Lesson 2 - All About Blood Pressure

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The best way to keep your blood pressure in a healthy range is to monitor your diet, weight, and exercise regimens. Family history plays a role in your susceptibility to high blood pressure, but your chances can be decreased if you follow a heart-healthy lifestyle. Here are the major areas you can concentrate on to help keep that blood pressure down (If you've already been through Lesson 1, these will look familiar, but we just can’t stress them enough!):

1. Maintain a healthy weight, and lose weight if you are outside the healthy range for your body type. Your doctor can help you understand whether or not you need to lose weight, and can recommend a diet or a nutritionist to help you meet your goals.

2. Stay physically active. Whether you walk, garden, jog, swim, bike, or whatever other activity you enjoy, you should exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, three to four times a week.

3. Choose foods that are lower in salt. Americans consume more salt and other forms of sodium than they need. Go figure that Americans also have more instances of high blood pressure than those do in countries with lower sodium diets!

4. If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation. Drinking too much alcohol can raise your blood pressure for short periods of time, but it may also lead to the development of hypertension. If you do drink alcohol, limit your intake to no more than two drinks a day (see lesson 4 for what constitutes a "drink").

Clearly, these are just the basics. We'll give you a lot more information on prevention and treatment options later in the course. We'll also be reminding you of these four areas again — that's how important they are!

For starters, essential hypertension — the most common form of the condition — CANNOT be cured. It can usually be managed, but the condition will not go away. On that note, ANY form of high blood pressure is dangerous if not properly treated. If left unmonitored, it can lead to heart attack, congestive heart failure, kidney damage, blindness, stroke or other conditions. By keeping tabs on your blood pressure before hypertension develops, you greatly decrease your risk of experiencing these serious health problems. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle in the first place is the best way to avoid developing hypertension and the subsequent complications.

Unfortunately, if you are genetically predisposed to developing high blood pressure, you may find yourself with the condition, regardless of the behavior modifications that you make throughout your life. If this is your situation, it is still important to maintain a healthy lifestyle, as your weight, diet and exercise regimens remain the key factors in keeping even high blood pressure under control and manageable. Blood pressure medication will be an important part of hypertension management — working closely with your physician will enable you to find the right combination of diet, exercise and medication for you and your condition.

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