According to a book by Doctor Cleaves M. Bennet (M.D.) a 45 year-old man with mild hypertension, if untreated, has a 50% chance of death by stroke or heart attack by the age of 65. In other words, Hypertension, or high blood pressure, as many seem to call it, is a serious matter for anyone diagnosed with it.
Blood Pressure can be thought of as: how strong the blood in your arteries is pumped by the heart. Certain things like bad diet habits can increase the pressure so much, that the arteries get damaged, and this increases the likely hood of arteries getting clogged or malfunctioning in another way that may end up killing you.
Here are the numbers: blood pressure is measured using 2 main numbers. The first is called systolic and the other is diastolic. Basically, it's a ratio of these two measurements and can be displayed as 120 (diastolic) / 80 (systolic) in healthy people. These numbers are seen in the machine that the doctor always wraps around your arm. One may assume that the machine squeezes your arm in an attempt to get an accurate measurement of the pressure of the arteries inside.
High blood pressure occurs when your numbers rise to 140/ 90 or a lot more for severe hypertension. The consequences of high blood pressure can result in heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, erectile dysfunction, and eye damage. Basically, you can end up with damaged arteries in any part of your body so it's best to treat it. Hypertension can be managed partially through a low Sodium diet.
So what are some of the worst foods that you should avoid? Salt will prove to be your worst enemy if you have high blood pressure. Salt is a toxic substance in general, and can only be absorbed by your body by using the water in your body for dilution first. Also, salt causes your body to retain water because it needs it to dilute the salt. This in turn, causes a person to go up in weight from carrying excess fluid that would normally be discarded. On top of that, your blood pressure goes up because your overall blood volume increases from its normal amount. This extra weight can weaken your arteries with every heart beat and can destroy you slowly from the inside if an unhealthy diet persists.
There is no need to eat foods with added Sodium because the human body requires such a low amount that the amount we require can easily be found in natural foods. Even athletes can re-hydrate with simply water and do not need products with Sodium. The bad news is that many foods contain added Sodium. Foods like frozen dinners, cookies, chips, pretzels, and any other processed food usually contains added sodium because the substance helps preserve the food items. So it is added to foods to preserve them, not because it is good for your body so you should approach with caution.
If you suffer from high blood pressure do check with your doctor before starting a workout program. For a great fat loss workout see Body of FIRE.
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