When considering the aging process, one must look beyond the surface changes and realize that every cell in the body undergoes the same procedure. Every body part ages, every organ, nerve, atom undergoes the changes. Beginning around the age of 40, the heart begins to undergo a 20% decline in the maximum heart rate during exercise. This is because it becomes less responsive to stimulation generated by the nervous system.
One of the broadest and most debilitating problems a person experiences in the circulatory system is hypertension (High Blood Pressure). It seems strange, but High Blood Pressure (HBP) is, in the main, preventable. According to statistics, the majority of HBP diagnoses is of the essential type; those cases associated with stress, poor nutrition, and several other lifestyle-based factors. Surprisingly, proper nutrition becomes a most useful therapeutic agent. When used properly, it can go a long way toward prevention of invasive surgical procedures and long term prescriptive treatment.
Approximately 5% of all diagnoses of HBP are classified as secondary cases, or cases related directly to some other disease state, most often renal (having to do with the kidneys), as in adrenocortical tumors. A large number of cases are attributable to arteriosclerosis, or the hardening of the arteries. This occurs when plaque begins to collect on the arterial walls, greatly reducing the elasticity of the arteries and, eventually blocking the lumen (Opening in the artery) so blood can no longer flow through.
People should be encouraged by their physicians and pharmacists (chemists) to incorporate simple lifestyle changes that will go a long way toward reversing HBP. By changing nutritional intake, adding regulated exercise, and incorporating simple diet measures, the average person can control and reverse most cases of HBP. Such practices may also reduce the need for costly, painful and debilitating invasive procedures such as bypass surgery, angioplasty, and transplants. At the least, the overwhelming costs of prescriptive drugs will be ameliorated.
There are several compelling reasons that make the use of pharmaceuticals a less desirable feature of a health regimen when treating HBP. First, there is usually several dosage adjustments made during the course of therapy. There are also several changes in or additions to the medications prescribed. Those medications usually do nothing more than control the symptoms while doing nothing to reach and reverse the cause.
There are numerous side effects related to the ingestion of medications used to treat HBP. Among those are loss of libido (sex drive), organic alterations to the heart, kidneys, lungs and other bodily systems and organs. The stronger the drug used, the greater the alteration of lifestyle and quality of life is to be expected. It has been postulated that 30 to 50% of those on such prescriptive medications suffer some form of side effect.
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