3. Reduce Stress<\/b><\/p>\n

\n
• When you face emotional discomfort during a stressful situation, the body releases hormones into the blood that make the heart pump faster and constrict blood vessels. Over time, chronic stress along with being overweight and a poor dietary regimen will lead to hypertension. If you want to reduce your stress and control your blood pressure, then being proactive and self-aware is paramount. In my experiences, I believe the best way to mitigate stress is never to expect anything from anyone and always give more than you receive. When we expect someone or something to give us something of value, then we have the possibility of disappointment and stress from our expectations. However, if you have no expectation, then the possibility of disappointment and stress are attenuated. It is straightforward but often never practiced because it is human nature to expect a favor or something of value from others based on what you have done for them. Therefore, be mindful of your actions and give more than you receive. Often this will mitigate stress and manifest strong relationships amongst the people you see every day and the people you see periodically. Over time, these relationships established can be of value to you somewhere down the line.<\/li>\n
• If you are mindful of the principles mentioned above and still suffer from stress, you will be glad there are several other options. The first of which is to take a few steps back and relax.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
  \n
  1. \n
     \n
     1. \n
        \n
        1. Focus on one task at a time and concentrate on things you can control rather than the ones you cannot.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
        2. Try aromatherapy! For some, the aroma of the natural oils extracted from flowers, bark, stems, leaves, and roots can enhance your psychological and physical well-being.<\/span><\/li>\n
        3. Try Yoga! Yoga combines physical poses, controlled breathing, and meditation or relaxation to help people reduce stress. If you are lucky, you may even have instructors at your local fitness center who use both aromatherapy and yoga to decrease your stress levels.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

           4. Review Your Supplements<\/b><\/p>\n

           \n
           • If you were to look at your supplements right now, odds are one or more of your supplements will state not to take the product or consult with your physician if you have high blood pressure. In my experiences, these statements were often ignored for one because I was young and two because all I cared about was crushing my workout. However, as I have become older, I become mindful of specific ingredients such as my overall consumption of caffeine and to a lesser degree creatine. Although most individual supplements do not contain an excess of caffeine and creatine, you should be aware of your daily intake of these compounds. Many people often stack pre-workouts, intra-workouts, and post-workouts. As a result, your overall intake of ingredients accumulates. Therefore, being mindful is imperative. About 400 mg of caffeine a day is safe and will not affect your blood pressure. However, some people are genetically predisposed to hypertension, so be proactive and prudent with your caffeine intake if you fall into this category. As for creatine, if you have high blood pressure, you should talk to your physician to get his or her recommendations. If you do not have hypertension, then you can be liberal with your creatine intake.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

             5. Quit Smoking<\/b><\/p>\n

             \n
             • Smoking is the number one cause of preventable deaths in the United States. Smoking is a major independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease which includes hypertension. I have always believed it takes 21 days to build a habit and 21 seconds to break a habit. However, in the case of smoking, I think going \u201ccold turkey\u201d is not a good idea. To quit smoking, you need to take gradual steps to cut down before eliminating it all together. You may also want to change your habits as well. We have often heard we are creatures of habit, therefore, if you want to stop smoking you need to substitute whatever triggers you to smoke with different activities such as playing basketball, getting a deep tissue massage, or jogging. In my experiences, being self-aware of my addictions and what triggers them has enabled me to be proactive and replace my abdication with something of value to my health and my mind. Therefore, make sure to prioritize your health and control your blood pressure, after all, you only have one life.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

               Written by<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

               -Robert E. Salazar, MS, RDN, LDN<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

               Some know it as the \u201csilent killer\u201d others commonly refer to it as hypertension. Hypertension is often asymptomatic, meaning it has no symptoms hence the nickname. If left untreated, high blood pressure can be fatal and result in a stroke or heart attack. If we look through the history of bodybuilding, it is no secret […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2339,5,1,3818],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4749"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4751,"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4749\/revisions\/4751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}