Blood pressure is the force of your blood pushing against artery walls as your heart pumps it through your entire body. You might be saying to yourself, “that’s nice, but what does that mean for my health?” As you can imagine, if your blood pressure is consistently high your blood vessels have to compensate by thickening themselves to withstand the strain. This thickening of the wall forces the heart to beat with more intensity in order to get the blood through the arteries. Over time, this can wear down your heart, your vessels and even organs. Sustained high blood pressure, also called hypertension, is linked to heart disease, heart failure, stroke, and kidney failure.

Blood pressure is usually recorded as two numbers: the first number measures the systolic pressure, or the pressure on your artery walls when your heart beats. The second number measures the diastolic pressure, or the pressure on your artery walls in between heartbeats. Normal blood pressure is below 120 over 80. The way doctors define normal blood pressure has changed over the years and readings once considered normal are now cause for concern, so the lower you can go (to an extent), the better.

High blood pressure is defined as 140 over 90. An estimated 72 million Americans, or one in three adults, has high blood pressure. The gray area between 120 over 80 and 140 over 90 is considered pre-hypertension and it is a big sign that you must start taking steps to reduce your blood pressure.

To reduce your blood pressure it takes a few lifestyle changes, NOT drugs. Drugs are an option that should be used after all others have been exhausted. The foremost among the steps to reducing your blood pressure is eating a proper diet and getting at least thirty minutes of exercise a day. These activities will help you to feel great and lose weight. Just being overweight can cause hypertension, and more than half of Americans carry excess weight. Eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, drinking water, and limiting processed and “fast” foods are an excellent way to begin.

Alcohol is another factor that can increase blood pressure. Drinking in moderation and limiting most of your drinking to meals can have a dramatic effect in lowering your blood pressure. The adage about a glass of wine a day is not always true – sometimes the negative effects of the alcohol on your heart outweigh the beneficial effects of the wine.

Also, limiting your salt, or sodium, intake can help. We only need about a half-teaspoon of salt (1,150 mg of sodium) a day; the average American consumes five times that amount, most of it coming from processed foods and restaurant meals.

Genes play a role in a person’s susceptibility to blood pressure, but people can override the genetic factor by their habits, by monitoring their pressure, and as a very last resort by using medications.

Last, but certainly not least, is limiting the amount of stress in your life. This statement is one that you have probably heard before and said to yourself, “yeah right!” Stress is a part of our lives and most of those stresses cannot just be tossed aside. What you can do is work on how you handle life’s little stresses by trying to acknowledge when you feel stressed and then taking a few deep breaths to help you get through the situation without pulling any hair off your head. We all have stress, but it’s how you deal with that stress that matters.

Bottom Line: Get your blood pressure checked by a medical practitioner at least once a year. The arm-cuff test, easy and painless, is part of most medical checkups. It can be hard to make the changes necessary to lower your blood pressure, but it is very important to your health and well-being that you do it. Only one in three of the 72 million Americans with hypertension have it fully under control. We, here at Sages’ Healing Center, want you to become part of that group that has control of their blood pressure.

If you are concerned about your blood pressure and want assistance taking control of your hypertension, ask how we can work with you to help you live a long and healthy life.