February 2010 — Page 59

High Blood Pressure also called hypertension, is elevated pressure of the blood in the arteries. Blood pressure is the measurement of force applied to artery walls High blood pressure has to be taken seriously. It is a serious disease, the cause of which is more or less unknown. What we do know is that left untreated, high blood pressure over time can lead to serious heart disease and other vascular troubles, even death. Health professionals think that there are some genetic factors but as yet they cannot pin down the range of specific genes involved that cause high blood pressure. Studies suggest that people suffering from chronic high blood pressure may come from autonomic nervous system that controls heart rate, blood pressure and the blood vessels.

High blood pressure is strongly associated with diabetes, both type 1 and type 2. Obesity and insulin resistance are the factors associated with high blood pressure, in type 2 diabetes, the more common type. During the last decade, the number of Americans with high blood pressure has increased by 30%. Over 65 million Americans adults now have high blood pressure. Two thirds of Americans over age 60 have high blood pressure and women in that group have highest rates and higher mortality rates from high blood pressure. About 34% of African American men and women have high blood pressure, it may account for over 40% of all deaths in this group. Moreover, high blood pressure is becoming more common in children and teenage.

Detrimental effects of high blood pressure

It is the reason why high blood pressure has been called the “silent killer”. High blood pressure has detrimental effects on many organs like kidneys, eyes, and heart. High blood pressure is the primary cause of death in over 120,000 cases last year and contributes to 75% of all strokes and heart attacks and even more in African Americans. Research suggests that people with mild high blood pressure have three times more likely to have a heart attack as people with normal blood pressure and ten times the normal risk of stroke depending on the severity of the blood pressure. High blood pressure can also cause mental problems such as memory lost .

Fortunately, controlling blood pressure with the proper treatment can reduce or prevent those health complications. Healthy life style is a must for anyone with blood pressure (120/80mm Hg) and above in order to prevent serious complications of that disease.

Healthy life style includes: exercise on a daily basis, normal weight, healthy diet, reasonable alcohol consumption, limited sodium intake, more potassium and calcium intake. If you want to naturally support healthy blood pressure function, there are some key herbal supplements.

Gilles Coulombe B.A. B.LL D.S.A.

For more information, go to My Site

Gilles Coulombe B.A. B.LL D.S.A. is a University Graduate in Law and Business Administration and a member of the Canadian Health Institute. After holding senior executive positions in the Public Service as well as in the Private Sector, he has developed an expertise in natural health. Mr Coulombe is a consumer health advocate and a natural health counselor and author of articles pertaining to natural health. He is an Ezine’s Author Expert. His website, www.NewHealthFrontier.com is dedicated to improve health naturally without expensive and potentially dangerous prescription drugs for babyboomer’s and others wishing to live longer, healthier and happier.

Those of us who claim that we do not practice any form of alternative medicine or therapies have missed out considering all the simple remedies that we apply at home.

Consider the following examples:-
– Do you massage your neck at the back when you have a splitting headache?
– Do you put an ice pack on a sprained ankle?
– Have you not ever used some aromatherapy for your room?
– Have you not ever take some honey when you are having a bad throat?
– Have you not ever taken chamomile tea for cooling and for de-stress?
– Do you drink your mum’s traditional herbal chicken soup home brewed for 10 hours meant for strengthening and warming your internal body?

In fact, these represent just a few out of the many simple remedies that we use in our everyday life. When we think of alternative medicine or therapies, we conjure images of some out-of-the-ordinary practices. Of course, alternative medicine and therapies can range to the more “unconventional” ones like hypnotherapy, past life regression, energy healing, etc. But mostly, they are not.

Here comes some surprising statistics. The World Health Organization estimates that between 65 and 80 percent of the world’s population (about 3 billion people) rely on traditional (read: “alternative”) medicine as their primary form of health care. It further states that when these traditional medical treatments are introduced into Western culture, they are seen as complementary or alternative.

Most of us tend to fail to factor in these alternative everyday remedies, but choose to think that we are believers of conventional medicine versus alternative medicine. After all, conventional medicine is very much backed by well documented research, statistics and proven theories; whereas alternative medicine is not. Still, having the benefit of practicing some of these home remedies, there is no denying that they do help in providing some form of relief and treatment. In addition, they don’t cost much in terms of money and time, and most importantly, have few or little side effects.

It is therefore, a good idea to spend some time to get to know more about these alternative therapies and remedies and apply them more diligently to our everyday life. We may choose to include massage therapy, aromatherapy, eating a healthy diet, practicing yoga and relaxing breathing techniques. In the end, our spending on drugs and doctor’s bills is likely to be less and at the same time, we will be adopting natural methods to heal ourselves.

Evelyn Lim owns a health and wellness article directory site. Her site has a growing database of health articles on more than 100 topics such as alternative healing, disease and fitness. Check out
http://www.HealthandWellnessCentral.com Now!

Archives for February 2010

Devastating Effects of High Blood Pressure

Alternative Medicine And Therapies in Your Everyday Life