Lowering Blood Pressure

Your risk of heart disease is largely determined by health-related attributes and behaviors called risk factors. Some of these risk factors cannot be changed, including age, sex and family history. Other risk factors are modifiable, meaning you can change them to reduce your risk. These modifiable risk factors include smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and physical inactivity.

While there are medications that can lower blood pressure and cholesterol and treat diabetes, these modifiable risk factors are best addressed by lifestyle changes. Adopting healthy habits has the potential to have a bigger effect on heart attack risk than medical management. There are three important health behaviors that, together and separately, have a powerful effect on reducing heart attack risk:

Stop smoking

There is no way around this one. Quit! Ask your doctor about prescription medications that can make quitting easier. Nicotine replacement therapy in the form of patches, gum and lozenges can help manage cravings and are available over the counter. Ultimately, though, quitting smoking is a behavior change that takes motivation, willpower and time. But it is worth it – your risk of heart attack can drop 50 to 70 percent within five years of quitting.

Be active everyday

The importance of physical inactivity as a risk factor for heart disease is often overlooked. But make no mistake, being active on a regular basis is one of the most important things you can do to improve your heart health. Whether you have other risk factors or not, physical activity can reduce your chance of having a heart attack. And if you do have a heart attack, your active lifestyle improves your chances of survival and returning to a normal lifestyle.

The benefits of exercise are well-established and impact heart disease risk in a multitude of ways. Physical activity helps with weight control, lowers blood pressure, improves blood lipids and prevents and treats diabetes. Think of this as a great health “deal.” By modifying one risk factor – inactivity – you can also promote beneficial changes in four others – obesity, hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes. There is no other treatment, drugs included, that can have such a broad impact on heart disease risk!

Improve your diet

If you are like most Britons, your diet is too high in saturated fat, salt and added sugar and lacking adequate whole grains, fruits and vegetables and fiber. This type of diet is associated with obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. All of these conditions are risk factors for heart disease, so you may literally be eating your way to a heart attack.

It turns out that adopting a healthier eating pattern is important in reducing your risk of heart disease. Saturated fat intake can lead to abnormal blood lipids and high salt intake is linked to high blood pressure. While eating sugar doesn’t cause diabetes, the type of diet described above is associated with weight gain and diabetes. Just like with physical activity, a healthy diet can lead to improvements in several other risk factors.

The potential impact of these three health behaviors is great. Even modest changes in diet and activity can lead to improvements in risk factors and reduced heart attack risk. More intensive lifestyle modification can produce even greater benefits. In one famous study, daily exercise, a low-fat vegetarian diet and stress management actually caused regression of heart disease, meaning that the blockages in the coronary arteries were smaller following treatment. While you may not follow such a strict program, becoming more active, eating a healthier diet and quitting smoking can go a long way to improving your heart health.

 A study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found 49% of men ages 40 to 79 that have high blood pressure also experience erectile dysfunction (ED).

A second study in the Journal of Urology found that 68% of men have some degree of ED while a staggering 45% were considered to have severe ED. To combat this growing concern, we must address the underlying cause of the condition.

High blood pressure can lead to ED, but its treatment has been found to be a major contributor.

It is estimated that 80% is due to a physical cause while 20% is due to a psychological component.

Lifestyle factors impact both physical and

psychological components of this condition thus affecting 100% of the problem.

Get hit with “Cupid’s Arrow” again ED is a common problem, but it is not normal. It is important to know how an erection occurs to understand how the physical and psychological components can cause ED. You can correct and improve the causative factors and get your groove back.

An erection primarily involves the nervous system. The nervous system is composed of the brain, spinal cord and nerves that control and regulate every function in your body.

Many people think that ED is a vascular condition; in most cases it is all neurological. The nervous system controls the production of hormones that regulate constriction/dilation of the blood vessels.

An erection can only occur with the dilation of the blood vessels that is triggered by a neurological input.

The nervous system is composed of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The sympathetic nervous system is commonly known as the “fight or flight” mechanism.

The sympathetic response is a strong vasoconstrictor and works by diverting the blood supply away from the organs and directs it to the skeletal muscles.

The parasympathetic nervous system allows for vasodilation to occur and allows for the blood supply to be diverted from skeletal muscles back to the organs of the body. The parasympathetic response is responsible for an erection to occur.

An erection only occurs when the parasympathetic nervous system overrides the sympathetic nervous system.

Elevated blood pressure is commonly a condition of vasoconstriction. Artificially lowering blood pressure with medication inhibits the sympathetic response, but never stimulates the parasympathetic.

This is one of the reasons that the treatment for high blood pressure causes further ED problems.

Drugs: The love killer

Diuretics — aka water pills and beta-blockers — are the prescription drugs used to treat high blood pressure and most commonly linked to erectile dysfunction. Beta-blockers shut off the nerve impulses that lead to an erection.

What’s even worse? According to research the side effects of the drugs can make you feel sedated and depressed causing up to 25% of ED. What happens when you are depressed?

You take more medication right? It has been proven that anti-depressants cause more depression thus more ED.

Arousing to the max

Dietary factors are commonly overlooked in regard to ED. One’s diet contributes to both the physical and the psychological response of the body’s neurology and hormone balance.

Poor dietary factors will add unneeded chemical stress on the body that contributes to the production of the sympathetic, vasoconstricting response.

This will contribute to high blood pressure and ED.

It can be said to get blood “flowing” one should exercise. Exercise is an effective means of reducing stress through a healthy neurological response. Why is exercise a recommendation for high blood pressure? It improves how the body can handle and respond to stress.

ED is clearly a problem that impacts most men at some point in their lives.

Taking self-responsibility for one’s health on a proactive basis will reduce the incidence of heart disease that plays a significant role in the development of ED. ED is not a lack of medication, it is caused by it.

It is time to control what passes your lips, engage in healthy physical activities and reduce the use of unneeded medications.

This improved lifestyle will help reduce the risk of developing heart disease and the development of erectile dysfunction.

Two small helpings of purple potatoes a day decreases blood pressure by about 4% without causing weight gain, U.S. researchers said.

Joe Vinson of the University of Scranton and colleagues said purple-skinned potatoes, a boutique variety increasingly available in food stores, are noted for having high levels of healthful antioxidant compounds.

Purple potatoes are renowned in Korean folk medicine as a way to lose weight, so Vinson’s team decided to investigate the effects of eating six to eight small microwaved purple potatoes twice a day. The study involved 18 volunteers, most of whom were overweight with high blood pressure.

The volunteers ate potatoes or no potatoes for four weeks, and then switched to the opposite regimen for another four weeks while researchers monitored systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body weight and other health indicators, Vinson said.

The study, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, found the average diastolic blood pressure — the bottom number — dropped by 4.3% and systolic pressure — the top number — decreased by 3.5%. The majority of subjects took anti-hypertensive drugs and still had a reduction in blood pressure.

The health benefits of garlic have been known since thousands of years. It has been used in ancient medicinal systems including the Chinese, Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek and Roman. Its use has ranged from the treatment of hypertension, infections, snakebites and blood clots to the warding off of evil spirits.

Though the medicinal properties of garlic have not been completely established, garlic appears to have blood pressure and cholesterol lowering, anticancer and antimicrobial properties. Raw garlic appears to have more medicinal properties than cooked garlic.

Researchers reviewed various published articles on the effect of garlic on high blood pressure. Publications between 1956 and 2008 were included in the study. The researchers analyzed relevant information provided in the studies. A total of 10 studies were carefully selected and included in the analysis. Most of the studies used 600 to 900 mg of garlic powder per day, which provide 3.6–5.4 mg of Allicin, an active component of garlic that helps to lower blood pressure.

The analysis showed that garlic appears to have an effect in reducing systolic and diastolic blood pressure in hypertensive patients as compared to those not taking garlic. Patients with high blood pressure at the beginning of the study showed a better effect as compared to those who did not have a high blood pressure at the beginning. In fact, the blood pressure lowering effects of garlic may be comparable to other drugs used for high blood pressure like beta – blockers, ACE inhibitors and Angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonists.

Garlic may cause reduction in blood pressure by relaxing blood vessels and interfering with the function of angiotensin I (an enzyme which plays a role in the development of high blood pressure). It may also exert an indirect effect by reducing cholesterol and breaking down clots in the blood vessels. Most of the studies included in the analysis were conducted for a short duration of around 12 to 23 weeks. Trials lasting for a longer duration are required to establish the long-term benefits of garlic in hypertension.

Using standardized garlic preparations could possibly help to establish the relationship between garlic and blood pressure even better. Garlic preparations have several advantages over raw garlic. They help in avoiding the odor of garlic and thus prevent bad breath. They also prevent damage of the active compounds during the cooking process. Garlic could thus possibly be useful in the future to improve the effectiveness of antihypertensive medications. At the same time, it may help to keep the dosage of the medications under control, thus reducing the possibility of side effects.

A study recently released in the Archives of Internal Medicine shared that drinking three cups of black tea a day may help lower blood pressure.

The research effort tested black tea against a placebo, in order to determine the effect of drinking the beverage over time on lowering the blood pressure of the study participants.

The study analyzed data from 95 study participants, who consisted of male and female subjects aged 35 to 75. The participants had systolic blood pressure readings that range from 115 to 150, and were randomly assigned to one of two groups.

One of the groups was asked to drink three cups of regular leaf tea containing 1,493 mg of powdered black tea solids, with 429 mg of polyphenols and 96 mg of caffeine. The participants in the second group were asked to drink a placebo, which had the same flavor and caffeine content, but did not contain tea solids.

The results of the study indicated that the group who drank tea with black tea solids experienced a drop of systolic and diastolic blood pressure over a period of six months. When compared against the placebo group, it was observed that the systolic and diastolic blood pressure of those who drank black tea dropped by two to three points.

According to the study authors, this drop translated to a 10 percent drop in the prevalence of high blood pressure, as well as a 7% to 10% decrease in the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Many old people  like to take a dip a pool, and now a small study suggests it can be good for their blood pressure.

Researchers found that among 43 older men and women, those who started swimming a few times a week lowered their systolic blood pressure — the “top” number in a blood pressure reading.

On average, the swimmers started the study with a systolic blood pressure of 131 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). Three months later, it was 122 mm Hg.

Normal blood pressure is defined as an average reading no higher than 120/80 mm Hg. Readings of 140/90 or higher are considered high blood pressure, and anything in between is considered “pre-hypertension.”

Swimming is often promoted as a good way for older people to exercise, since it’s easy on the joints and it’s not likely to cause overheating. And many follow that advice: after walking, swimming is the second-most popular form of exercise among the older set.

But there’s been little research into the health benefits of swimming — though a number of studies have suggested that it’s as safe for older adults as walking and bicycling, said Hirofumi Tanaka, senior researcher on the new study.

Published in the American Journal of Cardiology, the research appears to be the first to demonstrate that swimming can improve older adults’ blood vessel function and curb their blood pressure.

“Swimming is a very attractive form of exercise,” Tanaka, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, told Reuters Health in an email.

“It’s easily accessible and inexpensive,” Tanaka noted. “And because it does not involve bearing of body weight, due to the buoyancy of water, it is friendly to knee and ankle joints.”

The study included 43 adults, with an average age of 60, who had high blood pressure or pre-hypertension but were otherwise healthy.

The researchers randomly assigned them to either have supervised swimming sessions or learn relaxation exercises. Over 12 weeks, the swimmers got in the pool three or four times a week, gradually working their way up to 45 minutes of swimming at a time.

By the end of the study, the swimmers had shaved an average of nine points from their systolic blood pressure. In contrast, that number did not budge in the relaxation group.

The picture was similar when the researchers had the study participants wear portable monitors that tracked their blood pressure over 24 hours. On average, the swimming group had a 24-hour systolic blood pressure of 119 mm Hg — down from 128 mm Hg at the study’s start.

Tanaka’s team also used ultrasound tests to measure how well participants’ blood vessels were dilating in response to blood flow. Again, they found improvements in the swimming group, but not in the relaxation group.

The study was small, and it’s not clear whether the blood pressure reduction lasts — or whether it translates into a lower risk of heart attack or stroke down the line.

But the results line up with what experts already recommend for older adults’ heart health: get regular moderate exercise, along with a healthy diet.

Tanaka said that as long as an older adult has gotten the OK to exercise moderately, swimming should be a safe activity. But if you’re sedentary, check with your doctor before becoming newly active.

There was a time when swimming was considered potentially risky, Tanaka noted, because being in cold water “elicits cardiovascular changes.”

But most studies have indicated that bobbing in the waters of your local pool would be as safe as a walk around the neighborhood.

Q: My New Year’s resolution is to reduce my salt intake. Which foods are the most common sources of dietary sodium?

A: Adults in the U.S. consume an average of 3,466 mg of sodium a day, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report based on data collected for 2005-2006 as part of an ongoing health survey.

Federal recommendations call for much lower sodium consumption. People with high blood pressure, blacks, and middle-aged and older adults are advised to get no more than 1,500 mg of sodium per day. Others should limit their sodium intake to 2,300 mg per day.

Few people meet these targets.

“The broad recommendation is that everybody lower sodium intake,” said Janelle Peralez Gunn, a registered dietitian and public health analyst for the Division of Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention at the CDC.

Sodium intake is associated with high blood pressure, which is associated with cardiovascular disease.

Complicating the picture are studies that suggest one can reduce salt intake too much.

One study published in November found that very low sodium intake was associated with hospitalization for congestive heart failure and cardiovascular death but not associated with stroke and heart attack. All the patients in the study had cardiovascular disease or diabetes, so they did not represent the general population.

“Sodium is a physiological requirement, so one would expect there to be a lower threshold of intake. The question is, where does that lower threshold lie?” said Martin J. O’Donnell, the lead author of the study.

In the study, it wasn’t until sodium intake reached more than 6 grams per day — much higher than U.S. recommendations — that stroke and heart attack risk were seen.

“There is convincing evidence to support lowering sodium intake to under 6 grams per day amongst high-sodium consumers. However, there is uncertainty about whether sodium intake should be further lowered in people consuming moderate or average sodium intakes,” O’Donnell said.

When it comes to food categories, the sources of salt in the average U.S. adult diet may be surprising.

Grains — which include breads, crackers and such foods as burritos, pizza, egg rolls, rice mixes and frozen meals with a grain as the main ingredient — account for about 37 percent of average daily sodium intake.

Bread is moderate in sodium, but Americans eat a lot of bread, so breads account for a significant portion of total daily sodium intake.

Meat, poultry and fish are next, accounting for about 28 percent of sodium in the diet.

Vegetables, including soups and sauces and potato chips, account for 12 percent of daily sodium intake. Milk products account for 8 percent.

Lowering sodium intake can be difficult. The vast majority of sodium in food is not from the salt shaker, added at the table, but is added to food in manufacturing and processing. And once it’s in, it cannot be removed.

“It’s hard to guess how much sodium is in a given food,” Gunn said.

“Your muffin can have more sodium than your pretzels.”

Recommendations on lowering sodium intake say to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and read nutrition labels, choosing lower-sodium options.

“It doesn’t take that long to adjust to a lower-sodium diet,” Gunn said.

Some want food manufacturers and restaurants to lower sodium content in prepared and packaged foods.

The Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are soliciting public comment through Jan. 27 on this issue.

Cholesterol is the most common and essential waxy steroid of fat found in the blood plasma of humans. It will be produced in the liver or intestines. It plays a important role in the formation of bile acids, vitamin D, and hormones like progesterone, estrogens, androgens, mineral corticoids, glucocorticoids. The normal functioning and permeability of cell membranes is due to normal levels of cholesterol. Cholesterol levels in blood originate from liver production and dietary intake. The liver produces approximately 70% of cholesterol and other 30% comes from dietary intake.

The two types of cholesterol are LDL (low density lipoprotein) and HDL (high density lipoprotein). Elevated levels of LDL or bad cholesterol are associates with the risk of coronary heart disease.

Elevated levels of LDL cholesterol forms a hard and thick substance called cholesterol plaque along the inside artery walls, thus narrowing the artery and preventing the blood flow and increase in blood pressure. This process of thickening and narrowing is called atherosclerosis. HDL or good cholesterol helps in extracting and disposing cholesterol from artery walls through liver metabolism and thus help in preventing atherosclerosis.

The factors which cause high blood cholesterol levels are diet, exercise, body weight, age and gender, hereditary, and underlying medical conditions.

Dietary intake of large quantities of foods such as red meat and high fat dairy products, fried foods, baked goods and pastries amount in increase level of cholesterol. By cutting down the intake of these foods and replacing those with fruits and vegetables can reduce cholesterol levels.

Sedentary lifestyles have become a part of our day-to-day living and thus people tend to exercise less. Due to lack of exercise, habits such as smoking and drinking and poor dietary intake, obesity has become a major problem in all cities. Cholesterol levels thus increase in individual with less activity and poor dietary intake which have resulted in increased risk for coronary heart disease. Habits such as smoking can lower the levels of HDL or good cholesterol thus increasing LDL or bad cholesterol. Smoking interferes with the ability of HDL to extract and dispose fatty deposits from walls of artery and thus narrowing the blood vessels, thus increasing the blood cholesterol and also high blood pressure.

By doing regular exercise and by healthy eating habits is necessary in controlling high blood cholesterol which in turn into high blood pressure. High blood cholesterol may be due to hereditary factors, it may run in the families. Particular medical conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes increase the risk factor developing high cholesterol in a person. When a person is suffers high blood pressure an extra force on artery walls damages the arteries thus raises the accumulation of fat deposits in the body. The high blood sugar levels will damage the lining of arteries thus increases LDL while reducing HDL cholesterol. All these factors sum up to increase in blood cholesterol which will result’s into increase of blood pressure.

8 million people in the US suffer with high blood pressure. One in three of those can’t get it under control, which can lead to heart disease, stroke or kidney failure.

A new implant is literally changing the minds of those who can’t get relief from drugs alone.

Robert Breece is one of 27 million Americans living with what is referred to as “resistant” hypertension because blood pressure stays high despite taking at least three drugs. Robert was taking seven.

“I’ve taken many drugs over the years, trying to find combinations that work,” Breece says. “My blood pressure was out of control and it would have led to my death.”

So when Dr. Dominic Sica told Robert about an investigational implant that could help him control his blood pressure, he decided to give it a try, even if it was a mind trick of sorts.

“It is trickery at its finest physiological point of view,” says Sica, the Director of the Blood Pressure Disorders Unit at the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System.

Here’s how it works: the hypertension device is implanted into the chest and attaches two electrodes to the carotid arteries. It then sends a signal to the brain, fooling it into thinking the blood pressure is higher than it is.

“The brain then says ‘Let me turn off various pathways by which then brain controls blood pressure’ and when that happens those mechanisms are down regulated and the blood pressure tends to come down,” Sica explains.

Patients may still need to take some medications. Robert is now only taking four and his blood pressure dropped from 225 over 125 to 128 over 68.

“It’s made a huge difference. I don’t worry about my blood pressure,” he says.

The device is not for everyone so make sure to consult with your doctor. It is designed for people who have severe cases of high blood pressure that can’t be controlled with medication. Patients must also be committed to having the battery surgically replaced every few years.