What exactly should elderly patients with hypertension do?
In general, it includes three points.
(1) Adopt a correct lifestyle;
(2) Proper drug therapy and careful blood pressure monitoring;
(3) Active cooperation of traditional Chinese medicine and health care.
Elderly patients with hypertension should first adopt a correct lifestyle, because adopting a correct lifestyle not only enables blood pressure to be controlled, but also treats risk factors, reduces drug dosage and adverse reactions, and is an effective measure to prevent and treat hypertension and related cardiovascular diseases.
The correct lifestyle includes the following aspects.
1, maintain a good mental state
Mental factors are a major cause of hypertension, and maintaining a good mental state is important for the treatment and rehabilitation of elderly patients with hypertension. So, how to maintain a good mental state? First of all, we should treat the disease correctly, not to care, and not to care too much. Do not care is easy to delay the loss of treatment, complications greatly increased; and too care is easy to lead to anxiety, tension, panic and other bad emotions, but make the blood pressure rise. Secondly, to treat life correctly, firm belief in a good life, and strive to be open-minded, optimistic and open-minded, do not sulk when encountering troublesome things, “a vomit for pleasure” is good for health.
Third, we should arrange a rich leisure life, try to participate in some social activities within their reach, in the collective, to develop their own interests and hobbies, so that life is more fulfilling. Fourth, in the face of various complex interpersonal relationships in the family, unit, society, to maintain harmonious interpersonal relationships, rational regulation of the psychological state, when things are properly handled, “take it, put it down” in order to actively resolve the negative emotions caused by abnormal psycho-physiological reactions.
2.Control weight
Overweight and obesity have been proven to be risk factors for hypertension, and some studies have found that the risk of developing hypertension in obese people is eight times higher than in people of normal weight. So elderly hypertensive patients should actively control their weight. Standard weight (kg) = height (cm) – 105. Chinese body mass index (BMI) [= weight (kg) / height 2 (m2)] normal value is 20 ~ 24, 25 ~ 27 is overweight, more than 27 is obese. The main method of weight control is to control the amount of diet, total fat intake should be controlled at less than 20% of total calories, eat less food with high sugar content, avoid eating too much, advocate eating less and more meals, and should pay attention to dietary balance and combined with appropriate amount of physical exercise.
3.Rational dietary structure
The traditional Chinese diet is characterized by carbohydrates as the main food, especially the high quality animal protein is low; the intake of salt is high but potassium, calcium, magnesium and fiber is low. Since we are not eating a single nutrient, but a variety of foods containing multiple nutrients, the effect of the entire diet type on blood pressure is a more complex issue.
Generally speaking the dietary requirements are as follows: firstly, total calories should be limited to maintain standard weight; secondly, total fat should be limited, cholesterol should be controlled below 300mg per day and vegetable oil should not exceed 20g/d; thirdly, low salt diet and more vegetables, fruits and other foods rich in potassium and calcium; fourthly, regular meals should be fixed at regular intervals and dinner should be arranged with light and easily digestible food.
4, reduce sodium intake
High-salt diet is one of the three major risk factors causing hypertension, along with high salt intake, the average blood pressure of the population, blood pressure are significantly higher with the growth rate of age. Foreign data show that if the intake of sodium chloride in food exceeds 4g/d, hypertension and its cardiovascular complications are more common, on the contrary, below this level the incidence of hypertension is significantly reduced. A study of 14 population groups in China showed that an increase in dietary intake by an average of 2 g per day increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 2.0 mmHg and 1.2 mmHg, respectively.
Therefore, limiting salt intake is not only an important item in the prevention of hypertension, but also a powerful measure in the treatment of hypertension. What is the appropriate daily salt intake for a normal person? The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a daily salt intake of no more than 6 g. It should be noted that not all people who eat too much salt will suffer from hypertension, different individuals have different sensitivities to the blood pressure response to salt intake, some are sensitive, some are not, or even antagonistic, and more than half of patients with primary hypertension are salt-sensitive.
5, the right amount of exercise
”Life is exercise”, physical exercise as a measure to effectively control hypertension, with natural, easy to do, low cost and other characteristics. For elderly patients with hypertension appropriate exercise is aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise is an endurance exercise with the main purpose of increasing the inhalation and delivery of nourishing Qi. Throughout aerobic exercise, the body inhales roughly the same amount of oxygen as it requires. This exercise can increase and improve cardiopulmonary function, reduce body fat, increase bone density, and improve the degree of mental balance.
From a biochemical point of view, aerobic exercise is the most efficient exercise for the body’s oxygen metabolism. There are many ways of aerobic exercise, such as walking, jogging, swimming, boxing, doing exercises, etc. Elderly patients with hypertension should choose simple exercises to avoid accidents when they are doing physical exercise. And pay attention to the amount of exercise to be appropriate, to avoid overexertion. Among them, playing taijiquan is simple and practical, but also can improve the function of the nervous system, it is worth advocating the promotion.
6, quit smoking and limit alcohol
Smoking is an important risk factor for hypertension and ischemic heart disease. The prevalence of hypertension is significantly higher in smokers than in non-smokers. Tobacco contains a variety of harmful chemicals, which can damage the vascular endothelial cells, increase blood viscosity, interfere with drug and lipid metabolism. Therefore, for elderly patients with hypertension, smoking can further increase blood pressure, promote the formation of atherosclerosis, reduce the efficacy of drugs, and also increase the risk of stroke, and the most effective way to eliminate the harm of smoking is to quit smoking. Similarly, for elderly patients with hypertension, especially those who have already experienced target organ damage such as heart and brain, they should try to quit drinking, at least within the range recommended by the World Health Organization, that is, the daily consumption of ethanol should not exceed 20-30g for men, and 10-20g for women.