Category Archives: Healthy living

High blood pressure

Posted by zqxyear1 on June 4, 2010 Comments Off

What is high blood pressure?

It causes the heart to work harder than normal putting both the heart and arteries at greater risk of damage. High blood pressure, or hypertension, increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, damage to the eyes, congestive heart failure and atherosclerosis.

Hypertension exists where the pressure at which blood is pushing against blood vessel walls is consistently above average.

Blood pressure changes throughout the day. In particular, it increases during exercise and decreases during sleep.

Untreated high blood pressure can cause the heart to become abnormally large and less efficient (ventricular hypertrophy) causing heart failure and increased risk of heart attack.

Symptoms

Although high blood pressure can cause headaches, dizziness and problems with vision, the majority of people suffer no symptoms at all. As a result many people with hypertension remain undiagnosed because they have no symptoms to motivate them to see a doctor or get their blood pressure checked.

However, despite the lack of symptoms hypertension can lead to heart attack, stroke, kidney damage, and many other medical problems

Causes and risk factors

In over 90 per cent of cases, the cause is unknown. In the remaining cases, high blood pressure is a symptom of a recognisable underlying problem such as a kidney abnormality, tumour of the adrenal gland or congenital defect of the aorta (in these cases when the root cause is corrected, blood pressure usually returns to norma).

This type of high blood pressure is called secondary hypertension.

If high blood pressure isn’t treated and is combined with obesity, smoking, high blood cholesterol levels or diabetes, the risk of heart attack is several times higher.

Arteries also suffer the effects of high blood pressure, becoming scarred, hardened and less elastic. Though this hardening of the arteries often occurs with age, high blood pressure accelerates the process. The hardened or narrowed arteries are unable to supply the amount of blood the body’s organs need, preventing them working effectively. Another risk is that a blood clot may lodge in an artery narrowed by atherosclerosis, blocking blood supply.

Treatment and recovery

The only way to find out if you have high blood pressure is to have your blood pressure checked. A doctor or other qualified health professional should check a patient’s blood pressure at least once every two years.

It’s measured in millimetres of mercury (mm Hg) and is defined in an adult by the recording of two readings:

  • The first is called the systolic pressure and represents the force of the blood as the heart contracts (beats) to pump it around the body. This is the higher of the two readings and records blood pressure at or above 140mm Hg.
  • The second, called the diastolic, is the pressure while the heart is relaxed and filling with blood again in preparation for the next contraction or heart beat. This value is lower than the systolic pressure and records blood pressure at or above 90mm Hg.

What is considered to be an acceptable blood pressure and what is hypertension (and then what needs treatment) depends on several factors. A single high reading isn’t enough to warrant a diagnosis of hypertension as blood pressure can be raised in all of us now and then – even the sight of a doctor can be enough to put it up. So there must be at least three high readings to cause concern.

When high blood pressure is first diagnosed, tests may be done for an underlying cause (i.e. secondary hypertension) especially if the person is young or has very high blood pressure. If an underlying cause is found it should be treated.

There’s no cure as such for essential hypertension, but following a healthy lifestyle can be enough to bring blood pressure down to a normal level. This is one reason why drug treatment may not be offered for healthy individuals with only mild hypertension (above 140/90 mmHg but below 160/100 mmHg).

Medication is used if lifestyle changes alone fail to lower blood pressure sufficiently. Its generally recommend that drug treatment is offered to:

  • Those with a blood pressure above 160/100 mmHg.
  • Those with isolated systolic hypertension of more than 160 mmHg.
  • Those with a blood pressure of more than 140/90 mmHg (i.e. mild hypertension) but who also have cardiovascular disease or significant risk of developing cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or damage to the heart, kidney or eyes as a result of high blood pressure.

Current UK guidelines also recommend that blood pressure levels need to be even lower for certain people and say treatment should aim to lower blood pressure to below 130/80 if a person has:

  • A complication of diabetes, especially kidney problems.
  • Had a serious cardiovascular event such as a heart attack, TIA or stroke.
  • Has certain chronic kidney diseases.

All medicines can have side effects and sometimes it’s necessary to try different drugs if initial treatments cause problems.

Keeping a food and activity diary

Posted by zqxyear1 on March 20, 2010 Comments Off

Food diaries help you become more aware of your eating and activity habits, and problem areas. They give you a basis from which to plan changes and set goals, and allow you to look back and see what you’ve changed over time. This can be very motivating.

A food and activity diary will also encourage you to make conscious choices about what you eat and do – writing it down gives you the chance to think twice before you act. This is one of the most useful things you can do to help you gain control your weight.

Write down everything you eat and drink over the day.

You can print off the form below, or put similar headings into a small notebook to carry with you. It’s hard to remember what you’ve eaten at the end of the day, so try to record things as you go.

It can also help to make a note of any thoughts or feelings linked to eating, especially if you find you often eat for comfort or when you’re not actually hungry.

Make a note, too, of any activity you do over the day that lasts for at least ten minutes.

Writing down everything you eat and drink can be difficult. The more honest you are, the more it will help you. It can take a little while to get used to and sometimes it may seem like a waste of time, but it’s worth the effort.

If things are going well, you may find you only need to keep it now and then, or if your weight loss goes off track.

People who successfully lose weight and keep it off monitor what they eat and how active they are. This could be in the form of a diary, or in their head. It’s a matter of finding out what works best for you.

What’s a healthy weight?

Posted by zqxyear1 on March 20, 2010 Comments Off

A combination of factors determines our weight, and that’s why it’s difficult to set an exact ideal weight that applies to everyone.

It’s important to remember there’s a range of healthy body weights. Aiming to keep within this means an end to aspiring to one magic weight you think you should be.

Many people have a distorted perception of what constitutes a healthy body weight. We’re surrounded by images of celebrities, many of whom are underweight. Comparing yourself with these images isn’t helpful. But comparing yourself to friends and family isn’t that useful either, because as obesity becomes more common our perception of ‘average’ weight may in fact be too heavy.

It’s important to make an objective assessment of your size. Looking at yourself in the mirror isn’t a good way to assess whether you’re a healthy weight.

How do I know if I’m a healthy weight?

There are a number of ways you can work out if you’re within a healthy weight range. You need to get an accurate idea because it’s easy to underestimate or overestimate your own weight.

Body mass index

You can check your body size using the body mass index (BMI), which assesses your weight in relation to your height.

Work out your BMI with our calculator, available in both metric and imperial versions.

Waist circumference

Another method of assessing whether you’re a healthy weight is to measure your waist.

This gives an indication of how much fat is stored around your middle. Excess fat in this area increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Body fat

You can measure the amount of fat in your body using scales designed for this purpose, often called body fat analysers. These pass a small, safe electrical signal through your body.

Lean tissue, such as muscle, and blood contain water and act as conductors of the electrical signal, while fat resists it. The greater the resistance, the more body fat you have.

Body fat is only one aspect of health.

Your GP can advise whether additional measurements such as blood pressure, resting heart rate, blood cholesterol, and fat and glucose tests are necessary.

Are you overweight?If your BMI and waist circumference indicate you’re overweight, changes to your lifestyle could help to control your weight. Think about how you can make changes to your diet and physical activity over the long term.

For more advice, see Do you need to lose weight?

Are you underweight?

Not weighing enough can also put your health at risk. If you’re underweight because of a restriction of your diet, you’re at risk of a number of nutritional deficiencies.

Young women especially are at risk of anaemia (a lack of iron), while insufficient calcium can lead to osteoporosis in later life. Amenorrhoea (missing menstrual periods) is also common among women who are underweight, and it can lead to infertility.

For more information, see Do you need to gain weight?

Are you a healthy weight but unhappy?

If your weight lies within the healthy range but you’re unhappy with your shape, you’ll probably derive more benefits from a supervised exercise programme than by restricting your diet.

This will improve your fitness, help to tone specific muscle groups and enhance your overall health and wellbeing.