The lifestyle you follow and the foods you consume significantly affect your blood pressure and your overall health. Adopting the right lifestyle can:
- Lower your blood pressure or completely prevent the occurrence of hypertension.
- Reduce your need for antihypertensive medications.
- It contributes to improving the effectiveness of antihypertensive drugs.
- Reduce your chances of suffering a myocardial infarction, stroke or kidney disease.
The following lifestyle changes can help lower blood pressure:
- Reduce salt in your diet.
- Lose weight if you are overweight or obese.
- Follow a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products, but low in red meat and sweets and processed grains.
- Avoid drinking large amounts of alcohol.
- Quit smoking.
- Exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, 5-7 days a week.
Quitting smoking may not lower your blood pressure, but it will significantly reduce your chances of having a heart attack or stroke, and will help you feel better and live longer.
The implementation of the above healthy dietary interventions is recommended not only for hypertensive patients, but also for individuals with "elevated blood pressure", i.e. systolic blood pressure of 120-139 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure of 70-89 mmHg.
The above changes may seem like a lot, but don’t worry. You don’t have to change everything at once. The key to improving your lifestyle is to start small and build on them slowly but surely. Choose one small change and stick with it for a while. If possible, keep trying until it becomes a habit. If not, don’t give up. Choose something else to change and see how it goes.
For example, let's say you want to improve your diet. If you're used to eating kebabs, pizza, French fries, and hamburgers, you can't change by eating only salads overnight. People who try to make drastic changes usually fail. They get frustrated and tend to give up. So instead of trying to change everything about your diet in one day, make 1 or 2 small changes and give yourself time to get used to them. For example, eat the hamburger but not the French fries, or eat what you used to eat before, but in half portions.
As you find changes that you can make and maintain, keep adding new changes. Over time, you will find that you really can change a lot.
When we think about weight loss we sometimes make it more complicated than it really is. To lose weight, one must either eat less or move more.. If you do them together, it's even better. But there is no one diet or exercise plan that is superior to another for weight loss. When it comes to weight loss, the most effective plan is the one you can stick to.
There is no single diet that is right for everyone. However, in general, a healthy diet may include:
- Lots of fruits, vegetables and whole grains
- Beans, peas, chickpeas, lentils and similar foods
- Walnuts, almonds and peanuts
- Fish
- Milk and low-fat dairy products
If you want to improve your lifestyle, start by making changes that you find easy. For example, if you used to exercise, it will be easy for you to start again. Whatever you choose to start with, make sure it is a specific and realistic goal. Give yourself a deadline. For example, don’t decide to “exercise more.” Instead, decide to walk for 10 minutes every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for the next 2 weeks. When lifestyle changes are too general, they are difficult to implement.
photo by tomwieden, https://pixabay.com
