Blood Pressure Pamphlet
What is Blood Pressure?
Blood pressure is the force that pushes blood through the blood vessels. This pressure carries blood from the heart to the organs, including the brain, kidneys, stomach, and others.
What is High Blood Pressure?
High blood pressure is confirmed when a person’s blood pressure is consistently high on several occasions. In fact, in most adults, if the systolic blood pressure (the top number) is 140 or higher, and the diastolic pressure (the bottom number) is 90 or higher, the person is diagnosed with high blood pressure.
If high blood pressure is not treated, it can damage important parts of your body, leading to heart attacks, strokes, and kidney failure.
What Are the Symptoms of High Blood Pressure?
A person may not have any obvious symptoms of high blood pressure. This condition can exist for years silently, without showing any symptoms in the affected individual.
Complications of High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure increases the risk of heart attacks, ruptured brain vessels, strokes, kidney failure, blindness, heart arrhythmias, and heart failure.
Therefore, by controlling and preventing high blood pressure and following a proper diet, the risk of hypertension and death from heart disease is reduced.
Factors Contributing to Increased Blood Pressure
- Inflammation of the blood vessels
- Lack of physical activity
- Overweight
- Alcohol consumption
- Stress
- Lack of potassium, magnesium, and calcium
- Excess sodium intake
To prevent and control high blood pressure, follow these recommendations:
- If you are overweight, reduce your weight.
- Avoid drinking alcoholic beverages.
- If you smoke, quit or reduce the amount. Smoking and high blood pressure increase your risk of complications such as heart attacks and strokes. Therefore, we recommend that if you are a smoker, reconsider this habit.
It is necessary for healthy individuals to measure their blood pressure at least once a year.
Individuals with high blood pressure should regularly measure their blood pressure under the supervision of their healthcare provider.
- By learning how to measure blood pressure, you can detect changes in it in time and visit a doctor.
- Avoid stress, as it is one of the factors that quickly raises blood pressure.
- Set aside time each day to rest, and even if you’re not used to napping during the day, close your eyes for a few minutes to rest.
- Exercises like walking, swimming, and cycling are good for lowering blood pressure. Therefore, exercise at least three times a week for at least 30 minutes each time.
Recommendations for Purchasing Healthy Foods:
- Consume more fiber. Fiber is found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.
- Choose foods with minimal fats and trans fats.
- Avoid fried foods, fatty meats, cakes, cookies, and cream-filled pastries, which are high in fat. Use canola oil.
Reduce Sodium Intake and Products Containing Salt and Preservatives:
- Limit sodium intake to less than 6 grams per day for everyone, and for treating hypertension, it should be less than 1.5 grams per day. A teaspoon of salt is equivalent to 2300 milligrams of sodium.
- Increase food sources rich in potassium, such as apricots, oranges, kiwis, bananas, melons, tomatoes, beets, etc.
- Increase food sources rich in magnesium, such as dark leafy vegetables and seeds.
- Increase food sources rich in vitamin C, such as lemons, kiwis, dark leafy vegetables, and bell peppers.
- Walk for 30 to 45 minutes daily to reduce blood pressure.
- Consume lentils, beans, and other legumes as plant-based protein, rich in fiber.
Useful Herbal Plants for Blood Pressure
If you experience headaches, drowsiness, long yawning, dizziness, weakness in your legs, arms, or facial muscles, difficulty speaking, changes in vision, numbness in one half of the body, nosebleeds, or blood pressure higher than 100/180, contact emergency services (115) or go to the hospital.
(Wishing you a speedy recovery)
Farvardin Specialized Surgery Center