How to Keep Your Blood Pressure & Stress in Check After Marriage

There is no scientific proof that married people suffer high blood pressure the most. It’s just that marriage changes a lot of things about an individual’s life. Once you are married, there will be new challenges that make you to either maintain or forgo the healthy lifestyle you have been sustaining. And this can get a bit more challenging when kids come into the picture.

High blood issue is not something one should toy with. It claims millions of lives each year. According to a specific report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 75 million persons in the United States suffer from high blood pressure annually. That’s one in every adult you know, which indicates that people who are probably married or old enough to be married fall into this category.

But let’s not say marriage makes an individual prone to high blood pressure issues. Marriage is a beautiful thing, and when both parties are happy in the relationship, they can live better and healthier. In this post, we will discuss ways married couples can lead a healthy life and avoid blood pressure issues.

Related Reading: 5 Steps to React Rationally to Stress

1.  Opt for more potassium and less sodium

Does sodium intake increase when one gets married? The simple answer is no. But then, when most people get married, things like sodium intake become the least of their problems. They are most likely to forget the fact that excess salt can lead to high blood pressure.

You will find many gobbling up packaged foods because there is no time to prepare the meals at home.

And at the end of the day, their sodium intake gradually increases.

Most processed and fast foods usually contain high sodium, which most people don’t pay much attention to. Even with all the warnings from health bodies, coupled with the industry making promises to take action, nothing has changed regarding the amount of salt they add to their meals.

The issue with consuming too much salt is that it makes the kidneys to go off balance and work a bit harder. Salt will make these two bean-shaped organs to lose the capacity to remove toxins from the body, leading to toxin buildup and other corresponding health issues.

But help is not far away, and one of them is by increasing the intake of potassium. Potassium has the power to remove excess salt from the body. So, instead of excessive sodium consumption, increase intake of potassium. And if you are eager to tackle issues of excess sodium, below are tips you should follow.

•    Stay far from processed and fast foods as much as you can.
•    Increase intake of potassium-rich foods.
•    Don’t forget to take the salt shaker off your dining table.
•    Limit salt intake to the 2300mg recommended amount for daily salt consumption
•    Always check labels of processed foods to know the salt content, if you decide to eat them.

2. Don’t work yourself out

Your life will for sure take a new dimension when you get married. You will have more responsibilities and decisions to make. And this will increase when the kids start coming. But despite all the changes and challenges, you can still address them without inviting stress upon yourself. One of the first steps and advice is, do not work yourself out. Instead, if the tasks at hand are too demanding, try to split them and attempt the ones you can.

Let’s make this clearer; more research is needed to ascertain how stress leads to blood pressure directly.

But it’s a well-known fact that stress can encourage people to take to unhealthy habits like smoking, drinking, and overeating, all of which can somehow contribute to high blood pressure.

There are ways you can fix things without opening the door to stressors. One of them is to take time out to think and analyze the things that are making you feel stressed. Is it family, finance or work? Once you can identify the problem, then there will be no issue solving it.

Ways you can avoid stress

1. Learn to make a plan

This action will help you streamline your activities for the day. Plus you will also be able to accomplish much. Remember the last time you wanted to do many things at the same time when there was no clear goal, were you able to achieve much?

That’s why it’s good to make plans.

But then, your plans should be realistic and tackle each of your goals in order of importance.

2. Have more time for yourself

Most people that go into marriage have this mentality that there is going to be a change in their life. Their priorities would change, and they can no longer engage in most of their favorite activities the way they used to. But such points are not valid.

Although priorities might change, marriage will not cause you to stop doing things that make you happy. You also need to learn to relax.

Have time for yourself and visit places that make you happy, at least once in a while.

3.  Talk to people that care about you

Most married people like to remain secretive. They don’t want others to know or interfere in their affairs. While this is proper, issues that concern one’s health are not things one should hide. Don’t forget hypertension is a silent killer. In other words, it doesn’t give a sign before striking.

A little explanation about how you are feeling can help someone determine the possible cause and bring it to your notice.

There will be supportive friends and family members around you. This category of people can actually improve your health, too. They can offer to drive you down to the doctor or advice you to take a break. The fact is most times; people don’t see how much stress they have gone through and how it has changed their physical appearance. They sometimes get to find out from others.

For most people, from the moment they get married, they become a different person altogether. But things shouldn’t be so. Your health issues should be of utmost importance to you. Nothing should change.

One of the health issues that have claimed too many lives is blood pressure. Check your blood pressure regularly.  However, the bottom line is to maintain good health no matter how busy you both are as a married couple.

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Clement Otega Okperigho Blogger

Clement Otega Okperigho is a prolific writer, one that loves sharing information regarding health issues. He also enjoys talking about issues that affect married couples, especially those related to health.