High blood pressure can hike your risk of developing heart disease, the main cause of heart attacks. Yet the process that sets you on this deadly course is imperceptible to the eye. The only way to determine whether you have high blood pressure is to take a blood pressure test.
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High blood pressure: Warning sign in the eyes
According to the NHS, blood pressure is recorded with two numbers:
- The diastolic pressure (lower number) is the resistance to the blood flow in the blood vessels.
- The systolic pressure (higher number) is the force at which your heart pumps blood around your body.
They’re both measured in millimetres of mercury (mmHg).
As a general guide, high blood pressure is considered to be 140/90mmHg or higher (or 150/90mmHg or higher if you’re over the age of 80), explains the NHS.
If you cross into this territory, you will have to lower your reading by making healthy lifestyle decisions.
One of the most effective countermeasures is to improve your diet, which means increasing your intake of heart-healthy foods.
Research has shown that particular items contain properties that have a marked effect on high blood pressure.
One attention-grabbing item is seaweed, an edible form of algae that grows in the sea.
The highly versatile snack, which is a staple of Japanese, Korean and Chinese cuisine, is a rich source of proteins known as bioactive peptides – which are also found in milk.
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According to research published in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, these chemicals have a similar effect to ACE inhibitor drugs, which are widely prescribed to help lower blood pressure and prevent heart attacks and strokes.
The findings are the result of a comprehensive look at evidence from 100 studies.
Animal studies bolster the claim by showing that seaweed also reduces high cholesterol – a marker of heart disease that is related to high blood pressure.
One eight-week study fed rats with high cholesterol a high-fat diet supplemented with 10 percent freeze-dried seaweed.
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It found the rats had 40 percent lower total cholesterol, 36 percent lower LDL cholesterol (the most harmful form of cholesterol) and 31 percent lower triglyceride levels.
Like high cholesterol, triglycerides are a form of fat that stick to your artery walls, raising your risk of heart disease.
General dietary rules
While it is important to focus on particular foods that can help to lower your reading, it is your overall dietary approach that counts.
As a general rule, you should reduce your salt intake if you are looking to lower your blood pressure.
As the NHS warns, the more salt you eat, the higher your blood pressure.
The health body recommends eating less than six grams (0.2oz) of salt a day, which is about a teaspoonful.
“Eating a low-fat diet that includes lots of fibre, such as wholegrain rice, bread and pasta, and plenty of fruit and vegetables also helps lower blood pressure,” notes the health site.
It adds: “Aim to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day.”
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