How to reduce blood pressure at home
First of all, you need to measure your blood pressure to make sure that the symptoms caused (weakness, nausea, drowsiness, dizziness) are associated with it. If the indicator is 130/85 or more, this is really high blood pressure, i.e. state of hypertension. To deal with it, it is recommended:
- Sit or lie down, calm down, close your eyes.
- Open the window, if it’s hot, turn on the air conditioning.
- Take a deep, smooth breath, counting to 5. Moreover, the stomach should participate in breathing - to make sure of this, you need to put your hand on it. Exhale and count to 5 again. Repeat several such cycles for 3-5 minutes.
- Next, when you feel better, you need to pour noticeably hot water into a basin (temperature 45 degrees) and put your feet in it for 5-10 minutes. It’s good to do a similar procedure for your hands. Thanks to this, the vessels of the extremities will expand and the pressure will drop by several units.
- Then you can hold your hands under a tap with cool (but not ice-cold) water.
- At the final stage, it is useful to massage the collar area - at the base of the neck, head, and shoulder area. After this, move on to the stomach and chest.
Three-step algorithm for treating abdominal pain
Why painkillers don't help
Let's start with the simplest question: what should you do if discomfort appears in the abdominal area?
Of course, take a pill! For many of us, the answer is... "obvious." A person who cares “too much” about health, much less knows “more than necessary” about it, looks strange. From the point of view of many around him, he simply has nothing to do! The results are obvious: 45% of Russians, feeling pain in the stomach, grab analgesics... And only 28% take antispasmodics. Moreover, over the past six months, every sixth person felt pain in the abdominal area. Women are more often affected. Why is an analgesic dangerous for abdominal pain?
Because it will not eliminate the true cause of the unpleasant sensations, but will disguise it. Indeed, in 60% of cases the culprit of the pain syndrome is spasm.
What is a spasm?
This is an excessive contraction of smooth muscle cells in various organs. In our case we will talk about the digestive system. Inflammatory process - for example, gastritis, enteritis, colitis or ulcers, poisoning and other exposure to pathogenic microbes, a foreign body in the cavity of the digestive organ (a part from a toy in the stomach or a stone in the gall bladder), an imbalance of the substances we need - vitamins and microelements... Because of this, our organs, which are one way or another responsible for digesting food, feel uncomfortable and painfully contract. Analgesics do not act on the cause of the pain, and they will only affect the transmission of nerve impulses, and will not remove the spasm. Plus, as was said earlier, they will mask the pain - and the doctor will not understand anything. Or he will understand, but it’s too late. After all, the remaining 40% of abdominal pain - 4 cases out of 10 - are conditions in which you need to call an ambulance!
Acute pancreatitis, appendicitis, perforation of an ulcer, rupture of an aneurysm of blood vessels in the abdominal cavity, severe inflammatory diseases in women. Peritonitis is an inflammation of the peritoneum, which occurs not only when the appendix ruptures, but also when “treating” gynecological diseases through patience. A stone that has passed out of the gallbladder and blocked the bile duct. If you take an analgesic, it will be difficult for the doctor to understand where the cause of the illness is. And precious time when emergency surgery should have begun will be lost. The antispasmodic will not affect the sensations caused by acute cholecystitis, perforation of an ulcer or rupture of the appendix. The pain will not decrease.
What happens if you “treat” ordinary chronic gastritis with an analgesic?
Painkillers of this type are harmful to the gastric mucosa (and other digestive organs). If you take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for just a week, then one in five will have a stomach ulcer. And one in seventy will experience gastrointestinal bleeding. What if such patients also take analgesics to relieve pain? “Harmless and safe” drugs for pain relief have their side effects. Therefore, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and other analgesics should be taken under the supervision of a doctor! Turning them into daily medicine is dangerous. By the way, how long can you “treat yourself” with painkillers?
What to do if your stomach hurts?
In 2002, Vladimir Trofimovich Ivashkin, academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, chief gastroenterologist of Russia, director of the Clinic of Propaedeutics of Internal Diseases, Gastroenterology, Hepatology of the First Moscow State Medical University named after. THEM. Sechenov, developed a stepwise algorithm of actions for abdominal pain:
• Stage one – mild pain What to do: if necessary, take an antispasmodic. But: – if the pain occurred once, after unusual or poor-quality food, eating disorders or overeating, this is one situation. And if pain occurs with sufficient frequency, i.e. the stomach hurts sometimes or periodically, or in the morning, or after nervous stress, or even from hunger - the situation is completely different. Go to the doctor for an appointment as soon as possible!
• Stage two – the pain is quite severe and/or long-lasting. What to do: be sure to take an antispasmodic. After this, even if your stomach hurts less or the abdominal pain stops altogether, consult a doctor immediately!
• Stage three – very severe pain! Or pain that gets worse. If your stomach hurts unbearably, the cause could be those same 40% - appendicitis, rupture of the gallbladder, perforation of an ulcer, thrombosis of intestinal vessels. What to do: call an ambulance!
Five principles that are important for everyone to know
Abdominal pain is a special pain. Its nature is simply not taken into account by universal drugs for pain relief. And our compatriots, having encountered at least once a modern “optimized” clinic (according to Ministry of Health standards, there is one gastroenterologist per 70 thousand people), try to solve the problem by taking a pill. They will not be told why this is dangerous. After all, there are not enough doctors even for treatment, let alone for prevention and health schools. Therefore, the French manufacturer SANOFI organized a training program - “Pain that is dangerous to anesthetize” with the involvement of gastroenterologists in the educational project. Clinical pharmacologist, candidate of medical sciences, Alexander Maslyakov has developed another instruction for the patient - five principles of action for abdominal pain.
• Principle 1. One of the causes of abdominal pain is spasm, a contraction of the smooth muscles of the digestive organs under the influence of unfavorable factors. For this reason, medications that relieve pain are only first aid. Be sure to find out why your stomach hurts, i.e. what is the condition of the gastrointestinal tract, liver, gallbladder, pancreas and spleen.
• Principle 2. The first choice drug for abdominal pain is an antispasmodic. If you have a spasm of the smooth muscles of the stomach or intestines, you will feel less pain after taking the medicine. And in acute conditions that require urgent surgery, antispasmodics will not mask the pain, and the doctor will have time to understand what happened and how to act.
• Principle 3. For abdominal pain, analgesics are dangerous! They must not be used under any circumstances! A drug of this type will not eliminate the cause of pain - it will simply block the transmission of signals about problems in the body. The brain does not know about problems. Doctors won’t even know about them - after all, the pain sensations are masked, and it’s difficult to make a correct diagnosis.
• Principle 4. If an antispasmodic does not relieve pain within 2–3 hours, consult a doctor!
• Principle 5. If the abdominal pain is severe, if it increases or even simply does not decrease, if you have a high temperature, if your blood pressure is low, if you have nausea and/or vomiting, if you have a headache, call an ambulance immediately!
Be careful! Take care of yourself!
Link to publication: life24.ru
How to lower blood pressure without pills
Along with the described instructions, you can use other home remedies to reduce blood pressure:
- Warm, but not hot tea with mint leaves (brew for 10-15 minutes).
- External compress with apple cider vinegar - soak a cloth and apply it to the feet for the same time. This method works, but you need to use apple cider vinegar, not any other kind.
- Valerian or Corvalol – 15-30 drops per 3 tablespoons of water. Helps to calm down, thanks to which the indicator stabilizes.
- You can take a glass of warm water with 1 tablespoon of honey and half a teaspoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice. Moreover, instead of ordinary water, you can use mineral water.
- Diuretic tea, for example, based on lingonberries, rose hips, bearberry leaves, and linden flowers, will also help reduce blood pressure.
It is important to understand that the measures described help stabilize blood pressure only for a while. Therefore, in the long term, you should adjust your lifestyle, give up bad habits, follow dietary requirements and start losing weight. Thus, one lost kilogram of excess weight leads to a persistent decrease in blood pressure by 1 point.
First aid for high blood pressure
Category: Prevention.
Arterial hypertension and conditions associated with it, according to medical statistics, are becoming the most common cause of death and disability in modern society.
When a person’s blood pressure rises sharply, not only the load on the walls of arterial blood vessels of different sizes increases, but also the load on the heart muscle, which worsens the working conditions of the heart. That is why doctors insist that a patient suffering from hypertension (idiopathic hypertension) or symptomatic hypertension arising from diseases of the body, or who has a tendency to increase blood pressure due to neurocirculatory dystonia, must systematically receive prescribed medications to control blood pressure levels.
If there is a sharp increase in blood pressure, therapy should be directed to:
- decrease in blood pressure - it should be gradual and not exceed 25-30 mm Hg per hour. pillar;
- elimination of psychomotor agitation and manifestations of this condition from the nervous system;
- restoration of normal heart function, prevention of arrhythmia;
- relief of manifestations of hypertension affecting other organs and systems of the human body.
It is necessary to conduct a comprehensive examination of the human body, the purpose of which should be to identify the true cause of increased blood pressure - this is important for prescribing subsequent therapy.
In case of a hypertensive crisis, it is important to promptly identify the first symptoms of this complication, measure blood pressure (for accurate diagnosis) and immediately call an ambulance, whose specialists will carry out treatment and decide whether the patient needs to be hospitalized.
Symptoms of high blood pressure:
- headache – it can be diffuse or localized;
- nausea and vomiting that do not bring relief (characteristic of a sharp and sudden increase in blood pressure);
- the appearance of dizziness, unsteadiness of gait, inability to focus vision normally; • noise in ears; • the appearance of numbness in half the face, weakness of the limbs;
- pain in the heart area;
- frequent urination or urinary retention.
If you suspect the presence of the above symptoms, it is necessary to measure your blood pressure - it should be remembered that the readings of automatic and semi-automatic tonometers are affected by the measurement conditions.
If high blood pressure is detected, the patient must immediately call an ambulance, and before it arrives, try to calm the patient down. The patient should be seated or placed with a high headboard, and if possible, try to lower the lower end of the bed. Provide access to fresh and cool air (if possible).
To reduce blood pressure, you can use symptomatic therapy - hot foot baths for hands and feet, mustard plasters on the back of the head and the calf muscles.
If the patient has previously been prescribed antihypertensive drugs, then he can take the drug recommended by the doctor under the tongue - preference should be given to those drugs that are taken 2-3 times a day (they begin to act faster, but their effect is shorter).
If pain occurs in the heart area, it is advisable to take nitroglycerin under the tongue.
If psychomotor agitation occurs, you can recommend taking Corvalol, Valocordin, and motherwort tincture.
Medicines for the treatment of hypertensive crisis in the form of injections or drugs that have not previously been used in this patient should be prescribed by a doctor and taken under his supervision.
It is important to remember that preventive treatment of arterial hypertension, regardless of its cause, is always more effective than measures taken to lower blood pressure during a sudden and sharp rise - a hypertensive crisis.
Contraindications
You can steam your feet at high blood pressure, but before carrying out the procedure you should familiarize yourself with a number of contraindications. Experts prohibit soaring legs during pregnancy, varicose veins, and menstruation.
It is also not recommended to hover your legs under pressure in case of such pathological conditions of the body:
- spasm of coronary vessels;
- atherosclerosis;
- angina attacks;
- previous stroke or myocardial infarction;
- cancer;
- tuberculosis;
- blood clotting disorders;
- skin diseases (dermatitis, psoriasis, ulcers).
The effect of hot foot baths on the body
Is it possible to soar your legs if you have hypertension? Need to! It has been known since ancient times that hot foot baths can reduce high blood pressure. Due to its effectiveness, this folk method of combating hypertension is nicknamed “first aid.”
Steam foot baths promote the following changes in the cardiovascular system:
- there is a decrease in the frequency of contractions of the heart muscle;
- the rest period of the heart muscle increases;
- blood flow in the vessels improves;
- the return of blood to the right side of the heart muscle is normalized;
- the amount of blood pushed by the left ventricle increases;
- the resistance of the vascular walls decreases;
- blood supply to organs such as the kidneys, liver and brain is normalized.
In addition to the effect on the cardiovascular system, steam foot baths help strengthen the immune system, since biologically active points that activate the normal functioning of internal organs are located on the feet. Hot water also activates the endocrine glands, which prevents diabetes. Thanks to improved blood circulation, there is an improvement in the condition of the skin.
“Cold” legs, and what else you need to know about atherosclerosis of the extremities
Chilliness in the legs is a symptom well known to older people. However, it also occurs in the younger population. Moreover, in both cases, few people pay attention to it, because “old people’s feet are always cold,” and for young people it is a “consequence” of stress and fatigue. And in both cases, this is a signal of serious vascular disorders that can “lead” to amputation. So what do you need to know about cold feet? And what other symptoms suggest something is wrong?
Nutritional deficiency
As already noted, chilly feet are usually a consequence of vascular pathologies. Namely, diseases of the arteries, the most common of which is atherosclerosis.
Cholesterol deposits in the artery wall inevitably narrow the diameter of the latter. This means that the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the tissues is severely disrupted, and ischemia occurs. And the result of such “hunger” is a deterioration in cellular metabolism and accelerated cell death (necrosis).
The situation obviously worsens as cholesterol plaques increase in volume and number. Which at some point ends with a complete cessation of arterial blood flow and necrosis of the tissues of the limb.
At the level of the limbs, this situation manifests itself:
- violation of tissue trophism (poor healing, formation of ulcers, in advanced cases - gangrene);
- muscle pain (usually the calf) when walking, which makes you stop walking (intermittent claudication);
- chilliness
- and noticeable pallor.
And without attention, atherosclerosis of the lower extremities not only significantly reduces the quality of life, but also often becomes a cause of disability.
Who is at risk and why
Risk factors for atherosclerosis of the lower extremities do not differ from those in other areas of damage. So the following people are still at particular risk:
- smoking,
- those suffering from high blood pressure,
- with a sedentary lifestyle,
- obesity,
- high cholesterol levels,
- “vascular” heredity (strokes, heart attacks, atherosclerosis)
- and over 50 years old.
The thing is that, according to modern concepts, the deposition of cholesterol in the vessel wall is a consequence of existing vascular damage. The formation of which is promoted by surges in blood pressure and the vasoconstrictor effect of cigarettes.
“Bad” cholesterol is delivered to the site of existing microtears in the vessel wall as a way to “patch” the damage. However, if there is too much of the latter, plaques form instead of a “patch”.
Excess cholesterol in the body, contrary to popular belief, has little to do with fatty foods. And it is formed as a result of disorders of fat and carbohydrate metabolism (excess weight, sedentary lifestyle, diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism and other pathologies), decreased levels of sex hormones and liver diseases (the site of cholesterol synthesis).
So it turns out that age-related risks are caused by hormonal levels, liver diseases, and age-related changes in blood vessels (fragility of the vascular wall due to impaired synthesis of collagen and elastin). And fat metabolism disorders, smoking and hypertension only make the process of vessel destruction faster.
What you should know
Taking into account the listed risk factors, atherosclerosis can be registered at the age of 30 years or even younger. And to identify the problem in a timely manner, it is enough to “keep in sight”:
- blood lipid profile (total cholesterol and its fractions),
as well as ultrasensitive C-reactive protein (the earliest, still “pre-cholesterol”, marker of vascular damage).