The ultimate guide to prevent high blood pressure

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a kind of basic disease that may lead to many other diseases like heart disease and stroke. It means your top number of blood pressure is over 130 and the bottom is 80 or higher. Generally speaking, you will not have any symptoms with high blood pressure, and once you do, the consequences can be fatal. But with some tweaks in lifestyle and medication treatment, high blood pressure is preventable and curable.

Keep a healthy weight

If you are overweight, the possibility of diagnosing high blood pressure is higher. Studies reported that losing just 5 to 10 pounds can reduce blood pressure. So to keep the blood pressure in a healthy range, the first thing to do is to lose weight.

Increase physical activity

Regular exercise will increase your heart and breathing rates, enabling your heart to pump with less effort over time. That puts less pressure on the arteries and lower blood pressure accordingly. The best frequency is exercising about 40 minutes each session, 3 to 4 times per week. If that’s a bit hard for you, you can also divide it into several 10- to 15-minute segments the whole day.

Eat less sodium

A high intake of salt is closely related to high blood pressure. In order to lower the risk of hypertension and heart disease, it’s better to keep the daily sodium intake between 1,500 milligrams and 2,300 milligrams. To reduce salt, you should cook fresh foods as much as you can, and avoid processed foods that contain very high sodium.

Reduce excess stress

We are surrounded by stressful moments from workplace and family life. Reducing these stress is rather important to keep healthy blood pressure. Helpful activities include deep breathing, listening to music, having a sauna, doing yoga, and so on.

Cut back on sugar

Many studies find that reducing sugar and refined carbohydrates can lower blood pressure. Sugary foods contain high empty calories which is not nutritional for you at all. If you want to eat something sweet, try instead fresh fruits or dark chocolate that isn’t added too much sugar.

Drink less alcohol

Alcohol can raise your blood pressure even if you are healthy. Reports show that every 10 grams of alcohol can lead to a 1mm Hg increase in blood pressure. It’s important to be in moderation: women can drink up to one drink a day, while men two drinks at most (a standard drink refers to one 12-ounce beer, 5-ounce wine, or 1.5-ounce distilled spirits).