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
Can going to the sauna help your BP?
I will start with a confession. While I know the benefits of hydotherapy - basically you take a hot shower for 30 seconds then switch to freezing cold for 30 seconds, then go back to hot and repeat for 2 or 3 minutes - it has never appealed to me. It may be fantastic for blood flow and good for your liver, but to me it seems brutal! So in the past, I have only spent a few short minutes in a sauna and I have never been tempted to jump into the ice cold plunge pool afterwards - despite my finnish friends telling me how fantastic it is. So I was interested in the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study which looked at if frequent use of a sauna has reduces the risk of high BP. The study looked at 1,621 middle-aged men living in eastern Finland. The study found that
- Going to the sauna 4 to 7 times per week reduces your risk of develping High BP by 46%.
- Going to the sauna 2 to 3 times per week reduces your risk of develpoing High BP by 24%.
The scientific evidence base for Sports & Deep Tissue Massage
I would like to write a series of blog articles on the scientific evidence for massage. I think it is important to start by stating the obvious that while massage can be studied, not many scientists are interested in studying it and not many massage therapists have scientific training. This means that massage is woefully under researched. In addition it is amazingly difficult to find 100 people with the same problem, who need exactly the same massage treatment, so large scale studies are very rare, which means a weakness of most studies is their size. Finally, while, most scientists are interested in how massage works, we don't have to know how something works to know if it works. I know most of my clients are interested in scientific evidence but equally important is anecdotal evidence, their own opinion and experience of the treatment. What it crystal clear from scientific data and widely agreed upon by massage therapist researchers is that massage
- Reduces anxiety
- Reduces depression
- Reduces stress
- Reduces high BP
What causes muscle cramps?
Unfortunately no one totally understands what causes muscle cramps. Most authorities agree that in skeletal muscles they are frequently caused by the hyper-excitability of the nerves that stimulate muscles. Rather than thinking of a single cause of muscle cramps, I find it more helpful to think in terms of risk factors. A field study of 433 Ironman triathletes suggest that those so cramped had exercised harder than usual, had a family history of cramping and had previous tension or ligament damage. Because muscle cramps often occur due to muscle fatigue the problem may be related to nerve malfunction creates an imbalance between muscle excitation and inhibition which prevents the muscle from relaxing. (see Schwellnus et al 2004). In summary although muscle cramps are likely to be related to overexertion there are other contribution factors. References Shang G, Collins M and Schwellnus M (2001). Factors associated with self-reported history of exercise associated muscle cramps in Ironman Triathletes: A case-control study, The Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine 21(3): p204-210 Schwellnus MP, Nicol J, Laubscher R et al (2004). Serum electrolyte concentrations and hydration status are not associated with exercise associated muscle cramping in distance runners, British Journal of Sports Medicine 38(4): p488-492
