High blood pressure is a major public health problem currently affecting millions of people around the world. Many people are managing High blood presssure with prescribed medications. What many people don't realise is that these medications DO have side effects. Attempts should be made to manage high blood pressure wiithout medications, initially. If all attempts fail, you may need to take a prescribed medication.

High blood pressure itself is not a disease or illness. Most of the time, it is a ‘lifestyle issue’ and your body’s way of saying, that it is under ‘pressure’ and needs some urgent attention. Sometimes it could be an unhappy work environment, a family situation or you are not happy where you are in life. It could be that your body is not comfortable with how you are treating it – perhaps because of unhealthy eating habits, carrying extra weight, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, as well as anger and aggression, or it could be that you have narrowed your arteries with fatty deposits over time.

10 Steps to Lower your Blood pressure with or without medications 

1. 1) Regular walking – 30 minutes/day for at least 5–6 days/week. If you are bored, listen to music or an inspirational talk on an iPod. Walking the dog or walking at a busy workplace is not enough to consider ‘cardio fitness’ exercise. If you have to work long hours, make the time to walk after work or on weekends.
2. 2) Weight management – take ‘small steps’ toward managing weight: aim to lose 5kg within the next 6–8 weeks, then gradually get to a target goal you feel you can maintain. Make weight management easy and fun for you.
3. 3) Stop smoking – this is a must if you have hypertension. Cigarettes smokingdoes increase your bad cholesterol, which con cause narrowing in your arteries, resulting in high blood pressure, stroke or sudden heart attacks. You can quit within 60 minutes and become a nonsmoker:  www.cardiacwellness.com.au/quitcigarettes.

1. 4) Maintain normal cholesterol levels – increase your ‘good cholesterol’ levels with healthy food: fresh vegetables, fruits and more fish and nuts such as walnuts, etc.

2. 5) Eat less meats, saturated fats and trans fats (in biscuits/cakes/baked pastries).

3. 6) Drink water – keep yourself well hydratedif you haven’t got heart or kidney failure, or had a recent heart attack.
4. 7) Manage stress – look at your lifestyle and make changes to reduce stress.
5. 8) Reduce salt – our bodiess need salt but avoid adding extra salt to food.
6. 9) Do relaxation or meditation sessions – have quiet times alone when you can reflect on your life and your day and learn from your mistakes.
7. 10) Start doing what you love doing – a hobby or visiting someone that you haven’t seen for a long time, walk along the beach, bush walking, or take a day off and stay in bed with a good book.

When you learn to live the life you dream of, your body will release the ‘pressure’. Listen to your body as everything you need for good health is free: walking, drinking water and fresh air.

Take care of your heart so that your heart can take care of you.

Make 2011 your Healthiest Year!

Are you over 40yrs?
   
 Do you have or take tablets for
        High blood presssure
        Type 2 Diabetes
        High Cholesterol
        Heart disease
or     
        Overweight 
        Smoke cigarettes
        lives an unhealthy lifestyle

These conditions carry high risks for Heat disease. Heart attacks sometimes gives no warning signs

Get your heart checked at our
FREE Heart Health Checks  ( With professional advice )

    Please call Angela on 0400 719 093 or 02 9126 3442 for details & to reserve your place

Heart attack survivors, if you want to stop a recurring heart attack - Eat Chocolate !!

That's the message from researchers at Stockholm's Karolinksa Institute who have found that people who ate chocolate two to three times a week reduced the risk of a recurring heart attack by three times.

Researchers belive it is the antioxidants in cocoa which protect against disease - causing free radicals which contribute to heart disease, cancer and ageing.

Vitamin D deficiency  has been linked to increased cardiovascular risk and disease, two studies suggest.

A Medical University of Graz, Austria study found that participants with low vitamin D levels (30 nanomoles per litre) were at 124 per cent increased risk of death and 378 per cent increased risk of cardiovascular death.

A study at the Heart Institute of Intermountain Medical Cente at Salt Lake City also supports this link. Researchers found that people with low levels of Vitamin D  (15-30 n/mol) were 77 percent mor likely to die, 45 per cent more likely to develop cardiovascular disease and 78 percent more likely to have a stroke than those with normal levels.

You may think heart disease is something that only happens to MEN. But the fact of the matter is that more Australian women die each year from coronary heart disease than any other cause.  The good news is there are many simple lifestyle changes you can make to reduce your risk.