High Blood Pressure Reduction Measures

f_11310677900_lose-weight-fitness.jpgHigh blood pressure is a major health problem that affects many people – a lot of which don’t even realize that they have it. Often, people are told that changes in their diet and exercise habits are enough to control blood pressure, without the use of medication. This is especially helpful for people with mild to moderate blood pressure levels.

Reducing your sodium intake is one of the most important factors in reducing your blood pressure level. Those affected with high blood pressure often claim that reducing their sodium intake reduces their blood pressure as well. It is important to learn which foods are high in sodium and limit your intake or avoid them all together.

Eating more fruits and vegetabls and even some grains increases your intake of important vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Studies suggest that people with a diet high in these foods and low in fats can reduce blood pressure in a small, but significant way.

Adding exercise to this change in diet can improve the blood pressure reduction. It helps to prevent and to control hypertension, and it is said that people who are active in exercise have lower death rates than their sedentary counterparts, even when they have the same blood pressure. An added bonus is that studies suggest that exercise not only reduces the risk for cardiovascular and other diseases, but can help prevent obesity, which is another high blood pressure risk factor.

Exercise is said to be the foundation for successful behavioral change programs. Exercise has been shown to make people feel positive about themselves and helps to reduce stress, a factor that not only raises blood pressure, but makes you feel less inclined to stick to the positive plans you’ve set in motion.

Eating well and exercising are the cornerstone to reducing your blood pressure level. However, they are not the only factors to a successful blood pressure reduction. Limiting your alcohol and caffeine intake can make an extreme difference. You should strive to drink these things only in moderation, or not at all. If you smoke, quitting can also make a profound difference. These are not things to be taken lightly. You may find that you cannot simply give these things up. In fact, in order to completely rid yourself of these behaviors can take months, even a year or more in some instances!

Reducing stress is another highly important factor in reducing your blood pressure. This is a lifelong task, but can prove to be one of the most important things you can do for your health. If you find that you have stress that seems out of control, taking a stress management workshop may be in your future.

Though it is said that diet and exercise can reduce the need for blood pressure medication, it is important to discuss any and all lifestyle changes with your doctor, who can instruct you in any reduction of your current medication dosages.

Diet and Cholesterol

f_01310677593_forest-place-fitness-view-02.jpgDiet and Cholesterol – The single biggest influence on our cholesterol condition.

Cholesterol was not a factor when Charles Darwin’s proposed his theory “Survival of the fittest”. He would certainly re-write his theory if he existed today, battling with the cause himself. Survive – we do: fittest -? that needs speculation, with half of the world population battling with a cholesterol condition.

Our ancestors had lived most of their life feeding on fruits, grasses, herbs, nuts, leaves, roots, water , seeds, cereals and hunting meat which was often a daunting task without the four wheel drives and buffalo shotguns.

Today, surviving, unlike our ancestors is not fighting with tigers, running after antelopes, or working the ground for roots. It is often fighting with ourselves that makes us weak. Of the fierce predators is the commonplace cholesterol which we find in abundance. Cookies, cakes, colas, chemicals, pesticides, chocolate, cool drinks, preservatives and the list could go on for a few hundred pages.

Some people develop dangerous tumors. Other people have Cholesterol levels that are through the roof. For you, your diet and lifestyle is causing the condition commonly referred to as Cholesterol.

This condition is simply a SYMPTOM of a very fundamental and dangerous imbalance within your body, and Cholesterol is simply the initial way it is manifesting itself in your body.

The biggest influence on blood cholesterol level is the mix of fats in the diet.

The most important determinant for cholesterol in the body is fat from diet. Though our liver produces 75% of cholesterol only 25% is absorbed from the food. For a high cholesterol condition, fats are of different types. Some fats are good for cholesterol levels while others are obviously bad. What are becoming clearer and clearer is those bad fats, meaning saturated and Tran’s fats increase the risk for certain diseases while good fats, meaning monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, lower the risk. The key is to substitute good fats for bad fats.

Your Body – a Breeding Ground

Extensive research reveals that, proliferation of cholesterol in society is a direct manifestation of our changed lifestyles. When people around the world experience similar problems, it’s not a random incident but a methodical process spreading across cultures and borders.

The body is infected by acids: released from sugars, carbohydrates, excess fat and uric acid, found a plenty in modern day foods.

Robert A. Young a leading micro-biologist, author of “The ph miracle” quotes: “There is only One Sickness and One Disease, and this one ‘sickness’ is the over-acidification of the body due primarily to an inverted way of living, thinking, and eating… there can therefore be only one remedy and treatment, and that is to alkalize the body and break the cycle of imbalance, thus allowing us to experience the energy, vitality and true health we’re all meant to have.”

Cholesterol Reduction: Recommendations for Fat Intake

Although the different types of fat have a varied – and admittedly confusing – effect on health and disease, the basic message is simple: chuck out the bad fats and replace them with good fats.

Focus on the ROOT CAUSE that is causing your Cholesterol… choose fruits and vegetables that drive the acids out of your body, burn of the excess by maintaining a strict schedule of work-outs. The many drugs available promising to reduce your cholesterol are optimistic placebo which works well when you are distressed.

Instead of “Medication” and “fighting the symptoms”, you start thinking about “Health” and treating the cause with THE RIGHT DIET.

This Article is Originally Published here: Diet and Cholesterol (http://www.cholesterol-reduction.org/treatment/diet-cholesterol.html)

Eating the Australian Way

f_21310677594_40e00a44f92e4113ae4d701e68f31681.jpgAustralians are often divided into the haves, and the have-nots.

But they’re not always talking about money.

These days, it’s often the haves (too much body fat), versus the have-nots (not overweight).

We can’t seem to make up our minds whether to eat at McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Krispy Kreme, Starbucks, and All-You-Can-Eat fast food restaurants, or whether to grab a protein snack, a freshly-squeezed fruit juice with wheatgrass and go straight to the gym.

Women’s Magazines have the same problem. A sample magazine from this month featured diet and exercise routines from three TV personalities and movie stars. Yet the back section of the magazine featured recipes such as luscious mocha fudge cake.

The incidence of obesity in Australia rose dramatically in the 90s – 80% for women. And over 20% of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. Our eating habits are often unbalanced.

Yet a trip to the local beach shows a large number of exceedingly fit bodies, often accompanied by personal trainers. Perhaps the rebellion has begun.

Australian authors are now responsible for several internationally-known health and fitness books, such as the Sandra Cabot’s Liver Cleansing Diet, the CSIRO WellBeing Diet, and Jennie Brand-Miller’s New Glucose Revolution.

So let’s assume you’ve decided to improve your health and fitness, upped your intake of raw fruit and vegies (for Liver Cleansing), are monitoring your intake of white breads and potatoes (for Glucose Revolution), and planning a BBQ based around lean meat for dinner tonight (CSIRO diet).

A November 2005 announcement from Jennie Brand-Miller is good news for the traditional Ocker image of throwing a shrimp on the barbie, while drinking a cold beer.

Apparently moderate alcohol intake has been related to a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. The new study looked at the impact of beer, white wine and gin on a carbohydrate-based meal. The result was that the alcoholic drinks, in particular the white wine, helped to lower the glucose and insulin response after the meal.

So if someone criticises you for that pre-dinner drink this summer, just say that you’re making an effort to avoid diabetes. They may just buy you another drink for being so thoughtful.

Cheers.