While you don’t have control over some risk factors for high blood pressure, such as family history, age, and race, there are others that you can control.
“Most people don’t know they have high blood pressure until they come to the medical office,” said Tiffany Bradley, MD, Intermountain Health myGeneration Clinic. “There are things you cannot control, your genetics, your family history. But there are many things we can control to help moderate our blood pressure.”
Dr. Bradley says some things we can control is being overweight or physically inactive, smoking, a poor diet, and consuming alcohol excessively.
Medical conditions such as chronic kidney disease, sleep apnea, aldosterone excess, renal artery stenosis, and coarctation of the aorta can play a role in causing high blood pressure too.
“You can learn your blood pressure level by having it checked by a medical professional,” said Dr. Bradley. “A medical provider can also screen you for medical conditions that contribute to high blood pressure and can work with you to reach your target blood pressure level.”
In addition to any medications your provider prescribes, Dr. Bradley suggests these lifestyle changes can help you gain control of your blood pressure:
- Working toward reaching a healthy weight. Your blood pressure can drop by 5‒20 points for every 10 kg you lose.
- Adopting the dash diet (dietary approaches to stop hypertension). This is a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy with reduced saturated and total fat along with reduced sodium. It can lower blood pressure by 8‒14 points.
- Getting active. Thirty minutes of moderate physical exercise on most days of the week can reduce blood pressure by 4‒9 points.
- Limiting alcohol intake to two drinks a day or less for men and one drink a day or less for women, which can lead to a 2‒4 point reduction in blood pressure.
- Quitting smoking and reducing your stress level.
Learn more about blood pressure and hypertension by visiting intermountainnv.org or intermountainnv.org/mygeneration.
About Intermountain Health
Headquartered in Utah with locations in six states and additional operations across the western U.S., Intermountain Health is a nonprofit system of 34 hospitals, 400 clinics, medical groups with some 4,600 employed physicians and advanced care providers, a health plans division called Select Health with more than one million members, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is committed to improving community health and is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes at sustainable costs. For more information or updates, see https://intermountainhealthcare.org/news.
