Self Improvement

It is a commonly known fact that a healthy lifestyle is an essential part of a healthy life. Same is true if you want to maintain a normal blood pressure.

Even if you are highly dependent on those pills and medicines to treat your blood pressure disorder, your lifestyle pattern in large will determine the success of the medications. And if you succeed in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, you might not even find the need of any medication soon. A controlled blood pressure will help you live longer and prevent other health related problems like heart and kidney failure. Some of the lifestyle changes that are necessary to maintain a healthy blood pressure levels are:

Lose That Extra Weight
Increasing weight is a very common factor leading to high blood pressure. More weight amounts to higher blood pressure. Besides this, losing weight increases the effectiveness of the hypertension medications. And weight can only be maintained if you have a proper dietary habit and a regular exercising regime.

Exercise Regularly
For a controlled blood pressure, physical activity should be made a part of your overall strategy. Exercising helps you to fight your pre-hypertension and prevents it from taking the shape of full-fledged hypertension.

Eat Healthy
The old saying “You are what you eat” is an apt one. Till long it had remained a myth with the people that eating habits do not have any role in the maintenance of your blood pressure, but with new studies coming up they have been proved wrong. It has been shown that you can reduce your blood pressure if your diet is rich in fruits, grains, dairy products with low fats and vegetables.

Reducing Sodium Intake
Sodium has an active role to play in your blood pressure. More Sodium in the body means, more amount of blood pressure. So from now on the next time you munch on your favorite processed food, just be a little more careful. But if you are unable to do that, increasing the potassium amount in your diet can counter the effect of sodium on blood pressure.

Limit The Alcohol Consumption
Alcohol has both the good and bad effects on your health. The good is that it prevents the possibility of a heart attack and clogging of arteries. The bad is that excessive alcohol consumption reduces these good effects on the body, thus raising the blood pressure levels. Apart from this, excessive alcohol intake also reduces the effectiveness of the blood pressure lowering medications on the body.

Avoid Tobacco Products
Tobacco poses the biggest threat to your blood pressure. And if you are a constant smoker then there is a possibility that even medication won't solve your blood pressure problems. Apart from this there are certain chemicals present in tobacco that have adverse effects on the arteries, damaging them and causing fluid retention in the body.

Control Your Caffeine Intake
Till now the role that caffeine plays in blood pressure is debatable. Caffeinated beverages increase the blood flow in the arteries. But it is also said that if you consume such products on a regular basis then the effect of caffeine on the blood pressure diminishes. Therefore the effect of caffeine still remains ambiguous.