Is hypertension killing your lifestyle? Find out how you can fix it

Hypertension is a medical term meaning high blood pressure and while it is common among adults, it can also affect some children. Blood pressure is the measurement of the force of your blood moving against the walls of your arteries. Normal blood pressure is around 120 over 80.

Blood pressure higher than 140 over 90 is considered high and usually requires treatment with medication. Hypertension can affect the brain, your mood, muscles, lungs, stomach, heart, skin and sexual organs. Chronic hypertension increases your risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and kidney disease. High blood pressure doesn’t have any signs or symptoms, so it is recommended that you have your blood pressure checked regularly by your doctor.

Causes of Hypertension

While the exact causes of hypertension remain a mystery, studies suggest lifestyle factors such as smoking, being overweight or obese, lack of physical activity, too much salt in the diet, excessive alcohol consumption and stress can contribute to the development of high blood pressure. It is thought genetics and ageing can also play a part in the development of hypertension.

Prevention & Treatment

As previously mentioned, chronic hypertension can lead to serious health problems, so it is vital that you follow your doctor’s advice and implement the following lifestyle changes:

• Lose weight.
• Increase your physical activity.
• Limit your alcohol intake to no more than 1 to 2 drinks a day maximum.
• Quit smoking.
• Decrease your salt/sodium intake.
• Increase your potassium intake by eating a wide variety of fruit, vegetables, plain unsalted nuts and legumes.

Increase your physical activity with a cardio workout using equipment like nordictrack x9i or nordictrack elliptical at home. The NordicTrack X9i Incline Trainer is a treadmill which can incline up to 40% as you increase your fitness. It’s like walking up a hill in the privacy of your own home.