Causes of hypertension and prevention!
What causes high blood pressure and ways to prevent it! Facts and recommendations!
Causes of hypertension and prevention!
Causes of hypertension and prevention!
NEW YORK TIMES, recently published results from a study by the Birmingham Medical Foundation, which tracked and monitored 1298 Birmingham residents in Massachusetts since 1976 who were 55 to 65 years old at the start of the follow-up:
During the remainder of the life of Americans aged 55 and over, there is a 90% chance of developing their high blood pressure, which is an important risk factor for heart attacks, heart failure, stroke, circulatory problems, kidney disease and blindness.
Hypertension is the cause of more than 10% of deaths per year.
The bad news is increasing in the United States, where only 27% of people with hypertension are receiving proper treatment, 15% do not receive treatment, and one-third do not even know about their high blood pressure.
Despite 30 years of efforts to educate doctors and the public, there is still a lot of ignorance about this.
In most cases, high blood pressure is a mild disease that does not cause any symptoms. The only way to know its existence is to measure blood pressure. Therefore, this measurement should be made at each visit by the doctor, regardless of the purpose of the visit, since this test is fast, inexpensive, non-invasive and does not cause pain.
The two values obtained from blood pressure are expressed in the walls of the arteries during the pulse (systolic pressure, the maximum value) and during the rest between the two pulses (diastolic pressure, the minimum value).
Normal blood pressure is 80/120, or less.
In societies where people maintain healthy weight and exercise throughout their lives, blood pressure does not usually increase with age. But in developed countries, blood pressure almost always increases with age, at the same time as weight increases, physical activity decreases and arteries narrow and harden.
High blood pressure is diagnosed when systolic pressure is 140 or greater, diastolic pressure is 90 or greater, or both. Contrary to what was generally assumed, systolic pressure is crucial in determining the risk of cardiovascular disease.
How can the causes of hypertension be reduced and prevented?
First: a healthy diet, where you should maintain a healthy weight and exercise physical activity.
The diet, called DASH, a diet rich in vegetables, fruits and low-fat dairy products, while reducing the consumption of saturated fat, eating red meat and sugar-rich foods and beverages, not only reduces blood pressure, but also reduces weight and cholesterol levels. LDL (bad cholesterol) and homocysteine.
Another study found that reducing the intake of salt in food, along with the DASH diet, increased the effectiveness of the diet.
An Italian study found that the use of olive oil, which is monounsaturated fat (not including other oils), leads to a significant reduction in blood pressure. In another study conducted in Minnesota, daily intake of oatmeal (unlike whole wheat) helps reduce blood pressure and improve levels of fat, cholesterol and glucose.
Of course, regular physical activity contributes to