Have High Blood Pressure? How Can You Lower It?

There’s a lot of things that a person takes for granted within their body. The bones are joints are supposed to allow for movement. Nerves allow us to feel things that touch our body inside and out. The heart is supposed to push blood through the body without a problem. It’s this last one that many people have problems with and don’t even know it. Many people suffer from high blood pressure.

High blood pressure tends to develop in the body slowly and grow over the years. People do not realize it until a lot of damage has already been done. It’s important to keep abreast of a person’s blood pressure to ensure that they know exactly where they stand with their medical health.

What is High Blood Pressure

There’s two measurements that are used to make up a blood pressure rating. The first is when the heart beats and pumps the blood through the body. The second number is the pressure when the heart is resting in between beats. This leads to a rating where a normal score is 120/80 mmHg.

So what is considered to be high blood pressure? Most people consider high blood pressure, or true hypertension, to occur at 140/90 mmHg. Scores in between those two measurements are people who are approaching and at risk for high blood pressure.

It’s also important to note that sometimes it’s hard to measure blood pressure properly. Many doctors consider a visit to be a bad place to take measurements because many people feel high levels of stress when visiting the doctor. It’s good to take measurements often to establish a baseline and eliminate environmental factors.

Lifestyle Changes to Lower Blood Pressure

The main treatment to handle high blood pressure is to make many changes to a person’s lifestyle. Each changes can make a difference, but combining them together is the best choice. Some of the lifestyle changes people make are:

• Diet - This is typically the number one change that is made to a person’s lifestyle. A diet will be designed to lower blood pressure which is typically high in vegetables and low in salt. Finding a good nutritionist can allow a person to help make out a new meal plan with their blood pressure in mind.
• Exercise - Unsurprisingly, regular exercise is a lifestyle change that helps with blood pressure. To be fair, it helps with almost every condition, so it’s typically recommended by doctors in most situations.
• Maintaining Healthy Weight - Regardless of where a person is physically, they will need to maintain a healthy weight. Obesity really increases the issues with high blood pressure.
• Reducing Alcohol - Too much alcohol can cause some serious problems with blood pressure. It’s important to limit alcohol and avoid binges.

Medical Treatments to Lower Blood Pressure

When it comes to treating high blood pressure, most of the treatments are going to be lifestyle changes. However, in severe cases, it’s possible that a doctor will need to intervene. The typical decision is to provide a prescription for medication which helps keep blood pressure at a normal level. It’s important to note that blood pressure can go too low as well. Medication should only be taken as required by the doctor and never taking too much.