Hypertension

Your blood pressure is an indication of how hard your heart is working to pump blood through your circulatory system.

Hypertention, commonly known as high blood pressure, is defined as having a blood pressure of 140/90 mm Hg or greater. People with a blood pressure between 120/80 mmHg and 139/89 mmHg are said to have prehypertension. If your blood pressure falls into the prehypertensive range, it indicates you are at increased risk of developing high blood pressure. Around 70% of Americans age 65 years and older have hypertension.

Risk factors for hypertension include a high sodium diet, excess weight, age, genetics, race (African Americans have a higher incidence of hypertension than Caucasians and Asians).

In the 1990s, government healthcare experts, working with university-based scientists, developed a dietary treatment called DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). The diet emphasizes eating whole, unprocessed foods as often as possible and reducing the amount of salt and other sodium-containing food additives. The diet is rich in vegetables, low-fat dairy foods, and lean proteins. Thus, it is low in saturated fat, total fat, and cholesterol. Reducing or eliminating alcohol, quitting smoking, and maintaining a healthy weight are additional steps that help control blood pressure. In addition to treating high blood pressure, the DASH diet also helps prevent high blood pressure. It has also been found to reduce cholesterol and blood lipids (fats).