Paul J Johnson: On average an adult has around 5 – 6 litres of blood flowing through their bodies transported by the arteries, veins and capillaries. It is pumped around the body by the heart and delivers oxygen and other essential nutrients, minerals and vitamins to all the parts of the body including the lungs, kidneys, heart, brain and eyes. This action creates essential blood pressure, but as most will realise, if blood pressure is elevated it can become life threatening, so, what should a person know about how to lower blood pressure and therefore prevent any medical problems from occurring?
One of the simplest and best-documented ways of reducing blood pressure is through the sensible application of exercise.
One of the reasons for the increasing number of people being diagnosed with high blood pressure is that we live far more sedentary lives than even 20 years ago. This has led to an increase in the number of people who are overweight and contributed to the increasing number of cardiovascular health problems we are seeing in most industrialized nations.
The great thing about exercise, as well as helping reduce weight (another risk factor for high blood pressure), it also suppresses appetite. Exercise also helps to stimulate a substance that our body's produce known as nitric oxide which protects the artery lining.
As a person exercises they are encouraging the heart to pump more blood through our arteries, capillaries and veins. Then, as the blood pushes its way along the blood vessels this in then turn forces the endothelial cells to produce more nitric oxide and so the cycle is being repeated.
Making changes to diet has been shown to lead to a marked reduction in blood pressure levels. With some studies showing a change in diet can even have the same effect as taking some blood pressure medications, and of course the changes, if maintained, mean that they can add lifelong hypertension prevention benefits.