10 Simple Ways To Develop Hypertension
While hypertension cannot be pinpointed to any one reason (or so the doctors say), a few lifestyle habits have been found to increase your blood pressure. In the tradition of making Here’s my own list of Top Ten Reasons for Hypertension.
10.) Being stressed. Too much work can give you unnecessary stress that stays with you even after you leave the office. Stress has been proven to cause several sicknesses, one of which is hypertension.
What you can do is pace your work throughout the day, doing the harder tasks earlier on in the day.
9.) Worrying too much. Anxiety has also been found to cause spikes in blood pressure. Some experts claim that making worrying a habit can cause as much damage as chronic hypertension.
Things that you can do to relax include meditation, yoga, and massage.
8.) Eating the wrong things. Eating unhealthy food, whether you’re overweight or not, and whether you exercise or not, can increase your blood pressure.
Unhealthy food includes cholesterol, trans fat, and salt. The new food guide pyramid can start you off to eating right, and putting your blood pressure back on track.
7.) Lack of exercise. We spend most of the day sitting down, at work, school, or at home. This can lead to obesity, and obesity can lead to hypertension.
Get up and walk the last few minutes to work, use the stairs instead of the elevator, and play a sport during the weekends.
6.) Being overweight. This is the main reason for the previous two ways to get hypertension. Poor eating and exercise habits will make your heart work harder to cope up with the excess weight.
A healthy eating and exercise regimen should gradually help you ease into your ideal weight (and blood pressure).
5.) Too much caffeine. A lot of people rely on coffee to keep them energized the whole day. What they don’t know is that caffeine has been proven to increase blood pressure temporarily, and the more they drink coffee in one day, the more it becomes sustained.
Two cups of coffee (24 oz.) a day should be your limit.
4.) Binge drinking. Anxiety and stress tempt many of us to escape from reality with some alcohol. Binge drinking constricts blood vessels and can cause a 10% spike in your blood pressure. Sorry, but if you suffer from hypertension, you’ll need to limit yourself to a glass of wine or a can of beer a day to stay on the safe side.
Of course, you can just forget the whole thing and just follow my suggestions in #1, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Now for the top three reasons:
3.) Smoking. Each stick you consume makes your blood pressure to increase by 5-10 mm Hg. Also, the nicotine decreases the amount of oxygen in the blood, making your heart work double time to keep the body’s cells healthy.
Stopping this habit will give you health benefits within minutes, instantly.
2.) Not getting enough sleep. People who get less than six hours of sleep are twice more likely to suffer from hypertension than those who get more than six hours.
If you don’t get enough sleep, your heart will work overtime to make you cope up with the energy that you need. If you are getting less than six hours of sleep a day, you should at least take midday catnaps. These have been found to reduce the risk of heart disease.
And the number one way to get hypertension?
1.) Not using my hypertension program. This is serious - I’ve advised my clients to follow my tips on how to avoid the first nine items, but the only thing that made them lower their blood pressure to ideal levels is when they did the simple exercises in my hypertension program.