Blood Pressure, Alcohol And Caffeine

No matter how  carefully you improve your way of living by eating right and getting your body into shape, your efforts may be wasted if you are raising your blood pressure  with chemicals. Street drugs like cocaine have a direct effect on blood pressure but so also legal drugs, such as alcohol, nicotine, and, for some people, caffeine.

Alcohol

You may have heard that moderate alcohol intake can help reduce the risk of heart disease. It is true that one or two drinks a day can increase the beneficial type of cholesterol in your blood. But the disadvantage of alcohol can easily outweigh any advantage. If you take more than a couple of drinks a day, the net effect will be harmful to your heart, as well as your liver and other organs. For some people, two or more drinks a day also increase blood pressure.

Here are some tips for those who may need to cut down:

1. Drink only with meals.
2. If you expect to be in situations where you might be tempted to drink too much, plan ahead. Have a nonalcoholic drink between alcoholic drinks. Take drinks in tall glasses and sip to make them last longer.
3. If it is hard to cut down to two drinks a day, consider quitting altogether. It will be easier in the long run.

Caffeine

Caffeine need not be harmful. Even through it may boots pressure temporarily, the pressure doesn’t stay high. However, some doctors will suggest that their patients drink less coffee particularly if it is interfering with sleep or making it hard to relax. As a rule of thumb, it is smart to cut down if you are drinking more than two strong cups a day.

Caffeine is an addictive drug. If you cut it out completely, you may have with drawl symptoms for a few days, including sleepiness and a dull headache. To help avoid such symptoms, try cutting down gradually.

1. Each week, switch one of your daily cups of cofee to a decaffeinated type. Finally, switch over completely to decaf.
2. Explore the many tastes of herbal teas.
3. Switch from decaffeinated colas to soft drinks without caffeine or better to water juice.

Related posts:

1. Caffeine Usage
2. Monitoring Your Blood Pressure
3. Caffeine Containing Beverages and Drugs
4. Caffeine as a Performance Enhancer
5. Blood Presure Medication