Healthy lifestyle helps prevent high blood pressure

By Nina C Zimmermann Nov 14, 2011, 3:06 GMT

Berlin - It is an illness with no acute symptoms and no immediately noticeable consequences. People tend to take it lightly - that is, assuming they know they have it. But high blood pressure, silent and insidious, can be life-threatening if not detected in time.

Countering it early - and not necessarily with medication - can prevent the worst.

'Slightly elevated blood pressure is not something you notice,' said Hans-Joerg Hippe, a cardiologist at Muenster University Hospital in Germany. 'We don't have a perceptual organ for it.'

Over time, however, high blood pressure, or hypertension, can damage blood vessels as well as organs including the heart and brain. Possible complications are stroke, heart attack and kidney failure. 'These are often the events that make people aware of their high blood pressure,' said Hippe.

Heribert Brueck, spokesman for the German Association of Cardiologists in Private Practice, said that some people who came to his office suspecting a cardiovascular problem indeed had high blood pressure. 'They suffer from dizziness, headaches or pressure in the chest,' he said.

According to Hippe, symptoms like these do not occur until blood pressure measures more than 200 millimetres of mercury (mm Hg). Normal blood pressure is 120/80 mm Hg, according to the German Hypertension Society, the first number being the pressure in the arteries when the heart beats (systolic pressure) and the second the pressure in the arteries between beats (diastolic pressure).

Readings from 120/80 to 139/89 are categorized as pre-hypertension, from 140/90 to 159/99 as stage 1 hypertension, and from 160/100 to 179/109 as stage 2 hypertension.

People in stage 1 or 2 typically do not notice that they have a problem.

Readings higher than 180/110 are categorized as a hypertensive crisis.

The simplest way to detect high blood pressure is to have it measured regularly - during every medical examination or at quiet moments at home. People who have a family history of high blood pressure, are elderly, overweight, diabetic or have kidney trouble, should be especially vigilant. 'They're particularly at risk,' Hippe said.

'If readings are repeatedly over 140, you should do something about it,' Brueck said. 'Walking around with high blood pressure isn't trivial.'

The first choice in treatment involves lifestyle changes. 'I consciously use the term 'treatment' to let my patients know it's something to be taken seriously,' Brueck said.

The primary recommendation for hypertension patients from experts at the German Heart Foundation is to have a consistently healthy lifestyle. This means, for example, getting regular aerobic exercise such as taking brisk walks, cycling, jogging or swimming - preferably five times a week for 30 minutes each. Brueck recommends strength training as well.

Losing weight is also important. There are very clear links between body weight and blood pressure, pointed out Brueck, who said every lost kilogram lowered blood pressure by one to two mm Hg. 'Studies have shown that individual medications aren't necessarily more effective than that.'

Consumption of alcohol and table salt should also be kept as low as possible, and meals should be healthy and balanced, with as few processed foods as possible. Smoking should be avoided. Beyond that, all of the experts said that stress should be reduced.

When medication is found to be necessary, patients generally have to take several in combination. 'The goal of lowering blood pressure to 140/90 usually can't be reached with a single preparation,' said Hippe, adding that taking a combination of medications kept side effects better under control.