Managing Blood Pressure

When one learns about having high blood pressure then it brings about certain changes in their routine. By making certain lifestyle changes and also following the directions of the doctor it would help to ensure that the blood pressure stays normal.

By following the below mentioned tips would help in moving towards a healthy lifestyle for the heart and the body and also you would be able to better control your blood pressure.

• For those individuals who try to cope up with stress by smoking, drinking alcohol and also by overeating then it is time to re-evaluate on how one is dealing with stress in their life. You can switch to carry out healthy activities such as light aerobics, yoga, meditation. You can also get someone to partner as your walking buddy then you would notice how easy it is to exercise on a daily basis. By exercising around 30 to 60 minutes in a day would help in bringing down the blood pressure numbers. For those who have been inactive for quite a while now should first consult a doctor on which would be the safe and good exercise routine. It is important to start out slow and then pick up the pace as well as to increase the frequency of workouts. Exercising in a rush and carrying out high intensity workouts are also not good for the body and can turn out to be harmful. For those individuals who are not a big fan of gym can make way for hiking, jogging or swimming. It would still help to reap the benefits of good health and body. The most important is to get yourself moving. It has been recommended that by incorporating a muscle strengthening workout at least for two days in a week’s time can help a lot. You can try to lift some weights, carry out push-ups or any other form of exercises which can help in building lean muscles. Also try to limit the amount of stress taken. With demanding work environment as well as lifestyle it can get quite difficult to slow down and relax but do not forget that your mind and body does need rest from all the chaos. Hence it is important to step away from those daily responsibilities so you can ease out a bit. Too much of any kind of stress is directly linked with a high blood pressure for extended periods of time. Also avoid drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. Drinking in moderation is fine. Excessive drinking is also linked with reducing the effectiveness of certain kind of blood pressure medications.

• Before you look to start on any new medications, have a look at the medications which you are being used currently. There are many of the medications such as ibuprofen or contraceptive pills which are known to lead high blood pressure as one of their side effect. Hence it is important to speak to your doctor and develop a proper plan on which medications should be taken and which ones can be avoided. There is certain prescription as well as over the counter medicines and supplements which has been linked with rise in blood pressure. These substances are known to interfere with the blood pressure medications thereby reducing its effectiveness. Certain pain as well as anti-inflammatory medications have been linked to cause one to retain water thereby creating issues of the kidney and also increasing blood pressure. Few of those medicines are indomethacin, piroxicam and NSAID’s such as naproxen sodium or ibuprofen. Have the blood pressure checked regularly while consuming any of these medicines and also let the doctor know of the same to ensure which pain medication can suit your body without creating a havoc on the blood pressure. In case if it is a must to take these pain medications which increases the blood pressure then the doctor can also recommend certain changes in your lifestyle or few other additional medicines for controlling the blood pressure. Antidepressants are also known to work by changing the way our body responds to the brain chemicals such as serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. All of these are known to affect the mood. These chemicals are said to cause an increase in the blood pressure. Few of those antidepressants would involve monoamine, fluoxetine and venlafaxine. Also birth control pills or hormonal pills are known to control devices which contain hormones that can lead to an increase in the blood pressure by narrowing of the blood vessels. Mostly all of the birth control pills and the patches do come along with a warning sign of high blood pressure being a probably side effect. This risk of high blood pressure would increase when the individual is above 35 years of age or is a smoker. But again, one should note that not all of the women suffer from high blood pressure by using hormonal pills or birth control pills. In case if you are using any of these medications then get your blood pressure checked once in every six months and speak to your doctor about the same. 

• When it comes to managing blood pressure then it is a lifelong commitment towards oneself and it is not a quick fix work. By creating and implementing a lifestyle prescription program for oneself would turn out to be one of the best methods to manage high blood pressure. It would actually turn out to be quite easier than you can think.  The doctor can recommend to reduce the intake of caffeine, try to cut back on sugary and refined food items and also to lose weight for those individuals who are on the overweight side. By cutting back on the salt and also increasing the intake of potassium can lead to lowering the blood pressure numbers. Potassium is termed to be a double winner since it reduces the effect which salt has in the system and also soothes and calms down any tension present in the blood vessels. Try and eat less of processed or junk food items. Make it a regular practice to check the labels on the food items before purchasing.