Book Review: Eat To Beat High Blood Pressure

This week we are actually reviewing TWO books - both of these should be very helpful to anyone wanting to control their blood pressure via natural means. I couldn't decide which one was better, so I wanted to share them both with you. Feel free to share your own feedback below!

Cover of Eat to Beat High Blood Pressure

Eat to Beat High Blood Pressure - By Reader's Digest Editors
Where to Buy: www.amazon.com

Eat to Beat High Blood Pressure is a fantastic cookbook packed with over 300 delicious recipes. If you have decided to introduce a healthier, heart-friendly diet in your family, this is a good cookbook to own. Each recipe shows a nutritional analysis and also gives helpful tips and advice. The photographs in the book are lovely to look at and will make your mouth water.

In addition to the recipes, the book also gives information on the Dash Plus Plan. Dash stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension and are well-established eating guidelines on how to reduce high blood pressure. In addition to these guidelines, there is even more advice on how to enjoy a healthy blood pressure.

Lowering blood pressure can be life-saving. If you or anybody in your family suffers from high blood pressure or just wants to live a healthy lifestyle by eating delicious and heart-friendly food, this cookbook is certainly worth buying. I am sure you'll find lots of recipes inside the book that will become your family's favorites over the years.


Bringing Down High Blood Pressure - By Chad Rhoden
Where to buy: www.amazon.com

Bringing Down High Blood Pressure is a great resource book if you suffer from high blood pressure and are worried about its long-term effects. I like the fact that this book not only explains, in great detail, how high blood pressure happens, but also its dangers, and natural solutions to help lower it naturally. It also includes a dietary regime, with delicious recipes, that you can incorporate into your daily life.

The recipes cover ideas for appetizers, main meals, soups, marinades and desserts, selected by a registered dietician. For example, Spicy Marinated Shrimp, Roasted Vegetable Salad, Tasty Rice Pudding, Zucchini Bread, New Orleans Chicken Gumbo to name a few. These are delicious and easy to prepare everyday food ideas. You will also find ideas on superfoods that are good for your heart health, and vitamin supplements helpful for those with high blood pressure. High blood pressure can be very dangerous, but it can also be controlled through a few simple diet and lifestyle changes, and this book shows you how.

If you want to know more about high blood pressure, its dangers to your health and ideas and recipes on how to make easy and effective positive changes in your life, then "Bringing Down High Blood Pressure" will be very helpful for you. It is written by Dr Chad Rhoden, PhD and Sarah Wiley Schein, two specialists in the field of cardio-metabolic disease prevention and dietary counseling and assessment, respectively. Reading this book could certainly help you on your way to a healthy blood pressure and prevention of more serious health conditions.


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Managing High Blood Pressure - Naturally

High blood pressure is a problem for many people. As discussed in Monday's post, it can lead to a variety of other dangerous health concerns like stroke and heart disease. Luckily, blood pressure is one of those things that it's relatively easy to control by natural means, without resorting to potentially dangerous drugs. To keep yourself on the right side of health, today I'll share a few tips to help you lower your blood pressure naturally. (Please Note: This blog is for educational purposes only, and should not be taken as medical advice. Please consult an experienced health care provider if you have high blood pressure or another medical condition.)

Aneroid sphygmomanometer with stethoscope, used for auscultatory blood pressure measurement. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

High blood pressure can be a problem for both young and old alike. When blood vessels are narrowed by cholesterol plaques, it increases the pressure on the walls of the vessels to push blood through. This can lead to a dislodging of the plaque. That can cause strokes.

Unhealthy eating habits can also raise blood pressure. Eating foods high in sodium and other preservatives can put a lot of pressure on the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body.

Here are some ways to go about lowering blood pressure naturally. Medicine is a useful resource but making lifestyle changes will last for a lifetime - without subjecting your body to the side effects of chemicals or surgery.

Lowering Blood Pressure Naturally

* Exercise – Exercise has a lot of useful benefits - especially when it comes to blood pressure. It relieves stress and increases oxygenation. Increased cardiovascular health can lower your blood pressure. Avoid exercising right before bedtime, though, or you may have a problem getting to sleep.

A glass of red wine. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

* Drink alcohol in moderation – If you don’t already drink, don’t start. But, if you like a glass of wine, try red wine. It is helpful for heart health, and can even help to lower blood pressure. For women, one drink a day has been shown to be helpful, and men should limit their intake to 2 (4-oz.) glasses per day.

* Reduce caffeine intake – There is caffeine in coffee, tea and soft drinks. Caffeine can increase blood pressure by narrowing the vessels. If you already have issues with high blood pressure, adding caffeine can raise it even higher. Those with high blood pressure should avoid caffeine altogether if possible, or limit it to no more than 1 cup of coffee per day at maximum.

* Learn to relax – Stress can be a contributing factor to blood pressure issues. Learn to reduce your stress levels. Try listening to soft music or deep breathing and meditation techniques. A good warm bath can also help drain away stress from your day. Finding ways to cope with stress can help you control not only blood pressure but also other health concerns.

* Cut the salt – Sodium can raise blood pressure if you are sensitive to salt. Don’t just look for salt in the shaker but also in your other food items in the pantry. Processed foods contain a lot of salt as preservatives. This includes frozen "healthy" frozen meals. The average person should consume no more than 2-3 teaspoons of salt per day.  Also balancing sodium with potassium can help (see next point).

* Eat potassium – Sodium and potassium are two elements that work together in the body. The levels are balanced to keep your electrolytes in check. Eating more potassium can counteract too much sodium. Try bananas, cantaloupe, potatoes, beans and raisins. Keeping potassium in balance with your sodium can help mitigate its effects on your body, so eating a potassium/sodium mixture such as Salt Balance in place of regular table salt can be helpful.

If you are having problems with high blood pressure, these simple tips are easy lifestyle changes that you can make to lower blood pressure naturally - you won't spend an arm and a leg on any of these tips, and they are all safe and work naturally with your body to help it regain a healthy balance.

For more healthy tips on lowering blood pressure naturally, be sure to check out Friday's book reviews!

What You Should Know When It Comes To High Blood Pressure

These days, with the sedentary lifestyles of most Americans, coupled with the SAD (Standard American Diet), unfortunately you don’t have to be of advanced age to suffer from conditions people usually associate with that age group. One such condition is high blood pressure. Here is a basic overview of this dangerous condition, and why you should be aware of your blood pressure and measures you can take to keep it in a healthy range.

Blood pressure check (Photo credit: Army Medicine)

What Is Blood Pressure?
Blood is pumped through the body via the heart. The blood carries oxygen from the lungs to all of the cells and organs along the circuitous route of the arterial vascular system. Deoxygenated blood is carried via the venous system back to the lungs where it picks up more oxygen.

To move that blood, there is a certain amount of pressure that needs to be created within the vessel. Normally an acceptable blood pressure reflects two numbers: systolic (upper number), the pressure exerted when the heart is pumping blood and diastolic (lower number), the pressure exerted when the heart is at rest. Ideally blood pressure should be in the range of 140/90.

Higher numbers indicate that something is causing the pressure needed to move a volume of blood to increase. It could be due to a narrowing of the vessels (caused by high cholesterol or plaque build-up), stress, obesity, high salt intake or genetics. This condition is known as high blood pressure, or hypertension.

The Problems of High Blood Pressure
No matter how you acquired it, high blood pressure poses a problem for the rest of your body. Here are just a few of the conditions that can arise as a result.

Main complications of persistent high blood pressure. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

* Artery damage – Increased stress on the arterial walls can result in the tissue being damaged. When any tissue is damaged, an inflammatory response occurs. The walls can thicken and stiffen, leading to a smaller lumen (opening) and a higher blood pressure. If you also have a problem with bad cholesterol plaques, the increased pressure could dislodge them, turning them into emboli (things that block the blood flow).

* Heart conditions – The heart has to work harder to push that same volume of blood when there is a problem with your blood pressure. As a result the heart can enlarge since it is a muscle. It can also fail, or experience an infarction in a portion of the muscle that can lead to a heart attack.

* Stroke – The cholesterol plaques that break off as a result of high blood pressure can travel along in the vascular system until they get stuck in a smaller vessel. This often happens in the lungs or the brain. Both can result in death. In the brain it is called a stroke.

Beyond the blockage, the brain tissue is not receiving oxygenated blood. Since the brain needs 20 percent more oxygen than the rest of the body, this can lead to decreased functioning like speech impairment, numbness or paralysis on one side of the body and other problems.

Are you facing a diagnosis of high blood pressure? Work to reduce it to normal levels and avoid the dangers it can pose. There are many things you can do to reduce your blood pressure to healthy levels - without resorting to dangerous drugs or surgery. Be sure to check back Wednesday for some easy and natural ways to keep your blood pressure within a healthy range.

* Please Note: This blog is for educational purposes only, and should not be taken as medical advice. Please consult an experienced health care provider if you have high blood pressure or another medical condition.