Blood pressure is one of the most important health indicators. Knowing your blood pressure numbers can help you understand if you're at risk for developing heart disease or a stroke.
What is Blood Pressure?
Blood pressure is a measure of the force of blood against the walls of your arteries. Each time your heart beats, it pumps blood through your body. The pressure of the blood against the artery walls is called blood pressure.
There are two numbers in blood pressure: systolic and diastolic.
The systolic number is the top number and shows how much pressure your blood is putting on the artery walls when your heart muscle contracts (or pumps).
The diastolic number is the bottom number and shows how much pressure your blood is putting on the artery walls between heartbeats.
What do Blood Pressure Numbers Mean?
Normal blood pressure for adults is below 120/80 mm Hg. If you have prehypertension, your systolic blood pressure is between 120 and 139, or your diastolic blood pressure is between 80 and 89.
If you have hypertension (high blood pressure), your systolic number is 140 or higher, or your diastolic number is 90 or higher. If you're not sure what your blood pressure numbers mean, talk to your doctor. He or she can help you understand the risks associated with high blood pressure and help you create a plan to lower your blood pressure if needed.
What Causes High Blood Pressure?
There are many things that can cause high blood pressure, including:
- Smoking
- Being overweight or obese
- Eating too much salt
- Not getting enough exercise
- Drinking too much alcohol
- Having a family history of high blood pressure
- Chronic stress and aging
If you have any of these risk factors, it's important to work with your doctor to make changes that can help lower your blood pressure.
How Can I Lower My Blood Pressure?
There are many things you can do to lower your blood pressure, including:
- Quitting smoking
- Losing weight if you're overweight or obese
- Limiting the amount of sodium in your diet
- Getting more exercise
- Drinking less alcohol
Talk to your health care professional about the best way to lower your blood pressure. He or she may recommend medication and or natural treatments.
How Can I Check My Blood Pressure?
You can check your blood pressure at home with a blood pressure monitor, or you can have it checked by your doctor. If you're using a home blood pressure monitor, be sure to follow the instructions carefully.
Get help from a friend or family member if you need it.
Your doctor will take several blood pressure readings over time to get an accurate picture of your blood pressure numbers. This is called a blood pressure profile. Your doctor may also order other tests to help diagnose the cause of your high blood pressure. Knowing your blood pressure numbers is an important part of managing your health.
If you have pre-hypertension or hypertension, work with your doctor to make changes that can help lower your blood pressure.
What are the Risks Associated with High Blood Pressure?
High blood pressure increases your risk for heart disease and stroke. It's important to treat high blood pressure because it can damage your arteries, heart, and kidneys.
Symptoms of high blood pressure include headache, shortness of breath, nosebleeds, dizziness, blurred vision, chest pain, and fatigue. If you experience any of these symptoms, it's important to see your doctor so he or she can check your blood pressure and determine if you have hypertension.
Old and proven Ways to Treat High Blood Pressure?
Treating high blood pressure is important because it can help reduce your risk of developing heart disease, stroke, and other serious health conditions. There are a variety of treatments available to lower blood pressure, including lifestyle changes, medications, and surgery.
Your doctor will work with you to create a treatment plan that's right for you.
Lifestyle Changes
Making lifestyle changes, such as eating a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, and quitting smoking, can help lower your blood pressure. If these changes aren't enough to lower your blood pressure, your doctor may also prescribe medications.
Medication
There are a variety of different medications available to treat hypertension, including diuretics, ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers, and calcium channel blockers.
Surgery
In some cases, surgery may be needed to treat hypertension. For example, surgery may be needed to remove blockages in your arteries or to reduce the size of your heart.
What is New and Natural Way to Help Treat and Even Prevent Blood Pressure Problems Before They Start?
The new scientific and natural way of dealing with blood pressure is a combination of healthy lifestyle choices and natural highly bioavailable bioactives. that are made from essential foods like select vegetables, fruits, and spices.
Food is the best medicine both for treatment and prevention of key disease and triggers of diseases. However, to help ensure getting enough of the right disease fighting nutrients one would need to supplement their cellular nutrition with select nutraceuticals made from made from essential foods like select vegetables, fruits, and spices.
OptiCel Heart Health (OptiCel.Com) is such product, which is a patented and clinically proven safe and effective technology made from natural bioactives and available in a tablet form, and over the counter.
There You Have It
If you have high blood pressure, or prevent it before it happens, it's important to work with your doctor to create a treatment plan that will help lower your numbers and reduce your risk of developing serious health problems. Making lifestyle changes, taking medication, supplementing with clinically proven effective nutraceuticals and/or having surgery can all help treat hypertension and improve your health!