HOW TO LOWER YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE NATURALLY

Part 19 : Smoking

There's only one thing to remember if you smoke and have high blood pressure – give up! It's crazy to continue.

Why?

Smoking increases the risk of all kinds of diseases and that includes cancer, stroke, heart attack and arterial  diseases which are linked to high blood pressure.  You're twice as likely to suffer a stroke if you smoke and five times as likely to suffer heart disease. When your heart is already under strain from high blood pressure, the last thing it needs is to come further under attack.

Every time you puff on a cigarette it causes your blood vessels to constrict, temporarily increasing blood pressure – who know if that increase may be the last straw for your heart? In the longer term, smoking increases the risk of blood clotting and encourages furring up and hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) which is cause of high blood pressure.

As soon as you quit you start to benefit (see the paragraph above “Every time you puff on a cigarette...”) and the risks associated with having smoked (no matter how long) decrease over time. After a year, the risk of a heart attack has dropped by a huge amount, after ten it is as if you never smoked. You owe it to yourself to stop as soon as possible.

Now it's easy to say give up and not so easy to do it, I know! But do what you can and try all the ways you can find to help yourself.

• Decide that you're going to quit for once and for all and set a day to give up in a week that's not too stressful.
• Select one of the many special gums, sprays and patches designed to help you quit and give it a try.
• Think about joining a support group or using a telephone help line
• Try hypnosis. It often helps.
• Publicly announce that you've quit, so that you are too ashamed to start again.
• Ask your friends not to offer you cigarettes and not to smoke around you. Get used to saying “No thanks, I've given up”
• Even better get a friend to stop with you for mutual support.
• Throw away all your cigarettes and anything to do with smoking.
• In the beginning avoid situations which you link to smoking – change your routine if need be.
• Don't go eating the fridge empty to stop yourself smoking. Eat crunchy vegetable sticks if you need something to nibble on.

Starting to exercise is one of the best things you can do when you quit – not only will you get the benefits for your blood pressure (as we have seen in earlier parts in this series) but you will also enjoy the calming effect you get from exercise. It will help you relieve the stress of quitting smoking.

If you don't smoke, you can harm your health through passive smoking (breathing in the smoke from others). Avoid smoky bars and restaurants and don't allow others to smoke in your home. Many countries are now banning smoking from all public places due to the health risks involved in passive smoking.

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