Why hypertension on brain occur? -

How did you get hypertension? It’s easy to get hypertension if you live in the United States and other affluent countries, like England, where most citizens eat diets high in salt and fat and low in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. An American’s lifetime risk of developing hypertension is close to 90%, reported the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in 2004. At least 65 million adult Americans – up from 50 million just 10 years ago – have hypertension, and nearly one-third don’t even know it. And kids, heavier than ever, are being diagnosed with soaring blood pressure like never before. What are the symptoms of hypertension? That’s part of the problem. Hypertension usually causes no symptoms, so over time, damage to your arteries, heart, and brain can occur before the condition is diagnosed. Is hypertension inevitable? The natural results of aging? For years, that’s what we thought. Physicians were taught in medical school that blood pressure normally increases with age. But in recent years anthropologists have found a wide variety of primitive people who consumed diets with little or no added salt and whose blood pressure did not rise from the results of aging. They included Eskimos, the Masai of Africa, New Guinea Highlanders, and African Bushman. Among these populations, hypertension was virtually unknown. Scientists observed that the only time blood pressure rose with age was when people from these normally hypertension-free populations abandoned their traditional diets and starting eating modern diets dense with calories and full of highly salted foods. Hypertension Treatment: Won’t pills cure the problem? Not really. Keep in mind that hypertension increases your risk of dying from cardiovascular-related disease, like heart attacks and strokes, by 300% and more. Diuretics – considered by many scientists to be the best drug treatment for most hypertensives – decreases your risk of dying by only 19%. Pills as a treatment for hypertension have hardly solved the problem. Even if you’re taking pills, your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease is still at least two to three times higher than that of people whose blood pressure is optimal – 110/70 or less. Is there a cure for hypertension? You cannot “cure” hypertension, but there’s a very good chance that with lifestyle treatment (the right diet, losing weight, regular exercise) you can get hypertension under control and significantly lower your risk of developing life-threatening diseases. Lifestyle treatment reduces blood pressure more than drugs and dramatically lowers the risk of diabetes, heart attacks, cancer, and stroke. What’s the right diet for hypertension treatment? Several studies funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute have found that the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches To Stop Hypertension), which is very similar to the Pritikin Eating Plan, lowers blood pressure as well as or better than any drug. Both DASH and Pritikin promote menus that are low in fats, salt, cholesterol, red meat, and sweets; high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans; and moderate in seafood, poultry, nuts, and low-fat or nonfat dairy foods. More than 100 studies published in peer-reviewed journals on the Pritikin Program have found that this diet teatment also substantially lowers the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes because it reduces virtually all cardiovascular-related risk factors, including cholesterol, triglycerides (blood fats), inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein, blood sugar, insulin, oxidative stress, and yes, hypertension. How much salt (sodium) should I cut out of my diet? The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, the scientific organization that sets the nation’s standards for recommended levels of nutrients, advises that adult Americans limit their consumption of sodium to 1,200 to 1,500 mg a day, depending on age. People aged 19 to 50 should consume 1,500 mg or less of sodium a day; those 51 to 70, 1,300 mg or less; and those over 70, 1,200 mg or less. Landmark research by the National Institutes of Health compared the DASH diet with varying levels of sodium (3,300, 2,400, and 1,500mg a day) and found that the biggest reductions in blood pressure for everyone – people with hypertension as well as those with blood pressure readings as low as 120/80 – occurred in those individuals on the 1,500 mg-a-day diet. So compelling is the data on the blood-pressure-controlling benefits of a low-sodium diet that the newly devised 2005 Dietary Guidelines state that “individuals with hypertension, blacks, and middle-aged and older adults should aim to consume no more than 1,500 mg of sodium per day.” Like the 2005 Dietary Guidelines, the Pritikin Eating Plan recommends no more than 1,500 mg of sodium daily.