How to lower your blood pressure with 7 easy ways to decrease your risk factors

Disclaimer: This content is not intended to substitute professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, and never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
 
One of the most common diagnoses I used to see on patient charts was “hypertension”, a.k.a. high blood pressure. It’s so common these days that most of us hardly bat an eye when given the diagnosis. Almost everyone knows someone who has it. Given its prevalence, is it really that bad though? It can’t really be that dangerous if seemingly everyone else is walking around with it...can it??
 
Well for starters, the people you see out and about most likely haven’t had the consequences of hypertension catch up with them yet. Chances are you aren’t seeing the ones that have been crippled by its effects. These are the people that I used to see in the hospitals. These are the people that we do home care visits on, often isolated in their homes with debilitating disabilities. And you surely aren’t seeing all the people who have already succumbed to hypertension.
 
While it’s true that high blood pressure may not be an immediate threat, it can still be quite deadly. The problem is, we just don’t know exactly when the cumulative effects will strike us.  Having high blood pressure is akin to having a time bomb ticking away in our bodies.
 
What is hypertension?
Hypertension is the medical term for high blood pressure. It refers to how strong the blood is flowing against the walls of the arteries. Arteries are the pipelines that deliver fresh oxygenated blood to the rest of the body. When the pressure against the arteries is consistently high, this results in a diagnosis of hypertension.
 
Now, keep in mind that it’s normal for blood pressure to fluctuate as we go about our days. There are times of the day when our stress hormones are naturally higher. There are times when we are more physically active, or mentally stimulated, or stressed. But problems arise when these numbers remain consistently elevated.
 
Why is high blood pressure so dangerous?
 
Imagine a hose. In a normal hose without any obstructions inside, the water flows smoothly through. You can increase or decrease the flow of water depending on your needs. But either way, the water flows smoothly.
 
Now imagine that same hose, but with some obstructions lining the inside of the tubing. Maybe some spider webs or debris of some sort. Now apply that same force of water but over a longer period of time. You can imagine the resulting bulges in the tubing now, right? Eventually, when that pressure is applied for long enough, the tubing might just break. Or alternately, the obstructions may break free and travel to another part of the hose, causing an obstruction maybe closer to the spigot.
 
With high blood pressure, think of the spigot as being either the heart or the brain. What results when an obstruction occurs at either of these two sites is either a heart attack or a stroke. What’s terrifying is that this can happen suddenly and without any warning at all.   
 
As a nurse, I’ve cared for countless patients of various ages who were just going about their everyday lives when their lives took a drastic turn for the worse. I don’t want to depress my readers with stroke or heart attack stories. But I urge you to do what’s in your power today to decrease your risk of ending up in a hospital bed before it’s too late.
 
The silent killer
One of the reasons high blood pressure is so scary is because it can sneak up on you. I’ve had patients whose blood pressures were way over the normal limits but had zero symptoms. One lady had a blood pressure of 210/115 and had nothing but a mild headache (less than 120/80 is ideal). Some people with high blood pressure may complain of dizziness, feeling lightheaded, nosebleeds, shortness of breath, chest tightness or headache. Whether symptoms present themselves or not, uncontrolled hypertension causes major strain on all of your organs.

What are the risk factors?
High blood pressure has multiple causes and risk factors. Some are modifiable. This means that with healthy lifestyle changes you can decreases your chances of having high blood pressure as well as the complications that arise from it. Some on the other hand are non-modifiable, like age, genetics, gender, race/ethnicity. Given the fact that we can’t control the non-modifiable factors, we’re going to only focus on the factors that we can control.
 
Modifiable risk factors:

• Physical inactivity

The heart is a muscle that gets stronger and more efficient with use.  A heart that doesn’t exercise regularly doesn’t beat as efficiently. More efficiency means the heart doesn’t have to pump as hard. Consequently, less pressure is put on the surrounding arteries. Increased physical activity can also help reduce obesity, which can help with blood pressure issues.

• Unhealthy diet

A diet high in sodium, low in potassium and high in “bad” fats can cause hypertension. Salt/sodium is a sneaky thing. It sneaks into many foods and it’s easy to consume well over the recommended daily intake (which is only 1 teaspoon!!). Even if you don’t add salt to your meals, chances are, it already exists in high quantities in many processed, packaged foods. So it’s advisable to read those labels and be mindful of sodium content.

• Chronic conditions

Diseases such as diabetes, kidney disease and high cholesterol can all cause high blood pressure. To help manage blood pressure, work with your healthcare providers to manage these diseases.

• Stress

Stress causes the release of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol in turn, raises blood pressure. Cortisol is responsible for the fight or flight response and can be credited for keeping us alive as a species. But being chronically stressed keeps us in fight or flight mode. This is not healthy. Stress is unavoidable in life so how we perceive stress is key. Practice stress management with healthy coping mechanisms and relaxation techniques to minimize the cortisol release.

• Smoking

Nicotine use has several effects on the cardiovascular system. It’s a stimulant, meaning it increases both your heart rate and your blood pressure. It also constricts the arteries and hardens them. Arteries are the vessels that carry oxygenated blood to the rest of your body. Arterial problems can cause heart attacks and strokes.

• Obesity

Excess body weight means your heart has to work harder to pump blood throughout your body. This results in extra strain being placed on your heart and blood vessels, causing damage over time.  For this reason, it’s important to monitor your weight and stay within a healthy BMI range.

• Excess alcohol use

Chronic alcohol use has been shown to raise blood pressure. To be on the safe side, it’s advised that women have no more than one alcoholic beverage per day and men no more than two.
 
 
Monitoring tips
Given that we cannot rely on symptoms to warn us, if you have any risk factors for hypertension or have been diagnosed with it, it’s all the more important to monitor your blood pressure regularly. Invest in a blood pressure monitor today. Yes, it’s an upfront cost but it’ll save you tons of money (and problems!) later on down the road if you use it properly to manage your blood pressure.
 
Tips on monitoring your blood pressure:

• Familiarize yourself with the normal numbers
• Take your blood pressure before taking medications
• Take your blood pressure before you exercise, not immediately after
•  Keep a daily log for your doctor; self-monitoring is a more accurate way to diagnose hypertension, rather than based on a one-time reading at the doctor’s office (white coat syndrome is real!)
• Check at the same times each day, on the same arm
• Do not move, talk or cross your legs while measuring
• Rest your arm while measuring and try to have your arm rested at the level of your heart (i.e. rest it on a table or chair arm)
• For most accurate results, place the cuff on your skin directly and not on top of clothing

 
What’s the difference between the top number and the bottom number?
Blood pressure is measured with two different numbers. People commonly call these the “top” and “bottom” numbers because of the way they’re written. Their fancier names are systolic (top number) and diastolic (bottom number). The systolic reading tells us how much pressure is in our arteries when our heart pumps out the blood with each beat. The diastolic reading tells us how much pressure is in our arteries in between these beats.
 
What’s normal?
At the time of this writing, a healthy blood pressure should be under 120 (systolic) and under 80 (diastolic). An excellent resource for learning more about what your numbers mean is the American Heart Association: www.heart.org
 
 
Call to action
Depending on your current situation, it may take a multi-pronged approach to manage blood pressure and decrease your chances of complications. Lifestyle changes are always a great place to start. If you’ve already been prescribed medications to control your blood pressure, make sure you take them as ordered.

Don’t suddenly stop taking these medications. Work closely with your physician if you do decide you want to stop taking your blood pressure medications. Monitor your blood pressure regularly if you have risk factors. Most importantly, don’t take hypertension lightly. Don’t delay in addressing it. Do what you can today and your future self will most certainly thank you for it. Trust a nurse.