Take Control of Your Blood Pressure

Untreated or uncontrolled high blood pressure can increase your risk not only for heart problems, but also for stroke, kidney damage and even eye damage. How? Let’s take a closer look.

Heart disease. A clot that forms in arteries narrowed by hypertension can block blood flow, leading to a heart attack. Reduced blood flow to the heart can also cause chest pain, a condition called “angina,” that occurs when the heart doesn’t get enough oxygen. High blood pressure is even a major cause of congestive heart failure, when the heart doesn’t pump enough blood to supply the body’s needs.

Stroke. High blood pressure can damage or weaken blood vessels in the brain, causing them to break and triggering a stroke. Blood clots that form in a damaged, narrowed blood vessel can also lead to a stroke.

Kidney damage. The kidneys filter waste from the body. High blood pressure can impede the performance of the kidneys by narrowing and thickening blood vessels in the organ. Eventually, the kidneys may stop working altogether.

Eye damage. High blood pressure can cause vessels in the eyes to burst or bleed, resulting in blurred or impaired vision. Damage to blood vessels can even cause blindness in rare cases.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
Fortunately, there are things you can do to control your blood pressure or to bring blood pressure levels down if they are high. In addition to not smoking and avoiding alcohol, both of which increases your risk of a number of diseases including hypertension, you should also manage your weight, exercise and eat a healthy diet. In addition, certain nutritional supplements, folic acid for one, can help prevent high blood pressure.

Manage your weight. If you’re overweight, losing just 10 pounds can reduce your blood pressure.

Exercise regularly. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) recommends 30 minutes of moderate physical activity, such as walking, bicycling, gardening or housework, on all or most days of the week. If you can’t do 30 minutes of continuous exercise, you can accumulate it throughout the day by doing such activities as using the stairs instead of the elevator, parking on the far side of the parking lot and walking farther to your destination, or taking short walking breaks throughout the day.

Eat healthfully. Cutting down on fatty and salty foods can help reduce your blood pressure. In addition, following the DASH diet (see “DASH Away High Blood Pressure") can help even further.

HOW FOLIC ACID CAN HELP
In a study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found that folic acid (or folate) supplements may fight hypertension. Based on data from thousands of nurses participating in the infamous Nurses Health Study, in one group of women, aged 27-44, those who consumed at least 1,000 micrograms a day of total folate (in foods and supplements) had a 46 percent decreased risk hypertension compared with those who consumed less than a total of 200 micrograms a day. In a second group of women age 43 to 70, those with a high total folate intake had an 18 percent reduced risk of hypertension. (Folic acid supplements of at least 400 micrograms per day are the usual recommendation.)

Folic acid occurs naturally in foods such as orange juice and leafy green vegetables and is also added to some products. According to the report, however, the benefit came primarily from folate supplementation rather than dietary folate alone. Researchers speculate that folic acid relaxes blood vessels, thereby lowering blood pressure.

“The prospect that folate has the potential to protect against high blood pressure is exciting given that the vitamin is both readily available and safe,” says Dr. John Forman, a physician and researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston who led the study.

In addition to lowering blood pressure, research has shown other ways that folic acid, a B vitamin, can benefit the heart: It can lower levels of a toxic substance in the body called homocysteine.

Homocysteine is an amino acid-like chemical that is naturally produced in the body but requires vitamins B6, B12 and folate (a form of folic acid) to be broken down properly. Without adequate amounts of these nutrients, homocysteine can build up to unsafe levels in the body and damage blood vessels in the heart. Research has confirmed that high homocysteine levels greatly increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Of the three B vitamins that reduce homocysteine, folate appears to be the most important. A review of over 10 large medical studies, involving over 1,000 people, found that folate supplementation can reduce blood homocysteine levels by 25 percent. Other studies indicate that B12 and B6 also reduce homocysteine levels but to a lesser degree.

A FINAL WORD
As an overall approach to preventing cardiovascular disease, you should continue to monitor your intake of cholesterol and saturated fats; but you should also pay close attention to your blood pressure. One in four Americans has high blood pressure. You could very well be one of them. And as I have mentioned, high blood pressure not only affects your heart, but your kidneys, eyes and overall health as well.