Author - Dr. Nitin Gupte

How To Prevent High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease. It accounts for two-thirds of all strokes and half of all heart disease.

One out of every five people in India has high blood pressure or hypertension. The situation is worse in Maharashtra, the ratio increasing to one in three.

Hypertension is often asymptotic. Many people never know that they have hypertension, simply because they have never had any reason to go to a doctor and check their blood pressure. It is often detected accidentally or after some tragedy strikes. That’s why it is called a silent killer!

The incidence of hypertension is so high today that it is vital that young people keep a regular watch on their blood pressure, at least once in every six months, even if they are not overweight, have no personal or family history of hypertension, and more often if they have all three plus stress.

Three decades ago, a survey amongst school children in Pune found a high incidence of obesity and hypertension, the incidence is much higher today! If your child is overweight or obese do get his blood pressure checked regularly and make sure that he loses weight.

Childhood obesity predisposes children to early hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes and heart disease.

Prolonged hypertension damages the blood vessels and various organs of the body.

It causes hardening and thickening of the arterial walls and the narrowing of their lumen. It can lead to weakening and bulging of the arteries. This is called aneurism and such aneurisms can rupture causing grave complications.

Hypertension can cause heart attacks and strokes. Raised blood pressure causes greater resistance to the flow of the blood through the arteries and forces the heart to pump harder to circulate blood through our body, causing hypertrophy (thickening) of the heart muscle. The thickened heart muscle struggles to pump blood efficiently and eventually fails to do so, causing heart failure.

Thickening and narrowing and aneurysms of the arteries in kidneys or eyes can damage these organs can lead to renal failure and loss of vision.

Hypertension also contributes to development of the metabolic syndrome that leads to development of diabetes, heart disease and strokes.

It can also cause circulatory problems and strokes in the brain and lead to impairment of memory and understanding and development of vascular dementia.

Thus you can see that untreated hypertension can cause blindness, renal (kidney) failure, heart attacks, strokes, and death. Even those people who are on proper medication may not necessarily escape these complications.

This said, it is vitally important that people consult their doctor, take the prescribed medication regularly and never stop medication on their own, without the knowledge of the doctor. Many people commit this mistake and pay the ultimate price for it.

Even amongst the people who are on regular medication, few have well-controlled blood pressures, 140/100 m.m. of Hg or more are not uncommon, when the levels should be 120/80 m.m. of Hg or less! Such people run the same health risks as mentioned above.

So our best option is to prevent hypertension and most people can definitely do it.

High blood pressure most often occurs without having any specific underlying disease leading to it. This hypertension is called primary or essential hypertension. About ninety to ninety-five percent of all hypertension cases fall into this category. Only five to ten percent people have an underlying disease leading to hypertension. This kind of hypertension is called secondary hypertension.

Various theories have been put forth about the causes of essential hypertension. Broadly speaking high blood volume, increased cardiac output, increased resistance of the arterial walls due to their thickening and reduced elasticity, narrowing of the lumen of arteries, increased vascular tone and a few other causes are thought to lead to primary hypertension.

But the fact remains that, with proper precautions, most people can prevent the onset of primary hypertension, many may overcome the problem completely.

Here are some interesting facts about the effects of food, exercise and weight loss on blood pressure.

Exercise alone has been shown to reduce systolic blood pressure by 3.5 and 2.0 mm respectively.

Improvement in diet by shifting to low fat dairy (milk, curds, buttermilk) and fibre rich foods viz. vegetables and fruits, we already have ample pulses and legumes in our food, has been shown reduce blood pressures by 5.5 and 3.0 mm Hg in people whose diets are rich in high fat dairy, flesh foods and low in low fat dairy and fibre rich foods.

Weight loss of every four kg has been shown to reduce systolic blood pressure by 6.25 mm and diastolic blood pressure by 4 mm.

The combined effects of exercise and weight loss has been shown to reduce systolic blood pressure by 12.5 mm and diastolic blood pressure by 8 mm in overweight or obese people.

Exercise has also been shown to improve ventricular mass and wall thickness, reduce arterial stiffness and improve endothelial function, improving our chances of fighting off coronary artery disease, strokes and peripheral vascular health by lowering blood pressure.

Exercise also improves the health of the arteries by reducing inflammation of the endothelial lining of the arterial wall, improves their flexibility, prevents clot formation and also prevents coronary and cerebral vascular accidents.

So you can see why it is essential to eat healthy, exercise regularly and lose weight to overcome hypertension.

Following are the essential steps you must take to prevent this hypertension.

Adapt a healthy lifestyle.

Keep your nutrition healthy, complete and moderate in calories.

Eat minimum fatty and sweet food and red meat.

Eat salt minimally. Avoid high salt foods like ‘papad’, ‘chatani’, ‘pickles’, dried and salted fish. Salt causes the blood volume to increase and this, in turn, causes blood pressure to climb. The sodium content of mineral salt may be higher than table salts. So, contrary to popular belief, mineral salts like ‘saindhav’ may be worse for hypertension than the table salts. Avoid mineral salts and ‘chat masalas’.

In general, foods rich in potassium, beans, dark leafy vegetables, all fruits, notably bananas, potatoes, fish, mushrooms, will help lower blood pressure. So include them in your food regularly.

Foods high in sodium, table salt, mineral salts, chaat masala, pickles, dried fish, fast foods, chips, French fries, salted nuts, canned foods (meats, fish and beans), sauces, salad dressings, will increase blood pressure. Keep them out of your food.

In general, animal source foods are high while vegetable source foods are low in sodium. So eating less of flesh and more of vegetables and fruits will help lower blood pressure.

Workout sufficiently; a brisk walk of at least thirty to sixty minutes will be good enough for most people, thirty if you are slim, sixty if you are overweight.

Make sure that you move around, get a little stroll whenever possible and generally remaining more active during work hours if you have a sedentary job.

Lose weight. A slim tummy will dramatically help bring down blood pressure, blood sugar and blood fats and cholesterol. Abdominal obesity leads to hypertension, diabetes and heart disease.

Quit smoking and consuming tobacco in any form.

Sleep and rest adequately. Seven hours of sound sleep will prove invaluable.

Be happy, positive, contented and peaceful.

A mind full of negative thoughts, sorrow, irritability, anger, endless desires, and a king size ego causes immense damage to our health. This kind of mindset leads people to hypertension, diabetes and heart disease sooner or later.

Any honest and intelligent person can identify if he or she has such a mindset. A bloated ego or plain stupidity can prevent us from identifying that we have such a mindset.

You must calm down your mind, free it from the clutches of negative and violent thoughts if you really want to become happy and healthy and free from the impending threat of hypertension, diabetes and heart disease.

And it can be done for sure, only you should want to be happy and healthy.

Take up a technique as simple as ‘yoganidra’ if not meditation if you wish to be calm, happy and healthy. Consistent yoganidra will immensely help in making you peaceful, happy and positive.

So ensure that you take these steps urgently and see how dramatically your blood pressure and blood chemistry improve. These steps will give you much improved mental and physical health and prevent hypertension, diabetes and heart disease and also slim you down!

Also read ‘Health Problems Of The Young: Hypertension’, ‘Hypertension Prevention And Control Program’ and ‘Preventing Diabetes‘ on this website.

The Dilemma Faced By Many people!

An egg contains six grams of the best quality proteins with all the essential amino acids.

An egg also contains 6 grams of fat, of which 1.5 grams are saturated fats. It also contains about 210 mg of cholesterol.

The protein content is almost evenly divided between the white and the yellow (yolk) of the egg, just a bit over 3 grams in the white and just under 3 grams in the yolk. The major part of the good nutrition as well as the entire fat and cholesterol are housed in the yolk.

Thus if you eat only the egg white, you get just over 3 grams of excellent proteins with only 12 calories and don’t have to worry about fats or cholesterol. Unfortunately, you miss out on most of the other excellent nutrition housed in the whole egg.

Plus the egg white is rather high in sodium. This could give you elevated blood pressure if you consume too many egg whites.

Eggs are one of the very few foods that contain naturally occurring vitamin D. Thus they help build healthy bones, teeth and help prevent osteoporosis.

Eggs are also beneficial to the health of the eyes. The carotenoid content of the eggs, specifically lutein and zeaxanthin may prevent cataract and macular degeneration, an eye disease that leads to loss of central vision.

Eggs are a good source of choline. Choline is an important nutrient that helps regulate the brain, nervous system, and cardiovascular system.

New research shows that, contrary to previous belief, moderate consumption of eggs does not have a negative impact on cholesterol. Research suggests that it is saturated fat that raises cholesterol rather than dietary cholesterol.

According to a study by the Harvard School of Public Health, there is no significant link between egg consumption and heart disease.

One study suggests that regular consumption of eggs may help prevent blood clots, stroke,and heart attacks. Another study suggests that women who consumed at least 6 eggs per week lowered their risk of breast cancer by 44%.

Eggs also promote healthy hair and nails because of their high sulphur content and wide array of vitamins and minerals.

Thus it is clear that eggs are highly nutritious. But an egg still provides two third of the safe upper limit of the daily recommendation of cholesterol for a healthy person, viz. 300 mg, while a person with high cholesterol or bad lipid profile shouldn’t cross 200 mg.

Dr. Thomas Behrenbeck, a Mayo Clinic cardiologist, advises that a healthy person should not cross 4 whole eggs a week.

A person with high cholesterol or bad lipid profile should follow his doctor’s advice.

Even a healthy person should avoid eating other high cholesterol and high saturated fat food and fatty deserts the same day.

Newer research thus tends to exonerates the egg from the demon of heart disease, but prudence must still be exercised while eating whole eggs.

It would be a good idea to keep an eye on your lipid profile every six months if you eat whole eggs regularly.

For more information about fats and cholesterol, read the article ‘Basics Of Nutrition‘ on this site.

Why You Must Replace White Rice With Brown Rice

Rice is a cereal and all cereals have more or less similar nutritional composition. But this is true for whole grain rice, not the polished white rice that people generally eat.

A grain of rice that is obtained after removing the husk by minimally processing it is the whole grain rice.

It is brownish in colour and is called the brown rice.

Brown rice is further milled to separate the outer cover called the bran and the germ from the rest of the grain of rice.

This grain is the white rice and it is composed mostly of the endosperm.

Brown rice and white rice have a similar number of calories and carbohydrates. The main differences between the two forms of rice lie in processing and nutritional content.

The bran and the germ house most of the fibre, vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, antioxidants and about twenty five per cent of the proteins from the original whole grain rice.

The white grain of rice left behind houses most of the starch and seventy five per cent of the proteins from the original whole grain rice.

In short, brown rice is the whole grain rice, while white rice has the bran and germ layers removed from the whole grain rice, this process strips away the fiber, vitamins, minerals and healthy fats and the antioxidants from the whole grain rice.

Thus brown rice is superior to white rice when it comes to fibre content, minerals, vitamins, and phytochemicals.

The fibre content of the whole grain rice is 3.5 gm while that of the white rice is 0.5 gm.

The higher fibre content in the brown rice slows down the absorption of carbohydrates in the blood and does not generate as large an increase in blood sugar levels after a meal as white rice, that is the glycemic index of brown rice is lower than that of white rice.

Milling and polishing brown rice removes most vitamins and minerals. In addition, milling strips away most of its fibre, which helps deter diabetes by slowing the rush of sugar (glucose) into the bloodstream.

Eating white rice daily may help trigger the onset of diabetes in those who are at a higher risk of developing diabetes due to family history or poor lifestyle, poor nutrition, lack of exercise and stress.

Replacing white rice with brown rice in four or five meals a week will substantially lower this risk.

Several vitamins and dietary minerals are lost in this removal and the subsequent polishing process. A part of these missing nutrients, such as vitamin B1, vitamin B3, and iron are sometimes added back into the white rice making it “enriched”, as food suppliers in the US are required to do by the US Food and Drug Administration. We have no information what happens in India.

One mineral that is lost substantially in white rice is magnesium.

When the bran layer is removed to make white rice, the oil in the bran is also removed. Rice bran oil may help lower LDL cholesterol. Rice bran oil contains ‘Oryzanol’ which is considered to be helpful in lowering blood cholesterol levels.

Among other key sources of nutrition lost are small amounts of fatty acids and fiber.

Summary:

Brown rice is more nutrient dense offering more fibre, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and healthy fats.

White rice is primarily a source of easily digestible carbohydrates and some proteins but significantly less nutrients.

Read the article ‘Basics Of Nutrition‘ on this website for more information