Eat Your Way to Healthy Blood Pressure

The third part of our 'Essential Guide to Healthy Blood Pressure' looks at how your food routine can play a crucial role in lowering or stabilising blood pressure.

You can read part 1 of the series here

Part 2 is here

Let's start with simple guidelines that anyone can follow and that will really help regulate blood pressure. 

Eat regularly

A calm internal environment will keep your system running smoothly and reduce the likelihood of physical stress which can in turn aggravate mental stress, both of which will increase blood pressure.  Plan to eat a meal or snack every 3-4 hours.

Get your 5-a-day

You’ve heard it many times and here’s just another reason to make it happen.  Fruit and vegetables supply us with vitamins, minerals and nutrients that will improve the strength, immunity and efficiency of the body.  Eating plenty of fresh stuff also leaves less of an appetite for the meals and snacks that rob us of energy, increase stress and aggravate blood pressure.

And forget aiming for 5-a-day as that often means you end up with 2 or 3.  Plan for at least 8 and you’ll make sure you end up with 5 without doubt.  

If this all sounds like a challenge here are some suggestions for how to eat regularly and healthily.

Breakfast

Porridge with bananas, blueberries, chia seeds & strawberries or omelette with tomato and peppers

Morning snack

Orange and walnuts or carrots, cucumber and hummus

Lunch

Wholemeal wrap with turkey, spinach and peppers or fish with rocket, tomatoes, avocado and pineapple

Afternoon snack

Apple and oatcakes or banana and rice cakes

Evening meal

Chicken with noodles, onion,mushrooms, peppers and garlic, or fish with brown rice and steamed broccoli and green beans

How to make it work...

Obviously, each person’s food routine needs to be appropriate for their schedule, tastes, objectives, and ideas have to be practical, but following these guidelines will help keep blood pressure optimum as well as improving the chances of a productive week with high energy and great sleep.  Even the busiest of individuals should be able to try some of these suggestions over the coming days.

Here are a few additional foods that you should aim to include in your routine through the week:

Kale, sweet potato, edamame, beetroot, spinach, sunflower seeds, kidney beans, mango, tuna, wholemeal pasta

We're running this series of blogs to help equip individuals with the knowledge they need to take responsibility for their health and make informed lifestyle choices.  If you find the information useful please share it with your colleagues.

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Sleep Your Way to Healthy Blood Pressure

Welcome to the second instalment of our Essential Guide to Lower Blood Pressure.  You can read part 1 here.

For week 2 of National Heart Month we're focusing on sleep, primarily because the lack of it, interrupted sleep or poor quality sleep, can all contribute towards increased blood pressure in the medium to long-term.

Here are some tips to help you improve your sleep and keep blood pressure healthy.

1) Create a realistic routine
You probably know if you're a morning person or a night owl - we all have our own body clock or internal clock that determines when we're functioning at our best, and when we're at a low ebb.  In reality there are relatively few people who have an internal clock that fits in precisely with society's timetable (work, family, social), so the first thing to do is accept that in order to achieve everything you want in life, you may have to get up a little earlier than would be ideal for you, or you may need to stay awake a little longer than you'd choose if left to your own devices, but, whatever you do, make a conscious effort to create a routine for yourself that allows you to sleep well whilst also providing you with the time to do what you need to do when you're awake. 

Creating a sleep routine - a pre-determined bed time and wake time - will help your mind and body prepare for restful sleep, fall asleep promptly, and experience quality sleep, all of which will equip you to face each day calmly and without the need for extra stress hormones that your body produces to keep you going when you feel tired but which will, over time, have a negative impact on your blood pressure.

2) Stick to your routine
Persistent, irregular sleeping habits can exacerbate the effects of raised blood pressure so follow your chosen sleep routine 7-nights as week.  It may feel great to 'catch up' on missed sleep at the weekends but if this leaves you wide awake on Sunday night there's a risk you won't feel great for the beginning of the working week.  Shifting routine dramatically like this every week will take a toll on your body.  

If you do choose to shift your routine at weekends, or you feel you've 'earned' some extra hours in bed after a tough week, experiment over a number of weekends to discover the optimum change in routine for you.  It's likely that with practice you'll settle on a weekend sleep pattern that helps you feel recovered from the previous week without impacting on the following week.  

3) Think twice about your daily choices
Ideally we'd all like to feel alert and engaged while we're awake, and relaxed and refreshed after a good night's sleep.  The key to both is to think about everything you do during the day in relation to how it could affect your sleep at night. 

For example, caffeine can perk you up but it can also impact your sleep routine hours later.  Sweet snacks can feel like the right thing in the day but can wildly disrupt blood sugar levels which might affect the quality of your sleep at night. 

The same goes for too much stress throughout the day.  It may feel as though a bit of stress is good to get you busy and get things done, and it can be as long as you have ways to balance your stress levels before you unwind and get a restful sleep.  Always be mindful of the level of pressure that helps you perform at your best, and the tipping point beyond which you risk negatively affecting your night-time recovery and your healthy blood pressure reading. 

4) Design your personal pre-sleep routine
Identify the sequence of events that you know will result in you falling asleep quickly and having a quality sleep.  You may need to experiment with a few different approaches but soon you'll have a strategy that tells you when you have your last meal or snack of the day, when you turn off the TV, when you put your phone / laptop / tablet away, and what you do to tell your mind and body that you're fully relaxed.  This could be listening to calming music, meditating or reading.

If you are prone to waking in the night, decide in advance what you'll think and do if this happens.  If you worry that when you wake it'll take ages to get back to sleep, chances are, that's exactly what will happen.  If you plan an approach where you read, practice deep breathing or even write down anything that's on your mind or think about reasons why you might have awoken and what you can do to address these situations tomorrow, you can relax in the knowledge that as you work through this process you'll be preparing yourself to return to sleep very soon.

Above all, remember that you may not be able to follow your perfect sleep routine every night but you can take control to ensure that on balance, and in the medium term, you get sufficient sleep, and in the short term you do what you can to optimise the quality of every hour of sleep you do get.  

Follow these guidelines and you'll sleep well all night, perform well all day and maintain a calm internal environment including healthy blood pressure at all times.

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Lowering Blood Pressure: The Essential Guide, part 1

February is National Heart Month, which got us thinking.

Ensuring healthy blood pressure is a simple way for individuals and organisations to stay healthy and productive, so here are 3 key points everyone should think about along with instant actions you can get started with immediately.

1. Know your numbers
Many people suspect they have high blood pressure but not everyone knows their current measurements. Others have no idea what their blood pressure figures are which is not good - heart disease is often referred to as the silent killer as it can go undetected until something serious happens.

Instant action:
If it's more than three months since you had your blood pressure checked either make an appointment today to have it checked within the next two weeks, or order your own blood pressure monitor online so that you can check it regularly in the comfort of your own home.

2. Design a balanced fitness programme
In the quest to reduce blood pressure or maintain healthy numbers exercise is crucial, but make sure your programme has balance and sustainability. 

Exercising periodically will help, but not as much as planning a routine of challenging exercise every 2-3 days.  It's the regularity and consistency of your activity that has the biggest impact on your blood pressure.

Similarly, thrashing yourself now and again with some kind of cardio activity such as running, football, rugby or squash might make you feel better but won't stabilise your blood pressure as effectively as a rounded and on-going routine of cardio exercise, strength training, mobility, stability and flexibility work.

Instant action:

Take a 20-minute walk within the next hour and while you walk, plan your next 10-days of exercise which should include 4 workouts containing a mixture of the above elements.  Ideally the first workout should take place today or tomorrow.

3. Clear your head
A lot of stress - a major contributor to high blood pressure - is rooted in our perception of 'busyness' and feeling overwhelmed.  Often the difference between feeling in control and feeling bounced around the day like a pinball isn't very dramatic - simply taking a moment here and there to review your progress and decide on priorities will make all the difference.

Instant action:

Find a quiet spot and sit down, close your eyes and take 20 deep breaths.  You might be tempted to move but hold onto the moment until you've completed the 20 breaths.  When you've finished, plan a time to do the same tomorrow and every day moving forwards.  Aim to increase the length of time you spend practicing deep breathing every few days.  Not only will you feel calmer but you will be able to organise your day better with a renewed ability to focus on priorities.

Practice all of the above and look out for part 2 of our essential guide to lower blood pressure coming soon...

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