Nigerian Habits That Increase Your Blood Pressure

1. Eating too much salt is dangerous to the human body.Salt sodium which causes your body to retain more fluid, increasing blood volume. Your heart then has to work harder to move more blood through the vessels, which raises pressure in your arteries. "Too much salt intake is by far the number one cause of hypertension," says Shlofmitz.
 Eating fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh meat can take off excess sodium out of your body and looking for low-sodium on packaged food labels.

Excess salt can be found in: Packaged foods like tomato sauce, soups, canned food and prepared mixes alternative source to salt are Garlic powder,onion powder,lime and lemon juice

2. Over eating causes you to gain excess weight which puts an extra strain on your heart which in turn increase your blood pressure,cholesterol and you risk a heart disease"Getting down to a healthy weight absolutely reduces your risk," says Shlofmitz-and even losing as little as five or 10 pounds makes a difference. Always eat small portions and eat slowly at least the food won't run away

3. Drinking too much alcohol raise blood pressure to an unhealty level,taking more than three bottles in one sitting temporarily increase blood pressure while binge drinking lead to long term increase.If you are an heavy drinker and you want to lower your blood pressure you should slowly reduce how much drink you consume or put a stop to it.

4.The caffeine in kola nut increases systolic and diastolic blood pressure by increasing the resistance in the peripheral veins. Kola nut stimulates the central nervous system and may interfere with sleep by inhibiting the neurotransmitters that trigger reduced brain activity with doses of caffeine higher than 400mg per day. Sleep deprivation increases the chances of having high blood pressure.

Some experts say getting less than six hours of sleep a night may raise your risk of hypertension.

Alternatives: Consume in tiny portions early in the day, avoid consumption in the evening.

5. You use/reuse heated vegetable/cooking oils (Palm oil/ Red oil/ Groud nut oil)

It is important to choose oils such as coconut oil and olive oil, which are be stable enough to resist chemical changes when heated to high temperatures, or you run the risk of damaging your health. One of the ways vegetable oils can inflict damage is by converting your good cholesterol into bad cholesterol—by oxidizing it.

When you cook with polyunsaturated vegetable oils, oxidized cholesterol is introduced into your system. As the oil is heated and mixed with oxygen, it goes rancid. Rancid oil is oxidized oil and should NOT be consumed. it leads directly to vascular disease.

Alternatives: Extra virgin Olive oil, Coconut oil.