Tom Venuto: What’s the relationship between age and high blood pressure? Should we automatically assume that our blood pressure is going to go up as we age?
Frank Mangano: Age is a major contributor, but getting high blood pressure is NOT considered a normal, healthy part of aging. It may just be the result of a diet lacking in essential nutrients and/or a sedentary lifestyle.
Tom Venuto: I agree. I co-authored a book on healthy aging called Fit Over 40, and I have a lot of interest in this topic. People seem to think that everything automatically goes downhill after age 40, but muscle loss and gain in body fat that comes with age actually isn’t so much a result of age after all. It’s the same thing you said with blood pressure – it’s mostly a result of poor diet and inactivity - basically use it or lose it. Alright, next topic. Stress. Even when you just say the word stress, you get images or feelings of your blood boiling, and that’s an interesting aphorism too, isn’t it, blood boiling? What does stress have to do with blood pressure?
Frank Mangano: It’s important to understand that when stress is ongoing, so is the higher blood pressure level. In other words, by keeping stress at an elevated level, you’re keeping your blood pressure elevated also which, over time, will cause some serious health issues.
Tom Venuto: I agree 110%. Stress is a normal part of life - it’s the nonstop stress without recovery that causes the problems. The next question is what should we do about stress? What are some practical steps we can take today to reduce the stress in our lives, and what can someone who is hypertensive expect by making these changes?
Frank Mangano: In today’s day and age, it’s almost impossible to live a stress free life, but there are plenty of steps you can take to reduce stress such as walking, meditating or listening to relaxing music to take the edge off a stressful day. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of making time for decompressing each and every day. The key is consistency. Follow these simple steps on a daily basis and you can expect to see improvement in the numbers.
Tom Venuto: Okay, now here is a question that is going to be of great interest to the listeners in my audience. What is the relationship between blood pressure and obesity? Is it a direct relationship? If you’re overweight, does your blood pressure necessarily go up right in line with your weight, or does only the probability of hypertension increase? And what if you’re obese or even morbidly obese? Are you virtually guaranteed to have high blood pressure?
Frank Mangano: Being extremely overweight or obese and having high blood pressure are so closely related that it has even been given its own name: obesity hypertension. Of all the cases of hypertension in the U.S., 75% can be directly attributed to obesity. Deaths directly from hypertension or that had high blood pressure as a primary contributor totaled 310,707 in the U.S. in 2002. It’s a chain reaction: obesity=hypertension= heart disease=death and that all begins with how fat a person is.
It’s not just how much you are overweight, but also where you carry your extra weight that can have a great impact on blood pressure. Risk factors are increased when added weight is in the abdominal area. This is because people with a so-called spare tire also have increases in blood sugar, which causes the fat to be deposited there, and then starts a cycle of sodium and water retention. To summarize, there is a significant risk factor for developing high blood pressure if you’re obese.
Tom Venuto: Yes, and I think it’s worth emphasizing the part about abdominal obesity because abdominal obesity which is 35 inches or more for women or 40 inches or more waist measurement for men, combined with high blood pressure are both part of a group of risk factors called metabolic syndrome or syndrome X. If you have metabolic syndrome you’re at risk for some serious health problems. So let’s take that situation in reverse. If you’re obese and you start losing weight are you guaranteed that your blood pressure going to drop?
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| Tom Venuto is an
NSCA-certified strength and conditioning specialist,
lifetime natural bodybuilder, freelance writer,
success coach and author of the #1 best-selling
e-book, Burn The fat, Feed The Muscle (BFFM): Fat
Burning Secrets of the Worlds Best Bodybuilders
and Fitness Models
Tom has written hundreds
of articles and has been featured in IRONMAN magazine,
Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Muscle-Zine,
Olympian's News (in Italian), Exercise for Men and
Men's Exercise. You can visit Tom on the web at www.BurnTheFatBook.com and get more information about his Burn The Fat program at www.BurnTheFatBook.com
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Frank
Mangano is a health advocate who dedicates his life
to finding solutions for people interested in reducing
their risk of health problems and improving their
overall quality of life naturally without the use
prescription medication.
As an active member of his community he works diligently
providing assistance to senior citizens and probing
as a health advocate to discover new and innovative
ways to promote well being. The hard work and persistence
that Frank has invested in recent years is reflected
through his writings. He is the author of The Silent Killer Exposed, The Truth About Hypertension, which can be found on the web at:
www.TheSilentKillerExposed.com
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