Deciphering Blood Pressure.

Hello wonderful people, hope you all are doing well and safe.

What a fascinating thing uttered by the billionaire businessman Zong Qinghou ,“ Many people find themselves with illness as they become successful: higher blood pressure and diabetes”. Besides we take ownership of being diseased by croaking to the simple process of physiological ageing and overlook the actual matter because diseases like hypertension mostly lean on environmental factors than the beautiful ageing process.

Dialogue on Blood pressure, sounds boring as nowadays it is very conventional talk, so what’s unheard-of story I am gonna narrate now…Right. Well to answer this query I would like to gather your few minutes to gobble (up) the whole blog as it will certainly avail the facts on this global burden disease. The amount of popularity circle high blood pressure have gained especially in Oldage or adult age, to interpose a gesture towards showcasing our age in certain melodramatic style, “ Ab is age mein yeh toh normal hai”. I mean whatever be your explanations, one thing just remember that the changes in our lifestyle, dietary and stress patterns, certain medications, physical conditions etc have increased the prevalence of this disease.

Revealing Blood Pressure

Have you ever realised what this blood pressure actually means? It is a pressure of circulating blood against the walls of blood vessel, now for a moment compare these vessels as a hosepipe which feed water to your plants. Similarly in body (these vessels) they used to supply blood to the whole body.

Now think for a while if the pressure of water (blood) gets very high, the hosepipe (vessel) definitely gets damaged. Similarly the damage effect will counterfeit the nearby organs (like- heart, brain, kidney etc). So no more gyan let’s come to point that the normal resting blood pressure in an adult is approximately 120/80 mm Hg. Now this blood pressure get influenced by lot of situations like – your emotional state, hereditary, activity levels, arterial stiffness, certain health diseases, dehydration, certain medications, severe infections etc which can either up-shoot (hypertension) or hit at rock-bottom (hypotension). Simple!

The Giant Antagonist (High Blood Pressure)

Hypertension befall in a “silent killer” category and according to research more the levels of High blood pressure, the more risk of your health . And then the generous efforts shepherded towards unhealthy lifestyle choices do the crowning accomplishments.

It can damage the health in many ways like- can affect your heart , brain, kidneys, eyes, lead to sexual dysfunction problems etc. Mind it high blood pressure is seriously dangerous as it make the heart to work harder to pump blood to the body .

Not only this, having high blood pressure in midlife is linked to having poor cognitive function and dementia later in life. And it is very relevant to pronounce that today’s prolonged stress may predict tomorrow’s heart problems so why we don’t we lead a life ahead in a balanced healthier way.

The Uncharted Champ (Low Blood Pressure)

The most misconstrue form of blood pressure which doesn’t receive much introspection in medical field too, as low blood pressure might seem desirable for some but for some it is a major havoc causer. So yeah it didn’t gain much limelight of elite category but don’t take it lightly. As it affects each person differently. I mean what is considered low b.p for you may be normal for others but if it bothers you then it may be the genesis of some underlying health conditions.

Hypotension come to pass because of the following reasons- heart problems, endocrine problems, dehydration, heat stroke, inadequate diet, blood loss, diabetes, severe infections – allergies ( anaphylaxis), certain medications etc.

Not only this many times you have noticed sudden drop in your b.p levels in various forms like:

• Low Blood pressure on standing up, most common in older adults, also affects younger ones (Orthostatic hypotension)
• Low Blood pressure after eating, especially after one- two hours of eating, affects mostly older adults (Post prandial hypotension)
• Low Blood pressure after standing long periods, affects mostly young adults and children (Neurally mediated hypotension) etc.

The complications are dizziness, weakness, fainting, nausea, sweating, fatigued, inability to concentrate, risk of getting unconscious etc. Understand sometimes it gets very difficult to diagnose the actual cause of it even after having adequate diet which results in a bizarre full life so better keep journal of your symptoms and jot down reasons as it aids what triggers you but if still you are not bothered then you can cherish having coffee for short instant relief whole life. Choice is yours!

Hypertension Prevention

• Avoid eating excess sugar, saturated fats, artificial and packaged foods.
• Cut back too much sodium, too much caffeine, alcohol , tobacco etc.
• Consume plenty of fruits, vegetables, low fat, low calorie diet rich in whole grains and high in fibre.
• Achieve healthy weight by getting daily dose of physical activity.
• Manage stress by doing some breathing exercise, some asanas (shavasana, bhujangasana, vakraasana, tadasana etc) and pranayams.
• Increase the intake of potassium calcium, magnesium in diet.
• Some Ayurveda approaches like- add teaspoon of coriander and a pinch of cardamom to one cup of freshly squeezed peach juice, moong dal soup with some cilantro, cucumber raita, have amla once a day, basil contains the compound Eugenia that used to lower down the high b.p etc.

Hypotension Prevention

• Drink plenty of water.
• Eat well balanced diet with smaller meals frequently.
• Consume salt to your diet but avoid alcohol.
• Intake the food rich in vitamin B12, folate and iron.
• Avoid to spend much time in outdoors in extreme hot weather, increase your hydration efforts.
• Avoid prolonged bed rest and wear compression stockings.
• Some Ayurveda approaches: drink carrot and beet root juice, eat almonds- raisins- figs soaked overnight, have soup of black channa, take 1/2 spoon of turmeric along with aloe Vera gel etc.

See the Ayurvedic perspective for low b.p is different like- the poor blood circulation in people with Vata body; poor liver function and anaemia with pitta body; congestion with kapha type body.

My whole intention to write this blog is to create awareness that diagnosis alone based on B.P measurements neglects the other contributing factors described above. So the better way is to educate the patients on the same so that they put generous effort to change their lifestyle along with medications (if they are dependent) to lead a healthy life ahead.

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