Blood pressure is an indication of how hard your heart has to work to pump blood around your body. If your blood pressure reading is high, it means that your heart is working too hard and is under too much strain.
Unsurprisingly, high blood pressure is a significant risk factor for several life-threatening illnesses including:Â
- heart attacks
- strokes
- peripheral arterial disease
- aortic aneurysms
- vascular dementiaÂ
One of the reasons high blood pressure is so dangerous is the lack of symptoms. Of the 100 million Americans that suffer from high blood pressure, one in five are unaware they have it.Â
Understanding the causes of high blood pressure and the impact it can have on your health can help you make more informed decisions to reduce your risk of developing it.Â
Let’s start with the main factors that put you at higher risk:Â
What puts you at risk of high blood pressure?
There are several major factors that could put you at risk for high blood pressure. They include:
You can address most of the above factors with simple lifestyle changes. Unfortunately, there’s not yet a way to combat aging, so it’s even more important to address these lifestyle factors as we get older.
How to reduce high blood pressure
Left unchecked, high blood pressure can cause major damage to your heart and cardiovascular system. Long-term illness requires extensive medical intervention and, in many cases, a visit to a heart surgeon.
The good news is that for many people, blood pressure is addressable with simple lifestyle changes. But in cases of extremely high blood pressure or when lifestyle changes don’t have a measurable impact, there are a number of medications doctors can prescribe:
- Diuretics – reduce the levels of sodium in your body.
- ACE inhibitors – stop your body from producing chemicals that narrow blood vessels.
- Calcium channel blockers – relax your blood vessels and may slow your heart rate.
- Vasodilators – prevent the narrowing of arteries.
- Central-acting agents – prevent your brain from sending signals to increase your heart rate and narrow your arteries.
- Renin inhibitors – slow the production of renin by your kidneys, as it causes an increase in blood pressure.
- Alpha blockers – reduce the effect of natural chemicals that narrow your blood vessels.
- Beta Blockers – widen your blood vessels and cause your heart to beat slower.
It’s far better (and more cost-effective) to prevent high blood pressure from cropping up in the first place.
How to prevent high blood pressure
One of the greatest tragedies I see with my patients is that they think their illness is inevitable. In most cases, it isn’t inevitable at all. Simple lifestyle changes can have a drastic impact on the health of your heart and cardiovascular system.
Here are some ways you can prevent high blood pressure from putting you on my operating table.
Improving Diet
Food is the cornerstone to good health. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of confusion around what’s truly healthy. Thanks to a misguided food pyramid, fad diets, and companies trying to convince us that their powdered meal replacements are a good way to lose weight, it’s hard to tell the difference between what’s good for our hearts and what’s just a marketing ploy.
The good news is that healthy eating is incredibly simple. Stick to whole foods – meat, vegetables, and unprocessed carbohydrates such as rice and sweet potatoes – and avoid anything made in a factory. I like to say you should only eat food that grows in the ground (like lettuce greens), or eats what grows in the ground (like cows).Â
Once you get your diet in check, you may notice your weight automatically starts to reach normal levels. Your sleep may get better, and your metabolic health may improve, which normalizes your blood pressure and helps you feel better in general.
Reaching a healthy weight
Being overweight or obese has a huge impact on all areas of your health, blood pressure included. Losing as little as 5% of your body weight could significantly lower your risk of heart-related illness.
Being overweight also puts a lot of strain on your heart, making it work harder to pump blood. It also increases the likelihood of a plaque buildup in your arteries and can cause hormone imbalances in the future.
AlcoholÂ
Alcohol is not a harmless substance. Drinking too much can cause a lot of problems for your health. Liver damage is a well-known side effect, but you should also know it can increase your blood pressure.Â
Smoking
You probably know that tobacco products are bad for you. If you currently smoke, you may feel that it helps you to relax or calm you down when you’re stressed. But nicotine is known to narrow your arteries and cause your heart to beat faster, which can raise your blood pressure.Â
Factor in the damage that smoking causes to your blood vessels, and tobacco should be high on your list of things to avoid.
Exercise
Regular exercise improves your cardiovascular system, including strengthening your heart. As a result, your heart uses less effort to pump blood, which lowers your blood pressure as a whole.Â
Exercise also improves your blood vessels and your ability to exert yourself less when doing activities. This helps to improve your heart health in general and maintain your metabolic health as well.
Take control of your blood pressure
High blood pressure should tell you there’s something wrong in your body. While it may be caused by illness or a long-term condition, it’s far more likely that the solution is making different choices.
In these instances, taking medication to lower your blood pressure is a case of treating the symptom and ignoring the cause. When you ignore the cause, you leave yourself vulnerable.
The best way to address hypertension is to look at your physical health as a complete unit — starting by addressing your metabolic health. Once you become metabolically healthy, your blood pressure should reach a healthy level.
To find out how metabolically healthy you are and what improvements you need to make, take my free metabolic health quiz to get personalized suggestions.