Preventing Hypertension

Nowadays, the prevalence of hypertension has been increasing from the pass few centuries. Hypertension is one of the important factors for many chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, kidney failure, cardiovascular diseases and stroke. As if to worsen the situation, hypertension usually does not show any warning signs and symptoms, just like a "silent killer". Hence, people show realize now how dangerous hypertension is to our health.

 

What can I do to prevent hypertension?

As we always say: “Prevent is better than cure”, we should prevent hypertension from developing before it brings negative implications to our health. Here are some general guidelines in hypertension prevention:

Maintain a healthy body weight: Being overweight will increase the risk of hypertension by 2- folds. Even small amount of weight loss is significant in preventing and treating hypertension. 10% weight loss in obese individual can reduce 10mmHg of systolic blood pressure and 20mmHg of diastolic blood pressure.

Regular exercise or physical activity: Being physically active reduces the risk of hypertension. Even light activities such as house chores, walking can help in lowering blood pressure if done daily or regularly. At least 30 minutes of physical activity everyday is recommended.

Eat a healthy diet: Consume a balanced diet as recommended by food pyramid. Eat more of whole grains and its product, fruits and vegetables. Choose low-fat or non-fat dairy. Avoid food with high saturated fat, cholesterol, and trans fat.

Source: Ministry of Health of Malaysia, 2010.

Reduce salt or sodium intake: Limiting salt or sodium intake will lower the blood pressure. Avoid adding extra salt and avoid processed foods which are high in sodium content.

Limit or drink alcohol in moderation: Males should consume not more than 2 unit of alcohol per day while females should not consume more than 1 unit per day (1 unit of alcohol is equal to 360 ml of regular beer, 150 ml of wine, and 45 ml of 80-proof distilled liquor).

Manage your stress: Stress can make your blood pressure raised. Hence, long term exposing to stress can cause hypertension.

Consume more foods with potassium, calcium, and magnesium: These are the nutrients that help in protecting people from developing hypertension as shown in many researches. 

Table 1: The intake recommendation of the three nutrients that can lower blood pressure.

Nutrients	Recom-mended intake per day	Food sources	Examples of food and its nutrient content
Potassium	3500 mg	Fruits, vegetables, fish, and dairy products.	Avocado (749 mg / 1 whole, medium) Banana (456 mg / 2 medium) Spinach (391 mg / cup, chopped) Broccoli (214 mg / cup, chopped) Halibut (252 mg / 1 piece, DxWxT, 11x2.8x4.5 cm) Beef, lean (301 mg / ½ cup, chopped) Chicken, thigh (400 mg / 1 medium, LxWxT, 12.5x11.3x3.2 cm) Pork, lean (385 mg / 1 cup, chopped) Yogurt, apricot flavor (230 mg / 1 cup, 145 ml)
Calcium	800 mg (for age 19-50 years)	Low-fat and non-fat dairy products and dark green vegetables.	Milk, UHT, low-fat (339 mg / 1 cup) Milk, powder, skimmed (85 mg / 1 tablespoon) Tofu (206 mg / 1 piece, LxWxT, 6x7.5x3.5 cm) Mustard leaves, Chinese (119 mg / 1 cup, chopped)
Magnesium	350 mg	Whole grains, green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds, peas, and beans.	Chickpea (238 mg / 1 cup) Mung bean (317 mg / 1 cup) Soy bean (402 mg / 1 cup) Spinach (30 mg / 1 cup, chopped)

*Recommendation for calcium intake is according to Recommended Nutrient Intake (RNI) for Malaysian while for potassium and magnesium are from Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) because RNI do not have recommendation for these two nutrients.

*1 tablespoon = 10 g; 1 cup = 150 ml unless stated. 

Do you know? 

Potassium in vegetables and fruits are mostly found in their skin. For example, a potato with skin contains 926 mg potassium while potato without skin contains 610 mg potassium. So, next time when you eat a potato, you can wash and scrub your potato clean and try to cook the potato together with its skin in order to get rich amount of potassium in your diet! You can also try to search in the internet for recipes of potatoes that have their skin cooked together and tasted good! 

~Do try it at home~

Consume more fish oils and garlic: These foods have the potential in hypertension prevention in the way of lowering blood pressure but more research are needed to be done to fully assess their health benefits. However, it is believed that the omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil and antioxidants in garlic can help to lower blood pressure.

Stop smoking!: Smoking injures the blood vessels and causes acceleration in hardening of the arteries.