by Laurie Fronek
When you first learned how to control your high blood pressure, you made an investment toward a lifetime of better health. Perhaps you lost a few pounds, cut back on salt or exercised regularly. You’ve been doing well so far, but you know that the positive changes you’ve made to control your blood pressure need to last the rest of your life. That isn’t always easy. Here are tips to help you stick with healthy changes for the long run ahead.
Make Good Health a Habit
“We all know how difficult it is to get into a new routine,” explains Irene Gavras, M.D., professor of medicine at Boston University Medical Center. Yet it’s critical, she says, in managing high blood pressure to work healthy habits into your daily life in ways that you can sustain over the long term. “You have to be able to live with the changes you make,” says Gavras, who recently chaired the professional and public education committee for the American Heart Association’s Council for High Blood Pressure Research.
For example, do your healthier eating habits fit seamlessly into your day? Or is it an ongoing struggle to eat well? Which things challenge you most? Remember, you don’t need to give up your favorite high-fat foods, you just need to eat fewer of them. Weight-loss programs, such as Jenny Craig, can be very helpful, Gavras says. But any changes you make have to last after you leave the program. Take an inventory of the ways you’ve altered your diet. Can you see yourself doing them in six months? If not, figure out your problem areas and look for healthy options that work for you.
The same principle applies to exercise (as well as other habits). Are there ways to blend activity more easily into your life? If it’s hard to work out for at least 30 minutes straight some days, research shows that it is just as effective to break it up into three 10-minute segments. Think of other strategies for making exercise a normal part of your daily routine — as much a habit as brushing your teeth. Here are some other ways to build on the steps you’ve already taken:
- Revisit your reasons for wanting to change. Because high blood pressure usually has no symptoms, it isn’t as easy to remember how serious a condition it is. To help you stay on track, it may help to remember that unchecked high blood pressure makes it harder for your heart to pump blood through your arteries. Over time, this can cause damage to your cardiovascular system, kidneys and other organs, increasing your risk for stroke, heart attack and kidney failure. The changes you have made today will go a long way toward reducing your risk for serious health problems in the future.
- Accentuate the positive. At first, your focus may have been on what you can’t eat, such as salty snacks. Now, shift your focus to the appetizing foods you can eat. Which of your old favorites are still in your diet (or can be with modifications)? What new flavors have you tried and enjoyed since cutting back on sodium?
- Reward yourself. When you meet a goal, such as going without cigarettes for a week, reward yourself with a long, hot bath or a new CD. Documenting your progress in a diary can be a reward in itself. Don’t get discouraged by minor setbacks. If you veer off course, just steer back on.
- Ask for support. There’s help for you, whatever your challenge. For example, a support group can help you stop smoking. What is your greatest challenge? What would make it easier? Use your health care team to find solutions that work for you.
Manage Your Medications
If you’re on high blood pressure medication, you need to take it regularly, even after your blood pressure is controlled. For some people, this is a challenge because while they had no symptoms of high blood pressure, their medication may cause side effects.
“High blood pressure is called the silent killer because there are no symptoms,” Gavras says. While medication side effects sometimes can be unpleasant for some patients, “we don’t want them to say, ‘I felt so much better before,’ and stop taking their medicine.”
Instead, work with your doctor to see whether there are ways to lessen side effects. Your doctor may be able to adjust your dosage or prescribe a different drug. It’s not unusual for it to take several months to find the combination of medications that’s best for you, so hang in there. And remember, don’t stop taking any medication without first consulting your doctor.
Keep Up the Good Work
You’ve come a long way since the days when you didn’t know you had high blood pressure. Congratulate yourself on the healthier path you’ve taken since then! It’s often a challenge to change habits that we’ve held our whole lives, but you can do it, and your efforts are well worth it. By sticking with your treatment, you’re choosing to take the best possible care of yourself so that you can squeeze every bit of enjoyment out of a full and rewarding life.
For more information on managing high blood pressure, go to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Web site at www.nhlbi.nih.gov.
Stay on Track
To help stick with your treatment plan, try these tips.
Weight loss: Make a list of the emotional rewards you’ve felt since losing weight, such as your sense of accomplishment, greater self-control, fewer mood swings and pride in your trimmer shape.
My emotional rewards:
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Exercise: Ask friends or family to exercise with you one or more times per week. They’ll help you stay motivated and get more fit themselves!
My exercise buddy is:
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Diet: Keep a food diary. Write what you eat, how much, when and why for several days. This can help you focus on making healthy choices and reveal places where you can do even better.
Salt: Cut back on processed foods, the worst culprits when it comes to sodium in most people’s diet.
My top three high-sodium foods to cut back on are:
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Medication: Each time you pick up a prescription refill, make a note in your calendar one week before it will run out reminding yourself to get your next refill.
I’ll remember my medications by:
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Stress: It’s not clear how stress affects long-term blood pressure. But it may prompt you to overeat, smoke, skip your workout or drink excess alcohol, which can interfere with your treatment. So practice a stress-buster every day -- simply sitting quietly for five minutes and imagining a beautiful scene can help.
My favorite ways to relax are:
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