Some Lifestyle Diseases, Like Hypertension,
Have a Simple Cure.

Ready or not, here comes a little history about one of the worst lifestyle diseases - high blood pressure - and what you can do about it.

So, you no longer have normal blood pressure. I don't either although I'm getting back to normal.

Grudgingly, I'm struggling to change my lifestyle bit by bit to fit in sane blood pressure guidelines. If you have to change your lifestyle, too, I feel for you.

Maybe a little understanding about what's going on will help. Let's take a look.

What are lifestyle diseases anyway?

A disease can be described as any departure from health; more particularly it is a destructive process in the body with a specific cause and characteristic symptoms.

Definition of lifestyle: A way of life or style of living that reflects the attitudes and values of a person or group.

Then, lifestyle disease would be a destructive process in the body with lifestyle as the cause, which shows up in characteristic symptoms.

Such diseases include certain forms of cancer, most heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, obesity and certain diseases of the internal organs.

Although most medicos consider high blood pressure a disease, we will call it a characteristic symptom per the definition above.

Now for the history lesson.

Two major lifestyle changes have occurred in the last 100 years: 1) What and the way we eat, and 2) how long we live.

We live longer now due to the elimination of many bacterial and viral diseases that used to kill people. That's the good news.

The bad new is that, in living longer, parts of our bodies wear out like those in any engine that has run for a long time.

Some say that anyone will develop high blood pressure if she or he lives long enough. Maybe so, but enough said. Old age is not preventable even though it might be extendable somewhat.

What and how we eat is more under our control. Take a look at some high blood pressure diet choices.

Since around 1950, we have made dramatic changes in what we eat and drink. These changes have come about primarily for economic reasons.

Food and drink offerings are designed to taste "good," last on the shelf until sold and consumed, and be easy and quick to prepare and eat.

This has led to processed food containing preservatives and taste enhancements. It has led to hormones and other chemicals to fatten food animals. It has given us fast food.

You could say that we live a fast lifestyle and that our food and drink have kept pace.

The only problem is that the good brought along a lot of bad lifestyle diseases, so we have to handle that.

How?

Do we slow down? Is that the way to handle our lifestyle diseases?

I don't know about you, but I'm not going to do that! Instead, I'll follow some blood pressure guidelines to maintain a normal blood pressure.

What I've done is follow many of the options presented in this web site. I recommend that to you as well.

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