Don't Get Killed By High Blood Pressure


by Michael Russell - Date: 2006-12-04 - Word Count: 496 Share This!

High blood pressure kills! People with high blood pressure are eight times more exposed to suffer stroke than people with normal blood pressure. They are also three times more susceptible to have heart attack. High blood pressure is common to people ages 40 and above. The incidence is not only rampant in the western world but there is an increasing occurrence in the orient as well- especially in large cities.

What causes high blood pressure? It is estimated that about 10 percent of all high blood pressure cases are due to kidney or adrenal disease while the remaining 90 percent doesn't have exact known reason. Studies however show that there may be six factors that contribute to high blood pressure.

1. High blood pressure's number one culprit may be the sodium in salt. Not everyone though has the same reaction to salt since different individuals have varying sensitivity to salt. Studies show that those groups of people who consume very little salt (less than 0.5 grams per day) like the Eskimos, Australian aborigines and the New Guinea and Solomon Island tribes have no reported case of high blood pressure. On the other hand, the Lau Tribes people of the Solomon Islands who boil their vegetables in sea water have higher than normal blood pressure. They usually consume around 20 grams of salt a day. Studies show that northern Japanese farmers have a high incidence of hypertension and the most common cause of death among them is stroke. Could it be because they consume about 30 grams of salt per day? These farmers preserve their food with salt. Despite what these studies show, it doesn't mean that we should remove salt altogether in our diet. Our body needs about 0.2 grams of salt per day as salt is vital to our health. The lesson therefore is to cut our salt intake and probably we could solve one of the biggest health problems of our times. People with high blood pressure should all the more reduce their salt intake.

2. Narrowing of the blood vessels caused by high blood cholesterol level is also believed to be a causative factor in hypertension. To avoid this, it is best to keep track of our diet and minimize food intake rich in fat and cholesterol.

3. Obesity may also contribute to high blood pressure. The extra load of fat requires thousands more blood vessels which in turn need higher blood pressure to circulate blood through them.

4. Women who are taking birth control pills that contain estrogen are observed to have higher blood pressure. Estrogen which is a female hormone found in birth control pills causes salt retention in the body which has the same effect as consuming too much salt.

5. Over consumption of refined sugar is suspected to be causing a person's decreased kidney function. Kidney disease is a known cause of high blood pressure.

6. Lastly, stress in all its forms, whether social stress, noise stress or work related stress may cause high blood pressure.


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