Having your blood pressure checked on a regular basis is the only way to know if you suffer from high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, which has many causes and risk factors. Health experts have not identified one single cause of high blood pressure, but a variety of factors can make it more likely. Here is some information on conditions that can cause high blood pressure.

Adrenal and thyroid conditions that go untreated can contribute to high blood pressure. Hypertension can be caused as a result of a faulty thyroid or condition referred to as hypothyroidism wherein the thyroid isn't producing the right amount of hormones. Problems in the adrenal gland can also cause your high blood pressure. A few of the symptoms you may experience with adrenal or thyroid conditions are fatigue, weight gain and joint pain. People often live with these conditions for a long time without realizing it, as they can only be detected by medical tests. Prescription medication is often the only treatment. There are however some people who will notice that they are predisposed due to a family history. It's especially important for you to be aware of the risks for high blood pressure if one or both of your parents suffered with high blood pressure. As diabetes and kidney disease are also associated with hypertension, it's important to note any of these problems in your family as well. If you want to control your blood pressure it's important to take control of the factors you have control over such as lifestyle. Our biggest point is that your genetic disposition can play a role so it is in fact important to pay attention.

Find activities that will get you off the couch. There are experts and doctors who believe the rise in high blood pressure cases is as a result of the sedentary jobs we have and lack of time we make for getting exercise. It's known that getting even moderate amounts of exercise can help to lower your blood pressure. Young people today are at greater risk of high blood pressure and hypertension because of their lack of activity. It takes some effort but can be reversed with exercise. These are only a few of the causes to be aware of for hypertension. Get regular checkups if you have a family history or any of the above risk factors for high blood pressure.

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Was it just recently that your doctor diagnosed your high blood pressure? Managing hypertension or high blood pressure is very important since this condition can lead to heart attack and stroke. Here are different methods that can effectively reduce high blood pressure.

When a person is diagnosed with hypertension, doctors usually prescribe anti-hypertensive medicines in order to control blood pressure. Different types of anti-hypertensive drugs can be prescribed like angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, diuretics, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, angiotensin II receptor blockers and others. These drugs can definitely lower blood pressure but the usual complaints of patients are regarding the side effects.

Like any kind of synthetic drug, anti-hypertensive drugs do have side effects like diarrhea, dizziness, heartbeat changes, vomiting, and others. It is good if the side effects can be tolerated by the patient. Unfortunately for some, the side effects are intolerable that they look for other effective ways in reducing high blood pressure. What is great is the fact that certain approaches have been proven helpful in reducing high blood pressure and these methods have no side effects.

Decreased intake of salt. Remember that how much salt you consume per day can increase your risk of getting hypertension. For health reasons, people should limit their salt intake to 2,300 milligrams per day. And if a person is hypertensive, his or her sodium intake must be limited to 1,500 milligrams per day only. When you are going grocery shopping, always look at the nutritional facts and sodium content of products. The foods that you decide to purchase must only reflect 5% or less of the Daily Value of sodium. If the daily Value of sodium is 20% or more, do not purchase that food.

Increase consumption of vegetables and foods rich in magnesium, potassium, and fiber. It has been proven that these nutrients can help in lessening high blood pressure. Samples of fruits and vegetables that are rich in these nutrients are apples, apricots, bananas, broccoli, carrots, green beans, green peas, grapefruit, grapes, lima beans, mangoes, melons, oranges, pineapples, potatoes, raisins, squash, spinach, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, fat-free yogurt, and many more.

Completely stop smoking. Smoking is another proven risk factor of high blood pressure. The nicotine in cigarette smoke can cause decreased oxygen to the heart, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, increased blood clotting, and damage to cells of the blood vessels.

Get your body moving. A sedentary lifestyle is one of the risk factors in getting high blood pressure. Exercising every day for at least 30 minutes can decrease a person's risk of developing high blood pressure as well as effectively control hypertension. You can do jogging, brisk walking, biking, walking, swimming, and other aerobic exercises.

These are just some proven effective methods to reduce high blood pressure. In fact, so many more methods can effectively reduce a person's high blood pressure and examples of these are deep breathing, supplementation, meditation, yoga, and stress reduction. If you definitely want to control your high blood pressure without suffering the side effects brought about by anti-hypertensive medications, you need to know and apply the different natural methods in order to reduce high blood pressure.

A recent Finnish study that was put together to study the link between coffee and high blood pressure. Unfortunately, even though the study revealed a lot of information, it was imperfect in that it failed to account for and isolate other variables that have been proven to affect blood pressure.

An interesting example is the demographic are people who drink coffee. Coffee drinkers, as a rule, tend to also be cigarette smokers. It's been well proven that smoking tends to harden the blood arteries and constrict blood flow. The heart has to pump harder to force the blood through the narrow arteries and blood pressure rises as a result. In addition, studies have also demonstrated that discontinuing tobacco smoking will likely lead to a decrease in blood pressure. The study did not control for smoking.

Other lifestyle factors, that were not controlled for, come into the mix as well. Factors such as eating habits, whether the person is male or female, weight, exercise, and salt sensitivity and intake. Diet, as we know, has a great impact on whether a person develops hypertension. Is a person who drinks coffee more likely to also have bad eating habits which can lead to high blood pressure?

Exercise is very beneficial to the heart and arterial system. Is a coffee drinker more likely to be sedentary than a non coffee drinker?

For more than a few decades, it seems like we're constantly being told that some food or other that we have become used to eating is somehow harmful to us. First we were told to eat fish, only later to be told that if we eat fish we risk ingesting too much mercury. A vegetarian diet is good for health, but are we willing to risk bone loss? Fruits have loads of healthy antioxidants, but will the sugar content in them rot our teeth?

However, hidden within the study was one excellent piece of health news. It appears as if drinking coffee actually lowers the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. And, at this point, we'll take all the good news that we can.

Melissa Chow is a freelance writer who writes articles for her website on topics such as ways on how to lower high blood pressure, herbs for high blood pressure, and well known natural cures for high blood pressure. Please visit her site for more details.

Does Coffee Cause High Blood Pressure?

March 6, 2010
Author: catt

A recent Finnish study followed over 24,000 citizens with no prior history of hypertension or high blood pressure for thirteen years to attempt to find a causal link between high blood pressure and coffee. The ages of the participants were between 25 and 64 years old. Also required was that they had no history of hypertension drug use and no history of stroke or heart disease.

Unfortunately, the answers from the study were inconclusive leaving it an open question as to how much coffee drinking affects hypertension.

Over the period during which the study took place, more than 2500 subjects, or about ten percent of them started to take some type of anti hypertension drug. Prior studies had already demonstrated that approximately 19% of non-coffee drinkers developed high blood pressure during the time period of the study. What is unknown, however, is how many of the participants developed high blood pressure but were either unaware of it or not taking medication for it.

Part of the questionnaire that participants were asked to complete focused on how many cups of coffee they drink daily. The more cups of coffee a participant drank, the greater the chances are that he or she would end up in the group taking anti hypertension drugs. So although there does seem to be some slight causation link between coffee drinking and high blood pressure, the risk seems to be small, and many questions still remain.

As an example of how some of these questions remain unanswered is that, as a general observation, coffee drinkers tend to drink alcohol more than non coffee drinkers. Although a drink once in a while may be beneficial for relieving stress and may even reduce diastolic blood pressure, studies have consistently shown that alcohol when consumed in excess increases blood pressure. We also know that over time, excess drinking can damage the heart. But, the study did not control for alcohol consumption.

Unfortunately, until better control studies come along, we are left in the dark. However, those of us who really love coffee, can now enjoy our daily caffeine fix without guilt pangs.

Melissa Chow is a freelance writer who writes articles for her website on topics such as ways on how to lower high blood pressure, herbs for high blood pressure, and well known natural cures for high blood pressure. Please visit her site for more details.

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