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How To Control High Blood Pressure?

December 5, 2011, 4:03 pm

It appears that everybody over the age of around forty is having problems with their blood pressure. There is such a thing as having low blood pressure but the difficulty sweeping Western society for the last twenty-five to thirty years is high blood pressure, which is also called hypertension in medical jargon.

Hypertension is a dangerous medical condition which can kill if not treated, yet it is frequently an indication of leading a bad lifestyle, so a sufferer can usually avoid hypertension by making a couple of lifestyle alterations. The time to instigate these alterations is as soon as you can, because the changes are sensible ones, but young bodies can take more abuse than older ones, so it is a good concept to keep an eye on your blood pressure from your mid thirties.

Age and ethnicity are factors in hypertension but there is naturally nothing you can do about that, yet the other factors are good for everybody, because they merely involve living a better lifestyle.

Being plump is a major factor in creating hypertension. The answer is obvious – if you are overweight, lose those extra pounds. Losing just ten pounds can reduce your blood pressure significantly.

Being inactive is another key factor in developing hypertension and is naturally linked with being overweight. Therefore, you can kill two birds with one stone by exercising more in order to lose weight. Eating excessive amounts of sodium (table salt) is another factor in high blood pressure, so this offers another chance to ‘double up’.

While you are attempting to lose weight in order to help reduce your hypertension, incorporate reduced-sodium recipes into your cooking habits. There are lots of low-sodium or low-salt recipes on the Internet and once you have been eating low-sodium for a week or ten days you will wonder why you ever used salt in the first place.

Salt is of course present in some foods more than others, so you will have to have some assistance in the beginning, but just not adding any salt or sugar to any of your food or drink is a decent beginning. Eating more fresh fruit and vegetables is another obvious thing to do. Strive not to use tinned foods as salt is often used to ‘pump up the flavour’ and preserve cheap ingredients in tins.

Smoking is not good for you. We all know that, however it also increases blood pressure and so does drinking too much alcohol on a frequent basis. These are difficult lifestyle changes to master, yet you could at least cut down.

Stress, fear, anger, worry and sleeplessness are also factors that increase hypertension and it is simple to see that they could all be interrelated. It is frequently said that exercise reduces stress and so that may now have a triple benefit. If you suffer from stress, meditation or yoga might help you as well.

In short, you can to do something about your hypertension. Some of the changes are not easy, yet just doing something on all these fronts will have an impact and maybe keep you off medication for the remainder of your life.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on several of topics, but is currently involved with work on foods for high blood pressure. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, just go to our site at High Blood Pressure Recipes.

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Adapting Examples Of Low Cholesterol Diets

December 5, 2011, 4:02 pm

Although more and more people are becoming aware that they ought to follow a low (er) cholesterol diet as they become older, they might not be aware of how to do this. People eat out a great deal more now than ever before or they have food delivered.

Regrettably most of the food eaten at or from these establishments has a poor record when it comes to controlling cholesterol. You will find it hard to impossible to follow a low cholesterol diet and eat junk food at the same time.

There are lots of examples of low cholesterol diets on the Net and it would be a useful idea for you to look at some of these until you find a chef’s recipes that match your tastes.

For instance, one chef might prefer vegetarian cooking and so would produce a collection of low cholesterol recipes containing vegetarian food, while another chef may have a penchant for fish and so would produce plenty of low cholesterol recipes involving fish.

Naturally, if you have more varied tastes then the world is your oyster and you can mix and match recipes from all over the world. There are several cultures that do not eat meat at all, for example, the Hindus. There are thousands of Hindu recipes which are obviously low in cholesterol or which could be easily modified by substituting olive oil for ghee as the fat in which to cook.

Or you might like the Japanese style of cooking, which uses a higher proportion of fish than people eat in the West. Fish is a very good source for example of HDL, or good, cholesterol. Japanese meals can be of several different styles. an unusual one of which is sushi, which has become favourite with the trend-setters.

Chinese and Thai food also contains far less meat that traditional Western recipes. They also tend to cook using soya oil, which is a substance known to reduce the level of LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol. If, when you look at traditional recipes from these countries, you see something you could improve on then go ahead and adapt it.

For instance, if you go to a Chinese restaurant, you always get white rice. Why not substitute brown rice? The same goes for Thai food. Brown rice is fed to prisoners in Thai gaols, so it is coupled with low class, hence Thais eat white rice. But you do not have to.

If you like barbecues, you may have to lay off the steaks, chops, sausages and burgers, but you can still barbecue all types of fish, crabs, prawns and lobster. Eels are good for a barbecue too and so is unleaven bread and some vegetables such as sweet corn.

There are so many examples of low cholesterol diets that eating in this way does not have to become monotonous. In fact, it might just open your eyes to some of the other ways of cooking going on in the world. You may just end up realizing that most of the meals in your life up to now have been fairly similar.

While you are looking for examples of low cholesterol diets, remember that adaptation and substitution are the best strategies – become adaptable and enjoy your new, healthier diet.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on numerous topics, but is now concerned with lowering cholesterol without medication. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at What Foods Lower Cholesterol?

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Martial Arts And The Olympics

December 5, 2011, 2:50 pm

People tend to think of martial arts as being oriental, Kung Fu type fighting. However, the word ‘martial’ derives from the Latin word ‘mars, martis’, who was the Roman god of war. ‘Martial’, consequently, means ‘to do with war or fighting’.

As a result, martial can refer to Western ways of fighting too such as boxing and wrestling.

These martial arts have been around for thousands of years at least and originated on the battlefield where one’s competence in fighting was literally a question of life and death. Wrestling was in the Olympic Games more than 2,000 years ago.

Likewise, many of the oriental martial arts are just as old and came about because peasants were not permitted to bear arms in the social structures of the times.

In spite of the age of these martial arts, they did not become popular in the Developed world until Bruce Lee made them famous with his Kung Fu films in the early Seventies.

It is a little known fact that when Lee was sent to America at the age of 18 to avoid the wrath of a local Hong Kong mafia chief, he hoped to teach traditional martial arts, but was forbidden authorization by the local Chinese community.

There was an unwritten rule that non-Chinese were not to be taught Chinese martial arts. Lee ignored the rule, and he claimed to have been sent death threats from powerful Chinese underworld leaders from America and Hong Kong.

Lee taught martial arts to a select group of famous Caucasians and even invented his own style called Jeet Kune Do.

Jeet Kune Do used Lee’s astonishing speed and power in its moves. Three of Lee’s showcase moves were:

The Power Side Kick: with one kick, he could kick a 300 pound sack to hit a regular ceiling

The One Inch Punch: he could knock a trained fighter over with a punch that had travelled only one inch

The Lightning Snatch: with his arm by his side, he could snatch a dime from an open palm three feet away and leave a penny behind in 5/100 ths of a second.

Individuals wanted to be able to do the same. However, there are many different sorts of martial arts and numerous countries have their own individual style of fighting.

China has Judo and Kung Fu; Japan has Karate; Brazil has Brazilian Jiu Jitsu; Thailand has Muay Thai.. There are numerous other, mostly oriental styles, as well, like Tae Kwando and Aikido but also French Kick Boxing.

Some martial arts are more defensive in nature, but others are definitely aggressive: Judo and Aikido are examples of defensive styles and Karate and boxing are far more aggressive in character. However, all martial arts teach self-discipline and the students develop more self-confidence. Martial arts are experiencing a resurgence in popularity at the moment, mainly due to UFC bouts or mixed martial arts.

You might not approve of the violence of mixed martial arts, but it cannot be denied that many kids are learning a few martial arts, Western and Oriental, because of these popular TV fights.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on lots of subjects, but is at present involved with the London 2012 Olympics mascot. Click a link if you are interested in the 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

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