High Blood Pressure, a Dietary Approach

This article is about hypertension. It will help you to understand the disease as well as the dietary approaches to controlling hypertension. Please, if you believe that you have hypertension or know that you have hypertension do not try any of this without your doctor's help. The risks are too great for self-diagnosis with this disease.

Hypertension, more commonly called high blood pressure, is also known as the silent killer because many people are unaware that they have it. Hypertension is blood pressure that consistently reads above 140 over 90 mm Hg. It has been estimated that as many as 39% of people with hypertension don't know it. Even worse, the same study showed that only 16% of people with hypertension had it under control. This is dangerous because high blood pressure causes undue stress to the circulation of key organs, particularly the brain, heart and kidneys. This leads to increased risk of stroke, heart attack and kidney failure. High blood pressure also can cause an aneurysm, a small balloon-like weakening of the artery wall.

For a good summary of hypertension from the American Heart Association go to the following web address.

http://www.americanheart.org/Heart_and_S...

From Dr. C. Everett Koop, former Surgeon General, we learn that there are two types of factors that may place you at increased risk for high blood pressure. The two types are risk factors beyond your control and lifestyle risk factors. For the full information on risk factors go to the following web address. http://www.drkoop.com/conditions/Hyperte...

One of the most popular dietary approaches to controlling hypertension is limiting sodium. However, the truth is that only 30% of people with hypertension are salt sensitive. Doctor Koop offers; A SECOND LOOK AT SODIUM How much sodium do you eat? For salt-sensitive hypertension patients, monitoring sodium intake is a way of life.

http://www.drkoop.com/wellness/nutrition...

If you want to control your hypertension with diet try the DASH diet. This diet is gaining recent attention as one of the more credible approaches to dietary health. Well it's about time... finally a diet we can live with: Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) was first published in 1995. For a independant view on the DASH diet.

http://nutrition.about.com/library/weekl...

To see the DASH official web site.

http://dash.bwh.harvard.edu

Hopefully this article has given you an idea of what hypertension is and how to control it with the DASH diet. However, I must say it again. If you believe you have hypertension SEE YOUR DOCTOR. If you know you have hypertension consult you doctor before making dietary changes or changing your medicine. If you have any questions or comments, or need help with the DASH diet I would appreciate your e-mail. shembree@hotmail.com