Thursday, July 2, 2009

Watching Your Blood Pressure ?

The blood pressure is determined by the amount of blood your heart pumps and the amount of resistance to blood flow in your arteries. The more blood your heart pumps and the narrower your arteries, the higher your blood pressure. Systolic pressure is the pressure as the heart beats,(higher) while diastolic pressure measures the pressure when the heart relaxes between beats (lower).

Blood pressure is usually measured at the brachial artery with a sphygmomanometer (pressure cuff) in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) and given as systolic over diastolic pressure. Normal blood pressure is less than 120 mm Hg systolic and less than 80 mm Hg diastolic—usually expressed as "120 over 80." However, what is considered normal for an individual varies with the height, weight, fitness level, age, and health of a person. Blood pressure is normally within narrow limits, but it usually drops during sleep or increase during exercise. You are considered as having Hypertension (HTN), or high blood pressure, occurs when the force of blood passing through blood vessels is above normal range. The increase in pressure forces the blood to hit the blood vessel walls. HTN is called "the silent killer" because many people do not know they have the condition. Consistently high blood pressure increases the risk for a stroke or a heart attack.

High blood pressure (BP) can lead to a variety of changes in the myocardial structure, coronary vasculature, and conduction system of the heart. These changes can lead to the development of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), coronary artery disease, various conduction system diseases, and systolic and diastolic dysfunction of the myocardium, which manifest clinically as angina or myocardial infarction, cardiac arrhythmias (especially atrial fibrillation), and congestive heart failure (CHF). Thus, hypertensive heart disease is a term applied generally to heart diseases, such as LVH, coronary artery disease, cardiac arrhythmias, and CHF, caused by direct or indirect effects of elevated BP. Although these diseases generally develop in response to Hypertension, marked and acute elevation of BP can also lead to accentuation of an underlying predisposition to any of the symptoms traditionally associated with chronic hypertension.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), and the resulting complications, is the main cause of death for both males and females in the United States and other technologically advanced countries of the world. It usually is in the top five causes of death in lesser-developed countries. Diseases of the cardiovascular system include those that compromise the pumping ability of the heart, cause failure of the valves, or result in narrowing or hardening of the arteries. Additionally, toxins and infectious agents may damage the heart and blood vessels. Injury or failure of the cardiovascular system, especially the heart, also will affect the peripheral tissues that depend on the delivery of nutrients and the removal of wastes through the blood vascular system. CVD is a family of diseases that includes hypertension, atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, and stroke. High blood pressure typically develops over many years, and it affects nearly everyone over time. Fortunately, high blood pressure can be easily detected. And once you know you have high blood pressure, you can work with your doctor to control it.

Outstanding Empowered Nutrition Meal Plans

Empowered Nutrition Meal Plans is a meal plan system that has been designed by 2005 Canadian Fitness Champion Vince Delmonte and the team of experts on nutrition at Empowered Nutrition. These Empowered Nutrition Meal Plans come in three different stages or phases: the phases are beginner, intermediate and advanced and each phase is made up of 84 daily meal plans. The meal plans are available seperately for men and women. This article will go into detail about the Empowered Nutrition Meal Plans system.

Empowered Nutrition Meal Plans has three different phases for the different ability levels that people display. There are different plans for men and different plans for women as each has a different biological system and genetic make up. In phase one of the program the aim for women is to lose weight and to tone all over while the men have the same goal to lose weight but also develop muscle mass. The second phase takes phase one a step further and enhances the gains made in phase one. Phase three is concerned about lowering your overall body fat to a low percentage.

The daily 84 day meal plans are called done for you meal plans because they are just that done for you. They tell you what foods to eat, what to buy when shopping, why you are eating what you are eating, how much you need to eat and how to cook each receipe. The Macronutrients of each meal is broken down so you know exactly how much protein, calories and fat you are taking in. In the Empowered Nutrition Meal Plans course everything is all laid out for you in a simple step by step fashion. Guesswork and confusion have been completely eliminated.



These meal plans are done in a way so that they are easy to complete by being flexible. If you don't like something or one of the foods they recommend doesn't appeal to you. All you need to do is consult the substitution book and it will tell you what you can substitute it for while still getting the correct amount of nutrients in your diet.

The guys at Empowered Nutrition and Vince Delmonte have done an outstanding job at delivering a very cutting edge meal plan system. Never in history has so much time, dedication and thought gone into developing meal plans of this magnitude before. This is a system that makes it as easy as possible for you to reach you goals in the minimum amount of time possible.

Empowered Nutrition Meal Plans is the most powerful and smart system ever devised and you will be able to achieve you health goals very quickly and easily on this program.