If you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure, you’ve probably been advised to make some important lifestyle changes to bring the numbers down. However, even if you haven’t been tested by a professional, there are still many key strategies for preventing issues with your blood pressure cropping up in the future.
The important thing to remember is that if you are able to successfully control your blood pressure with a healthy lifestyle, you can avoid the need for medication or more serious interventions.
Below are some of our top tips, but if you’re still worried about your health, whether it’s your blood pressure or a heart condition, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at Venturi Cardiology. We offer several tests for heart disease and can help you build a personalised health program to reduce the risk of heart disease.
Embrace exercise through activities you enjoy
Rather than simply exercising to lose weight, it’s often much better to find something more sustainable that you will continue doing over the longer term. While heart disease might be a good motivator to get you back in the gym or running again, you don’t want to stop as soon as you feel like you’re out of the danger zone.
To prevent heart disease and its associated risk factors from creeping back into your life, try to find something you love doing that can help you lose weight. Even a small amount of weight loss can help you reduce blood pressure, but it’s not great if you start to put on the pounds when you get bored of exercising or take your eye off the ball.
Consider activities that suit your personality and lifestyle. Things like walking, team sports, swimming, or yoga may be more fun than simply running on the treadmill. It’s so important to be consistent because if you stop exercising, your blood pressure can rise again.
Explore New Recipes
Many of us eat badly because of complacency or lack of inspiration. Healthy food can also be delicious.
If you are trying to eat better and reduce your blood pressure, do so in a way that’s rewarding for you too. This should involve finding recipes you love and learning new ways to prepare food that is lower in bad fats, bad carbs, salt and sugar, but nonetheless delicious.
If you are really struggling, consider reaching out to an expert or signing up an organised slimming company. There are a huge range of different options. Here are just a few that are worth considering:
It may also help to ask your friends and family for tips or to borrow their cookbooks. When armed with a great set of healthy recipes you are confident at making, you’d be surprised how much of the hard work of dieting you can take away.
Drink better
If you don’t want to stop drinking completely, simply try to drink better. This means more strategically when you can control the volume and types. A glass of wine now and then is much better than binge drinking once a week because you feel like you’ve earned it.
Unhealthy drinking can also lead to other poor lifestyle choices like smoking and eating unhealthily. If you are drinking a glass of something with a meal, that potentially costs more and is of higher quality, you might feel less inclined to overdo it.
Learning that social situations can still be fun without as much alcohol being consumed can be a real game-changer for some people and can help individuals to feel more in control of their intake, as well as the fallout from heavy drinking events that can knock your health regime off-course.
Get tested and seek advice
If you want to have a better idea of your blood pressure levels and any existing conditions you need to be careful about, it’s always important to receive the necessary professional examination and tests for heart disease. We offer several treatments, tests, and programs for people who want to get on top of their heart health and avoid facing serious health problems now or in the future. For more information please book a consultation here or call today on 01925 748 245.
