May Is High Blood Pressure Education Month

I feel a duty.


High blood pressure (BP) hits the very small vessels and capillaries first:

• It can damage the small vessels in the eye (retina) leading to blurred vision. If retinal blood vessels leak and bleed it can cause vision loss.
  
• It can damage the small vessels in the kidney leading to kidney disease.
  
• It can damage the small vessels in the brain, causing them to bleed, leading to a bleeding (hemorrhagic) stroke.
  
• It can damage the arteries themselves leading to streaks of buildup in the vessels from scar tissue. That buildup can either clog the artery locally, causing a stroke or heart attack, or a bit may break off (an embolus) and clog an artery further away.

The CDC says 1 in 3 adults have high blood pressure (hypertension). You can't feel chronic high BP.

How To Lower Your Blood Pressure

Things that work:

• Lose weight
  
• Manage stress
  
• Don't smoke
  
• Cut back on alcohol
  
• Move your body more

Things that may work:

• Increase dietary potassium (fruits and vegetables)
  
• Reduce dietary sodium (processed foods)
  
• Decrease caffeine (coffee, tea, chocolate, energy drinks)
  
• Review meds (steroids, NSAIDS like Advil, decongestants, ginseng, yerba mate and other stimulants like ephedra all increase BP)
  
• Manage diabetes (insulin resistance and high insulin can cause kidneys to retain sodium, likewise high dietary sodium may exacerbate insulin resistance)
  
• Manage kidney disease

Have you found anything else to be helpful?________Chart from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Hypertension