Lowering Your High Blood Pressure Can Help Your Marriage

By Kathy Forcey

There are many ways of lowering high blood pressure if you should suffer from hypertension. High blood pressure means that the pressure in your arteries is higher then normal, normal blood pressure is 120/80 or lower and high blood pressure is anything above--0/90.

The top number in a blood pressure reading is the systolic pressure and this relates to the force of blood in the arteries as the heart contracts and the bottom number is the diastolic pressure. The diastolic pressure is the force of blood in the arteries during the heart's resting stage between beats.

High blood pressure is an issue because it can lead to heart disease, kidney disease, hardening of the arteries, stroke, brain damage and eye damage. Organ damage is considered the end result of high blood pressure as you can go for years with high blood pressure before damaging your organs.

You can make lifestyle changes to assist in lowering high blood pressure. Many people have found much success with reducing blood pressure by implementing these changes. Following a healthy diet and exercising regularly is the best way to lower your blood pressure. You should also pay attention to the amount of salt in your diet as this a high salt level can cause high blood pressure.

Being overweight will also increase your blood pressure so maintaining a healthy weight or losing weight can help your blood pressure. Drinking too much alcohol and smoking have also been known to increase your blood pressure thus stopping smoking and reducing your alcohol consumption can decrease your high blood pressure.

There are several types of medication that can be used in lowering high blood pressure. These include diuretics as these pills help to flush excess water and sodium out of the body from the kidneys. Beta blockers will cause the heart to beat slower and less forcefully so that your heart is not working as hard and your blood pressure lowers. ACE or Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors stop the production of a hormone, angiotensin II. This hormone makes blood vessels become narrower which can increase blood pressure.

Having too much calcium in the heart can cause the heart to become tense. A calcium channel blocker can be used to relax blood vessels and the heart. Alpha blockers will affect your nervous system so that it allows for better blood flow by stopping some nerve messages. Alpha-beta-blockers are a combination of alpha blockers and beta blockers so this medication slows downs the heart and causes blood flow to be smoother. - 30310

About the Author:

Sign Up for our Free Newsletter

Enter email address here