You have to reduce the levels of your alcohol intake, salt and fats as this will reduce the serious consequences of high blood pressure and stroke, coronary heart disease and so on. You should also increase the amount of bread, vegetables and fruit you eat. If you are overweight, you will also need to make a reduction in your total energy (calorie) intake.Drinking more than four units of alcohol a day for a man or 3 units a day for a woman is a common and easily avoided cause of high blood pressure, particularly in people aged under 40 (a unit of alcohol is one glass of wine or one single measure of spirits or half a pint of average strength beer or larger). Regular heavy drinking raises blood pressure, particularly in young men whose diastolic pressures are over 100 mmHg can reduce their blood pressure to normal without medication, once they reduce their drinking to not more than a pint or two of beer a day. High alcohol intake is a common cause of treatment failing to work and if your blood pressure refuses to fall despite apparently adequate treatment, you should think about what you are drinking. Acute heavy drinking (bingeing) can cause a rapid though brief rise in blood pressure and this may bring on a stroke in older people. There is consistent evidence that moderate drinking (example no more than the previously mentioned daily limits) reduces the risks of coronary heart disease, probably through its effects on blood cholesterol and blood clotting factors. Heavy drinking (15 pints of beer a week for a man) increases the risk.
Healthy Eating and Blood Pressure
A vegetarian diet would be good for your high blood pressure. Blood pressure in on average lover in vegetarians than meat-eaters. Switching to a vegetarian diet lower blood pressure in many people whose blood pressure is high enough to require treatment, although rarely enough to avoid any need for blood pressure lowering medications. There is good evidence that potassium (which comes mainly from vegetables and fruits) reduce blood pressure and this may be the main way in which a vegetarian diet works, although there has not yet been a strong medical evidence to back this up.
Vegetarian diets have high fiber content and high-fiber foods are digested and absorbed slowly (which means that you tent to feel full for longer – very helpful if you are trying to lose weight). They usually include plenty of pulses (peas, beans and lentils) which contain a particular type of fiber called soluble fiber, which appears to lower blood cholesterol levels. As well as all these benefits, some kinds of cancer seem to occur much less in vegetarians. Of course, people who become vegetarians tend to avoid various other sorts of dangerous habits, especially smoking and excessive alcohol intake, but the consistency of the evidence is impressive. Without losing the clear benefits of vegetarianism omnivores stay with irritation on just how much meat they may eat.
