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I tried to focus on the words below the multicolored display chart of male and female internal organs.  The nurse was strapping my let arm into a blood pressure cuff, and in minutes my fate would be pronounced.  If it was anything like the last two blood pressure readings I knew the diagnosis would come with sharply raised eyebrows, mixed with furrowed brows.  But on January 4, 2010 I did get that, and much more.  My Blood Pressure reading on that check up was the highest I’d ever seen.

So I guess the deep concentrated breathing and focused chart reading didn’t work.  I left the doctors office more committed than ever to do something about this.  From what everyone tells me, this is a matter of life or death.  And I agree.  They don’t call high blood pressure the silent killer for nothing.  So in the past year  since I’ve been aware of this situation, I’ve aimed to eat healthier and exercise more.  This effort has been met half halfheartedly at times, but also with some measure of success.

For those who read about my attempt at P90X, I was able to somewhat consistently follow a pretty intense exercise routine, which resulted in 10 pounds of weight loss, and although the 90 day p90x challenge ended a couple weeks prematurely, I promised to do it again.  I have not.  With the recent Blood Pressure news, and the transition into the new year, a sense of clean slates, ripe with possibilities, have motivated this 30-year-old still pumping heart into re-evaluating his health, and eating habits in some fairly somber and frank terms.

So What is High Blood Pressure?

High Blood pressure is where ones systolic pressure is 140 or above, or your diastolic pressure reaches 90 or above.  That’s the short version, and I definitely qualify.  Based on statistics I have what studies show to be the leading cause of death overall in African-Americans, because of its link with heart attacks and strokes.

Yes, serious, I know.  Why African-Americans are more prone to develop High Blood Pressure will have to be tackled on another day.  Today my focus is on how people deal with this issue in the healthiest way possible.  How do I avoid the prescription drugs being freely offered to me, and still aggressively lower my blood pressure?

Controlling High Blood Pressure..Naturally

Here are a few basic things I’ve uncovered regarding what can be done to lower one’s blood pressure.

1. Lose weight
2. Regular Exercise
3. Eating a healthy diet
4. Reducing Salt
5. Watching alcohol consumption
6. Not smoking
7. Watch caffeine intake
8. Regularly monitor your pressure

I imagine that what I am embarking on, will be a journey of lifestyle changes that will be permanent rather than temporary quick fixes.  For this reason, I will be spending considerable time and attention regarding this aspect of my life this year. Considering this is not my primary focus on this blog, I’ll try not to let it overpower the other aspects to living a more truthful life.  I’ll get into a bit more detail on how I plan to personally implement some of the recommendations listed above(particularly 1-3) in a follow up post, and continue to share how I’m doing on this blog.  I’ve been educating myself and hope to share what I’ve discovered shortly.  However, in the meantime, I’m walking/running each day for 30 minutes, increasing water intake, have lowered my salt intake to below 1500 mg a day, eating more fruits and vegetables, but feel that this is just the beginning.

If you have any suggestions, or have some health resolution of your own for 2010, please don’t hesitate to share it in the comment section.  We all can learn from each other!

You are welcomed to follow along on my journey back to the land of the extremely healthy people.  There are some of you that still exist in the world right?