Avalon Pharmacy Shares About The Major Cause of High Blood Pressure
Yucca Valley’s leading Pharmacist, Amit Kakar, Pharm.D. here.
Did you know that the major cause of high blood pressure is something that we can control? It’s as simple as our sodium (salt) consumption.
Consuming too much sodium is a major problem, as sodium can have dangerous consequences for our heart health.
In this blog post, we will discuss guidelines for sodium and what you can do to reduce your sodium intake and improve your health.
On a daily basis, 90% of Americans consume too much sodium. High levels of sodium are found in packaged foods (in boxes or bags), processed foods (like hot dogs, soups, sauces, dips, or condiments), and restaurants, especially fast food restaurants. About 70% of the sodium we consume daily is in packaged, processed, and prepared foods.
Although sodium is essential for our body, too much sodium can cause your body to retain water, leading to an increase in blood pressure that increases the strain on your heart and arteries. This additional stress can lead to serious health problems such as an increased risk of stroke, heart attack, and other cardiovascular conditions.
The American Heart Association recommends limiting sodium intake to no more than 2,300 milligrams a day for healthy individuals, but for people with hypertension, the limit of sodium intake should be less than 1,500 milligrams per day.
How can you tell how many milligrams of sodium your food contains? You can start by reading nutrition labels carefully when grocery shopping to determine the amount of sodium present in each product.
Fortunately, there are many steps you can take to reduce your sodium intake:
1. Choose grocery items with less than 140 mg of sodium per serving. This will greatly help reduce your salt intake, as well as sticking to eating only 1 serving.
2. Replace sodium-rich snacks with healthier options like unsalted nuts and fruit.
3. Adding more whole foods (such as fruits and vegetables) to your diet. Make more use of the produce section of your grocery store.
4. Prepare more of your meals at home, being able to control the amount of salt you add, or choose to add no salt at all, instead using a variety of herbs (such as parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme), spices (such as cumin, oregano, cayenne, black pepper, paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc), citrus juices or tomatoes, infused balsamic vinegars, or roots such as ginger, garlic, onion, or turmeric. Have fun experimenting with different flavors, and before long, your tastebuds will adjust and you won’t be craving salty foods.
5. Consume more foods high in potassium, since potassium helps the body excrete sodium and reduce the amount of total sodium in your body. Foods high in potassium include bananas, spinach, potatoes, tomatoes, beans or legumes, peas, leafy greens, mushrooms, and nuts.
In conclusion, too much daily sodium consumption is a big problem in the United States, leading to stroke, hypertension, heart attack, and other cardiovascular conditions. The good news is that there are many steps we can take to prevent these conditions or to lower blood pressure. We can be more aware of the sodium in the foods we buy as well as cook at home more often using produce seasoned by many options that are not salt. We can also swap out our snacks with lower sodium options and be mindful to consume foods high in potassium to combat the sodium in our bodies.
Your health and safety is our primary concern at Avalon Pharmacy.
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