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 For many years now, heart disease has been on the rise. It wasn’t log ago that heart disease was most common in elderly people, but as the years pass, the ages of people who develop heart conditions keeps dropping. People in their 30s are now being diagnosed with one heart condition or another. What’s going on? It’s our mostly sedentary, high stress lives and poor diets that put us most at risk. Although our physicians seem to constantly be chiding us on following a healthy lifestyle and getting regular exercise, so many of us don’t listen to this good advice. Today, it’s important to understand that heart disease can strike you even at a relatively young age. Keeping a healthy heart should be a lifelong pursuit which begins in childhood. Let’s take a look at the ABCs of a healthy heart.
If you take a look at the statistics regarding heart disease over the past several decades, it becomes apparent that a healthy heart does have a relationship to exercise. Up until the 1980s and early 1990s, kids were far more active than they are today. Riding bikes, participation in sports and playground activities were part of a kid’s daily life. As the couch potato syndrome developed, along with time spent at the PC and video games becoming the norm, kids became less inclined to get out in the fresh air after school, opting instead to sit in front of the tube or computer, adopting a sedentary lifestyle while still in their teens. It’s also notable that physical education is now an optional, not mandatory, class.
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 If you’ve been told by a doctor that your cholesterol levels are too high you should also be aware of the causes and dangers of high cholesterol levels. Our diets typically include too much of the ‘bad’ fats, too few of the ‘good, with the resulting high cholesterol readings and attendant heart problems. While there are many pharmaceutical cholesterol lowering products on the market, it makes sense to limit the number of prescription drugs you must take, to avoid negative interactions and side effects. With this in mind, we’ve put together a list of natural plant medicines that help control cholesterol You should always consult your health practitioner as to the advisability of taking any herbal treatment.
You’ll notice that different herbs, roots and berries can be of benefit, not only to control cholesterol, but alleviate other health conditions. For example, if you’re a woman going through menopause, with high blood pressure and cholesterol readings, Black Cohosh root will help you on many fronts.
All of these herbs may be found in any good herb shop.
1.Panax ginseng, a.k.a American Ginseng, has been a staple in the Traditional Chinese Medicine cabinet for thousands of years, is still used today to reduce and control cholesterol, tone and support the adrenals, as well as regulating blood sugar. This magical herb also boosts immune system function, enhancing both mental focus and physical endurance, while reducing stress and increasing energy. Continue Reading »
 According to neurologists, the brain is the most delicate organ of the body. Weighing at only 2 percent of the total weight of the body, it is responsible for every thought, sensation and movement of the human body. In order to function, it needs to have a constant supply of glucose and oxygen which is handled by an intricate web of arteries. If any part of the brain does not receive enough oxygen, these functions are impaired and may eventually cause permanent brain damage. When artery blockage occurs, we say that a person has had a stroke. In some cases, a stroke may occur when the blood vessels rupture in the brain flooding it with blood and thus causing damage to brain tissue. Before we can see how to go about stroke prevention, let us look at the effects of a stroke.
Every stroke is different and its effects can range from mild to obvious results. This is because the effects are determined by what part of the brain is affected and as a result the bodily functions that are impaired may vary. A common affliction is limb paralysis. When the left side of the brain is affected, it results in the right-sided paralysis and when the right side of the brain is affected it results in the left-side paralysis. Sometimes though a victim may retain the use of limbs, but he or she may have lost the sensation of the limbs. They usually look like novice skaters trying to keep their balance. 15 percent of stroke survivors suffer from seizures. Any of the five senses can be affected and victims may sometimes experience numbness of feet and hands and such indignities as drooling. So can one undertake stroke prevention measures? Continue Reading »
Whether it’s poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, stress or just some sort of genetic hiccup, the average American’s blood pressure is shooting higher and higher as the decades pass. There are, of course, many reasons. Certain ethnic groups are more prone to high blood pressure than others, for one, and the United States boasts sizeable communities of almost every ethnic group on the planet.
Poor diet is another. Americans eat tons of processed food, which has long-term side effects that are anything but beneficial. And of course stress is a big one. We work more and have less downtime than our parents did. Where Americans used to be able to survive largely on one income, those days are gone and now most families are dual-income families.
But the number one reason blood pressure has become such an issue for Americans is because of our lack of exercise. To lower blood pressure exercise has been proven time and again to be the best method, and yes, I know ninety percent of us don’t like to sweat, but as the saying goes, no pain, no gain. Continue Reading »
Imagine a garden hose. If there is little water pressure as you are trying to wash your car, the hose is flimsy and kinks easily. However, if there is high water pressure, the hose is firm, the water sprays out in greater amounts, and the hose may even burst. Your body’s arteries and veins work in the same way. Blood pressure is basically the force exerted on the walls of your blood vessels. Typically, blood pressure is measure in your larger arteries, and it is measure in millimetres of mercury (mm Hg).
When you measure your blood pressure, you will get two different numbers, known as systolic and diastolic. The systolic number records your blood presure at its peak in the cycle (remember, your heart pumps in a beat, so blood flow is not consistant every single moment), while diastolic blood pressure measures your blood flow at its lowest moment in the cycle. A healthy adult’s blood pressure is usually around 120/80 mm Hg. Blood pressure varies slightly from beat to beat and can vary greatly over the course of the day, so to get an accurate estimate, you should measure your blood pressure at the same point in the day every day. Adults are considered normal if they fall in the 90 to 135 mm Hg range for systolic blood pressure and the 50 to 110 mm HG range for diastolic blood pressure.
High blood pressure is a common disease among adults. There are many causes of high blood pressure, but overall, long-term high blood pressure can lead to heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and diabetes. Because this is a serious disease, doctors and other health care professionals (or simply people worried about the health of themselves and their families) are taking great steps to prevent high blood pressure. However, it is important to remember that the first step to lowering your high blood pressure is to understand it in the first place.
To go back to the garden hose example, high pressure can occur in a number of ways. First, the pump could start pumping water through the hose at a higher rate. This will cause more water to flow through the hose, and put extra strain on the pump, or, in your body’s case, the heart. However, imagine trying to pumping honey through the hose instead of water. Even if you pump at a slower rate, you still need to have extra effort exerted from the pump. This occurs in the blood if your blood thickens, which can happen if you have high blood sugar or a higher than normal red blood cell count.
Now, imagine you hook up a skinner hose to the same pump—water pressure would be greater in this case as well. The same thing happens if your blood vessels are smaller than normal, which can be the case if you have fatty build-up in your arteries. Finally, the amount of blood flowing through your system effects blood pressure. Unlike with a graden hose, you blood is part of a closed system moset of the time—that is, it doesn’t leave the body, at least not in large amounts. When it does, the body quickly produces more to counteract the loss. However, if your body produces too much, this can also lead to high blood presure.
Blood pressure is extremely important to regulating the overall health of our bodies. By understanding this concept, we can grasp how to better take care of our health. Although confusing at first, blood pressure is actually as simple as using a garden hose, so anyone can learn how to measure blood pressure to better take care of their body.
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High blood pressure can be caused by any number of factors in a person’s life or by many factors all adding together. However, the hard truth is that if you don’t control your blood pressure, it can lead to many serious medical conditions, including heart attack and stroke. By understanding the causes of high blood pressure, you can learn how to prevent your levels from exceeding the normal range and therefore promote in yourself and your family a healthier overall lifestyle.
One of the major causes of high blood pressure is cholesterol. In most cases, a person with higher than normal cholesterol levels will also suffer from high blood pressure. This is due to the fatty deposits left on the artery walls from the cholesterol in your blood stream. The body actually needs no cholesterol, since it produces enough on its own, but the foods we eat often introduce more into our body. When no more can be absorbed into the blood stream, the cells deposit fat onto the walls of the arteries. This fat turns to a hard plaque, making our blood vessels smaller and smaller over time. The same amount of blood needs to flow through these smaller spaces, creating a higher blood pressure.
An unhealthy diet also causes high blood pressure in another way. When there is too much sugar in the blood stream. Glucose, or blood sugar, increases due to diabetes, in which the body does not produce the chemical that regulates blood sugar. Ingesting food high in sugar, such as most desserts, can also cause your blood sugar to increase, as can stress, hormone levels, and infection. When there is more glucose in the blood stream, your blood is essentially thicker, and harder to push through your arteries and veins, creating a higher blood pressure.
High blood pressure does not only come from an unhealthy diet, but can also occur due to drug intake as well. People who drink alcohol excessively, for example, increase their risk greatly of having high blood pressure. Caffeine is another drug that is proven to raise blood pressure, especially in combination with nicotine, which is found in cigarettes. Many other narcotics, especially those that are illegal in the United States, have also been show to increase your blood pressure.
Genetics is a final factor in the high blood pressure battle. Some estimate that 30% of high blood pressure cases can be attributed, at least in part, to genetics. We do not have any control over our genes—genetics refers to the coding used in our bodies that produces everything from the color of our eyes to our height to the ability we have (or do not have) to curl our tongues. We get this genetic make-up from our parents, and so there is nothing we can do to stop ourselves from having a “high blood pressure” risk when we are born. However, we can prevent genetics from playing a major role be overall living a healthy life. By taking steps to reduce our high blood pressure, we can create a better future for our bodies, whether our parents suffered from high blood pressure or not. Living this healthier lifestyle, including eating a low-cholesterol diet, watching our sugar intake, and introducing less drugs into our bodies can help us overcome high blood pressure.
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Do You Have High blood Pressure or Hypertension?
One of the riskiest medical conditions that often goes unnecessarily undiagnosed is high blood pressure. Testing for high blood pressure and treating it if this disease is diagnosed is relatively simple, but many people just do not regularly schedule check-ups or otherwise test their blood pressure. Unfortunately, high blood pressure is the precursor to many serious diseases and medical conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes. It can also lead to heart failure, heart attack, and stroke if not treated. By being sure to regulate your blood pressure closely, you can prevent something more serious from happening to your body.
High blood pressure causes an excess amount of stress on the artery walls. This causes the heart to have to pump harder, which promotes unhealthy tissue growth and a weakening of the heart muscle. When the heart muscle is weak, you can inadvertently cause it to stop if you overexert yourself. High blood pressure is also a symptom that points to over potential problems for your heart. For example, when high blood pressure is caused by plaque build-up in the artery walls, you should understand that the most major risk of this is heart attack. If too much plaque builds up at a specific section of the blood vessel, it could close off completely, causing heart attack. Similarly, even if it does not close completely, a piece of the plaque could break off from the wall, travel down the blood vessel, and get lodges in a smaller vessel or in the heart itself, also causing a heart attack.
Beyond the heart, a similar thing can happen to the brain. If a piece of plaque cuts off a blood vessel in the brain, you suffer from a stroke. While you can eventually regain heart-health again after a mild heart attack, the effects of a stroke can be long lasting or permanent, depending on where in your brain the effected blood vessel is located. Because blood is cut off from your brain, oxygen cannot travel to this area, and so pieces of the brain die. Some cannot be rebuilt, and some, if they die, result in death.
If that’s not scary enough, high blood pressure can cause or be an indicator of many other small health problems that can add up to a very sickly body. For example, high blood pressure is often an indicator of too much glucose in the blood stream, causing or caused by diabetes. Even if you do not have diabetes, you are still at risk for chronic renal (kidney) failure if you have high blood pressure.
It is unfortunate that so many people needlessly suffer from these diseases. High blood pressure is easy to diagnose at your doctor’s office, but even if you do not wish to make an appointment to have your blood pressure checked, you can still regulate yourself. Many home testing kits are available on the market to do just this, and if you follow the directions carefully, they can be quite accurate. There is really no excuse for going undiagnosed, so take care of your body by checking your blood pressure today.
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