Hypertension – Lifestyle factors
Following on from my introduction to Hypertension (High BP), in this blog I want to discuss lifestyle strategies to prevent and assist the treatment of Hypertension (High BP).
Manage your Stress
I know its obvious, but I thought it was worth starting with this. The link between hypertension and stress is well documented as are the long list of things that help you cope including exercise, counselling, massage, reflexology etc. While we are on the subject of the obvious, I would like to remind readers that High BP is associated with high salt diets, smoking and high alcohol consumption too.
Optimise your Vitamin D levels
Ateria stiffness (atherosclerosis) is a driving factor for hypertension. As your blood travels from your heart, cells in the wall of your aorta, called barorecptors, sense the pressure load, and signal your nervous system to either raise or lower the pressure. However, the stiffer your arteries are, the more insensitive your baroreceptors become, and the less efficient they become at sending the signals. Vitamin D deficiency is, in turn, linked to stiff arteries, which is why optimising your vitamin D levels are so important.
Get enough sleep
In a study presented at the American Heart Association High Blood Pressure Research 2012 Scientific Sessions, researchers found a strong link between sleep quality and a type of high blood pressure known as resistant hypertension, which does not respond to typical drug-based treatments.
In fact, women who had resistant hypertension were five times as likely to also have poor sleep quality. While the average length of sleep in this study was only 6.4 hours a night (and nearly half slept fewer than six hours each night), it was sleep quality, not quantity, that appeared to influence hypertension risk.
While this study only found an association with women, other studies have also linked hypertension in men to a lack of deep sleep,1 and sleeping fewer than seven hours a night has been linked to hypertension in both men and women.2
References
Related Posts
Is there something in the quackery?
Many people think that homeopathy is unscientific nonsense - however a new study reports that homeopathy can reverse the skin condition vitiligo, which are the white patches on people's skin.
Classical homeopathy which is where individualized remedies are perscribed - has been sucessfully used on 14 vitiligo sufferers say researchers are the Centre for Classical Homeopathy in Bangalore , India. The remedies reduces the white patches on skin in all 14 patients within an average of 5 years of starting treatment.
With classical homeopathy, the remedy will vary and is determined by the characteristics of each individual patient, and so researchers are unable to point to one remedy that could treat the problem.
Vitiligo is an autoimmune condition that causes the loss of melanin, the skin pigment. Conventional medicine treats the condition with light therapy and drugs, which can restore some pigmentation but doesn't treat the underlying condition.
Reference
https://www.amjcaserep.com/abstract/index/idArt/905340More how to chill out…
In my previous post I said that the activity you do to chill out doesn't matter it you just need to enjoy it and it absorbs you. So why not consider paying video games, yes video games. If you ask any gamer, who enjoys playing them and they will tell you it help them relax or de-stress. I know this may sound unlikey. However that is scientific research to support the idea that regularly playing video games can help people unwind an dimprove their ability to handle everyday stress. In 2010 Associate Professor Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson of the Texas A&M Public Research Facility demonstrated that both men and women who play violent video games long-term seem to be able to adopt mental skills to handle stress, become less depressed and get less hostile during stressful tasks. In 2014 reserarchers from University College London found that people who played video games after work experienced faster recovery from work related stress. While there are a number of video games on the market which are specifically aimed at helping people unwind and manage stress, it seems that almost any form of game playing will do the trick. Spending half an hour each day on a video console could be be as effective as going to the gym for helping you “chill out” at the end of a busy day. References http://www.christopherjferguson.com/hitman.pdf http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1418103/
