Around 33% of Indians have been noted to suffer from Hypertension which is among the leading causes of heart ailments in the country. A bad diet combined with poor lifestyle choices results in various health complications that result in poor quality of life and a need for constant medication and health center visits. So how can you regulate your blood pressure to live a normal and healthy life?
Diet:
As most doctors recommend that hypertension patients must reduce their sodium intake in order to control their elevated blood pressure levels. According to the WHO you must limit your salt intake to 5 grams of salt or up to 2 grams of sodium a day. Now, this becomes easy to regulate when you eat home-cooked food. No sooner do you start eating out, then the chances of you going overboard with your sodium intake increase massively. If you are someone who enjoys gorging on a bag of chips every now and then, you in all likelihood are going overboard with your daily sodium intake.
Exercise:
Regular exercise that includes walking and other forms of mild cardio movements can help patients stay mobile and sweating and also releases excess sodium from the body. Moreover, since hypertension results in water retention in the body and thus weight gain, regular exercise can help shed those unwanted pounds and when you control your weight, you also put less strain on your heart. When you gain weight, your heart has to do twice the work to pump blood to all the parts of the body and this places immense stress on the inner walls of the blood vessels that can result in various cardiac issues if left untreated. Therefore, if you are overweight and are looking to shed weight then caloric deficit along with regular exercise is your best bet.
Foods to eat:
Along with medications, there are certain foods that are known to naturally lower and regulate your blood pressure. Foods such as lettuce, cabbage, berries, yogurt, nuts, and seeds (unsalted) are known to reduce and regulate one's blood pressure. Including these meals into your diet will help not just in blood pressure regulation, but also serve as a great mid-day snacking option that is packed with nutrition. Do ensure to run these foods through your doctor once, just in case you suffer from any nut or seed allergies or if you're lactose intolerant.
Given that our busy lifestyles demand that we eat on the go, it becomes extremely crucial for our very survival to ensure that we not just eat healthily, but take a step back every once in a while and reassess our lifestyle choices, for you have just one body and you must take care of it all costs.
Questions?