Hypertension often occurs in the elderly. If you do not know the cause in advance and take preventive measures, some bad habits will affect blood pressure changes for a long time, which will cause chronic diseases over time.
Hypertension is a chronic disease that is difficult to control and may also cause complications, such as hypertensive nephropathy and hypertensive heart disease, which are all related to blood pressure fluctuations. Therefore, we must understand the reasons why middle-aged and elderly people are prone to diseases and take the right way to prevent them.
Why are middle-aged and elderly people prone to hypertension?
- Lack of exercise Middle-aged and elderly people are targeted by hypertension, which may be due to long-term lack of exercise. Many people have reduced exercise capacity as they age, so they have no exercise for a long time. Lack of exercise has a great impact on health, which can easily reduce physical fitness and make blood more viscous.
In addition, obesity is also related to insufficient exercise, and the more obese people are, the higher the probability of chronic diseases. If you can devote yourself to exercise and choose exercises that are suitable for your own intensity to achieve good exercise effects, blood vessels will dilate after exercise, and blood pressure will be reduced. It can also promote circulation and metabolism and improve blood viscosity.
- Poor eating habits The reason why middle-aged and elderly people have high blood pressure is not ruled out as improper long-term diet. To maintain the body, one should eat in moderation and choose healthy food to get nutrition. However, some elderly people eat whatever they want. Because they do not have digestive system diseases, they basically have no taboos in terms of diet. In fact, eating too much of some foods will affect the body's blood pressure, such as high-sugar foods, high-cholesterol foods, and high-salt foods.
For the sake of health, foods that are easy to increase blood pressure must be eaten less.
- Genetic factors affect the occurrence of high blood pressure in middle-aged and elderly people and genetic factors. If good habits are not formed from a young age, and there are genetic factors, it is easier to get sick.
When people reach middle age and old age, their blood pressure begins to fluctuate. If they do not have regular checks and good habits of controlling blood pressure are not formed, their blood pressure will change under the combined influence of other bad behaviors and genetic factors. Compared with those who do not have genetic risks, the chance of getting sick will increase.
- Smoking and drinking are prone to high blood pressure in middle-aged and elderly people, which is related to smoking and drinking a lot when they are young. The harmful substances in them are constantly acquired, which will affect health after accumulation in the body. In addition to reducing organ function and affecting the health of the immune system, it will also cause chronic diseases.
The longer you smoke, the greater the possibility of disease. When you reach middle-aged and elderly, the body will be significantly damaged and the disease will appear. Some people have developed good habits and basically do not touch tobacco and alcohol, which can improve the lung and liver function while keeping chronic diseases away.
- Vascular lesions Some middle-aged and elderly people have already developed vascular lesions before they suffer from hypertension. This is mainly caused by toxins irritating blood vessels after ingestion, or other diseases affecting local vascular function.
The more common ones are thrombosis or atherosclerosis. No matter which case, it may cause hypertension. In the early stage, it is secondary hypertension, and it will become a primary disease after further development.
So how can we keep blood pressure stable and not rise if we have hypertension? Carefully doing the following 3 things will help stabilize blood pressure and not rise.
- Low-salt diet In daily life, salt has become an indispensable ingredient for us to steam and cook food, stir-fry, etc. Of course, while it brings convenience to us humans, it also has some defects.
Long-term high-dose consumption of salt can easily lead to changes in blood vessels and cause high blood pressure, followed by a series of diseases such as hypertension and coronary heart disease, thus affecting our quality of life.
Then the probability of elderly people suffering from hypertension in life has also increased significantly. What should we do? Note that the daily amount of salt is less than 6g and cannot exceed 6g. Limiting salt consumption helps to maintain stable blood pressure.
- Low-fat diet fat comes from meat foods such as pork, chicken, lamb, beef, fish and seafood.
Long-term consumption of these high-fat foods can easily cause obesity and vascular diseases and other diseases, among which hypertension and hyperlipidemia are more common diseases. Elderly people with hypertension should have a low-fat diet, eat less meat, and eat a light diet, which helps stabilize blood pressure.
- Appropriate exercise Elderly patients with hypertension should also develop good living habits, rest more, and exercise appropriately, which can help promote blood circulation and lower cholesterol, which are all helpful for lowering blood pressure, but excessive exercise is not suitable, otherwise it will lead to the onset of hypertension.
At what moments should we pay more attention to prevent blood pressure fluctuations
●Sudden drop in temperature: In winter and spring, when cold currents pass and the weather cools down, hypertension and stroke are more common. Therefore, patients with hypertension should keep warm.
●Large emotional fluctuations: When people are angry, sad, afraid or overjoyed, their blood pressure will suddenly rise, their heart rate will accelerate, and they are likely to induce cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Therefore, patients with hypertension should avoid getting angry and anxious.
●Nighttime sleep: Normal people's blood pressure is "high during the day and low at night", that is, the blood pressure level at night will be 10%~20% lower than the daytime blood pressure (spoon-shaped blood pressure). Elderly patients with hypertension have abnormal circadian rhythm of blood pressure, and even show that the blood pressure at night does not drop but rises compared to the daytime (non-spoon-shaped blood pressure), which significantly increases the risk of damage to organs such as the heart, brain, and kidneys.
●When waking up in the morning: Hypertension in the elderly is easily affected by changes in body position, especially during antihypertensive drug treatment. When the body position changes from lying flat to sitting up, the blood pressure will suddenly drop, and dizziness and fainting are likely to occur.
● Holding your breath to defecate: The elderly often have habitual constipation. When holding your breath to defecate, the abdominal pressure increases, which can increase blood pressure. In severe cases, cerebral hemorrhage may occur. In addition, forceful defecation also puts pressure on the heart and can easily lead to myocardial infarction.
● Bathing: The elderly have weak constitutions, poor temperature regulation and vasoconstriction functions, and their blood pressure is prone to fluctuations under the stimulation of hot or cold water. Therefore, the water temperature should not be too high or the time should not be too long when elderly patients take hot baths.
● Not taking medicine on time: After being diagnosed with hypertension, if irregular treatment is not used to control blood pressure, it may induce or promote the occurrence and development of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. In terms of heart disease, it can induce or aggravate hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, heart failure, myocardial infarction, etc.; in terms of cerebrovascular diseases, it can induce or promote cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage, etc.
● 1-2 hours after a meal: After a meal, the digestive system needs a larger blood supply to operate, and the blood supply to the heart and brain will be relatively reduced. The elderly have relatively weak blood pressure regulation function, which can easily lead to postprandial hypotension, dizziness, fatigue, pale complexion, fainting, etc.
