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BLOOD PRESSURE CONTROL

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High blood pressure is often called “the silent killer”. But although high blood pressure works quietly, it’s frequently deadly. Since high blood pressure usually causes no symptoms, you might not even know that you have it until you develop a serious health problem.

“High blood pressure is just a reflection of a cardiovascular system that’s about to burst internally”, says John A. McDougall, MD, medical director of the McDougall Program in Santa Rosa, California, and author of “The McDougall Program for a Healthy Heart.” But if you eat a good diet – lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains versus rich foods – you can
help to change all that,” he says.

According to the National Institute of Health, nearly one in three adults has high blood pressure.
By eating a healthy diet, you can make sure that you will not be one of them.

Hypertension
Your blood pressure can vary during the course of the day, even from minute to minute. Your heart pumps blood throughout your body through a system of arteries.With every heart beat a new wave of blood is sent out and your blood pressure goes up. This is your systolic blood pressure. Between beats, your heart briefly relaxes and the pressure subsides.
This is your diastolic blood pressure. When you have your blood pressure tested, you’re given two numbers ( your systolic over your diastolic ) measure in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg).A sample blood pressure might be 135/68 mm Hg.

All your organs depend on a reliable blood flow that courses through your delicate “plumbing”.When you develop chronic high blood pressure, or hypertension, trouble follows.

High-pressure blood whooshes through the arteries with damaging force. Your heart has to struggle harder to push out the blood, and it may grow enlarged and unable to bear the extra strain. Your arteries, which should be elastic and flexible, may more rapidly grow stiff and narrow. They may deliver less blood to your organs, and a blood clot can more readily get “stuck” and totally block the flow, causing a heart attack.

In most cases, doctors don’t know the exact cause of high blood pressure. But they do know the preventable lifestyle factors that increase your change of getting into problems:
being overweight or obese, excessive use of alcohol , a diet that contains too much salt or too little potassium, smoking, a sedentary lifestyle, chronic stress, and taking certain medications.
Other risk factors can’t be changed: your age ( high blood pressure is more common in middle age and after), your race (it’s more common in African Americans than Caucasians),and family history of high blood pressure.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the American Heart Association use the following classifications to identify normal and high blood pressure:

Blood Pressure Classification Systolic Blood Pressure Diastolic Blood Pressure
Normal less than 120 less than 80
Prehypertension 120 – 139 80 – 89
Stage 1 hypertension 140 – 159 90 – 99
Stage 2 hypertension more than 160 more than 100

Even if your blood pressure falls into the normal or “prehypertension” categories, it’s not time to breathe a sigh of relief. Your risk of death from heart disease or stroke rises progressively as your blood pressure goes up in theses early stages.
In other words – you need to get starting concerned well before you have a diagnosis of hypertension.

Research from the major, long-running Framingham Heart Study shows that having systolic blood pressure between 130 and 139 or diastolic blood pressure between 885 and 89 may more than double your risk of cardiovascular disease versus having blood pressure in the “normal” range.

According to the NIH, people in the prehypertension category should be “firmly and unambiguously advised to practice lifestyle modifications in order to reduce their risk of developing hypertension in the future.”

Mild high blood pressure responds well to non drug therapies. If you feed and exercise
your body well, you may be able to avoid blood pressure drugs (and their often
troublesome side effects ) and calm your rushing blood. Don’t be misled by the “mild”
label, though. “Most heart attacks and strokes that occur does in people with stage 1
high blood pressure,” says Norman Kaplan, MD, professor of internal medicine and
hypertension specialist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Give Your Heart a Break
Losing weight – even just 10 pounds – can reduce your blood pressure or prevent you
from developing hypertension. There is a connection between excess weight and
hypertension. The more tissue you have in your body, the harder your heart has to pump
to feed it. And that work exerts more pressure on your artery walls.

Everybody knows that loosing weight is easier said than done. But exercise makes it
easier. And the best weight loss diet is the same as the best diet for controlling blood
pressure: low fat and lots of fruits and vegetables.

Facts about Salt
Experts believe that many people with high blood pressure are salt “responders”,
meaning that their blood pressure levels depend on the amount of salt they eat.
“But there is some controversy about the issue”, says Prof. Lawrence Appel.

“Some people have a greater response than others. Older people tend to be more
sensitive to salt. If you eat more than the recommended 2,400 mg limit – your
blood pressure rises.If you’re sensitive to salt, the sodium it contains makes your body
attract more water like a sponge. You soak it up and your blood vessels expand with it
producing higher pressure.

“If you have high blood pressure, your salt intake has to be reduced by half”, says
Dr. Kaplan. “Don’t put salt on the table or in the food you cook.Avoid most processed
foods, which is where 80% of the sodium in American diets comes from. If that doesn’t
bring your blood pressure down, then sodium isn’t the culprit”, he says.

According to the NIH, reducing sodium in your diet to no more than 2,400 mgs daily
(equal to about a teaspoon table salt) will lower your systolic blood pressure by
2- 8 mm Hg. An even better goal is to reduce your daily sodium intake to 1,500 mgs,
or 2/3 teaspoon, to lower your blood pressure even further.

Mining for Minerals
Potassium and calcium are two minerals that help the blood vessels relax.
When arteries relax, they dilate, or open up and give blood the room it needs to
move calmly.

You can think of potassium as the opposite of sodium, potassium helps the body
excrete sodium. The more potassium you get in your diet, the more sodium you get
rid of. Fruits and vegetables are naturally low in sodium and high in potassium.
A diet high in vegetables and fruits almost mimics a vegetarian diet, which is known
to be linked to lower blood pressure.
Foods that are rich in potassium includes beans, potatoes, avocados, bananas and
apricots.

Calcium has shown similar ties to blood pressure in studies. Some have found that
low intake a actually a risk factor for developing high blood pressure.
Since regular diary foods contain saturated fat, it’s wise to make sure that you get
your calcium from low-fat or fat-free dairy products.

Besides low-fat diary products, your best sources of calcium include tofu, kale,
broccoli, and collard greens.

Sodium appears in many foods in which you might not expect it. Baking soda and
baking powder are both sodium bicarbonate. Dried fruit contains sodium sulfate,
and ice cream often has sodium caseinate and sodium alginate.

Instant chocolate-flavored pudding. A half-cup contains 470 mg sodium.
Ketchup. One tablespoon contains 156 mg sodium
Pastries. A fruit Danish has 333 mg of sodium, while a cheese Danish has 319 mg.
Scones and baking- powder biscuits also tend to be high in sodium.
Cheese. Most types are high in sodium. This includes cottage cheese, which has
425 mg in a half-cup serving.

Eating Right
For starters, you should practice what Dr. Appel calls “active shopping”.
In other words: Read the nutrition labels and be sure to look at the sodium content.
Sodium-free is a good phrase to look for a label, so is low-sodium.
The word “light” is, however, is not as conclusive. Light soy sauce, for example,
can still have 605 mg sodium per tablespoon. “No salt added” doesn’t mean
a food is sodium free, either.

Bread too is occasionally high in salt. If you buy bread fresh at a bakery, where it isn’t
labeled, don’t be shy about asking how much salt is in each loaf.

When you’re buying canned foods, salt can be a real problem. In many cases, however,
rinsing the food will eliminate a good percentage of the salt.

Since produce is the cornerstone of a diet for healthy blood pressue, you should always be
looking for ways to eat more fruits and vegetables. Here are a few of Dr. Lin’s suggestions:
* Buy prepackaged salads for busy days ( best to rinse it before using, however.
* Order a fruit plate as an appetizer before your meal at a restaurant.
* Eat two vegetarian dinners per week.

When you’re buying produce, make sure you choose some oranges, apples and pears.
These fruits are fiber kings. And heart researchers are starting to find that not only fiber
decrease dangerous cholesterol, it may also lower blood pressure.

Finally, it’s essential to reduce the amount of fat in your diet. Dr. Lin recommends making
small, gradual changes that will cut the total amount of fat you use in half.
Buy butter substitutes and trans-fat-free versions of margarine. Use mustard instead of
mayonnaise, and snack on low-salt pretzels instead of potato chips.

The Mighty Nutritional Value of Beans

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Beans are an excellent way to add to a healthy diet. Although they are small in seize, they are packed with a variety of nutrients which are vital for good health.
Firstly, they are full of fiber. “They are one of the better sources of fiber there is,” according to Joe Hughes, PhD, assistant professor in the nutrition and food sciences program at California State University in San Bernardino, who has beans at the center of his research.

What’s so good about this is that they have a high content of soluble and insoluble fiber, which causes different effect in the body. Besides beans, oats are also one of the few other foods which are high in both types of fiber. But you can use beans in many more other type of dishes than oats.

Besides fiber, beans are also rich in minerals, protein, and surprisingly: antioxidants.

Although beans are not the only food that help lower cholesterol levels, they certainly are one of the best. The soluble fiber is the same gummy stuff found in apples, barley and oat bran.
In the digestive tract, soluble fiber traps cholesterol-containing bile and remove it from the body before it gets absorbed.

“Eating a cup of cooked beans a day can lower total cholesterol by 10% in 6 weeks, “ says Patti Bazel Geil, MS, RD, a diabetes educator and nutrition author in Lexington, Kentucky, who has written about the benefits of beans. While 10% doesn’t seem like much, keep in mind that every 1% reduction in total cholesterol means a 2% less risk for heart attack.

Beans can lower cholesterol in just about anyone, but the higher your cholesterol content, the better they work. In a study at the University of Kentucky, 20 men with high cholesterol ( over 260 milligrams per deciliter of blood ) were given about 3/4 cup of pinto and navy beans per day. The men’s total cholesterol dropped an average of 19% in three weeks, possibly lower their risk of heart attack by almost 40%. Even more remarkable, the dangerous low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol – that’s what cause the blocking of arteries, plunged by 24%.

Apparently all beans can help to lower cholesterol levels, even canned baked beans.
In another study at the University of Kentucky, 24 men with high cholesterol ate 1 cup of canned beans in tomato sauce every day for 3 weeks. Their total cholesterol dropped by 10.4 %, and their triglycerides ( another blood fat that contributes to heart disease)dropped 10.8 %.)

In further research into the cholesterol-lowering effects of beans and other legumes, authors of a report in the British Journal of Nutrition compiled the findings of 11 studies that looked at the relationship between cholesterol and different types of legumes, such as pinto beans, chickpeas, white beans, and mixed beans ( except soybeans).
They found that the beans in these studies lowered total cholesterol by 7.2%, LDL (bad)
cholesterol by 6.2%, and triglycerides by 16.6%. The soluble fiber in these foods appeared to be the most important factor responsible for their cholesterol lowering effect.

Steady Blood Sugar
Keeping steady blood sugar levels is vital to keep diabetes under control.
“Many people don’t realize how good beans are for people with diabetes,” says Geil.
In fact, eating about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of beans a day has proved to significantly improve
blood sugar control. And beans provide yet another benefit for people with diabetes,
she says.”People with diabetes have a four to six times greater change to develop heart
disease,” she says.”Eating more beans will keep their cholesterol low, thereby reducing
their risk.”

Beans are also rich in complex carbohydrates. Not like sugarly foods, which dump sugar
(glucose) into the bloodstream all at once, complex carbohydrates are digested more slowly. This means that the glucose enters your bloodstream a little at a time, and helping to keep blood sugar levels steady, says Geil.

The effect that food has on blood sugar is commonly measured on a scale called the
Glycemic Index. The lower the GI, the better. Beans have a low GI, which is very good,
because of their soluble fiber, says Dr. Hughes. This should be good news for the 21 million Americans with diabetes, and the 54 million with “prediabetes,” a condition that
causes a rise in blood sugar and usually occurs in people before they develop diabetes.

Unfortunately, Americans only eat 17 grams of fiber daily, on average – and people with
diabetes only eat 16 grams – according to a survey from the federal government.
The American Dietetic Association recommends 25 grams daily.

Something nice about beans is that you can buy them in many varieties – and you can
prepare them in different ways – which makes it easy to eat beans even more than once
a day in relatively large quantities to benefit from their fiber content, says Dr. Hughes.

Cancer-Licking Legumes
As we all know, fruits and vegetables are the foods rich in antioxidants.
To prove this fact, the USDA researchers compiled the antioxidant capacity of hundreds
of foods in the American diet and many of these foods stood out.
The Granny Smith apple, for example, scored a 5,381 on the measurement of total
antioxidant capacity per serving. The artichoke scored 7,904 and the low bush blueberry
got a hopping 13,427. But several beans more than held their own, too.
The pinto bean scored 11,864 and the red kidney bean scored 13,259!

Beans are rich sources of phytochemicals, which are plant components that have
antioxidant and other disease fighting properties, says Dr. Hughes.
Beans may contain hundreds of types of antioxidant chemicals.
If you can remember what I have written in my previous articles, that antioxidants
help to protect you from cancer by limiting damaging attacks on your cells from
free radicals. Also, unlike some antioxidant rich plant foods like blueberries,
you can put lots of different beans on your plate, meal after meal, without getting
bored or overwhelmed by the flavor.

Some other compounds in beans – like lignans, isoflavones, saponins, phytic acid,
and protease inhibiters – have proved to inhibit cancer cell growth.
These compounds appear to keep normal cells from turning cancerous and prevent
cancer cells from growing.

The Healthy Alternative to Meat
Beans used to be called the ” poor man’s meat”. But a more accurate name would be
the healthy man’s meat. Like red meat, beans are loaded with protein. But unlike
meat, they’re low in fat, particularly dangerous, artery-glogging saturated fat.
For example, a cup of black beans contains less than 1 gram of fat and less than 1%
of that comes from saturated fat. Three ounces of lean, broiled ground beef on the
other hand, has 15 grams of fat, of which 22% is of the saturated kind.

Beans are also a great source of vitamins and minerals. A half cup of black beans
contains 128 micro grams, or 32% of the Daily Value for folate, a B vitamin that may
lower risk of heart disease and fight birth defects. That same cup has 2 milligrams
of iron, 11% of the Daily Value, and 305 milligrams of potassium, or 9 % of the DV.
Potassium is a mineral that has been shown to help control blood presure.

The darker the beans, the more antioxidants they contain. Black beans also contain
more fiber, about 6 grams.
If you don’t have the time to cook you can buy canned beans as they contained their
nutrients. Only they may have a higher sodium content.

If you have a problem with uncomfortable and embarrassing gas, start eating beans
once a week and the next month twice a week, for example.
It may also help to add ground ginger to the beans.