A healthy lifestyle is critical in controlling high blood pressure. When high blood pressure is controlled through a healthy lifestyle, you may avoid, delay, or reduce your medication requirements. Blood pressure increases as weight increases; losing 10lb can reduce your blood pressure by several points.
Lifestyle changes:
- Check your weight: Calculate your body mass index (BMI) and measure your waist circumference. A BMI of 25 to 29 you are overweight, greater than 30 you are obese.
- Measure your waist circumference.. Men are considered overweight if their waist circumference is greater than 40 inches. Women are overweight if their waist circumference is greater than 35 inches.
- Talk to your doctor. Find out a reasonable target weight.
- Examine eating behaviors. Take a good look and change self defeating behaviors, such as late night snacking.
- Avoid questionable products. Easy fixes promised by over the counter products are misleading and can actually harm you.
