New online course from Harvard Health Publishing: Controlling Your Blood Pressure

Let this dynamic new online course show you how to halt hypertension, boost cardiovascular health, and enjoy better and enduring good health.

Controlling Your Blood Pressure is a powerful presentation that reveals how — no matter what your age — you can gain and maintain the protective benefits of lower blood pressure.

High blood pressure doubles your risk of heart attack and stroke and increases your risk of vision loss, kidney failure, and dementia. So it is important to get it under control.

Avoid the risk factors and keep your loved ones safe!

New from Harvard Health Publishing, this course gives you the tools to build cardiovascular wellness by lowering your blood pressure and adopting strategies to keep it in a healthy range. The course is impactful, engaging, and effective.

There are many reasons for developing high blood pressure. Some risk factors you can control, and others you cannot. But even though you can’t control all the risks, that doesn’t mean you can forget about them. Awareness of your risk factors can help you put your overall cardiovascular risk profile into perspective and may provide you and your loved ones with an extra incentive to adopt healthier habits.

In Controlling Your Blood Pressure, you’ll learn how to bring blood pressure into a normal range by adopting basic lifestyle changes — from eating smart to easing stress. You’ll get tips for weight loss, for choosing a blood pressure monitor, and for understanding the best and safest medications.

The inside scoop on lifestyle changes for healthy blood pressure

Don’t settle for dated advice and misinformation found online. Controlling Your Blood Pressure comes to you from Harvard Medical School, the nation’s top-ranked school for medical research. In the course, Harvard doctors share diet plans and lifestyle strategies for lowering your blood pressure and give you meal plans that are delicious and easy to follow.

• You’ll be introduced to several easy and enticing eating plans that offer lean, minimally processed foods packed with nutrients but not calories.
• You’ll find how to incorporate the three minerals essential to successful blood pressure management…and 15 smart low-sodium substitutes.
• You’ll get guidance for the most helpful exercises and for maintaining motivation.
• You’ll master effective techniques to manage stress and improve sleep.
• And the course offers an impartial, frank assessment of today’s expanded array of medications to help you and your doctor make the safest and smartest choices for your goals.

The good news is that what’s gone up can come down. You can lower your blood pressure. You can safeguard your heart and your health. And you can do it now!

Learn about the connection between hypertension and pregnancy

Did you know that between 5% and 8% of all pregnant women in the United States develop high blood pressure?

Controlling Your Blood Pressure includes a special section for you or someone you know who may be expecting and experiencing high blood pressure. Get the answers you need such as does blood pressure return to normal after giving birth? What is pre-eclampsia? What signs should you watch out for? What to expect if you’re diagnosed with pre-eclampsia or eclampsia?

The truth about salt sensitivity and high blood pressure

Are you salt sensitive or salt resistant? The message from public health officials is clear: As a nation, we need to cut down on our salt consumption. High levels of sodium in the diet are associated with high blood pressure and other problems, like stroke, that result from it. While this is true for broad swaths of the population, it doesn’t tell you how your own body responds to salt— a more complicated story.

The truth is some people can eat salty food— pizza, pickles, pretzels, and the like— and have naturally low blood pressure! In this course, you’ll discover that difference between having salt resistance, salt sensitivity, and reverse salt sensitivity.

Imagine your doctor saying “Your blood pressure is under control” on your next visit!

As you apply these simple proven strategies, you— and your doctor— will see lower blood pressure readings.

Article by, Harvard Medical School.