There are often complaints from hypertension patients: my blood pressure cannot be lowered. I have changed several kinds of drugs and sometimes I have taken several kinds of drugs. My blood pressure just cannot be lowered. What’s going on?
In fact, this kind of situation is very common. Clinically, more than half of hypertension patients cannot reach the blood pressure standard. For patients whose blood pressure does not reach the standard, improvement can be made from the following aspects.
Adjust medication
The study found that 59% of these patients with substandard blood pressure took only one antihypertensive drug and 41% took two drugs. For these patients, adjusting or adding antihypertensive drugs can also help lower blood pressure.
Standardize medication
Many cases of poor blood pressure control are also related to poor compliance of patients with medication, such as not taking drugs according to doctor’s advice, stopping medication as soon as blood pressure is normal, etc.
In order to improve compliance, in the choice of antihypertensive drugs, the general doctors will consider the interests of patients and will try their best to choose long-acting antihypertensive drugs that only need to be taken once a day to minimize the troubles brought to patients by long-term medication.
Improve one’s living habits
In addition, there are some patients whose living habits have not been improved. If the blood pressure is not up to standard, the living habits should be improved from the following aspects:
Lose weight
Weight loss is often beneficial to blood pressure reduction and can also reduce the types of drugs taken by patients. For every 10 kg weight loss, systolic blood pressure can be reduced by 6 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 4.6 mmHg.
Strict salt restriction
Limiting salt can reduce systolic blood pressure by 5 ~ 10 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 2 ~ 6 mmHg. If only salt (sodium chloride) is calculated, less than 5 g per day, it is recommended to use a quantitative salt spoon when cooking.
In addition to salt, sodium-containing condiments need to be paid attention to, such as soy sauce, monosodium glutamate chicken essence, oyster sauce, etc.
A healthy diet
DASH, which has been rated as the best diet by the American Nutrition Society for 6 consecutive years, is a diet specially designed to prevent and control hypertension.
Using this diet can reduce blood pressure in just two weeks. In the long run, systolic blood pressure will be reduced by 7 ~ 12 mmHg, which will significantly reduce health risks.
In addition to low sodium, the principles of DASH diet include low-fat milk, high potassium, high magnesium, high calcium and low saturated fatty acids.
Control drinking
Although some articles say that some ingredients in red wine are good for heart health, people who do not have drinking habits should not drink for heart health.
If you have the habit of drinking, you should control the amount of alcohol you drink. The daily intake of alcohol should not exceed 15 g, which is equivalent to 450 mL of beer. Or wine 150 ml; Or 38-degree liquor 50 g.
Increase physical activity
Proper physical exercise can reduce systolic blood pressure by 4 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 3 mmHg. The most important thing is to stick to it 5 days a week and exercise for at least 30 minutes a day.
Timely specialist treatment
There are also some patients who belong to refractory hypertension, also known as refractory hypertension. They adopt a healthy lifestyle and use at least three antihypertensive drugs (including a diuretic) in combination, but still cannot control their blood pressure within the normal range.
When you suspect that you are refractory hypertension, you should first actively correct your living habits, and at the same time, with the help of doctors, you should eliminate the factors causing blood pressure rise, reasonably adjust drugs, and go to the hypertension specialist clinic in time.
I believe that through the efforts of myself and doctors, I will definitely control my blood pressure within the normal range.