Hypertension — the medical name for high blood pressure — is a fundamental health issue with a risk factor that rises with age. Its presence also raises your risk of developing heart disease or having a stroke. About 500,000 Americans die each year with high blood pressure as the primary reason for death or as a significant contributing factor.
The best way to deal with high blood pressure is to prevent it from occurring in the first place, but even if your numbers have started to climb, there are things you can control. The first step is diagnosis, since only multiple blood pressure cuff tests under the supervision of medical professionals can reliably identify hypertension.
Millennium Park Medical Associates in Greenwood Village, Colorado, are hypertension specialists, able to diagnose and treat your condition. Most people can make simple lifestyle changes that are heart-friendly and that can bring blood pressure back into normal limits. Give these seven solutions a try, and contact Dr. Farah Khan and the team if you need extra help.
1 Know the risks
High blood pressure causes damage to arteries, increasing your vulnerability to heart disease, heart attack, or stroke. High blood pressure can cause damage to your body long before you notice symptoms, so knowing the risks that apply to you can save your life.
Heredity is a major factor. If a parent or family member has high blood pressure, your chances increase. You also increase the chance for hypertension if you’re living a sedentary life, eating a heart-unfriendly diet, carrying high LDL cholesterol levels, while carrying extra body weight.
2 Control your weight
Many of these risk factors are lifestyle-related. That means they’re at least partially under your control to change. Not only that, many of these changes are interconnected. If you are above your optimal body weight, you can shed the pounds by improving your diet and increasing your activity level, two other targets for the seven steps suggested here. Even a modest amount of weight loss can lower your blood pressure numbers.
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