Ways to lower high systolic blood pressure....

Thursday, 10-2-2014

Medical News today had an article that had what things went with increasing or decreasing systolic blood pressure.

It’s quite common for older people to have either only systolic blood pressure be high or to have it be farther above 140 over 90 than their diastolic or second reading blood pressure.

In fact it’s considered a reasonable target to get older people with even higher high blood pressure down to a blood pressure of 150 over 80 or even 85.

Notice that the 150 is 30 above the 120 considered normal and 35 over the 115 considered ideal while the 80 to 85 is from the same exactly to only 10 over 75 to 80.

Also notice that the difference 65 to 70 at 150 over 80 to 85 is 25 to and the difference of 40 of the normal and ideal blood pressure – 120 over 80 and 115 over 75.  This bigger pulse pressure causes a kind of hammering effect from the higher systolic blood pressure.

So for all those reasons and to improve health protection, it would be extra valuable to lower systolic blood pressure when it’s high..

We did find and post on how improving your quick and short bursts of interval or variable cardio several times a week, ideally a least three, does seem to reduce systolic blood pressure and the pulse pressure, systolic minus diastolic.

So that is one method that works! 

It’s particularly good because it is also protective from the harms caused by high blood pressure enough that adding drugs to bring down the blood pressure added no further reduction in heart attacks in strokes when people did such exercise and ate right.  That can help people avoid those drugs and their dreadful side effects!

How else can we lower systolic blood pressure!

That’s where the more recent Medical News Today story comes in:

[SBP stands for Systolic Blood Pressure but takes way fewer keystrokes.]

“The negative relationship between consumption of fruits and vegetables and SBP was significant in both sexes.

Alcohol intake was positively associated with SBP in both sexes;

SBP was higher in participants with elevated body mass indices (BMIs).”

So to lower high systolic BP,

1.  Decrease alcohol intake;

2.  Sharply increase vegetable intake;

3.  Do 3 days a week of higher intensity variable or interval cardio;

4.  And do other effective things to lose fat.

Ten percent or more of your initial body weight or more that you keep off would help and is usually achievable.

5.  Using cold packs to spot reduce visceral fat around kidneys may help extra too!

One way that one study suggests extra fat produces high blood pressure is by overheating or interfering with the part of the kidney that controls blood pressure causing it to reset to too high a setting. So spot reducing that fat could be extra helpful!  Inexpensive cold packs you use at home have proven effective to do this.

6.  Note that drinking less alcohol, sharply increasing vegetable intake, and doing this effective kind of vigorous cardio three times a week each independently helps you lose fat and keep it off!

All you need to do further to achieve this much fat loss you keep off is to STOP ingesting the foods and drinks that are fattening AND harmful.  And if you allow exceptions for real sugar a few times a month or a week, keep the calories to less than five percent of your total.

Does that mean completely stopping ALL regular and diet soft drinks and almost all fast food and all foods made with refined grain wheat flour?  Yes.

Does that mean stopping ALL packaged snacks and desserts?  Yes.

7.  To cut back on alcohol keep a journal where each day you write down how many drinks you had that day.  Then make a strong special effort to minimize how often you have more than two drinks in one day.  And, for men, work to have the total drinks per week be 9 or less and 5 or less for women.

8.  Find a kind of variable or interval cardio you can do at home or otherwise manage to do for 10 to 20 minutes three days a week every week and gradually make it more and more vigorous until it’s hard for anyone but and young and trained athleted to match you.  At that point, just maintain it and build back after you get sick etc.

9.  To eat a lot more vegetables is hugely important and can give you a LOT of leverage on fat loss AND lowering high blood pressure AND lowering high systolic blood  pressure!

Here’s why:

The people who follow or mostly follow the advice of Dr Joel Fuhrman and make high nutrition low calorie vegetables and beans all or the vast majority of their food uniformly become very lean to so lean they look a little too thin. 

Celery which has a set of micronutrients that lower high blood pressure if you get a lot

-- every day!

-- and vegetables such as beets and arugula that have such high nitrate levels that they lower high blood pressure effectively another way -- again if you eat enough every day are so effective for either one, let alone both together they are very effective blood pressure reducers with other health benefits instead of side effects.

One man who managed to eat four stalks of celery a day was able to simply turn off his high blood pressure so well it was like turning it off with a light switch.

Others who have managed that much beet juice each day have had similar results AND improved their cardio fitness enough to get a significant advantage for those who were athletes who ran races.

These two would be so hard for most people to use that despite their effectiveness few people would do them.

But using the new, much quieter Vitamix juicing that much of celery and beets or arugula morning and evening at home is actually doable!

(So, you can see why I want so much to get and use one!)

10.  Cutting back on alcoholic drinks when you enjoy them and are under extra stress is not easy. 

But I have now set several days each week where I only have one or half a one and limit myself to one or one and a half the other days.  So far it’s working.  One glass of red wine after dinner seems more beneficial and causes fewer other health harms.  So with rare dark beer occasions, I stick to red wine.

And, I’m also working to cut my stress in other ways.

Here’s  the link to the Medical News Today article:

Factors related to increased blood pressure

http://mnt.to/l/4qzH

Hypertension is the most prevalent chronic disease worldwide. Lifestyle

behaviors for its prevention and control are recommended within worldwide

guidelines.