High blood pressure is dangerous and it goes undetected for many others. Your Tomball, TX, doctor, can tell you more about hypertension, high blood pressure.
What is high blood pressure?
This is a condition that leads to serious health issues: coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, and kidney failure, among other problems. High blood pressure symptoms can go unnoticed for years, which is why you need to visit your doctor for regular medical check-ups.
What symptoms should you be worried about?
High blood pressure reaches life-threatening levels when you start noticing: headaches, tiredness, confusion, dizziness or lightheadedness, pounding in the head or chest, or sharp chest pains.
What is the cause of hypertension?
Your Tomball, TX, doctor says the following may lead to high blood pressure:
- Being overweight
- Inherited
- Smoking
- Diet high in saturated fat and/or sodium
- Age
- Excessive drinking
- Diabetes
- Physical inactivity
- Being male
- High-stress levels
How do you deal with high blood pressure?
- Regular physical exercise: You should exercise at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity every week and/or 75 minutes a week of high-intensity exercise. Try working out five days a week, anything from walking, jogging, cycling, and/or swimming.
- Stress reduction: Manage your stress by taking baths, doing yoga, and choose better coping mechanisms to destress.
- Make better dietary choices: Stop smoking, avoid consuming alcohol, recreational drugs, tobacco, and junk food to cope with stress. Reduce salt intake and eat healthier foods: whole grain, high fiber foods, a variety of fruit and vegetables, beans, and nuts, fish rich in omega-3 twice a week, nontropical vegetable oils, for example, olive oil, skinless poultry and fish, and low-fat dairy products.
- Medicine: Use antihypertensive medications to manage blood pressure. Medicine includes: diuretics, including thiazides, indapamide, beta-blockers, alpha-blockers, calcium-channel blockers, vasodilators, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, and angiotensin receptor blockers.
If you have any questions or concerns about hypertension and managing high blood pressure, then be sure to contact your Tomball, TX, cardiologist today!
