When it comes to the term "three highs", different people have different reactions. Those who like music will think of the world's three high tenors Pavarotti, Domingo and Relas. Some time ago there was also a band known as the three "difficult" trebles in Taiwan, consisting of Wu Zongxian, Kang Kang and Gao Lingfeng. There are also three high-class people in the workplace. They are "white bones" with high education, high income and high status. Even economics has a three-high phenomenon: high house prices, high stock prices, and high CPI. For many elderly people, the three highs are not a good thing, and many people just talk about it. But there is nothing to do with it more or less. Because the three highs in their eyes are hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia and hypertension .
These three diseases are known as middle-aged and elderly killers, and their symptoms are not very obvious, but the injuries they bring are indeed fatal, especially for middle-aged and elderly people over 50. Among the top ten causes of death in China, the death toll related to the three highs accounted for 27% of the total. Among them, hypertension is known as the number one killer of the three highs, and the number one killer of elderly health.
How many people in China have high blood pressure?
According to data released by People's Daily Online, the number of patients with hypertension in China has reached nearly 330 million, and nearly half of them do not know that they have hypertension. The authoritative medical journal "The Lancet" recently published a research report on Chinese hypertension. The report showed that nearly half of Chinese adults aged 35-75 suffer from hypertension . Among them, the problem in rural areas is particularly prominent, with 63.1% of patients with hypertension, which is 26.2% higher than in urban areas. What's more serious is that less than one-third of the people are treated , which means that more than 60% of people have no treatment or don't know at all . Don’t think that high blood pressure will only take care of middle-aged and elderly people, and it’s not about small fresh meat. A bloody fact tells you that 27% of patients are 20 years old and younger. Little fresh meats, tremble! From the geographical point of view, the difference between the north and the south is also great, with 60.5% of hypertension patients coming from the north . In addition, hypertension is also "sexist". The proportion of male patients reached 72.5% . It is the main force of high blood pressure.
What is high blood pressure?
Before understanding hypertension, we must first understand what blood pressure is. The pressure of blood in the blood vessels of the human body on the blood vessel wall, this pressure is blood pressure. Since the blood vessels are divided into arteries, veins and capillaries, there are also arterial blood pressure, venous blood pressure and capillary pressure. Generally speaking, blood pressure refers to arterial blood pressure. We generally measure systolic and diastolic blood pressure when measuring blood pressure, which are what we commonly call high pressure and low pressure. The reference value of normal blood pressure for people of different ages will be different. In general, the reference value of normal blood pressure is less than 130mmHg for high pressure and less than 85mmHg for low pressure . Higher than the above data is called hypertension, similarly lower than the above value is called hypotension.
The dangers of high blood pressure
Many people think that it is no big deal to have high blood pressure, because there are no symptoms, no pain, and the body does not look abnormal. They think that this is a minor illness and does not need treatment at all, smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol. The symptoms of mild hypertension are indeed not obvious, and the common ones are dizziness, fatigue, and palpitations. Blood pressure rises only after fatigue, mental stress, and mood swings, and it returns to normal after rest. However, if hypertension is long-term and the blood pressure continues to rise significantly, various symptoms will gradually appear, which will damage other organs of the body such as the heart, brain, kidneys and aorta, and then cause other diseases, eventually leading to cerebral hemorrhage and heart strength. Serious complications such as failure, renal failure, and stroke . This is what makes high blood pressure terrible.
- Coronary heart disease is one of the main diseases caused by hypertension. The risk of coronary heart disease in hypertensive patients is twice that of normal patients. If long-term hypertension is not treated, 50% of patients die from coronary heart disease.
- Heart failure is also one of the common complications of hypertension. Epidemiological studies have shown that 40%-50% of heart failure is caused by hypertension.
- Stroke is called the killer of middle-aged and elderly people. Not only is the sick person very painful, but the people around him also need to spend a lot of time and energy to take care of it. Studies have shown that the incidence of stroke in hypertensive patients is 7.76 times that of normal blood pressure. Active hypertension treatment reduces the incidence of stroke by 40%.
In addition, high blood pressure can also cause other complications such as diabetes, kidney disease, myocardial infarction, hyperlipidemia, heart disease and other diseases. Therefore, hypertension must not be taken lightly.
Rumor crusher about high blood pressure
Regarding hypertension, many elderly people have some deep-seated misunderstandings, and there are also rumors about hypertension on the Internet. Today, Myllyn Paras will be a rumor smasher to popularize science.
No need to take medicine after blood pressure drops after taking medicine?
Many elderly people find that their blood pressure has returned to a normal level after taking blood pressure lowering drugs for a period of time and stop taking the medicine. All current medical treatments including drugs can only temporarily relieve blood pressure, but cannot completely cure high blood pressure. Therefore, high blood pressure is still a disease that requires lifelong treatment. If you stop taking the medicine, the blood pressure will rise again, the blood pressure fluctuates too much, and the damage to the heart, brain and kidney target organs is more serious. Therefore, patients with hypertension should not arbitrarily stop the drug, but should measure their blood pressure regularly, and listen to the doctor’s suggestion whether to reduce the dose of antihypertensive drugs or choose other antihypertensive drugs.
Is low blood pressure okay?
Since high blood pressure is not good, is low blood pressure good? Many will think so. actually not. Too low blood pressure can lead to insufficient cerebral blood perfusion. When the blood pressure is lower than a certain level, the blood supply to the vital organs of the human body will be reduced, which easily induces cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events. Therefore, the target value of blood pressure reduction is not as low as possible. When the blood pressure drops to a certain critical value, the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events will not continue to decrease, but may increase.
Can people with high blood pressure exercise?
Proper exercise can not only eliminate stress, expand blood vessels and improve elasticity, but also help the body expel waste and salt to achieve the purpose of lowering blood pressure. But don't try too intense exercise, you can try exercise with moderate intensity. Such as brisk walking, jogging, cycling, Tai Chi, square dancing, table tennis, badminton, etc. are not very strenuous exercises.
How to control high blood pressure through food?
In addition to medication, diet is also a very important factor. The correct diet can be very effective in controlling changes in blood pressure. Moreover, the food itself does not have any side effects, so it can be described as a natural pressure control medicine.
So what are the things that hypertensive patients need to pay attention to in diet? Here we first introduce a diet method called DASH diet.
DASH diet
DASH is the abbreviation of English Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. Translated into Chinese is a diet method to reduce high blood pressure. It is a diet developed by a large-scale hypertension prevention program in the United States in 1997 . It was found in this plan that if you can eat enough vegetables and fruits in your diet to maintain adequate intake of potassium, magnesium, and calcium, and minimize the amount of fat in your diet (especially animal fats rich in saturated fatty acids) , Can effectively lower blood pressure. The blood pressure reduction effect of DASH diet is very significant, and it can lower blood pressure within 14 days. Its principle is to eat more whole grains and vegetables . These foods are rich in fiber, calcium, protein and potassium, which help control or reduce high blood pressure . Eating lean poultry and fish in moderation will benefit the heart. If you like sweets, eat more fruits and refuse desserts after meals. Limit salt intake, and it is best to replace extra salt with seasonings such as peppers and lemon.
In the DASH diet, the intake of whole grains is particularly emphasized. It is recommended to replace refined rice noodles with coarse grains, and half of the staple food is required to be replaced with whole grains , which is what we usually call coarse grains. Regarding the question of what coarse grains are and which foods are coarse grains, we have previously dedicated an article to introduce the topic of coarse grains, which introduces all the information of coarse grains in detail, including which are coarse grains. You can click " Talk about those things about whole grains ".
Among whole grain foods, oatmeal is one of the best, with higher nutritional content than other whole grain foods . Especially the dietary fiber content. The dietary fiber content per unit weight of oats is 3 times that of wheat and 2 times that of corn. Dietary fiber can effectively promote intestinal peristalsis and promote digestion. In addition, oats have a particularly high B-glucan content. Beta-glucan is a soluble dietary fiber, mainly found in grains, fungi, algae and other foods. It can effectively control high blood pressure. In addition to controlling high blood pressure, oatmeal can also help reduce cholesterol and blood sugar. It is one of the most suitable whole grains for people with three highs . For other functions of oatmeal, please click " Health Benefits of Oatmeal " for details.
Food suitable for hypertension patients
In addition to the aforementioned oats, the DASH diet also mentions eating more fruits and vegetables and whole grains. We also list some foods that are very suitable for hypertension patients
Black Fungus
Black fungus is known as "the meat of the vegetarian". It is rich in calcium, phosphorus, iron and other minerals. The calcium content is 6 times that of milk, and the iron content per 100 grams of dry fungus is 185 mg, which is 100 times that of meat . In addition, black fungus also contains mannan, glucose, xylose and other sugars, as well as lecithin, ergosterol and vitamin C, which is really nutritious. Black fungus can effectively improve the indirect blood pressure reduction of blood vessels. It is suitable for all kinds of hypertension, especially for patients with hypertension accompanied by atherosclerosis and fundus bleeding. A common way to eat black fungus is cold, or it can be cooked with other vegetables.
celery
Speaking of vegetables that lower blood pressure, celery is definitely the first choice for many mothers. Indeed, celery is rich in butyl phthalides, which have a calming and soothing effect, so it is also called celery sedative. Celery sedative can inhibit the tension of vascular smooth muscle and reduce the secretion of adrenaline, thereby lowering and stabilizing blood pressure . The key is stability. It will not cause low blood pressure if taken too much like antihypertensive drugs. In addition, celery is also rich in mineral elements such as potassium, calcium and magnesium, as well as vitamins such as carotene. It should be noted that the content of celery sodium is also a lot, and the main component of salt is sodium, so when cooking celery, you should put less salt.
onion
Onions are as common as garlic and spring onions in China. Foreigners like to put a little onion in everything they like. What you don't know is that onions are the only vegetables known to contain prostaglandin A. Prostaglandin A can dilate blood vessels and reduce blood viscosity, thereby lowering blood pressure , reducing peripheral blood vessels, increasing coronary blood flow, and preventing thrombosis. It resists the effects of catecholamines and other pressure-boosting substances in the human body, and can promote the excretion of sodium salt, thereby lowering blood pressure. Regular consumption has a health care effect on patients with high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
apple
Apple is probably the most common fruit among fruits. There is a proverb in foreign countries, An apple a day, keep doctor away. Translated into Chinese, it means to eat an apple a day and keep the doctor away from you. It can be seen that apples are still very healthy fruits. In fact, apples are rich in potassium salts, which can combine with sodium salts in the body, allowing the latter to be excluded from the body, which plays an important role in the prevention of cardiovascular and hypertension diseases . In addition, apples also prevent the increase of cholesterol in the blood and reduce the sugar content in the blood. It can be said that the three high crowd eats fruits.
Kiwi
As mentioned in the DASH diet, patients with high blood pressure should eat more foods with high potassium and low sodium. Kiwifruit ranks first on the list of fruits with high potassium and low pressure . The king of blood pressure fruits is by no means an empty name. Kiwifruit is also rich in vitamins C, E, K and arginine, which can effectively improve blood flow, prevent the formation of thrombus, and help reduce the incidence of cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease, hypertension, myocardial infarction, and arteriosclerosis.
Finally, I need to remind everyone that although the above foods have the function of lowering blood pressure, patients with high blood pressure must not stop taking the drug without authorization . Food cannot replace drugs to lower blood pressure, but can only be used as a daily diet to control blood pressure.
In addition to diet, hypertensive patients should pay more attention to other matters. Here are some for your reference:
Exercise
We mentioned earlier that hypertension patients need to exercise a lot, as long as they choose some exercises with low intensity.
drink less
Drinking alcohol can increase the heart rate, constrict blood vessels, and increase blood pressure. It can also promote the deposition of calcium salts and cholesterol on the blood vessel walls and accelerate arteriosclerosis. Large and long-term drinking can more easily induce arteriosclerosis and aggravate high blood pressure. Therefore, patients with hypertension should abstain from alcohol.
No smoking
Smoking reduces the blood’s ability to transport oxygen. Many people who smoke are actually in a state of “hypoxic” for a long time. In this case, your blood vessels and heart will undergo these changes: damage to blood vessel walls and aggravate arteries. Atherosclerotic plaque weakens the elasticity of blood vessels, causing greater damage to small arteries; it affects blood lipids, lowers good cholesterol, increases bad cholesterol, raises blood pressure, speeds up heart rate, and makes the heart more burdensome.
Less oil and salt
High-sodium diet is considered one of the triggers of high blood pressure, and the main ingredient of salt is sodium . Therefore, the diet of hypertensive patients should be light, less salt and less oil.
Eat more fruits and vegetables and less meat
Eat less fat, bacon, dog meat, and chicken skin in meat products.
Eat less foods high in sugar
Sugar addiction in patients with hypertension will increase the level of insulin in the body, thereby activating the sympathetic nervous system, causing an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, and increasing the oxygen consumption and blood pressure fluctuation of the myocardium. Long-term excess sugar intake may also cause high blood sugar. For more information about high blood sugar, you can visit our previous article What is good for high blood sugar?
High blood pressure is not terrible, but we cannot ignore it either. But first of all, we must pay attention to it, recognize its seriousness, and face it. Don't be afraid to face your relatives and friends around you, and you must communicate actively, and there is no need to avoid illnesses. At the same time, we have to make adjustments in our daily life, from our living habits and eating habits. Finally, we cooperate with doctors for scientific treatment. We believe that even if high blood pressure cannot be eradicated, our lives will be as healthy and happy as those without high blood pressure.
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