When Stress can (High blood pressure) Kill you: Stress and High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure is an extremely common ailment some sources suggest that at least 1 in 3 Americans are afflicted with the disease. High blood pressure is often called the silent killer, because there are not many obvious symptoms. Patients may have high blood pressure for many years without being diagnosed, and unfortunately, if left untreated high blood pressure can lead to many serious consequences, including heart attack, kidney failure and stroke.

Stress and High Blood Pressure: A Deadly Combination

It is clear that temporary stress and high blood pressure are related everyone has had the feeling of panic, their heart racing and their blood pounding. These are the sensations of extremely high blood pressure. This is actually an adaptive response, the link between stress and high blood pressure happens because the body is readying itself with the fight or flight response, by increasing blood flow to muscles and vital organs.

A more insidious link is that between chronic stress and high blood pressure. Constant levels of stress may not cause the heart pounding panic of the fight or flight response but they do have similar effects on blood pressure even mild increases over the long term can have negative physical consequences. In fact, the link between stress and high blood pressure may be one reason for the cardiac difficulties often experience by so-called Type A personalities.

Treatments for High Blood Pressure: Stress Reduction Techniques

There are many treatments for high blood pressure, the most common of which is probably prescription medication. However, drugs only treat the symptoms of high blood pressure; they do not address the underlying cause of high blood pressure and they do not address the link between stress and high blood pressure that is present for many patients.

Effectively reducing stress may help improve blood pressure levels. There are many difference techniques to reduce stress and high blood pressure, visiting a homeopathic clinic or your family doctor can help decide what stress management techniques are best for you.

Some promising activities include exercise, meditation, yoga, visualization and hypnosis. Another technique that can be used to reduce stress and high blood pressure is when practicing biofeedback, people are trained to recognize signals from their own body when in a relaxed state and they use these signals to alter internal body states.

In any event, the link between stress and high blood pressure suggests that anything one can do to manage stress in their life will be beneficial. Of course, focusing on stress and high blood pressure does not replace the need for more traditional therapies and lifestyle changes like increased exercise, a healthy diet and reduce sodium intake.

Salt, Diet and Health: Neptune's Poisoned Chalice: the Origins of High Blood Pressure

Salt, Diet and Health: Neptune's Poisoned Chalice: the Origins of High Blood Pressure The deliberate and often well-camouflaged addition of excess salt to processed foods has momentous health consequences, comparable in nature to the well-documented risks of smoking tobacco. Should our processed food come with a government health warning? The authors of this book provide a compelling and forceful account of these complex issues, teasing out fact from fantasy, and casting light on some of the hidden forces working to manipulate and exploit the consumer. This scientific detective story unravels with startling clarity how the evidence for the prosecution has been obfuscated, misinterpreted and even denigrated by some of the powerful vested interests of the multi-billion dollar food industry. Along the way, the authors illuminate the rich history and mythology associated with salt, its symbolism and manifold socio-economic consequences, all illustrated with an entertaining and eclectic selection of historical and contemporary illustrations. On the one hand this is a book with profound implications for public health, and on the other it is an entertaining and instructive account of a part of our diet that is too easily taken for granted, and ignored at our peril.
Customer Review: Good but contains errors and not sufficiently comprehensive
Professor MacGregor is to be applauded for his efforts at informing the public about the hidden salt in foods, especially in convenience foods, and for seeking to bring about a reduction in the levels of salt added to food by manufacturers. He and his co-author have enlarged on these matters and other aspects of salt in this book. Unfortunately two glaring errors render the book less than helpful to those most in danger of or most harmed by salt. No mention is made of obese steroid victims, whose weight gain is caused by sodium and water retention, and who would lose much of their excess weight by curtailing their salt intake. And the book states categorically that HRT does not cause these problems, whereas it is, sadly, many women's experience that HRT does indeed cause severe water retention and weight gain. Like the steroidees, obese HRT victims would also lose excess water/weight by curtailing salt intake. Let us hope that if a revised edition is produced these errors will be corrected and that it will also advise that patients taking steroids or HRT should be warned not to eat salt or foods containing salt while taking their medication.