Living Well to Keep Your Blood Pressure Down

By Linda Bobroff, PhD, RD, LD/N, Department of Family, Youth, and Community Sciences, University of Florida
Reviewed by Unnur K. Gylfadottir, PhD, Department of Family, Youth, and Community Sciences, University of Florida

High blood pressure, or hypertension, can sneak up on you because it often has no symptoms. But even though you may not feel sick, high blood pressure can be a killer. It makes your heart work harder than is normal and damages blood vessels, which can lead to a heart attack, stroke, blindness, and/or kidney failure.

I’ve been lucky when it comes to blood pressure. My blood pressure is low, and I think my mom’s blood pressure was 120/80 mm Hg when she was in her 80s! But hypertension is common in many families. An estimated 78 million adults in the U.S. have high blood pressure. About half of these people don’t have their high blood pressure under good control. These folks are at risk for severe health consequences.

Although medications can control blood pressure in many people, lifestyle is an important part of blood pressure management. What and how much you eat and your level of physical activity can affect your blood pressure.

Healthy Eating Patterns

Here’s how experts recommend eating to decrease your risk for high blood pressure, or to manage the problem if you already have it.

  • Emphasize your intake of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.
  • Include low-fat dairy products, poultry, fish, legumes, heart-healthy vegetable oils (such as olive oil and canola oil) and nuts in your diet.
  • Limit sweets, sugar-sweetened beverages, solid fats like shortening, lard, and butter, and red meats.

Two recommended eating plans are the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) eating plan and the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) Food Patterns.

Most Americans eat WAY too much salt (the main source of sodium in our diets). So, in addition to following the basic eating pattern, reduce your sodium intake by at least 1,000 mg/day (about ½ tsp of salt). The best way to do this is to eat fewer processed foods and fast foods. At home, use dried herbs and citrus juice to flavor foods instead of salt whenever possible.

Maintain or move toward a healthy weight. Obesity increases risk for high blood pressure, so avoiding excessive weight gain as we get older is important. Moving more and (for most of us) eating smaller portions can help us achieve a healthier weight without “dieting.”

To stay the course, be sure to eat foods that you enjoy and that fit with your lifestyle and culture/ethnicity. Family meals and holiday traditions are important to most of us. You can keep those traditions while still eating for good health. Also, this dietary pattern can be adapted for any special dietary needs that you may have, like allergies, lactose intolerance, celiac disease, etc.

Increase Physical Activity

It’s sad but true that most Americans sit too much, spend too much time in front of one screen or another, and don’t move enough to strengthen our cardiovascular systems. Adults should aim for at least 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity. Most people will get greater benefits with longer or more vigorous activity, but sedentary people will get health benefits from almost any physical activity.

Moderate physical activity is movement that raises your heart rate, but still allows you to talk while exercising. Examples are brisk walking, slow jogging, dancing, and swimming. If the exercise makes you too out of breath to talk, then you may be doing “vigorous” physical activity. Check with your doctor if you are sedentary and plan a vigorous activity program.

Good news: It is okay to split your activity into two or three 10-15 minute sessions during the day if that will help you reach your activity goal. To stay on track and motivated, find an exercise partner who will be encouraging and fun to be with!

Keeping your pressure down can seem like an uphill battle, but taking it one step at a time will help you make choices that will improve your life. Follow your health care provider’s medication management plan and make lifestyle choices that will help you control your blood pressure. You owe it to yourself and to everyone who cares about you!

Further Reading:

High Blood Pressure: What You Need to Know (from UF-IFAS)

Living Well to Keep Your Pressure Down (from UF-IFAS)

Healthy Eating: Lowering Your Blood Pressure with DASH (from UF-IFAS)

(Photo credit: Frutas y vegetais by Olearys. CC BY 2.0.)

References:

Eckel, R.H., et al. (2013). 2013 AHA/ACC guideline on lifestyle management to reduce cardiovascular risk: A report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines. Circulation. 2013; 00:000-000. doi:10.1161/01.cir.0000437740.48606.d1

USDA. (2013). USDA Food Patterns. Retrieved from http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodPatterns.htm

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Posted: March 10, 2014


Category: Health & Nutrition, Work & Life
Tags: Nutrition And Food Systems


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