Certain lifestyle habits can raise your risk for high blood pressure, such as eating too much salt or not enough potassium, lack of exercise, drinking too much alcohol, and smoking.
Though, you can practice healthy living habits too such as eating a healthy diet and being physically active, to help prevent high blood pressure. In this article, we shall be looking at three careless habits that can increase your risk of having hypertension you should avoid.
1. Smoking.
Did you know smoking also makes you more likely to get high blood pressure and heart disease? The nicotine in cigarette smoke is a big part of the problem. It raises your blood pressure and heart rate, narrows your arteries and hardens their walls, and makes your blood more likely to clot.
2. Eating too much salt.
Your kidneys filter more than 120 quarts of blood each day. They pull toxins and unwanted fluid from cells throughout the body, then send them to the bladder. Eating too much salt can make it harder for your kidneys to remove fluid, which then builds up in your system and increases your blood pressure.
3. Too much alcohol consumption.
Too much of alcohol consumption increases blood levels of the hormone renin, which causes the blood vessels to constrict. This means that they get smaller in diameter. Renin also decreases how much fluid the body eliminates as urine. This combination of higher fluid levels in the body and smaller blood vessels increases blood pressure .