 Welcome to nursing school explain in this video on lifestyle changes that can help to reduce blood pressure As we know hypertension is a very common disorder in our society and there are many ways to treat this but the number one thing We should always recommend to our patients our lifestyle changes because not only do they help reduce blood pressure Intern they also help reduce many of the complications and other bad things that can happen in association with blood pressure So let's look at this. I've listed them out in a table form here in lifestyle Modification and then the possible reduction in the systolic blood pressure, which is absolutely fabulous Because it saves the patient from maybe having to go on blood pressure medications If it's just slightly elevated or it might help to minimize the medications They need to be on because let's keep in mind every medication has side effects And if we can just treat it by my lifestyle modifications We might just be able to treat the patient without or with just minimizing the blood pressure medications They need to be on and those are all lifestyle modifications that occur or that we can modify to reduce the risk factors And if you watch my video on hypertension that I'll link to right here in the card section you can see those risk factors and then you can make the link as to why it's important to Modify these lifestyle changes these lifestyle habits So first of all weight management being of normal weight is very important because we know that obesity and overweight cause Epidemia and Therefore if they can lead to hypertension so a weight reduction in 10 kilos, which is 22 pounds Can possibly lead to a systolic blood pressure reduction of 5 to 20? Millimeters of mercury so a significant reduction here, and this is really the most important factor and with the most Decrease possible decrease in systolic blood pressure Now secondary we have this thing called the dash diet. You've might have heard of might have heard about this before It's called the dietary approaches to stop hypertension And what that means is we need to stay away from processed foods the more Closely the food comes from its sources the more the fresher the vegetables are the darker the greeny the leafy greens are The better it is so the less processed the food is the less packaged foods We consume the more closely it comes from the farm itself The better it is for us and that includes a good variety of vegetables and fruits an important aspect are also whole grains such as Brown rice and all the legumes such as beans and lentils And really mostly what the research shows now at that that a mostly plant-based diet Benefits patients to reduce hypertension and all these other cardiovascular risk factors. So we also want to minimize dairy products as well as processed cheeses and Then meats and fish and if you consume those make sure that you consume those from a Reputable source where hopefully the animals haven't been treated with antibiotics and growth hormones and Where it's safe to consume that but also we want to keep that in moderation. So most of those dietary Changes or most of the diet that we consume should come from natural sources It's always better to eat vegetables that are fresh rather than coming out of a jar out of a can or being frozen before Those are always have always have the most nutritional value and then and these dash Dietary changes can reduce the systolic blood pressure by 8 to 14 millimeters of mercury which also is significant Then thirdly Reducing dietary sodium definitely helps Typically the recommendation is we need about 2300 milligrams of sodium per day, but for somebody with hypertension They really should stick to a less than 15 milligrams of sodium per day And that really goes hand-in-hand with the dash diet because if we consume fresh Food then we don't have all the preservatives that many times are high in sodium and therefore we just eliminate the sodium just by simply Consuming fresh goods and if you really start reading food labels, which is super important to do you can see the sodium content of One serving of whatever food you are consuming and you'll be surprised by what items contain sodium and by how much it is per Serving sometimes a serving can be a cup Sometimes it can just be a tablespoon and the sodium contents vary greatly and just keep in mind that if you consume three tablespoons Of a certain product then you have to multiply the sodium content and really everything on that food label by three And you if you really start paying attention it adds up quickly So the more we can stick to natural foods the more the less they processed are the less sodium content They also have and this can lead to a reduction in blood pressure of two to eight millimeters of mercury which are also quite significant Then fourthly here moderate alcohol consumption because alcohol is a risk factor for hypertension And in general and I didn't make this this is the recommendations from the scientists that the studies have shown over time It's two drinks for per day for men and one drink per day for women per day, let's add this here per day and a drink typically Consists of 30 milliliters or one ounce of spirit So that would be hard liquor or 12 ounces of beer or a regular small-sized glass or five ounces or a small glass of wine And keep in mind that although it says per day We should always discuss that only because for a man for example, you could have two drinks per day so two beers per day You can't save them all up and then have 14 drinks on a Saturday when you go out So that is very important to mention. It's kind of funny that we have to mention that but that could certainly Be a contributing factor to somebody having a problem with too much alcohol consumption and if we keep Alcohol consumption to moderate levels. We can reduce blood pressure by two to four millimeters of mercury Which is also really nice and significant and then physical activity as a big one here That'll help with both weight management and also eating better will help with weight management and then physical activity The recommendation is 30 minutes on most days of the week and that is moderate Activity where you break in this in a in a moderate sweat. You don't have to do You know marathon training just a brisk walk around the block for at least 30 minutes Most of the week most days of the week or whatever exercise it is that you prefer Swimming biking Yoga any kind of activity you can really think that makes you happy that Also will help you with compliance and get into it on a regular basis But 30 minutes of exercise on most days will help to reduce blood pressure of four to nine millimeters of mercury So also very significant and then here two other things Avoiding tobacco because we know that tobacco also leads to hypertension. So helping patients stopping That tobacco consumption, but maybe helping them with nicotine Patches or gums or whatever it is that's going to work for them to stop that habit And then manage psychological risk factors such as depression anxiety stress and isolation Because for those two we don't really have any Numbers that we can put on as to how it can help reduce systolic blood pressure But we know that stress and anxiety and overall Mental poor mental health can also lead to hypertension because it just increases our stress so if we can manage the psychological risk factor as well by again physical activity eating well talking to somebody when we have problems and Really taking care of our mental health. It will also benefit in reducing hypertension So now if we look at all these lifestyle Modifications and what they can do to possibly Reduce the systolic blood pressure if we add these up if we do all of these and we adhere to them We can possibly reduce the systolic blood pressure by 21 to 55 millimeters of mercury and that is Significant and that can be done without any kind of medication. So that's why we should always recommend this first to our patients to see if we can Manage their risk factors as well as the hypertension with lifestyle changes And if you really think about it the recommendations now are for a systolic blood pressure to be less than 120 So if a patient has a systolic blood pressure in the 140s consistently really they would only need to reduce it by about 20 to 30 points and So it can easily accomplished by a combination of those and they might not fall exactly in these ranges But certainly we could get to the goal of the systolic blood pressure less than 120 with just lifestyle modifications Now as to the recommendations the current recommendations for blood pressure guidelines Please see my other videos where I discussed a sprint study where the research was done and to determine what numbers of hypertension are Considered dangerous and when we should start managing our patients and I'll put the video link up right here So you can refer to it later. So thank you for watching this video On lifestyle changes for reducing high blood pressure Keep in mind that these are pretty simple to attain which is to really have to encourage our patients To do these things that will help them not only manage their blood pressure, but also their mental health overall Feel better reduce their risk factors for heart disease Stroke effects on the kidneys on the peripheral vascular, their eyes and all those bad things that can occur with Undetected or blood pressure that is out of control Thank you so much for watching this video. Please also check out my other videos I'll put them in the description below So you have easy reference and I'll see you soon right here on nursing school explain. Thanks for watching