High Blood Pressure: Natural Cure

In my previous blog titled The Silent Killer I attempted to touch upon the alarming numbers on the state of hypertension across the globe as a silent killer. Well, I thought that's not quite enough to serve the purpose. For any patient, or for a person at the brink of being afflicted, what's more pertinent is to get relief anyhow.

Before delving deeper into controlling the disease, let's first understand how you can read the symptoms of the disease. The first symptom of hypertension may appear as a pain at the back of the head and neck on waking in the morning, which normally disappears after sometime. Some other symptoms are dizziness, pain in the chest, frequent urination, nervous tension, fatigue, and difficulty in breathing. It's not uncommon that hypertension symptoms may not always be apparent, but most people don't even notice the symptoms at all. This triggers much larger problem for those patients as they feel they are quite healthy and don't need to visit a doctor.

Causes of High Blood Pressure

In most cases, the causes of high blood pressure remain unknown, but there are certain conditions that could contribute to the risk of developing high blood pressure. While not all of these factors are controllable, awareness about them makes you conscious of the existence of the risk of high blood pressure.

Age: One of the biggest risk factors for high blood pressure levels, age triggers a direct impact on the the risk of developing high blood pressure. With growing age people become accustomed to certain habits and in consequence the stress level increases. Although in the past the lower age group segment hardly had any symptom of hypertension, with changing lifestyle, wrong food habits, younger adults are getting affected.

Food Habits: In today's world, when fast-food is a trend, the chance of getting afflicted with high blood pressure is imminent. Foods like red meats, junk foods, fried or refined foods, and other food items with high fat, sugar and salt content become a major contributor to hypertension.

Stress: Stress has a direct impact on the high blood pressure cannot be understated. In modern society, where “work hard, party harder” is the tagline, stress can't be weeded out. Both emotional and physical stress plays a larger role in taking the toll.

Heredity: This is a specific factor that cannot be controlled and people with a family background of high blood pressure are definitive to developing the disease.

Obesity: Obesity is one of the biggest risk factors for developing high blood pressure. Obesity results from wrong food habits. For anyone who is overweight should try to reduce weight through healthy methods like dieting and working out.

Alcoholism: Excessive alcohol consumption is a contributing factor to increasing blood pressure levels.

Wrong Medications: Normally, women who take contraceptive pills on a regular basis are prone to the risk of developing high blood pressure. Certain medications like diet pills can also contribute to the problem.

Natural Remedies

Apart from taking medicines as prescribed by doctors, the patients can also try on certain home remedies those have proven helpful in reducing the high blood pressure.

Garlic: According to some scientific observations, garlic can act as an effective means of lowering blood pressure. Garlic has a blood thinning characteristic, so it reduces spasms of the small arteries. It may be taken as raw cloves of one or two a day.

Indian Gooseberry: Indian gooseberry is a good remedy for high blood pressure. A tablespoon fresh Indian gooseberry juice mixed with equal amount of honey can be taken in the morning.

Lemon: Lemon is a great food to control high blood pressure. Being rich in vitamin C, this prevents capillary fragility.

Grapefruit: Grapefruit is also useful in preventing high blood pressure.

Watermelon: Watermelon is another safeguard against hypertension. The watermelon seeds which are rich in potassium have a definite action in dilating the blood vessels, which results in lowering the blood pressure.

Parsley: Parsley is quite useful in reducing high blood pressure. It contains elements that help maintain the blood vessels and keep the arterial system healthy. It can be taken as a beverage by simmering 20 gm of fresh parsley leaves gently in 250 ml of water for a few minutes.

Vegetable Juice: Raw vegetable juices, especially carrot and spinach juices, taken separately or in combination, are also beneficial in the treatment of high blood pressure.

Flaxseeds: Flaxseeds are very rich in fiber and effective in lowering LDL cholesterol and preserving HDL cholesterol. Flaxseeds should be consumed regularly along with soups, cereals and yogurt in order to reduce high blood pressure.

The Silent Killer

With every ounce of urban pleasure comes a pound of torment, invisible but experienced. The growing economic indexes, decadent lifestyles, and a fair amount of carelessness all in tandem contribute to the aggravated health standards of urban citizens. Less physical activity, increased use of alcohol and tobacco, high consumption of junk foods, and undoubtedly, relentless increase of stress and strain from work have taken a toll on all of us.

According to report published by World Health Organisation (WHO), one in three adults worldwide has raised blood pressure, which is main cause of around 48% of all deaths from stroke and heart disease. The report also reveals that behavioural risk factors, including tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and the harmful use of alcohol, are estimated to be responsible for about 80% of coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease. Upon further bifurcating the leading behavioural and physiological risk factors, the deaths attributed to various reasons include 13% of global deaths are attributed to raised blood pressure, 9% due to consumption of tobacco, 6% due to increased blood glucose level, another 6% for physical inactivity, and 5% for overweight. Further, the resort clarifies that high blood pressure causes 51% of stroke deaths and 45% of coronary heart disease deaths.

Although mean blood pressure (MPB) has noticed a dramatic fall in almost all high-income countries, for example, the male systolic blood pressure (SBP) in the US has been decreased from 131 mm Hg in 1980 to 123 mm Hg in 2008, and the female SBP decreased from 125 mm to 118 mm Hg, on the contrary, the MBP has been increasing in most African countries. The reasons are obvious: increasing smoking rates, a significant shift towards Western-style diets and less exercise. The WHO’s director general Margaret Chan says, “In some African countries, as much as half the adult population has high blood pressure.”

According to report, the developed nations have noticed a significant fall in average blood pressure because of widespread diagnosis and treatment with low-cost drugs; however, specifically in Africa, more than 40 per cent of adults are estimated to have high blood pressure. And a very interesting observation though it seems, obesity marks almost 100% growth in ever region of the world between 1980 and 2008. Almost half a billion people or 12 per cent of the world’s population are considerably obese. Twenty-six per cent of adults in the US and 3 per cent in Asia are obese.

The health statistics also looks very dismal in India as well. Almost one in every four people in India suffers from high blood pressure. A report suggests that 25% of urban Indians and 10% of rural Indians suffer from high blood pressure. Among the metros in India, Mumbai leads the race with 44% of men and 45% of women suffer from high blood pressure, whereas 30% and 33% among men and women in Delhi, and 24% and 17% among men and women in Kolkata. In India, 57%of all stroke deaths and 24% of all coronary heart disease deaths are linked to high blood pressure.

High blood pressure may afflict anyone, but there is nothing to be worried about. Greater awareness about the risk factors and the symptoms of this disease is the only effective way of managing it. Early detection and preventive measures can literally make the difference between life and death. High blood pressure can be treated efficaciously and controlled with proper medications and lifestyle transformation. Remember, high blood pressure can't be cured permanently. So a symptom of decrease in high blood pressure should not be considered as a permanent cure and hence treating high blood pressure should not be stopped then.