Blood pressure is the force excerted by the blood on the walls of the artery which are the blood vessels carrying blood away from the heart.
There may be several causes of hypertension (blood pressure) due to tension, anxiety, confusion, fatigue, headache, obesity etc.
The contraction of the heart pumps blood through the blood vessels. During the heart contraction, the blood is pushed harder against the walls of the arteries than during the interval between contractions.
The pressure of the blood on the arterial walls is greater each time the heart contracts and is known as the systolic pressure.
The diastolic pressure is the pressure during the resting phase between contractions and is lower than the systolic pressure.
The blood pressure is measured by an apparatus know as ‘sphygmomanometer’ or simply the BP apparatus.
It is measured in millimeters of mercury. Normal blood pressure is 120/80 mm hg where 120 is systolic pressure and 80 is diastolic pressure.
High blood pressure is known as hypertension and is defined as a BP greater than 140 mm hg systolic or a 90 mm hg diastolic.
Role of dietary salt in Hypertension (blood pressure) –
High blood pressure is related to dietary intake of salt and fats. High salt intake leads to water retention and increases the volume of blood in the circulation. This leads to an extra load on the heart and it responds by increasing the pumping pressure.
The saturated fats in the diet deposit in the blood vessels over the time causing them to harden. The heart needs to exert extra pressure to pump blood through them, causing the blood pressure to rise.
Hypertension (blood pressure) is the most common chronic disease and if untreated results in disability or death due to stroke, heart failure or kidney failure. Fortunately the results of hypertension can be avoided to a large extend by proper treatment.
One treatment which is effective in blood pressure in some cases is the restriction of dietary NaCl intake. This review considers the role of dietary NaCl in genesis, therapy and prevention of hypertension.
Most people can eat as much as salt as they like; they have good kidneys which, within about 24 hours, excrete the NaCl as fast as it is taken in. And blood pressure rises.
They are ‘salt sensitive’.once hypertension is established, the proportion of who are NaCl sensitive is much higher.
The salt retention causes water retentive which releases a digitalis-like substance that increases the contractile activity of heart and blood vessels.
Another is that the sodium itself penetrates the vascular smooth muscle cell, causing it to contract.
‘salt sensitive’ hypertension also responds to increased potassium and calcium intakes, perhaps in part because they increase NaCl urinary excretion.
Things should not use by blood pressure (hypertension)
- Salt at the table (for salad or curds)
- Salt lightly in cooking
- Salt preserved foods such as salted or smoked meat (ham, bacon, sausages, frankfurters, etc) salted or smoked fish.
- Highly salted food such as crackers, potato chips, salted nuts, salted popcorns, salted snacks.
- Foods with sodium as preservative such as tomato ketchup, chilli sauce, soya sauce, garlic sauce, pickles and chutneys.
- Flavour enhancers such as mono sodium glutamate (ajinomoto) used in Chinese cookery.
- Proceed cheese, salted butter.
- Canned vegetables in brine or canned vegetable juices.
- She’ll fishes such as shrimps, crabs, lobsters.
- Mayonise Or other salad dressing.
- Baking powder, baking soda and anything containing these, bread rolls, crackers.
Things to do people with high blood pressure
- Stop smoking
- Maintain a normal body weight – reduce if overweight.
- Eating too much salt make high blood pressure worse. Low sodium diets are prescribed to help control high blood pressure.
- Avoid fat foods, avoid coffee an colas, do not drink excessive alcohol. Exercise regularly to keep fit and reduce stress and relax after work.
- Substitute unsalted, polyunsaturated cooking medium for butter or ghee.
- Use herbs and spices instead of salt for seasoning.
- Rinse canned vegetables with tap water before cooking.
- Add a pinch of sugar or a squeeze of lemon juice to bring out the flavour in fresh vegetables.
- Use onion, garlic, lemon, curry powder, basil, cumin, blackpepper, dill weed to enhance the flavour and aroma of food.
- Mushrooms, green chillies, red chillies and dried fruits also enhance specific dishes.