated fats in order to gradually achieve a healthy body weight;
• make sure you de-stress more often. This is certainly the case if you have to combine MS with work and relaxation. You should also sleep well by stopping worrying;
• drinking rooibos tea that does not contain caffeine or tannin. This tea has a relaxing effect and is therefore very suitable for tackling blood pressure;
• sufficient exercise is extremely healthy for the body. It stimulates blood circulation and lazy fat is burned. In addition, the blood does not clot into blood clots, which prevents the consequences of deep vein thrombosis such as brown to black ankle spots;
• drink less than two to no glasses of alcohol per day and stop smoking immediately.

Medication use

It only happens in worse cases that you start using medication. This applies in circumstances where the blood pressure is higher than 180. This also applies if you already have cardiovascular disease or diabetes in combination with high blood pressure. Let the treating physician inform you which medications are best for you to take in combination with the previous tips for living a healthier life.

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