When I take long road trips, I always wonder when I see beautiful mansions on the side of the highway “why on Earth would anyone build such a beautiful home right there?” Well, there are more than aesthetic reasons for not building your home right next to a busy road. According to a team at Lund University in Sweden, people who live near a noisy road are at a greater risk of developing high blood pressure.
The health risk was even higher when the noise rose above an average daily exposure of 60 decibels. That accounts for about one in four people in western Europe. No comparable analysis was done on how many people would be affected in the U.S.
What is Potassium?
It’s an element and an electrolyte. Your body needs potassium for proper growth and maintenance; it helps keep water balance between cells and body fluids, plays an essential role in response of nerves to stimulation and contraction of muscles. Potassium is crucial in proper heart function, put simply it triggers your heart to beat and pump blood through your body. Lower levels of potassium have been linked to increased or high blood pressure. Research has shown that individuals that consume adequate amounts of potassium have a lower risk of having a stroke. Also, there has been no clear link between potassium and lower cholesterol, but cholesterol–lowering diets that contain high amounts of potassium have been shown to be beneficial.
There’s a running joke in my family about my distaste for beets. It all started when, as a kid, my grandmother would whip out her canned beets, and I would turn up my nose. Granted, the source of the joke was from my adolescent years, and I’ve lightened up a little on the gag reflex (I don’t mind shredded beets on a salad), but that doesn’t stop the ribbing from my family members.
Even though beets don’t repulse me like they did as a child, I don’t think the following new research on its health benefits will change me that much, even if it’s good for me:
A new study has found that a serving of beet juice helps lower blood pressure in healthy people. While further confirmation is needed and the study was small, the initial results are promising.
As more of our population become obese and overweight, obesity diseases become much more prevalent. Hypertension is one such disease, and here I explain what it is, why it affects the overweight, symptoms and prevention.
What is it?
Hypertension is one word meaning elevated or high blood pressure. Known as the “silent killer” due to it being asymptomatic (not showing significant signs or symptoms). It typically leads to having a fatal stroke or heart attack. High blood pressure is defined as having a consistently elevated arterial blood pressure. When a doctor or nurse takes your blood pressure, they measure the systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Being hypertensive means you have a systolic blood pressure above 140mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure is above 90mm Hg (normal blood pressure = systolic of 130mm Hg and diastolic of 85mm Hg). Untreated hypertension can result in heart failure, renal disease, and peripheral vascular disease.
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