subject: High Blood Pressure - Are You Ready To Stop It From Owning Your Life? [print this page] Is high blood pressure really bothering you? Is it the first thing you think about when you wake up and your last worry when you go to bed? Are you really frightened by the potential health risks of congestive heart failure, stroke, kidney disease or blindness? If this is you, if your blood pressure is running your life, just what are you doing to change that? What are you doing to take responsibility for your own health?
It's estimated that over 50 million Americans have high blood pressure or hypertension and a third of them don't even know it. More amazing is that of the remaining 33 million who have been diagnosed with it 11 million do absolutely nothing to control it. Is that you or did you go the medication route?
BP medication is designed to control or manage the pressure it is not designed to "cure" the condition. For most people it requires an active change in lifestyle for the medication to perform as advertised. If those changes don't occur, the dosage, and the risk of adverse side effects is typically increased. Is that where you're at?
Look the answer to lowering blood pressure is not rocket science but it requires a commitment and a strong will to get healthier. If you don't have that you are doomed to popping pills daily for the rest of your life. Is that what you had in mind?
The American Heart Association says that medication is only effective when diet and exercise plans fail. That's right diet and exercise. These two activities can knock your pressure readings down quickly and get you started back on the road to a healthy life again.
Diet is immensely important both in causing the condition and curing it. Our convenience oriented Western diet loaded with sodium and fat is a major culprit in causing this endemic. Cutting back on sodium does not mean just taking the salt shaker off the table. The processed foods that we buy and the meals served by fast food and five star restaurants are so heavily laced with sodium that your salt shaker becomes insignificant.
Eating right means eating fresh and getting the nutrients that our bodies are designed to run on. Fiber, antioxidants, good fats and vitamins are essential to clearing plaque, restoring elasticity to blood vessels and getting our bodies back in balance.
Then there's that thing called exercise. That does not mean changing the TV channel manually instead of remotely. That means 30 minutes a day of moderate aerobic exercise like walking or biking. Exercise is the absolute fastest way to reduce pressure and the most efficient way to burn off stress induced adrenalin.
If you truly want to get your health back and make high blood pressure a thing of your past and not your future, you have to have a plan and then work that plan. Take charge of your life. Have that "aha moment" that gives you the will to keep plugging. You're family will thank you for it.
High Blood Pressure - Are You Ready To Stop It From Owning Your Life?
