Latest / Talking FACS / All About Blood Pressure

Transcript

All About Blood Pressure · Talking FACS

• 0:01
  Welcome to Talking FACS,
• 0:03
  what you need to know about family food,
• 0:05
  finance and fitness.
• 0:07
  This nationally recognized award winning podcast is hosted by the University of Kentucky Family and consumer sciences extension program.
• 0:16
  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals,
• 0:19
  families and communities to improve quality of life.
• 0:24
  Hello and welcome to Talking FACS.
• 0:26
  This is your host,
• 0:27
  Dr Jennifer Hunter,
• 0:28
  assistant director for family consumer sciences extension at the University of Kentucky.
• 0:33
  Today,
• 0:34
  I'm pleased to be joined by Dr. Heather,
• 0:36
  Norman- Burgdolf extension specialist for food and nutrition in the department of dietetics and human nutrition.
• 0:42
  Welcome Heather,
• 0:44
  Thank you,
• 0:44
  Jennifer.
• 0:45
  So today we're gonna talk all about blood pressure and I think blood pressure either high or low is often a concern for folks.
• 0:53
  So intrigued to learn more today and we're really just gonna start talking a little bit about high blood pressure or what we sometimes hear to be called hypertension.
• 1:04
  That seems like it's something that we hear,
• 1:06
  like I said all the time,
• 1:07
  what exactly is it and why should we be proactive in managing it?
• 1:14
  This is a great place to start because like you said,
• 1:16
  we hear about it all the time,
• 1:17
  but I feel like it's something maybe people still don't have a lot of clarity on what it is or why it matters.
• 1:24
  And so I think it's important if we just identify what blood pressure is and then we can talk about what high blood pressure is.
• 1:31
  So blood pressure is the amount of force caused by blood as it pushes through the blood vessels in the body and this pressure is created by the pumping action of the heart.
• 1:41
  And so everybody has a blood pressure.
• 1:43
  Alright,
• 1:43
  so essentially those blood vessels are like small tubes with blood constantly flowing through them and for blood to flow to all parts of the body from the heart.
• 1:51
  So it has to get all the way down to your toes,
• 1:52
  all the way up to your head,
• 1:53
  there has to be forced behind it.
• 1:55
  And so that is what we call our blood pressure.
• 1:57
  Um and it's measured using two different numbers.
• 2:00
  So you probably heard that those numbers when you go to the doctor,
• 2:03
  you've seen it on notes.
• 2:04
  Um But in order to understand what that measurement is,
• 2:08
  I think it's helpful if you literally do this physically,
• 2:11
  so close your fist and imagine it's your heart and now continue to squeeze and relax your fist over and over for several seconds.
• 2:17
  So that's like your heart beating.
• 2:19
  Okay,
• 2:20
  Okay,
• 2:21
  perfect.
• 2:22
  So your systolic blood pressure is the force of blood flow each time you squeeze your fist or when your heart contracts your diastolic blood pressure is the force of blood flow each time you relax your fist or your heart isn't contracting.
• 2:35
  So healthy blood pressure levels are 120.
• 2:39
  Over 80.
• 2:40
  The first number 120 is your systolic blood pressure.
• 2:44
  And the second number is your diastolic.
• 2:46
  And so together those two numbers make your blood pressure measurement.
• 2:51
  So getting to what you said about hypertension or high blood pressure.
• 2:55
  It's when that force that's pushing blood through our blood vessels is too high over a period of time.
• 3:01
  And this can lead to damage of the inside lining of your blood vessels.
• 3:06
  So hypertension is a blood pressure measurement measurement greater than 1 30 over 80.
• 3:12
  So this high blood pressure is going to cause your heart to work harder over a period of time.
• 3:18
  And this puts you at an increased risk for heart disease and stroke,
• 3:21
  which unfortunately are the leading causes of death in the US as well as in Kentucky.
• 3:26
  So hopefully that helped a little bit to understand what we're actually talking about.
• 3:30
  It does.
• 3:31
  So when we talk about high blood pressure,
• 3:33
  how common is that?
• 3:35
  Unfortunately,
• 3:36
  It is very common.
• 3:37
  So it's estimated that half of the adults in the United States have high blood pressure.
• 3:42
  So 50% of all adults in America,
• 3:45
  which is almost about 120 million Americans.
• 3:48
  And I think the the concerning part is that it's estimated that one in four of those individuals,
• 3:55
  only one in four have it under control.
• 3:57
  So that means 3/4 of those folks don't have their blood pressure under control.
• 4:02
  And we actually see that risk increases as we age and men are slightly at a greater risk than women.
• 4:09
  And then even further than that,
• 4:11
  we know that specific races and ethnicities may be at more risk.
• 4:14
  So non Hispanic black adults seem to have the highest risk compared to Hispanic,
• 4:20
  non Hispanic,
• 4:20
  white and non-Hispanic Asian adults.
• 4:22
  So um it's kind of helpful to know what those risk factors are,
• 4:25
  especially if you want to have those conversations with your health care providers.
• 4:29
  So if I was an individual that was struggling with high blood pressure,
• 4:33
  what can I do about?
• 4:35
  So several prescribed medications are really effective at helping manage our blood pressure.
• 4:41
  So our blood pressure.
• 4:42
  So when you visit your healthcare provider,
• 4:44
  your blood pressure should be measured each time that you get there.
• 4:48
  That's kind of one of the things that they just automatically do.
• 4:51
  This allows you to have that starting point to ask questions and determine whether you would benefit from a prescription to help control your blood pressure.
• 4:58
  We also know that sodium is incredibly important and impacts our blood pressure as well.
• 5:04
  And so we can adjust the food that we eat to improve our blood pressure.
• 5:08
  You may have heard of something called the DASH Diet,
• 5:11
  which actually stands for the dietary approach to stop hypertension.
• 5:15
  And it's a diet that research shows can be highly effective at lowering blood pressure over time it's not a quick fix.
• 5:21
  But this is something over time.
• 5:23
  Your diet can significantly impact your blood pressure.
• 5:27
  And this is a great opportunity to talk to your healthcare providers and see if you could add a registered dietitian to your health care team to kind of help you with those food choices.
• 5:36
  And I think that that's a key statement there Heather is that anytime you're looking at significant diet changes that you should do that under the guidance of the healthcare professional or a dietician to provide you the information that you need to do that safely and successfully.
• 5:51
  Absolutely.
• 5:52
  When we talk about sodium and knowing that sodium or excess sodium is can lead to high blood pressure,
• 6:00
  what are some of the most common sources of sodium in the diet?
• 6:03
  So you may think your salt shaker is the largest contributor of sodium sodium in your diet,
• 6:09
  but it's actually not the greatest contributor to sodium in our diets is going to be packaged,
• 6:14
  processed and prepared foods and that's about 70% of the sodium in our diet is coming from that.
• 6:20
  And this covers everything from jarred pasta sauce,
• 6:24
  which you might even not think about having sodium in it to breakfast cereals,
• 6:28
  especially frozen foods,
• 6:30
  like frozen pizzas,
• 6:31
  because you think of sodium as kind of being a preservative.
• 6:33
  So things that can last a long time are going to pretend to have higher levels of sodium and then also be mindful of foods that are naturally salty.
• 6:42
  So this is going to include eggs,
• 6:44
  cheese and even some other dairy items as well.
• 6:47
  Do you have tips or suggestions for someone who wants to reduce sodium in their diet?
• 6:52
  Yeah,
• 6:53
  and this is a great question because really some small changes over time can make have a big impact.
• 6:58
  First of all,
• 6:59
  pay attention to how much sodium is in your favorite snacks.
• 7:02
  So I don't know some people are like I like sweet snacks,
• 7:04
  like salty snacks.
• 7:05
  So those salty snacks really can be a high source.
• 7:08
  I think nuts,
• 7:09
  seeds,
• 7:10
  chips,
• 7:10
  cookies and other commonly packaged snack items.
• 7:13
  Even just making a simple swap once or twice a week for a less salty snack food that could benefit you over time and actually cause your taste buds to change a little bit so that you don't tend to prefer those highly salty sweet snacks.
• 7:28
  But you're okay with foods that have a little bit less sodium,
• 7:31
  you may use salt to add enhanced flavor when preparing a meal.
• 7:35
  But we know that there are a lot of other things we can do to add or enhance flavor.
• 7:39
  You know using herbs and spices and acids and flavored vinegars.
• 7:43
  We have a lot of resources here and extension about how to you know,
• 7:46
  add flavor to our foods in a in a healthy way.
• 7:49
  Um so kind of think about that,
• 7:51
  you know,
• 7:51
  the next time you roast a vegetable like Brussels sprouts instead of you know sprinkling with salt heavily afterwards.
• 7:57
  Think about drizzling with balsamic vinegar or something like that to kind of give it a different flavor when you're buying canned or frozen vegetables,
• 8:05
  Look for those low sodium or no salt added options because they are out there.
• 8:10
  Um We're seeing more and more of those types of items available on the shelves.
• 8:15
  And then the other big culprit when it comes to sodium is fast food.
• 8:19
  And so if you can make one or two less trips a week to get fast food,
• 8:24
  you're going to reduce the amount of sodium you're consuming tremendously over time.
• 8:28
  So that's one quick and easy way that you could do it.
• 8:31
  And then the last thing that I'll mention is that sodium can have several different names on that nutrition facts panel when you're looking at the ingredients list and the higher up that item is in that ingredients list means that that food item has more of that ingredient.
• 8:45
  And so learning a few key words will help you identify the food has sodium in it.
• 8:50
  And that could be sodium soda.
• 8:53
  Or even seeing the chemical symbol for sodium which is Na. I think that these are great tips.
• 9:00
  But I think it's also important to note that making these changes in our diet is not necessarily going to result in a change overnight.
• 9:09
  So this is something that if my doctors,
• 9:11
  you know monitoring my blood pressure over time,
• 9:13
  I can't just start the day before my next appointment.
• 9:16
  Is that true?
• 9:17
  Yes,
• 9:17
  you're exactly right.
• 9:18
  This is something we can slowly work on this allows your taste buds to change.
• 9:22
  So slowly reducing the amount of salt in your cooking.
• 9:26
  Slowly trying new products,
• 9:27
  you know,
• 9:28
  that's gonna take some time.
• 9:29
  But every little thing adds up and can have a tremendous benefit on your blood pressure.
• 9:35
  So Heather you also shared some links and information for individuals.
• 9:41
  So if we have listeners that would be interested in learning more about managing their blood pressure or just understanding about blood pressure that you have provided us with some documents that will have links in the show notes.
• 9:53
  That would be great.
• 9:53
  Thank you.
• 9:54
  Thanks so much for joining us today Heather.
• 9:56
  Thank you.
• 9:59
  Thank you for listening to Talking FACS.
• 10:01
  We deliver programs focusing on nutrition,
• 10:03
  health,
• 10:04
  resource management,
• 10:06
  family development and civic engagement.
• 10:08
  If you enjoyed today's podcast,
• 10:10
  or if you have a question or a show topic idea.
• 10:13
  Leave a like and a comment on facebook @UKFCSExt.
• 10:18
  Or send us an email at ukfcsest@uky.edu visit us online at FCS.uky.edu
• 10:29
  To learn more about the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer sciences extension program or contact your local extension agent for family and consumer sciences.
• 10:39
  We build strong families.
• 10:40
  We build Kentucky,