Posts Tagged ‘High Blood Pressure’
Discover the Importance of a Healthy Lifestyle
We all know that a healthy lifestyle plays a crucial role in achieving and maintaining good health and the fact that the health and fitness industries are making billions every year goes a long way in highlighting the importance of a healthy lifestyle. So, if it is so widely known that a healthy lifestyle is so critical, then why is it that the health sectors of most western countries are overloaded with people suffering from illnesses that are directly related to unhealthy living? And why is it that obesity rates in many developed countries are at dangerously high levels?
The answers to these questions, I feel, are very complex and do not necessarily reflect peoples ignorance of the importance of a healthy lifestyle. I do believe, however, that the demands of modern living don’t often afford us the time to really reflect on the benefits that can be gained from healthy living, nor does it make it easy for us to live a healthy way of life on a daily basis. In this modern technological age we are also becoming more dependent on finding instant and easy solutions to life’s problems and this may have led us, as a society, to forget the basic principles behind living a healthy living.
The importance of a healthy lifestyle goes far beyond our physical health though. While, naturally, implementing healthy lifestyle practices does benefit us physically it also has a major positive effect on all other aspects of our lives. The benefits of healthy living include:
• Eliminating and reducing chronic illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and other obesity related diseases
• Reducing the risk of depression and other mental illnesses
• Increasing energy levels
• Improving fertility, sexual function and libido
The importance of a healthy lifestyle is realised in many aspects of our lives. When we improve our physical health and wellbeing we also feel the benefits mentally and emotionally and living a healthy lifestyle allows us to develop a more positive outlook on life. When we feel happier and healthier we begin feeling better about ourselves and, as our self-esteem and confidence increases, we notice a big change in our relationships with others. People are naturally drawn to individuals who have a positive radiance about them and a healthy lifestyle can certainly help us to become someone that others want to be around. This not only has a positive effect on us as individuals but can do wonders for us on a professional level as well.
When looking at how healthy living can affect our lives it is clear that we can’t afford to neglect the importance of a healthy lifestyle. But healthy living goes far beyond just improving our diet and adding some exercise to our daily routine. Changing old habits does take some hard work and commitment but not only is it possible but it is certainly well worth it.
By: Juliet Jansen
High Blood Pressure: Genetics, Age and Lifestyle
So is high blood pressure really genetic? Yes, hypertension is inherited, but this does not automatically mean that you will develop it yourself if most of your family members have it. However, it is not yet known exactly how it is inherited. Some characteristics and some rare diseases can be caused by inheriting single genes. But it is also known, with certain rare exceptions, that high blood pressure is hardly ever inherited in this simple way.
In most cases, high blood pressure depends on the interaction of various inheritable factors, which may only become activated only in the presence of certain environmental conditions. This is known as genotype-environment interaction. The most important of these conditions is probably prematurity, obesity in adolescence and as a young adult, sodium intake and alcohol intake particularly in early adulthood. In any case, however, it is pointless to argue about nature versus nurture, or environment versus inheritance. It is more essential to acknowledge that there may be a possibility pf developing high blood pressure and that one should be sensible about what one eats and drinks and the amount of exercise that one does.
High blood pressure may begin in childhood. Nevertheless, knowing this is of little practical use. There is already evidence that weight control in case of childhood obesity, perhaps on a vegetarian diet, may be a good prophylactic against later high blood pressure in adulthood, but not much data to support any other specific preventive actions. Generally, screening children for blood pressure is essentially a method of research, not a useful procedure in general practice and, if done at all, it must be done by highly trained medical personnel. The fact that high blood pressure begins with inheritance or in childhood does not mean that you actually had high blood pressure in childhood – just that the tendency for you to develop it as you grow older is already there. Screening is not useful for finding the equally rare cases of secondary high blood pressure, where blood pressure rises rapidly over a short period and is caused by some other illness, which is usually a kidney disorder. Knowing that a child has high blood pressure is not a very useful predictor of what will happen as the child ages. Although there is a general tendency for newborns with high blood pressure to become adults with hypertension, the association remains debatable. In a study of fourteen year olds with untreated high blood pressure (170/100 mmHg) examined twenty years after, only 17% had hypertension twenty years later.
The causes of high blood pressure in people in their 30s are generally the same as in those individuals who are older, regardless of smoking and drinking behavior. In such cases, it should be noted that most causes of high blood pressure in middle age and later life are still uncertain. The main difference is that in younger adults, there are more cases of secondary high blood pressure caused by other conditions, often those disorders involving the kidney and the adrenal glands. Everyone aged under 40 found to have high blood pressure should be referred to a consultant for individual examinations to see if it is being caused by such conditions. For the occasional person with very high blood pressure (sustained diastolic pressure of 120 mmHg or more), physicians should still monitor these individuals closely. For most people in this age bracket with raised blood pressure but below this level, routine referral for these medical examinations is not necessary – providing that the physician organizes a few simple tests and make a careful evaluation of responses to treatment. Most people who then need a medical specialist, not just for routine tests but a comprehensive and detailed search for the causes of raised blood pressure, can then usually be identified so that these individuals can get the attention they deserve, as many of these underlying causes are very difficult to find.
By: Michael Russell
Lifestyle Diseases on the Rise
What is a lifestyle disease? When you think of a disease you usually think of the H1N1 swine flu or tuberculosis something you can catch from someone. A lifestyle disease is associated with your environment, by the way you live your life and the choices you make everyday.
When you go out and eat a lot of junk food everyday, drink too much alcohol, smoke, lie on your couch and watch TV all day these things all contribute to you getting what they call non communicable diseases. These are diseases like diabetes, cancer, stroke, heart disease and others.
Our lifestyle choice c many times in the beginning start out as minor issues like a little weight problem, then a sore knee. If we continue with that lifestyle then obesity slowly sets in and the sore knee turns into a major knee joint problem that doctors many times recommends operation instead of losing the weight which caused it in the first place. I see it happening everyday to my friends.
Hang on it gets worse. Over time this person gets diabetes and not to mention high blood pressure and other joint problems like their back and shoulders. From here they start to develop heart related diseases. When I talk to them about their problems they show me a handful of pills they take so they do not have to lose the weight. In other words they do not want to change their lifestyle.
People now days want to treat the symptom and not the cause of the problem, yet they complain all day that their knee is so sore. They tell the doctor to give them a stronger pain killer. Next thing you know they are scheduled for knee surgery. Why? The signs are all there that it is the weight that is causing the problem. Now these are smart people. They are just ignorant of the fact that they got to change their lifestyle. Imagine the problems uneducated people and their families with little medical care have. Their health problems are far worse.
A lot of this is due to lack of proper health care, low income, poor eating choices, lack of education and not enough exercise. Also poor common sense plays a big part in the choices people make because even educated people get these lifestyle diseases.
We are bombarded all day by advertisements for the newest double chocolate chip cookie or some new burger place opening up does not help in fact it just adds to the problem. What about the beer ads which try to be funny to make people watch and remember them.
It is all about choices. What we eat and what we feed our children is our choice. You see children now days getting things like childhood diabetes which was unheard of 20 years ago. These lifestyle diseases are spreading at an alarming rate and are turning into an epidemic. They are just as deadly as the swine flu or TB. This affects all of us some how. It may be our spouse, parent or child. Even our finances, if you are sick you cannot go to work.
It also adds to the burden of our health care system like increases in our medical insurance premiums, lack of hospital beds, doctors and nurses. It also adds to the burden of the state when people sign up for free health care program.
We need to teach the people to get them making wiser choices like eating more fruits and vegetables versus cookies and burgers. Getting them to get off the couch and outside and start taking walks which by the way costs no money. In fact with better choices they will actually stat to save money which they spend on junk food, bad snacks, tobacco and alcohol.
It all starts with education. Some how we got to teach people what is good and healthy to eat versus what is bad and the consequences are. Not only people with lack of education are teaching their children the wrong lifestyle. We got to protect our children from these diseases. They learn by watching us and what we eat. We got to stop feeding them the junk and sweets or at least have a limit.
Children today spend far too much time indoors. You got to get them off the computer and to turn off the TV. Get them outside and playing in the yard. They need to exercise and they can do it just by running around.
Sometimes education in the schools will actually rub off on the parents at home. Schools are now spending time and money to teach children about proper diet and health issues. This in turn can influence the choices their parents make at the grocery store and where they decide to dine out and how often. But we cannot only depend on our schools and our children. We must educate the adults; make them aware of the problem the causes of them and the consequences. It should in the start in the home from the parents.
By: Les Tana
