...MEDICAL MATTERS
The two conditions are like a team of villains working together to make things worse for your heart, arteries, and overall health. Indeed, over time, high blood pressure and cholesterol can cause problems in your eyes, kidneys, brain, and other organs as well.
UNHEALTHY PARTNERSHIP
Anybody over 45 should be ticked off as OK with 135/80, it sez ‘ere… but realistically these readings should be kept as low as possible.
ANY GARDENERS ABOUT?
Imagine that garden hose again. If you’re out watering your small plants, you may turn the water on at low pressure so you don’t damage the tender blooms. If you’re watering a line of shrubbery, though, you may turn up the water pressure to get the job done faster.
Now imagine that garden hose is several years old and full of grit and grime. It’s also a bit stiff with age. To get the water to come through at the pressure you’d like, you have to turn up the tap to full force. The higher pressure helps the water blast through all that gunk inside your hose so you can still use it to water your plants.
If you have high blood pressure, your heart and your arteries go through a similar sce- nario. Because the arteries are stiff or narrowed - perhaps because of high cholesterol buildup - your heart has to work harder to pump the blood through them. It’s as if your heart has to turn its tap up to high and blast the blood through to get enough oxygen and nutrients out to all the body organs that need it.
Over time, this high pressure damages your arteries and other blood vessels. They just aren’t built to manage a constant high- pressure blood flow. As a result, they start to suffer from tears and other types of damage.
Those tears make nice resting places for excess cholesterol. That means that the damage high blood pressure creates inside arteries and blood vessels can actually lead to even more plaque buildup and artery narrowing because of high blood choles- terol. In turn, your heart has to work even harder to pump blood, putting excess strain on your heart muscle.
MAY 2019
Researchers have known for a while that high blood cholesterol can lead to high blood pressure. In 2002, they separated par- ticipants into three groups according to their cholesterol levels (low, medium, and high). They then tested blood pressure under various conditions of rest and exer- cise.
The results, which were published in the Journal of Human Hypertension, showed that those with higher cholesterol levels had significantly higher blood pressure lev- els during exercise than those with lower cholesterol levels.
A later study, published in the Journal of Hypertension,
found similar results.
Researchers analyzed data from 4,680 par- ticipants aged 40 to 59 years from 17 different areas in Japan, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They looked at blood pressure, cholesterol lev- els, and diet over the previous 24 hours. The results showed that cholesterol was directly related to blood pressure for all participants.
In fact, it seems that the presence of high blood cholesterol may actually predict a future presence of high blood pressure. That’s what researchers reported in a 2005 study in Hypertension. They analysed data from 3,110 men who had not been diag- nosed with hypertension or cardiovascular disease at the start, and followed them for about 14 years. Just over 1,000 of them developed hypertension by the end of the study.
SO WHAT CAN WE DO?
The good news is that both of these risk factors are very manageable. Medications are available that are effective at keeping both high cholesterol and high blood pres- sure under control. The important thing is to stay in communication with your doctor, and to watch your numbers carefully.
You can also adopt lifestyle changes that can naturally fortify your heart and blood vessels and help you resist any damaging effects. Try these tips: • Don’t smoke or quit smoking. • Stay active — exercise at least 30 min-
The data surrounding clinical trials of these products can easily be manipulated (so says Statin Nation: Support the Fight against Statins and Cholesterol Misinforma- tion.) So rather than take on board anything you may have found when Googling, it’s best to ask your doctor about the implications of taking the various statins that are available currently.
As always, we print these articles for you to think about, and possibly act upon – for your benefit and that of your family... who we are certain would like you to hang around for a bit longer, thank you.
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utes a day (walking is top of the list), and work some resistance training in two times a week. Take any opportunity to get out of the car, stretch your legs and do a bit of pacing to reduce your risk of DVT.
• Eat a healthy diet that includes lots of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean pro- teins, and healthy fats such as those found in fish and nuts.
• Drink more water. More than what? More than you’re drinking at the present time.
• Eat small, light meals that won’t sit heav- ily, and that are relatively low in fat, salt and sugar.
• Eat more omega-3 fats: sardines, tuna, salmon, kippers, mackerel, avocados, dark green vegs, walnuts.
• Try to reduce road rage-related stress levels: How important is it when some idiot just cut you up? He’s probably just going to be first to the red light.
Yes, we can hear you saying… Yeah yeah, yada yada. Well, you know what we spe- cialise in around here: Just the facts, Ma’am. Like ‘em or not, this is the regime to adopt to reduce your risks in the heart department.
A word about statins, as promised: These have been as controversial as many other medical topics we could name over the past decade or so, on the basis that the benefits must be weighed against any adverse effects – such as leg pains upon awaking (no big deal, take my word for it).
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