;Resize=(1200,627)&impolicy=perceptual&quality=mediumHigh&hash=29bd134de96049b56f1c8c4df52d17ac2205b110a8938ec4a707d148dd2df7bc "These foods counteract high blood pressure")
If you eat incorrectly, live an unhealthy life and do not exercise enough, you risk high blood pressure. This is once again pointed out by physicians from the European Society of Hypertension in a new guideline. In it, they recommend certain lifestyle changes to those affected to minimize the risk of high blood pressure. Because this can be dangerous, lead to cardiac insufficiency or a stroke. It is not for nothing that the German Heart Foundation calls him the “silent killer”.
“The classic lifestyle interventions that can lead to a significant reduction in blood pressure include losing weight, restricting salt intake, regular physical activity, reducing alcohol consumption, not smoking and a healthy, plant-based diet,” says a statement from the German Hypertension League.
There are also two new points in the guideline that has now been published:
Recommendations for increased potassium intake and measures to reduce stress.
How to increase your potassium intake
Potassium is vital for the body – every cell in our body needs the mineral. Without it, the heart, muscles and nervous system do not function properly.
Together with magnesium, potassium stabilizes our heart cells electrically, writes the German Heart Foundation. “It is important for the heartbeat. The pumping activity of the heart is essentially based on interactions between different electrically charged particles in and outside of the cells.”
The guideline recommends a day more than 3000 milligrams of potassium record. These should therefore be primarily ingested through food – “since a potassium intake of up to 3000 mg can be achieved with four to five portions of fruit and vegetables per day alone,” as the hypertension league explains.
The following foods are suitable for this, for which the health insurance company AOK specifies values per 100 grams.
Soybeans: 1800 mg
Dried apricots: 1370 mg
Dried Peaches: 1340 mg
Pistachio Nuts: 1020 mg
dates: 676 mg
Kale: 490 mg
Cauliflower: 450 mg
Potatoes (boiled, with skin): 443 mg
Lamb’s lettuce: 420 mg
Bananas: 382 mg
However, there is one important limitation, the experts from the Hypertension League emphasize: the recommendation for increased potassium intake does not apply to people with advanced chronic kidney disease.
Stress damages the heart and blood vessels
According to the new guideline, less stress also contributes to lower blood pressure. A study by the commercial health insurance company (KKH) recently warned that an ailing psyche damages the heart and blood vessels.
Between 2011 and 2021, cardiovascular diseases would have increased by around 17 percent – in connection with mental diagnoses even by around 37 percent.
According to the information, on average every tenth heart patient receives a stress diagnosis.
It is even every seventh person among employed insured persons between the ages of 25 and 64.
In total, there were around 565,000 KKH-insured persons with cardiovascular diseases in 2021, ten percent of whom also received a stress-related psychological diagnosis, for example due to an acute stress reaction or depression.
“In addition to smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, constant stress is one of the most important avoidable risk factors for cardiovascular diseases,” explained KKH doctor Sonja Hermeneit. Data from the insurance company showed that among insured persons with cardiovascular diagnoses, i.e. diseases of the heart and blood vessels such as high blood pressure, angina pectoris and cardiac arrhythmias, the proportion of patients with stress-related mental illnesses was a quarter higher than usual.
How to reduce stress
Coach and author Attila Albert Corona-Stress also reveals how to curb stress in a guest article on FOCUS online.
He summarizes the following six tips that may apply to your particular situation:
1. Are you exhausted? Then rest without a guilty conscience. If you feel barely able to cope with your everyday life: Rest without a guilty conscience to regain your strength. Cancel professional and private appointments wherever possible. If sport is too strenuous for you, a short walk will suffice. Get enough sleep.
2. Are you tense? Do yourself a favor. If you find yourself constantly fighting or feeling offended with others, do something that you know relaxes you. For some, it’s exercise or meditation. For others, a bit of wellness at home, a new Netflix series or an hour alone with coffee, cake and a magazine.
3. Do you feel listless? Take care of someone. You may find that you “really have no problems at all” and that you are “fine”. At the same time you feel powerless and disoriented, also bored. This is where it helps you put other people first. Take care of someone, help others.
4. Are you overworked? Give back responsibility. When you feel overwhelmed by responsibility for others, it’s time to give responsibility back. Allow yourself to think about your own needs again. It can’t always be about other people. You may limit help to empower yourself. Example: Single parents don’t have to “always be there for the children”, but can also organize a free evening (e.g. with the help of neighbors).
5. Too busy? Think about the meaning of it all. Anyone who has organized their life well and leads it pragmatically and energetically often feels like a well-oiled machine: everything is running, but the work never seems to come to an end. Here it helps to find out more about the personal meaning of your own efforts.
6. Too thoughtful? Plan a new future. If you feel that your life – despite some problems – is meaningful and meaningful, this can lead to you becoming very reflective. That you look at everything and think your part, but act little. Here it helps to become more fundamental: What else would be possible for you, where could it go? Brainstorming is a good way to do this: jotting down or sketching crazy ideas, then thinking about what might be possible.
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