High blood pressure can be fatal if left unattended to. With a healthy lifestyle, a well-balanced diet and a good exercise regime, you can control your blood pressure levels.
Lose Excess Weight
Blood pressure is directly related to weight gain. It, therefore, makes weight loss one of the most efficient controllers of blood pressure. At the same time, it is essential to keep your waistline in check. A larger waistline leaves you at a higher risk of developing high blood pressure problems. A healthier diet that comprises of green leafy vegetables, soy and potatoes will help in shedding the excess weight.
Exercise
Exercise is extremely important to remain fit and healthy. Regularly exercising for 30 to 60 minutes a day can lower your blood pressure by 4 to 9 mm of mercury. In this case, consistency is key and there are risks of higher blood pressure if you stop exercising. The best kind of exercises are swimming, jogging, cycling and even strength training.
Lower Your Sodium Intake
Sodium intake needs to be carefully monitored. The AHA suggests limiting sodium intake to 1500 mg per day. A higher sodium or salt intake leads to fluid retention which further results in a steep rise in blood pressure. To reduce sodium intake, try avoiding salt whenever possible. Always read food labels and try using alternatives that are low in sodium.
Give Up Smoking
The nicotine in cigarettes raises your blood pressure as well as your heart rate temporarily. If you are a heavy smoker, it can keep your blood pressure constantly elevated. It is therefore essential that you limit your smoking to the bare minimum or quit cold turkey.
Lower Your Stress Levels
When you are under stress, your body produces a sudden surge of hormones. These hormones make your heart beat faster and cause your blood vessels to narrow. This increases your blood pressure temporarily and therefore, it is important to lower stress levels by balancing work and rest. It is also important to know what triggers your stress and avoid it whenever possible.
Ditch The Coffee
A sudden increase in your caffeine consumption could be causing higher blood pressure. It affects different people differently. Reducing your caffeine intake through coffee or caffeinated beverages will directly help in lowering your blood pressure in the long run. Switching to decaffeinated coffee has been proven advantageous in the long run for patients susceptible to high blood pressure.
Lower Your Alcohol Intake
Drinking a lot of alcohol is responsible for raising your blood pressure levels. Although in small amounts, alcohol has been proven to be beneficial for the heart, repeated binge drinking can raise blood pressure to unhealthy levels. It is necessary to monitor your alcohol intake and not drink more than 3 drinks in one sitting. Alcohol further contributes to weight gain in the long term. It could also lead to the ineffectiveness of your blood pressure medicines.
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3 common treatment options for head and neck cancer
Read moreHead neck cancer can be treated effectively and completely cured if they are diagnosed early. The primary goal in most of the head neck cancer treatment options is to eradicate cancer, but it is also critical to be able to preserve the functioning of the associated nerves, tissues, and organs. While this is not impossible to do, it is probably the most challenging part of the treatment.
The treatment of head neck cancer will greatly depend on several factors:
- One of the main things that will determine the course of the treatment is the stage of the head neck cancer. The other thing that is of relevance is the type of cancer.
- Secondly, what is important to consider at this point is the kind of side effects that can occur with various treatments.
- Finally, the patient’s overall health and the choices regarding the treatment plan play a key role. Head neck cancer has many treatment options.
The aim of any surgery that is conducted for head neck cancer is to remove all the cancerous tissues and a portion of the healthy tissue around the damaged tissues as well.
- Laser Surgery: This kind of surgery is done when the patient has cancer in the larynx, and such a surgery is conducted to eliminate the tumor at an early stage.
- Excision: Typically, excision involves the removal of the tumor along with healthy tissue surrounding the area. If the cancerous tissue is small, then an excision can be carried out followed by radiation or chemotherapy.
- Dissection of the neck: If the oncologist feels that cancer has spread and it is essential to cover a larger area around the neck, then a dissection is conducted where the lymph nodes around the neck area are removed.
All or some of the above may be employed to treat cancer, but this is strongly dependent on the extent to which cancer has spread. Associate surgeries to help recover some or all the functions of the affected organ may have to be undertaken as well.
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Causes of thrombosis
Read moreThrombosis can sometimes occur for no apparent reason at all. However, the risk of developing thrombosis is increased in certain circumstances or lifestyle.
Inactivity of the body tends the blood to collect in the lower parts of the body, usually in lower legs. There is nothing to worry about if this happens normally as when you start to move, the blood flow increases and circulates evenly in the body. However, if you are unable to move after a longer period of time, such as before and after an operation or during an illness or an injury or during a very long journey, the blood is forced to slow down considerably. This is when the chances of formation of blood clots increases.
While in hospital, during the operational procedure, the risk of getting blood clot increases. The chances of developing thrombosis increases if an operation takes longer than 90 minutes and if it involves leg, hip and abdomen. If the operation is to treat inflammatory or abdominal condition such as appendicitis the chances of thrombosis may increase. When admitted to hospital, you will be assessed for your risk of developing a blood clot and would be given necessary preventive treatments for the same.
The wall of the blood vessel can become narrowed or blocked and can cause blood clot to form if the blood vessel is damaged. Blood vessels can get damaged during operational procedures and form internal blood clots which are nothing but thrombosis.
Pregnancy is also one of the causes of a certain type of thrombosis called Venous thromboembolism or VTE. Although chances of getting affected by the same is about one in 100,000 women of childbearing age. Other factors that can cause thrombosis during pregnancy include being over 35 years old and pregnant, expecting two or more babies, having a cesarean delivery, smoking and dehydration.
In case of women, combined contraceptive pill and hormone replacement therapy both contain female hormone estrogen. This increases the chances of internal clotting. Although there are no risks involved in taking progesterone-only contraceptive pills.