3 Diseases Caused By High Blood Pressure

Coronary Heart Disease: The same plaque that blocks arteries to the brain can clog arteries that feed the heart.  Remember that all cells need oxygen from the bloodstream to survive.  So reducing the amount of blood to the heart muscle can drastically weaken it.  If a blood clot gets stuck in one of these heart arteries (called coronary arteries), heart muscle cells can die.  This is a heart attack.  When too many heart muscle cells die, or when the heart muscle has been strained for a long time, the heart can't pump blood through the body very well.  This is called heart failure.  Obviously, both a heart attack and heart failure are extremely serious and sometimes fatal.

Kidney Damage: Your kidneys are responsible for removing excess fluid and waste from your body.  They work by filtering the blood that passes through them.  But high blood pressure can damage the arteries within the kidneys.  It can also narrow the arteries that feed blood to the kidneys.  Either way, the kidneys become less efficient at removing fluid and waste.  The worst-case scenario is called renal failure - a complete shutdown of kidney function.  When this happens, you need dialysis or a kidney transplant.

High blood pressure can be double trouble where your kidneys are concerned.  If you have hypertension, you might suffer kidney damage and reduced kidney function.  This, in turn, can lead to even higher blood pressure, since your kidneys won't be able to remove excess fluid from the bloodstream.  This is why controlling high blood pressure is so important.  It breaks the vicious circle of damage.

Aneurysm: Constant high blood pressure puts quite a strain on your arteries.  It can cause them to develop bulges that balloon out and weaken over time.  Sometimes these bulges, called aneurysms, burst, causing drastic problems.

When the burst blood vessel is in the brain, the result is a hemorrhagic stroke.  Another type of aneurysm involves the aorta, the huge artery that carries blood from the heart down the chest and into your midsection.  Over time, extra pressure can weaken this vital artery and cause it to burst.  In especially bad cases, the weak spot can actually split the walls of the aorta - a condition known as a dissecting aortic aneurysm.  This type of aneurysm causes tremendous pain in your chest, abdomen, or back.  Lowering blood pressure can reduce your chances of developing an aneurysm.  If you already have one, you may need surgery to repair it.  If the aneurysm is small, your doctor may just monitor it to make sure it doesn't increase in size and require an operation to fix.

3 Healthy Ways To Change Your Eating Habits

Changing the way you eat isn't always easy. After all, you've been eating this way for years and years.  But if you really want to lower your blood pressure, or keep it from getting high in the first place, you're going to have to face the food issue. 

The key to changing your diet is to do it slowly.  You have lots of old habits to break and lots of new ones to make.  It's not realistic to try to cut out fat, cholesterol, and sodium all in one day.  And it's just as unwise to try to add fiber, potassium, and all of those other goodies at the same time.  (Be especially careful about adding too much fiber too soon.  If your digestive system isn't used to it, fiber can flow through you like a flood.)

Take your time.  Learn to enjoy new foods.  Don't feel like you're giving up rocky road ice cream forever; you can still have some once in a while.  As time passes, you'll find your cravings for fat slowly disappearing.  You'll forget about that saltshaker and, believe it or not, you may find yourself looking forward to that morning bowl of oatmeal. 

Here are some additional tips to help you gently slide into your healthier lifestyle:

1. Love your legumes.  Beans are good for your heart.  So try to include beans or peas in your meals at least a few times each week.  Beans come in all sizes, colors, and tastes.  They're easy to add to salads.  And they're a great substitute for meat in chilies, soups, and stews.  Just beware of canned beans: They're usually packed in salty water. Rinsing them well will help reduce the sodium.

2. Pass on the packages.  Big problems can come in small containers. A bag of potato chips can have a day's worth of sodium and fat. So can tortilla chips or flavored popcorn. Even the low-fat varieties can be swimming in salt. Instead, try out some unsalted hard pretzels. Or air-pop some popcorn and flavor it with something like a dash of Parmesan cheese.

3. Go easy on the oil.  Why fry?  Any time you cook something in butter or oil, you're adding tons of fat and needless calories.  Instead of frying your meat or fish, try to bake, broil, or grill it.  The same goes for vegetables.  Try steaming them, roasting them, or stir-frying them in chicken broth.  If you just can't put down the frying pan, try using a nonfat cooking spray instead of oil.  And if you can't avoid oil, pick olive or canola oil, which contains healthier fats than butter.

6 Diet Tips To Help Lower Your Cholesterol and Ward Off High Blood Pressure

1. Rid your habits of frying foods.  Trim all fat off meat before cooking.  Remove fatty skin from chicken and turkey.  Don't fry foods.  Roast, bake, broil or poach them instead.  Use fat-free basting or marinating liquids, such as wine, tomato juice or lemon juice.  If you use oil for sautéing or baking, use olive or canola, both very low in saturated fat.  Use margarine that lists a liquid oil as the first ingredient.  Watch out for the term "hydrogenated," which means some of the fat has been made saturated.

2. Eat your vegetables and complex carbohydrates.  The lowest-fat foods of all are vegetables, fruits, grains (rice, barley and pasta), beans and peas.  Substitute these for meat and high-fat dairy products.  Don't douse your pasta in butter or your baked potato in sour cream.  Use tomato-based sauces instead of cream based.  Use lemon juice, low-sodium soy sauce, or herbs to season vegetables.  Make chili with extra beans and seasonings, and leave out the meat.

3. Lose weight.  People who are overweight usually have high cholesterol levels.  Most people can lower their levels and raise their HDL levels by dropping a few pounds.  Follow the guidelines for eating less fatty foods and more fruits, vegetables, grains and beans, and you will slowly but surely lose weight.

4. Include the family.  Children older than age 2 can join in the low-fat lifestyle.  Eating habits carry into adulthood, so teach your kids to make healthy choices.  Don't, however, start before age 2.  Babies need extra fat calories to grow properly. 
                                
5. Snack to your heart's content. Don't be afraid to snack several times a day on low-fat foods, such as yogurt, fruit, vegetables, bagels and whole-grain breads and cereals.  As a matter of fact, evidence points to lower cholesterol levels in people who eat small meals several times a day.  Eating often keeps hormones like insulin from rising and signaling your body to make cholesterol.  Just make sure your total intake of calories doesn't go up when you eat more often.

6. Go a little nutty.  If you like nuts, especially walnuts, sprinkle a few on your cereal, bake them into muffins or pancakes, or add them to casseroles or stir fries.  Scientists think hazelnuts and almonds may have the same cholesterol-lowering effect. Be sure to decrease other sources of fat to allow for the calories in the nuts.