Key Steps to Maintaining Your Health and Well-Being

One of the most important things you can do to positively affect your overall health and wellness is to improve your cardio-respiratory endurance. If your heart is stronger, it not only pumps more blood and oxygen to your body, but also burns fat more quickly and efficiency to give you more energy. You don’t have to hit the gym 24/7 to keep in good shape, either. Simply walking for thirty minutes or more a day can work wonders for anyone’s health, no matter what their age. Walking is a perfect way to maintain wellbeing, since it has a variety of positive effects on the body. Brisk walking helps cardiovascular fitness. Walking in general strengthens muscle tone, burns calories, and helps control appetite. This makes it ideal for combating diabetes and obesity. If you spend 30 minutes briskly walking per day, your risk of heart disease, stroke, depression, and even some cancers has been shown to decrease. If you have trouble sleeping at night, walking will reduce your stress and give you a longer, deeper, snooze.

In order to maintain a healthy diet, you must consume Vitamin B6, among many other types. This vitamin plays a huge role in the general wellbeing of your body. For starters, B6 produces hemoglobin, allowing red blood cells to carry oxygen to your tissues. Vitamin B6 also helps the lymphoid system and organs to function properly, and aids in cell growth and protein metabolism. In order for neurotransmitters to function and nerve cells to communicate properly, the nervous system needs B6. It is also essential in keeping blood sugar in the proper range, since it helps convert carbohydrates and nutrients into glucose. Vitamin B6 is found in meat (for example, a chicken breast), fish, some fruits and vegetables (as in a banana or a baked potato), and fortified cereals. Garbanzo beans and tomato juice are also a good source of Vitamin B6.

To aid in avoiding heart disease and stroke due to hypertension (high blood pressure), you should actively strive to live a healthy lifestyle. High blood pressure can also cause congestive heart failure, blindness, and kidney disease. While a frightening concept, hypertension is not uncommon. Nearly 1/3 of all American adults suffer from it. Hypertension is sneaky, as it usually has no symptoms or warning signs, and is hard to get rid of. In order to prevent high blood pressure from becoming a limiting factor of your own health, you should take precautionary measures. These include maintaining a healthy weight, being active physically, consuming a diet focused on fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy foods, trying to eat and cook with less salty foods, forgoing tobacco products, and drinking alcohol (if you do at all, that is) in moderation.

These are just a few of the many components of maintaining your health and wellbeing. The mental aspects of a healthy lifestyle have hardly been touched here. As long as you exercise daily (whether walking or going to the gym), eat the right foods in moderation, and keep tabs on your blood pressure, you are well on your way to being as healthy as you possibly can.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments Off

Diabetes and Hypertension

Hypertension, a problem of very high blood pressure, is a common problem particularly in the United States where as many as one in four people suffer from it. However, those with diabetes are even more susceptible to the problem, and are doubly as likely to have hypertension. Depending on other factors, a person with diabetes may have as much as a 60% chance of also having hypertension.

The two problems are linked by a variety of different factors. The most common and important of which is being very overweight, a problem associated with type 2 diabetes. However, insulin resistance, immune system and autonomic factors all come into play as well. Additionally, hypertension can make some symptoms and conditions of diabetes more dangerous and more prevalent.

Those that have diabetes typically already have stricter blood pressure requirements than those in the rest of the population. This can make hypertension all the more serious, and it’s something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Serious problems ranging from heart attacks to strokes and more can all stem from prolonged hypertension.

A person who has both diabetes and hypertension can seek out a variety of treatments. There are several classes of drugs which can attack the problem in different ways. Considering the seriousness of hypertension, particularly in those with diabetes, drugs are often recommended as a primary way for combating the issue.

This should also be combined however with a general health and fitness plan designed to lose weight and be healthier. Even moderate amounts of mild exercise can make a big difference over the long term in lowering blood pressure. Participating in moderate to intense exercise several times a week is even better. The physical exertion is healthy in and of itself but should also pay dividends towards a goal of achieving weight loss.

Eating better foods can also make a big difference towards hypertension and high blood pressure levels. Particularly, cutting back on sodium in your diet can have a positive effect as one example. Potassium is a key nutrient that you should be sure to include heavily in your diet as well. While weight loss is a goal, weight loss drugs have to be taken with care. For example, some appetite suppressants actually increase blood pressure as a side effect. Always consult your doctor when considering various medications.

Additionally, smoking can add to the problem of hypertension and needs to be stopped. Avoiding or moderating your intake of alcohol is also important, and other stimulants such as caffeine should be monitored.

With these lifestyle changes you can make a big dent in a combined hypertension and diabetes problem. However, to reach the target goals of improvement and to ensure success it is usually recommended to make these healthier life decisions while also taking one or more medications to help control the problem as well. Considering the seriousness of hypertension and it’s extremely high correlation with diabetes, it is a problem that cannot be overlooked.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments Off