I)            DAMAGES DUE TO HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE TO THE HEART AND TO OTHER BODY ORGANS:-

               When the blood pressure is high, the heart has to work harder than it should, in order to pump blood to different parts of the body. Excess pressure on the arterial walls caused by high B.P. can damage blood vessels and the organs in our body. The higher the B.P. and longer it goes uncontrolled, the greater the damage. Uncontrolled high B.P. results in:- 

1)     Hardening and thickening of arteries (Atherosclerosis) which can lead to heart attack and stroke.

2)     Causes blood vessels to weaken and bulge, which can be life threatening.

3)     Make the heart abnormally large and less efficient, eventually leading to heart failure. Always make sure that you get B.P. checked up regularly even if you are taking medication.

           Our aim should be to maintain B.P. always below 140/90mm of Hg. Ideally, it should be in the range of 120/80 to 140/90mm of Hg.

           It is a vital need for every human being to create awareness to keep himself / herself fit and healthy for active efficient lively activities as B.P. is most important factor  for keeping heart and all other body organs fit.

         All our body organs including the vital organs receive energy for their functional activity from the blood. Heart is the only organ which by efficient pumping force, supplies blood to various organs. All organs die if the blood supply to them is arrested or cut off due to any reason.

         When peripheral vessels are narrowed down due to atherosclerosis or any other obstruction, the affected organ or part of it gets necrosed and loses its functional activity. Symptoms or complaints will depend according to the affected organ such as in case of eyes, it will lead to partial loss of vision or even total blindness depending on the vascular damage of  the Retina. In case of  the Brain, it will lead to cerebro vascular strokes and in case of heart, it may lead to heart attack or infarction of heart muscle or even cardiac arrest and immediate death. 

        Only in the initial stages B.P. can be well controlled by natural means. If the B.P. is progressively increased and remains high persistently, one has to depend on medicines which are supposed to be taken regularly for the whole life time to maintain it under control. This will also need constant and frequent medical check-ups and several investigations and sometimes even hospitalizations.

II)             FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR RAISED BLOOD PRESSURE:-

 a)   Personal habitat and wrong life style 

        Anger, emotions, irritabilities due to bad temper, restlessness for competitive existence of life, impatient attitude. Hurry for achieving higher goals, aims and desires in a short space of time cause a lot of anxiety and worries.

 b)   Food habits     

                   Rich food with high content of oils, fats and proteins, excessive amount of sweets frequent and irregular eating  tobacco chewing or smoking, excessive  consumption of alcohol, absolute sedentary life style with high consumption of heavy foods.

c)   Stress

                    In the modern world atmosphere stress is the most important cause for increased blood pressure. At the time of stress high amount of Noradrenaline and other stress hormones are liberated in the body due to ‘FIGHT OR FLEE’ response, which are responsible for contraction of the arterioles in the capillary vasculature. Due to failure of this mechanism, toxic products are not transported to the liver or kidneys where they are supposed to be excreted from the body. Retention of these toxic products leads to hypertension. Initially heart tries to meet with the stress response by pumping increased volume of blood to various organs. But if the stress persists frequently, the heart loses its compensation and becomes unable to force required volume of blood to the concerned organs leading to various disorders and ailments.

d)   Smoking

                   Tobacco contains Nicotinic Acid which causes spasm of arterioles in the capillary system provided in the bed of the vasculature of the blood vessels. Due to the spasm or contraction of these arterioles, the heart beats against the raised pressure, to supply sufficient amount of blood for adequate oxygenation; this compensatory mechanism is lost due to persistent high blood pressure. Later on heart dilates and failure takes place. This compensatory mechanism fails as the age advances.

 e)    Alcohol

                   Alcohol contains a lot of saturated fatty acids. Along with alcohol lot of other food stuffs like fried foods, dry fruits, meat, etc are ingested. The amount of calories is highly increased. The fats and protein liberate lot of saturated fatty acids, lipids, and heavy amount of cholesterol, leading to constant vascular damage and hence resulting into hypertension; constant heavy pressure on the heart results in its failure.

 f)     Obesity

                   Due to excessive consumption of heavy high caloric foods and fatty acids and lack of exercise the body weight increases considerably giving rise to obesity. Due to obesity, cholesterol and lipids are deposited in the big vessels causing narrowing of their lumen affecting the blood supply to various body organs leading to failure, if the causative factors are not corrected within a short period of time.

g)     Metabolic Disorders

                Diabetes and obesity are most important metabolic disorders responsible for hypertension. They are silent killers even causing death without giving rise to any symptoms or complaints. People do not visit any medical fraternity as they have no complaints in their lively activities. Hence it is most important to be aware of one’s own blood pressure all the time throughout the life to maintain good health and vigor. Diabetics are two to four times more prone to have heart attacks. In women, the risk appears to be high. High blood sugar levels thicken the walls of blood vessels and make blood more sticky. The blood cells of diabetics tend to clump and clog the vessels leading to hypertension and heart failure. Other risk factors such as high cholesterol levels and high B.P. further complicate the matters.

h)     Role Of High Cholesterol (Hyper Cholesterolemia) In Hypertension 

                The high level of cholesterol in the blood can make a person prone to hypertension and coronary heart disease that may lead to heart attack. It is a silent condition without any symptomatology. Cholesterol is soft, waxy substance found among lipids (fatty acids) in the blood stream and in all our body cells. Since cholesterol is unable to dissolve in our blood on its own it has to be transported from our cells by special carriers called Lipoproteins. There are two varieties of Lipoproteins.  i) Low density lipoprotein (L.D.L) and  ii) high density  lipoproteins (HDL). The HDL is good and friendly to the heart, therefore, it is called good cholesterol as it helps in excretion of bad (LDL) cholesterol. LDL is called bad cholesterol as it leads to narrowing of lumen of the blood vessels and heart attack.

          High level of LDL in blood leads to hardening and narrowing of arteries and reduce blood flow to different organs, especially to the heart. On the other hand, HDL which carries cholesterol from the arteries back to the liver from where it is excreted soaks up extra cholesterol from plaques and slows down the progression of coronary heart disease and heart attack. Low HDL (<40mg/dl) may actually increase the risk of coronary artery disease and strokes. High HDL above 100mg/dl decreases  risk of coronary artery disease and strokes. Advantage of HDL is found in good fats like mono and poly unsaturated fats, which helps losing extra kilo of weight that helps in lowering LDL. Walking and physical exercises increase HDL. Anxiety causes release of stress hormones making blood sticky, causing plaque formation in the vessels and also causing vascular spasms and arrhythmias. Anxiety is dangerous for one simple reason; it causes release of stress hormones which make blood sticky and pushes up risk of heart attacks. Stress hormones make their impact felt quickly. In some cases anxiety has also triggered heart vessels spasm and arrhythmias.

III)        Various natural ways to maintain normal  blood pressure:- 

    1)      Disciplined life style, regular brisk walking, and relief of emotional habits, Anxieties, irritability, avoiding of unnecessary unwanted desires, impatience and control of anger. All these factors cause release of stress hormones in the blood stream and are, therefore, responsible for narrowing of lumen of blood vessels leading to high blood pressure. These factors cannot be corrected by way of medicines. All temperamental factors can be corrected by socio-economical ways. First of all our own faith and determination to improve upon the temperamental factors that determination to improve upon the temperamental factors is very essential. Secondly, constant association of disciplined people who are self realized, believing in God, constant company of such calm and quiet persons help in changing the behavioral pattern of life very effectively.

    2)        CORRECTION OF FOOD HABITS

                    For a sedentary worker, diet should not be more than 1200-1500 calories. For a heavy worker diet should not exceed beyond 2500 calories. Quality of diet has to be always kept in mind; it should contain sufficient carbohydrates, proteins and low fats, vitamins, minerals, low salt and sodium. Magnesium helps in relaxation of muscles and thus excretion of LDL cholesterol. Extra sugars and fried food (fast foods) should always be avoided. Sufficient amount of carbohydrates, proteins and fat is always available in all vegetables, whole grains cereals and fruits. Non vegetarian diet contains a lot of saturated fatty acids and lipids, cause increase in LDL (low density lipoproteins) which reduces lumen of the blood vessels specially the coronary arteries, hence animal proteins and fats are not advisable especially in the advancing age.

It has been well realized that God has made this body machine which works automatically, rectifying all faults in the body which are created due to our own bad habits and due to bad life style. If we do not care, in spite go on adding insults to our body continuously, a day will  come when the heart will fail to respond further and start deteriorating. Every individual is always pre-warned by mechanism of his own body about the mistakes of behavioral habits and diet. Because of our Ignorance, temptations, lust and taste, we do not respond to these mistakes repeatedly. Not obeying to God’s warnings, lead to failure of this mysterious body machine causing permanent deterioration of all body organs.

  3)         REGULAR WALKING AND EXERCISES

            Walking and exercises keep all body organs, joints, bones and muscles fit and healthy. Exercises help in excretion of all toxic products produced by the body by increasing blood circulation to various body organs, bones and muscles. Metabolism of all food products that we take daily, improve by exercise. Proper amount of energy is received by all body organs due to improved digestion. Due to walking, HDL transports more amount of LDL (Bad cholesterol) from the body and, therefore, the amount of HDL (good cholesterol) increases; hence occurrence of hypertension and heart attack is considerably reduced. Exercises help in ‘Fight or Flee response’ Whenever the stress demands, exercises are most logical and beneficial to the stressful situation, as it reduces duration and the intensity of the stressful response and helps body to return to relaxed and balanced state. Consider exercising at the end of day to rid of the body stress by- products which are built- up in the course of the daily body activities.

 4)         BREATHING EXERCISES (PRANAYAM)

Shallow and rapid breathing is a natural response to stress. This means lower amount of oxygen is taken in each breath. Deep breathing can reverse this. It can also help relieve stress connected head aches back aches, stomach aches and sleeplessness. In deep breathing large amount of oxygen is inhaled resulting in high oxygen saturation of blood, hence body organs receive more oxygen  increasing  their energy and vitality, body organs can perform their functions to the best of their capacity. All toxic byproducts produced in the body from day to day activity are well excreted, thus the blood pressure and organic functions are well maintained.

 5)          YOGA AND MEDITATION

                  Meditation is a process to concentrate upon the mind for clearance of various thoughts which are rapidly generated in our mind. Thoughts lead us to actions and habit formation. Habits make our destiny. In order to achieve our aims and goals of life, we have to be absolutely clear in our thoughts. The mind is a thought producing machine which has to be controlled by concentrating on our breathing / respiration. Best time to do meditation is early morning or before breakfast or before dinner in the evening. Begin with 10 minutes and gradually go on increasing time interval. During meditation the breathing process is very slow and deep. Lot of oxygen is inhaled during inspiration and lot of CO2 is exhaled during expiration. Always there is a ‘Pause’ between inspiration and expiration. Optimal exchange of CO2 from impure blood and oxygen from pure blood is most efficiently exchanged; with the result blood is highly saturated with oxygen. Brain and all other vital organs receive large amount of oxygen, hence one feels most fresh and active after meditation. This process also increases vitality which helps in improving consciousness of our mind. Due to slow and deep respiration, mind becomes quiet and its thought parade is minimized to a very large extent. With stillness of the mind and thoughts, our desires are reduced, restlessness, anger, worries together with all other emotions are highly controlled. Whole day is passed in peace with the result our demands are reduced and gain wisdom for self realization. Relief of stress leads to more generation of HDL cholesterol and decrease in LDL cholesterol, thus blood pressure is well controlled and chances of heart attack are considerably reduced.

 6)           RELAXATION

            Relaxation of whole body and mind is very beneficial as during this state the body organs, heart, brain, and all the body muscles receive energy and get vitalized. All the while heart is acting for supplying blood and nourishment to all other organs of the body but only during the state of relaxation heart receive its own nourishment through the coronary vessels. If the period of relaxation is reduced due to stress the nourishment of heart will also be reduced, hence there will be reduction of its function too. Tired heart will ultimately lead to hypertension and heart failure. All injuries and insults to body are taken care of during the relaxation pause. Increase in relaxation reduces tension, heart rate and also the blood pressure. Consequently all disorders and ailments are reduced.

     Simple life style modifications are key to success in maintaing normal BP, which are:-

a)      Maintain healthy weight by being physically active.

b)      Healthy Diet with low salt and sodium.

c)      Omit Tobacco specially smoking and cut down alcohol.