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Lifestyle changes can help prevent and treat hypertension.
Keeping a healthy weight - for every 20 pounds you lose, you
can drop systolic pressure 5-20 points. Eating lower fat food, and lots of fruits and vegetables is important.
Fresh is always better. Salt is used to preserve food, to make it last longer... fresh foods don’t need that.
Processed foods such as - soups, lunch meats, canned vegetables, processed meats (bacon, sausages, ham, canned meats and fish),
frozen dinners, ethnic foods, crackers, etc. have a lot of salt... The reason we need to watch our sodium/salt intake
is... Salt attracts water. When there is too much salt in the blood,
the salt draws more water into the blood. More water increases the volume of blood which raises blood pressure.
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Walking is huge when it comes to keeping your
body healthy... it is a relaxing, safe and effective form of exercise. Exercise literally ‘burns’ off the
chemicals and hormones meant for reaction to a stress.... we fake running from the lion, and hence use up the overload.
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Need help calming your racing heart?
Splash cold water on your face.
It works!
Did
you know that when someone falls into icy cold water face first, an instinct to preserve life takes over, slowing the heart
and redirecting blood to the heart and brain.
This innate response called the mammalian diving reflex, is actually
present in all mammals.
(Yes, we are mammals.)
When we plunge face first into very cold water (well below
70 degrees Fahrenheit), the body responds with an immediate slowing of the heart and a redirection of blood to the vital organs
in an attempt to survive. This is one reason why some people, especially children, have been successfully resuscitated after
being submerged in an icy lake for 30, 40, or more minutes.
Plunging a patient’s face into ice water was
also used in ERs not too long ago as a way to slow an abnormally rapid heart rhythm. Today we have medicine to do that job.
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Use music to enhance your goal.... Music is a group of sounds put together to form a song. The sounds express a person, feelings, behavior, beliefs,
life or experience. Music has been around for many years. It has been used for many generations for musical entertainment
or religion. In the olden days music was played for royalty but now it is used for all people. Music can
affect a person's mood, feeling and behavior.
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Don't forget Massage... 
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Headache As we become anxious and/or face
a difficult task, we brace ourselves by holding muscles tight - usually the forehead, face, eyes, neck, jaw and shoulders.
After a period of time, these muscles can go into spasm. The result - Mental tension quickly becomes muscle tension.
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Hug Someone and lower their blood
pressure! Yes,
it really is that easy. "When you give a friend or family member a squeeze, you stimulate their pressure receptors as
well as your own." http://www.oprah.com/health/The-Health-Benefits-of-Massage
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Don’t use smoking as a method of dealing with stress! Study
after study shows that cigarette smoking is a major factor in heart disease. Smoking increases the "stickiness"
of blood; it decreases the time it takes to clot; it decreases the effectiveness of the lungs, making the heart
work harder to deliver oxygenated blood to the body's cells; and some of the chemicals in smoke can
damage the arteries.
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Find the positive stress management techniques
that work for you.
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