HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

 

High blood pressure is not a disease but a symptom.  It indicates some malfunctioning in the body.  The abnormality in the blood pressure is a warning that one should get one’s physical system thorough checked to know which organ is not functioning properly.

 

According to Rehberger blood pressure may be due to heredity such as goiter, tendency to worry, stocky build, short neck, obesity, or advancing age, mental and muscular exertion, excitement, anger and fear, cold temperature, acute pain, over-indulgence in eating and drinking, excessive use of spices, constipation, sedentary habits, alcoholism, tobacco consumption; gout, diabetes, migraine, convulsions, hysteria, plumpism (overweight), scarlet fever, measles, pneumonia, meningitis, pregnancy, chronic infections such as tuberculosis, pyrrhoea, sinusitis, chronic appendicitis, chronic prostatitis, kidney ailments, tumour, asthma, myocardial insufficiency, etc.

 

The treatment therefore lies in exact diagnosis.  The organ affecting the system and giving rise in blood pressure has to be taken care of.  Functional rise in blood pressure does not need organic treatment.  If a man raises his blood pressure because of anxiety, fear or anger, he has to control it emotionally.  Yoga, meditation, positive thinking, a healthy philosophy of life will bring blood pressure back to normal.  A sedentary person has to take exercise such as walking and jogging or cycling and thus expel the wastes from his body and feel normal.  But before starting any exercise, medical guidance must be obtained.  An overweight person has to control his weight.  If he stops overeating or taking fatty foods or abstains from consuming spices or gives up smoking and  drinking, his blood pressure will automatically decline.  It has been noticed that diet control results in marvelous change in blood pressure.  Within a few days of discarding fats, sweets, sugar, cholesterol-rich dry fruits, eggs with yolk, high dose of salt, too much tea and coffee one starts feeling the difference.

 

 Drinking plenty of water and endurable walks are very useful ways of discharging toxins from the body and thus removing some of the causes of high blood pressure.

 

Vegetarian diet is an effective way of controlling blood pressure.  Fresh fruits, vegetable, potatoes in place of cereals, spinach, lettuce, broccoli, string beans, green peas, lima beans, apples, citrus fruits, melons, papaya, onion and garlic taken in sufficient quantities lower blood pressure.  However, diabetes patients have to consult their physicians about the selection of fruits.  White bread should be discarded.  Tea should be taken in moderate quantities and preferably with little or no milk.  Sugar may either be avoided on reduced quantitatively as a sweetener.  Butter is dangerous and so is the yolk of the egg as it increases cholesterol.  Curd is better option than milk.  No soft drinks because of them contain sugar and caffeine,  Pickles, pepper, hot sauces of all sorts have also to be excluded from diet.

 

Constipation is a major cause of high blood pressure.  It can be avoided by taking liver-friendly and laxative foods.

 

Relaxation is the key to good health.  Those people who do not relax, remain tense or exhaust themselves through hard and continuous work enhance their blood pressure.  Proper sleep for at least six to seven hours a day is essential.  Inhaling of fresh air is life-giving.  Excitement aggravates blood pressure.  While light exercise is desirable, rather essential, taxing exercise like dancing, running, and playing of strenuous games are full of high risk.

 

Jealousy, rivalry, competition, over-attachment, overwork, emotional excitement, fears of all sorts and physical indulgences that imbalance one’s mental poise are hazardous.

 

Pollution --- especially air and noise pollution is instant raisers of blood pressure.

 

Don’t hate but love.  Don’t impatient.  Practise tolerance.  Be generous, charitable and sympathetic.  These positive attitudes generate nourishing chemicals in the body.  Enmity, hatred and the attitude of retaliation or causing injury to anybody including your enemy breeds toxic atmosphere within the human body.  A healthy philosophy of life based on friendliness, charity, compassion, cooperativeness, sympathy, understanding, mutual cooperation, love of harmony, give rise to sweetness and light and keep hypertension away.

 

If rise in blood pressure is due to some malfunction in your system which needs thorough investigation, it is advisable to consult a specialist immediately.  Neither diagnosis nor the treatment of the disease should be avoided or delayed because it can be risky.

 

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