Treatments
Lifestyle Changes
Lifestyle changes are a part of the treatment of many common diseases today. Lifestyle changes can lead to reduction in severity or even outright elimination of many diseases, hypertension included. Lifestyle changes require conviction and effort to be sustained, but health provides a worthy motivation. Supportive structured programs for making positive lifestyle changes are available in many communities, and through hospitals, clinics and the workplace. Your employee assistance program may be able to help.
The following lifestyle changes are important for reducing hypertension:
- Exercise. Engage in at least moderate regular exercise. Experts recommend at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise (brisk walking or stationary bike) on most of, if not all, days of the week. Studies have also demonstrated that controlled movement exercises such as yoga and Tai Chi are effect at lowering blood pressure.
It is important for people with high blood pressure to work with their doctors to develop appropriate exercise programs. Intense work-outs (such as shoveling snow or heavy lifting) and competitive contact sports may be dangerous for people with high blood pressure.
- Modified Diet. There are multiple changes to one's diet that can be made that will help to reduce hypertension:
You can reduce your blood pressure in eight weeks by following the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) Diet (described in detail at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/dash/). It can also help with weight reduction. The program involves:
- Avoiding saturated fats (found in red meats and some dairy products), and trans-fats (such as hydrogenated oils)
- Selecting monounsaturated fats (such as olive or canola oil)
- Choosing whole grain (brown) bread and pasta over white flour breads and pastas (some experts say avoid white flour-based foods all together).
- Eating fresh fruits and vegetables every day.
- Eating nuts, seeds, or beans every day.
Adding salt restriction to the DASH diet can reduce hypertension.
Eating potassium-rich foods (such as bananas, pears, oranges, prunes, cantaloupes, tomatoes, beans, and nuts) can help. Too much potassium can cause problems, but including a few potassium rich foods in the daily diet, is protective against the damage of high blood pressure.
Cut down drastically from alcohol or abstain completely. One to two drinks per day for men and one or less drinks per day for women should be a maximum intake.
Avoid caffeine (found in coffee, tea and most sodas) altogether.
