Sweating it out might be the key to a healthy heart!

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Here’s a hot health tip: Taking frequent saunas can prevent heart disease, a new study claims.

Men who sweat it out at least four times a week are nearly half as likely to develop high blood pressure, according to research published in a recent issue of the American Journal of Hypertension.

University of Eastern Finland researchers examined 1,621 middle-aged men with early signs of the condition — which can lead to heart disease and stroke — over an average of 22 years, according to the report.

They found the risk of high blood pressure plunged 46 percent in guys who hit the hot box four to seven times a week and 24 percent in men who took two to three saunas a week.

Body temperature spikes up to 35 degrees during a sauna, and that jump strengthens blood vessels and removes fluid from the body — both of which decrease blood pressure, according to the research, which was first published in June.

Saunas also burn through stress by relaxing the mind and body, which may also lower blood pressure, researchers said.

Overall, researchers also found that 15.5 percent of the men developed clinically high blood pressure over the course of the study.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.

In a separate study last year, the same team of researchers found that frequent saunas also lower risk of developing dementia.

http://nypost.com/2017/09/29/sweating-it-out-might-be-the-key-to-a-healthy-heart/

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Struggling With High Blood Pressure? Your Sleep May Be To Blame

By Alena Hall

 

 

Looking to lower your blood pressure? Fix your poor sleep habits first, suggests a new study.

Mayo Clinic researchers recently set out to find how reduced sleep quantity and quality could affect a person's blood pressure. After monitoring their eight participants for 16 days, they found that when their subjects experienced prolonged periods of shorter sleep, they also registered substantially higher blood pressure numbers at night. While the size of the study was small, they presented their findings at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session in San Diego, California, on March 15.

The eight healthy, normal-weight participants with ages ranging from 19 to 36 experienced a 4-day acclimation period before being split into two groups: one set who slept only four hours each night for nine days, and the other who slept for nine hours each night for those same nine days. They all also completed three days of recovery. Throughout the 16-day period, the researchers monitored each subjects' blood pressure 24 times throughout a daily cycle.

Blood pressure levels naturally rise and fall in a circular pattern throughout the day. They tend to peak in the middle of the afternoon, and reach their lowest points in the middle of the night during one's deep sleep. Now in this study, the sleep-restricted participants registered an average of 115/64 mm Hg during the nighttime while their well-rested counterparts registered an average of 105/57 mm Hg. In addition to confirming that inadequate sleep limited the anticipated decrease in blood pressure with these figures, the experiment revealed a higher nighttime heart rate in sleep-deprived subjects than those who experienced normal sleep.

"We know high blood pressure, particularly during the night, is one of the major risk factors for heart disease, and Americans typically do not get enough sleep,"lead author Naima Covassin, Ph.D., said in a statement. This new study could also further demonstrate why sleep apnea is considered a common contributor to high blood pressure. According to the National Sleep Foundation, this often-undiagnosed sleeping disorder creates pauses in a person's breathing that lead to snoring and restless nights. That resulting decrease in sleep quantity and quality can lead to hypertension and heart disease, as well as possible mood and memory problems.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/18/sleep-blood-pressure-health_n_6881274.html?ir=Healthy+Living

Chocolate could PREVENT obesity: Scientists say antioxidant in cocoa stops weight gain and lowers blood sugar

Scientists say antioxidant in cocoa stops weight gain and lowers blood sugar

Flavanols in dark chocolate fight weight gain and lower the risk of diabetes

Dark chocolate is also thought to improve concentration, decrease appetite, lower blood pressure and boost heart health

By Emma Innes
It has long been maligned as a source of weight gain.
But chocolate could help prevent obesity and Type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.
Scientists found that an antioxidant in cocoa can prevent weight gain and help lower blood sugar levels.
The researchers say there is also evidence to suggest eating dark chocolate can improve thinking, decrease appetite and lower blood pressure.
The latest study, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, revealed that an antioxidant in cocoa can prevent mice from gaining weight and that it also lowered their blood sugar levels.
Dr Andrew Neilson and his colleagues explained this is because cocoa, the basic ingredient of chocolate, is one of the most flavanol-rich foods available.
This is good because antioxidants – of which flavanols are one type - have been shown to help fight weight gain and Type 2 diabetes.
However, not all flavanols are equally beneficial and cocoa contains many different ones.
So, the research team decided to try and establish the individual health benefits of the different flavanols.
The scientists fed groups of mice different diets, including high-fat and low-fat diets, and high-fat diets supplemented with different kinds of flavanols.

They found that adding one particular set of these compounds, known as oligomeric procyanidins (PCs), to the food made the biggest difference in keeping the mice's weight down if they were on high-fat diets.

They also improved glucose tolerance, which could potentially help prevent Type 2 diabetes.
‘Oligomeric PCs appear to possess the greatest anti-obesity and anti-diabetic bioactivities of the flavanols in cocoa, particularly at the low doses employed for the present study,’ the researchers say.
The news comes just after scientists at Louisiana State University released finding which show dark chocolate can reduce blood pressure and improve heart health.

 

 

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Chocolate contains flavanols - a type of antioxidant - that help to lower blood sugar levels. They also help fight weight gain. Previous studies have shown dark chocolate can lower blood pressure and improve heart health

The researchers say dark chocolate is beneficial because of the way our guts ferment the fibre in cocoa beans.
Researcher Maria Moore said: 'We found that there are two kinds of microbes in the gut: the “good” ones and the “bad” ones.
'The good microbes, such as Bifidobacterium and lactic acid bacteria, feast on chocolate.
'When you eat dark chocolate, they grow and ferment it, producing compounds that are anti-inflammatory.'
This naturally forming anti-inflammatory enters the bloodstream and helps protest the heart and arteries from damage.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2595990/Chocolate-PREVENT-obesity-Scientists-say-antioxidant-cocoa-stops-weight-gain-lowers-blood-sugar.html

What Are The Symptoms Of High Blood Pressure?

Do you know what the symptoms of high blood pressure are? If you think you do, chances are you are probably wrong, but now that you’re here I will set the record straight and debunk and eliminate the myths you may have heard about the symptoms of high blood pressure.

Facial Flushing

One of the most common misconceptions about high blood pressure symptoms is that the face becomes flushed. The truth is that facial flushing does occur due to temporary elevated blood pressure, but it is not one of the high blood pressure symptoms. What’s the difference? Temporary elevated blood pressure can be triggered by exercise, drinking alcohol, hot water or a stressor, all things that temporarily raise your blood pressure. A red, burning face can also be caused by cold weather, spicy food, exposure to the sun and embarrassment. So, as you can see, high blood pressure symptoms do not include a flushed face. And for the times that elevated blood pressure causes facial flushing, there are too many other factors which contribute that make this symptom a non-factor.

Headache Symptoms

It’s often thought that headaches are part of high blood pressure symptoms. Once again, they aren’t. This misconception about high blood pressure symptoms was widely spread by the medical field well into the 1900s.

But now we know that in fact, the opposite is true. According to a study published in the popular medical journal Neurology, higher systolic blood pressure actually decreases your chance of developing headaches by 40% when compared to a person with normal blood pressure. Further, it was found that those with a higher pulse pressure (found by subtracting your diastolic reading from your systolic reading, or in layman’s terms, the bottom number from the top number), has up to 50% less headaches! This is thought to be due in part to the pulse pressure stiffening the blood vessels which in turn disrupt nerve endings, which then sedate the pain a headache would cause.

What Are The Symptoms Of High Blood Pressure? 

 
The only thing that’s clear is that headaches, or the lack thereof, cannot be considered part of high blood pressure symptoms.

Nosebleeds

This is another common misconception about high blood pressure symptoms. This is because nosebleeds are often caused by dry air as well as allergies, colds, blowing your nose too hard or medications. But in regard to high blood pressure symptoms, over 80% of patients in hospitals treated for high blood pressure report no sign of nosebleeds, thus debunking it a common symptom of high blood pressure.

Dizziness

Because dizziness is a common side effect of high blood pressure medications, it is often thought of as part of the high blood pressure symptoms group. In fact, it is not. What it is, though, is a warning sign for a stroke, something which high blood pressure is a leading cause of.

What Are Actual High Blood Pressure Symptoms

The truth is there are very few cases of high blood pressure symptoms that can reliably indicate high blood pressure. Most people with high blood pressure will never have any symptoms, this is why it is know as the ‘silent killer’. That said, if you are repeatedly experiencing any of the symptoms above, you should visit your doctor for a check up to rule out any other serious illness.

The fact is – checking your blood pressure at the doctors or on your own via a home blood pressure monitor is the only reliable way to know if you have high blood pressure.

Note: Sometimes routine eye examinations at the opticians can indicate high blood pressure, this is due to damage to the blood vessels in the eyes which can be cause by high blood pressure.

High Blood Pressure Causes 62% of all Strokes and 49% of all Heart Attacks… No matter what your age – if your BP is above 140/90 you should set about lowering it.

http://knowledgeweighsnothing.com/what-are-the-symptoms-of-high-blood-pressure/