There are certain points a person suffering from high blood pressure should remember regarding dietary management of high blood pressure for maintaining good patients’ health of the hypertensive patient. Most important aspect he/she (the hypertensive patient) should know is that the cause of hypertension is generally not clearly known and he/she should avoid factors which may add or aggravate hypertension and increase blood pressure. He/she should understand what hypertension is and learn how to control it through diet and adequate physical exercise.

It is important to understand by the hypertensive person that the treatment of hypertension is lifelong and only lifestyle modification can be of long lasting. Hypertension unlike other diseases is a chronic disease and there is no cure for the disease. The person suffering from hypertension needs to take medication for life. If you have hypertension and if you think you will take medication for hypertension and after the blood pressure comes down to normal, you can stop taking medication, than you are wrong, absolutely wrong. You need to take medication lifelong and good lifestyle modification can reduce the need of medication, but can not supplement the medication.

The following points should be kept in mind:

• Diet of hypertensive person is more or less normal and with proper understanding of hypertension patients’ health can be maintained at desired health state.
• Salt (sodium chloride) is one of the most important causative factors in high blood pressure and should avoid as much as is practicable. Restriction of common salt is one of the most useful non drug management of hypertension.
• Alcohol in moderation (approximately 30-50 ml per day) is beneficial in high blood pressure and heart diseases.
• Regular aerobic exercise to reduce weight is essential part of treatment of high blood pressure. It is possible o reduce blood pressure to some extent only by reducing body weight to normal or slightly below ideal body weight.
• Healthy lifestyle with regular physical exercise, intake of high fiber diet with fresh fruits and vegetables and restriction of fast foods or refined food is essential. Lifestyle modification should be permanent and not for few moths or few years. You should make healthy lifestyle a habit (habit is second nature).

N.B.: There is a saying about habit. If you remove “h”, ‘a bit’ remains. If you remove “a”, ‘bit’ of it still remains. If you remove “b”, still ‘it’ remains. So make healthy lifestyle a habit, and it will remain life long. If you have hypertension only good dietary habits can be helpful, as you need to follow good dietary habits lifelong.

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