High blood pressure: Lifestyle changes to reduce reading
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Sometimes it’s not clear what exactly causes high blood pressure but there are things that can increase your risk. These can include salty foods and caffeine-based drinks. One risky drink for blood pressure beloved by many is soda.
Those who drank more than one soda or a different sugar-sweetened drink each day had higher blood pressure, according to a study.
The researchers found that the blood pressure levels kept going up the more people drank these beverages.
The study looked at diets of almost 2,700 middle-aged people in the US and the UK.
The participants reported what they drank for four days and had their urine and blood pressure checked during two 24-hour cycles.
Drinking soda seems to put people at greater risk of cardiovascular problems even after accounting for weight and other risk factors, the study reported.
The highest hypertension levels were found in people who consumed more salt as well as glucose and fructose – common beverage sweeteners.
The researchers also discovered that people who drank more than one sugary drink a day were getting nearly 400 more calories than people who didn’t consume these drinks.
Diets of soda drinkers were also more likely to lack nutrients like potassium, magnesium and calcium.
The study confirms previous research suggesting that cutting back on even just a serving of soda a day may help lower hypertension.
However, to improve your chances of lowering your high blood pressure, the NHS recommends a combination of lifestyle changes.
These include:
- Reducing the amount of salt you eat
- Cutting back on alcohol
- Losing weight if you’re overweight
- Exercising regularly
- Cutting down on caffeine
- Quitting smoking.
In some cases, people also need to take medicine to stop their levels from getting too high.
The medicine comes as tablets and usually needs to be taken once a day.
There are around seven common types of tablets available.
What medicine you need depends on factors like how high your hypertension levels are and your age.
Some of the causes for high blood pressure can be age, diet, being overweight, not exercising enough, family history and quality of sleep.
The only way to find out if your blood pressure is high is to have your blood pressure checked.
Blood pressure is recorded with two numbers – systolic and diastolic pressure.
Readings between 120/80mmHg and 140/90mmHg may pose a risk of developing hypertension if you don’t implement changes to keep your blood pressure under control.
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