Your Blood Pressure
The ideal blood pressure is 110/70.
High blood pressure contributes to deaths from aneurysms, heart attacks, heart failure, kidney failure and stroke. It can damage the blood vessels in your eyes and cause bleeding in your brain.
Blood pressures above 140/90 are considered hypertension. In the United States, about one in three adults has high blood pressure. After the age of sixty, 65% of Americans will be diagnosed with hypertension.
High blood pressure is not inevitable.
In the 1920s, researchers measured the blood pressure of Kenyans who ate a low-sodium diet centered around plant foods like whole grains, beans, fruits and dark, leafy greens. By age sixty, the Kenyans average blood pressure was 110/70.
In rural China, where people eat a traditional plant-based diet, it was found that their blood pressure averaged 110/70 throughout their lives.
In the Western world, the only group able to routinely achieve these pressure readings are vegetarians.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that patients try lifestyle modifications, such as reducing body weight, limiting sodium and alcohol intake, getting more exercise, and eating a healthier diet.
High blood pressure appears to be a choice.
The INTERSALT project is a study that showed an association between dietary salt and blood pressure.
One of the populations studied were the Yanomamo Indians who live in the rain forests of Brazil. They have the lowest sodium intake ever recorded and researchers found the mean blood pressure to be 95/61. Older adults had nearly the same blood pressures as the adolescents, i.e., their blood pressure did not go up as they aged and there were no cases of hypertension or obesity.
In 1939, Dr. Walter Kempner, associated with Duke University, treated many patients with hypertension and kidney failure by giving them a white rice and fruit diet. Without drugs, he was able to bring their blood pressures down from 240/150 to 105/80 with dietary changes alone.
There were no good medical treatments in those days for these patients and many, like President Franklin Roosevelt, who had extreme hypertension, died of massive strokes.
It is important to measure your blood pressure – even some American children now have high blood pressure.
Go to your physician for a blood pressure reading. Or, go to your local Walgreen’s or CVS pharmacy and use their blood pressure cuffs. Or, you can order a wrist blood pressure monitor for about $50 on Amazon and use it.
If your blood pressure is not at the ideal level, try changing your diet, before going on a life-time of medication.
The American Heart Association recommends people aim to eat no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day (one teaspoon salt = 2,300 mg.). That level is associated with a significant reduction in blood pressure, which in turn reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Most of the sodium Americans eat comes from processed, prepackaged and restaurant foods. Cheese is very high in sodium as is chicken you buy in the grocery store. Consumer Reports found that these supermarket chickens were pumped full of salt water to naturally inflate their weight, yet they can still be labeled “100 percent natural.” The number one source of sodium for American kids and teens is pizza.
It’s important to measure the blood pressure of everyone in your family, and if you need to change something, please do.
