The nation’s leading heart experts released new guidelines for high blood pressure this month — about half of all Americans now will meet the criteria for the condition — forcing more people to start thinking about controlling their health through diet and exercise.
According to the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, a reading of 130/80 mm (millimeters of mercury) or more indicates high blood pressure. Previous guidelines defined high blood pressure as 140/90. The first number correlates to the pressure on the blood vessels when the heart contracts and the second describes the pressure as the heart relaxes between beats.
The new guidelines mean that the number of people with high blood pressure will spike from 72 million to 103 million. Since high blood pressure has long been one of the leading causes of death in the United States, these new guidelines make sense to local clinicians, who see this news as an opportunity to get their patients to pay closer attention to their lifestyle choices long before damage is done.
Heba Wessis, a cardiologist at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, says that over the years she has seen a number of patients suffer from heart attacks and strokes that could have been prevented with lifestyle changes. “There are so many things that can be managed by managing high blood pressure,” she said in an interview last week. “Screen yourself. Check it. There are so many resources to check blood pressure — you can check it at your local grocery store and if it is elevated go to your doctor.”
A person is said to have high blood pressure when the force of the blood against the walls of the blood vessels is elevated. This causes the heart to work harder, resulting in a myriad of health complications, like inflammation in the arteries and the development of scar tissue, which can lead to heart failure. In some cases, people can be at higher risk for heart attack or stroke.
Previously not considered high enough for a formal diagnosis, blood pressure levels between 130-139/80-89 are dangerous, says Dr. Paul Whelton, one of the authors of the new guidelines. “You’ve already doubled your risk of cardiovascular complications compared to those with a normal level of blood pressure,” he said in a statement. “We want to be straight with people — if you already have a doubling of risk, you need to know about it. It doesn’t mean you need medication, but it’s a yellow light that you need to be lowering your blood pressure, mainly with non-drug approaches.”
Wessis says she plans to continue to evaluate patients on a case-by-case basis. If someone is overweight and a heavy drinker, with a blood pressure reading of 135/90, she might first suggest lifestyle changes before resorting to medication.
A combination of diets high in processed foods and a sedentary lifestyle have left many Americans overweight, says nutritionist Fatemeh Giahi, who works at Atkinson Family Practice in Amherst and Valley Nutrition Counseling in Hadley.
Excess weight can lead to an increased risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and even some cancers, she says.
By shedding pounds, patients can greatly improve their health.
“Healthy diet overall reduces risk of many chronic diseases that are a main cause of death,” she says. “I think that if people want to experience healthy aging, have more energy and be more productive — nothing can be better than a healthy diet and a healthy lifestyle.”
Giahi recommends that patients follow the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, a dietary plan promoted by the United States National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to prevent and control hypertension. The National Institute of Health outlines a DASH plan for calorie intake according to age on its website. It also gives lifestyle recommendations like exercise for at least 2½ hours per week. There are print-out worksheets that help people track what they are eating and how many calories they are taking in.
Reducing salt is one of the most important recommendations in the DASH program. The plan suggests that there be no more than 2,400 milligrams per day of sodium in a person’s diet. Foods with more than 300 milligrams per serving should be entirely avoided, says Giahi.
The diet suggests lowering alcohol consumption to one drink for women and two drinks for men per day.
Other suggestions include: increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed, eliminating saturated fats, like those found in cheeses and milk, and the addition of healthy fats like the Omega-3 found in salmon. Other foods rich in good fat include olive oil and flaxseeds, which can be added to smoothies.
“Usually I recommended Omega-3 fatty acids. Those are the ones that mimic the function of Aspirin, it prevents blood clots,” Giahi said.
The diet also suggests that people should weed out refined sugar and carbohydrates, like white bread, and replace them with whole grains. Through this combination of changes, people can boost the nutrient value of the food they eat, while decreasing the number of calories.
Calorie needs range from 2,000 calories a day to 2,800 and are broken down by gender, level of activity and age.
Changes can be made gradually, introducing a serving of vegetables at lunch one day and at dinner the next, for example, Giahi says.
“Diet is the best medicine,” . …Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels.”
Lisa Spear can be reached at Lspear@gazettenet.com.
For more information about the DASH diet, visit the National Institute of Health’s website at https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/files/docs/public/heart/dash_brief.pdf