Controlling hypertension together

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]with you. In fact, I went for an occasion and when I remember that, oh, I have a webinar today, I had to step out to ensure ensure that I keep to the mandate of this webinar. So, every 17th of May is world hypertension day. So, um day before yesterday was world hypertension day. So we had to fe this webinar to talk about hypertension and to also create awareness on lifestyle modification and dietary modification that can help reduce the prevalence of hypertension. So at the end of this webinar we're going to look um be able to know the in um definition of hypertension the causes the lifestyle modification and look at the dietary lifestyle and of course conclude and get your questions. So if you're just joining I would like you to share this with your loved ones invite them So let's start with hypertension. Now hypertension is a widely prevalent group global problem and they have recent reports indicating that it affects approximately onethird of the world population and I've come to observe being around people and doing nutrition consultation for a long time that most times this people you feel you meet that are hypertensive are always the elderly people. But right now you notice the younger ones are gradually being hypertensive. So that means is not only tied to age as before but there are other factors that have made the age um age at which people start having this disease to shift that is the lifestyle and every other thing and also the food that is being consumed. So hypertension is considered as one of the major and modified risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. And in the research they said lifestyle changes play a vital role not only in prevention but also in managing.

[00:02:27]That means diet is not enough. the lifestyle attached to it even during the prevention stage and when you're managing the hypertension is very very vital and it can go a long way. Thank you very much. Please if you join kindly share with your friends and tell me where you're watching from. Now let's look at um still on the hypertension. So what are the possible causes of hypertension?

[00:02:58]What what stage of the body can someone have and you say, "Oh, this person is prone to having hypertension." Number one, people that are overweight, people that are obese, they have the tendency of having hypertension, physical inactivity, people, people who do not exercise themselves very well, they also have the risk of being hypertensive. Okay, just follow me please because I'm going to site some journals that have carried out researches on hypertensive patients, you know, on different lifestyle and the changes they observed after that research. Remember what I what I give here is evidencebased research because science is fact and you need that fact so it can guide you truly. We are talking about hypertension. Now we look at again excessive salt intake.

[00:03:56]Excessive salt intake. Some people when they want to eat their meal, they still want to add extra salt when they feel that the salt used in preparing the meal is not enough. Is also part of hypertension. And the Mediterranean diet is basically you're having more of fruits, vegetable and legumes and less of you know um saturated fat and unhealthy highly processed food. That is what is basically telling us to do. And again we also have the DASH.

[00:04:34]Hi thank you for joining. We also have the DASH diet.

[00:04:40]DASH diet simply means dietary approach to stop hypertension.

[00:04:46]Now what are the things since we've mentioned what you need to avoid. You just have to engage in regular physical activity.

[00:04:55]Maintain a very healthy weight.

[00:05:00]Don't be obese. Don't be overweight.

[00:05:02]Even if you are you find a way to bring it down. Then if you have hypertension maybe is in the family lineage and you've noticed it that your grandfather had it your father had hypertension the tendency that it also happened to you or any of your sibling is high. So if you notice this you need to start eating healthy on time. Don't wait until you get to a particular age and it will occur to you that this thing that is my lineage may show up. You need to start eating healthy and also exercising.

[00:05:36]Avoid smoking, quit smoking, limit consumption of aqua. And most importantly on stress management, you have to reduce the way you stress yourself because this thing also contributes in the hypertension. And once again, I keep talking about prioritize your sleep. In our former webinar, last week webinar, I talked about this. Prioritize your sleep.

[00:06:01]There's no gain in saying that you sleep for only 4 hours or 5 hours because you're trying to achieve a goal. These are also risk factors that can make you have hypertension. But it's also true that there are some people that find it difficult to sleep. If you're someone that find it difficult to sleep, probably your body is lacking magnesium.

[00:06:22]In as much as I don't talk more about um supplementation but magnesium is one nutrient that helps you sleep well. So in that case if you have magnesium but please still meet an expert for other diagnosis to know the exact quantity you can take but it will make your body relax and it can help you sleep well.

[00:06:47]Like if you want other tea you can now take if you want tea you can go for spearmint tea and the rest of them.

[00:06:53]Okay. So now the dash method that's dietary approach to stop hypertension is a type of diet that is planned especially towards the management of hypertension people living with hypertension and the enhancement of cardiovascular health in people. So again, it's also advised for you to eat nutrientdense food.

[00:07:19]Nutrientdense food. I've said it over time, nutrientdense food and calorie dense but nutrient empty. There are two different types of meal. And I will use um I'll use soda for example. When you take a bottle of soda and look at it with maybe a highly processed biscuit, it can show you 540 calories for the biscuit and it can um the soda maybe you have 300 calories. That's more like 700 and something calories and you need 2,000 calories for a day. So if you consume that it's already calorie dense but it's not nutrient dense because all the micronutrients and the macronutrients you need for the day it's come in a very minute quantity. But when you're talking about nutrientdense food is a food that comes from different food groups that contains the essential micronutrients and macronutrient that your body needs in consumption for a day for you to say stay healthy.

[00:08:26]So for someone that is hypertens hypertensive or someone that is prone to being hypertensive or someone that want to prevent it, you have to eat nutrient dense food that are high in fiber.

[00:08:39]That's where your vegetable comes in.

[00:08:40]That's why your um chia seed comes in.

[00:08:43]These are food, especially vegetables are high in fiber. Potassium, you can get your potassium from banana. Banana is loaded with potassium. Your calcium, you can get your calcium from milk. But aside milk, if you in my region, you can get your calcium from sesame seed, especially the white one is rich in calcium. Then finger millet is also rich in calcium. And you have to con um take low sodium food.

[00:09:16]Even when you're cooking, just add a little salt to it. It will help significantly. All right, let's look at some researches and what they discovered. Okay, so um before we look at the researches, let's look at the Dash eating plan.

[00:09:37]The DASH eating plan. It promotes vegetables and fruits, whole grain alongside with lowfat dietary products.

[00:09:48]That's what it does. Fish, poultry, beans, vegetable oil. This just basically what the DASH eating plan looks like. Okay. I want to look at a research and um it's a particular research by European society of cardiology and European society of hypertenture their documentation on guid for potassium intake and their guideline for sodium intake. Okay. So, okay, based on their report, their doc their documentation suggests a dietary potassium intake of 3,500 to 5,000 mg per day.

[00:10:36]That is what um they came up with. And this can be cuten from potassium rich food. And it indicates that consuming foods that are not naturally high in potassium is the preferred approach for meeting this recommended potassium intake. And like I mentioned, you can get this potassium rich food from orange, bananas, your spinach. This is where you get it. That means when you get it from the raw, from not you know maybe processed into a supplement or something else. When you get it from directly from the plant, it is more preferable. That is for potassium. Then for your calcium, you can get it from your diary product.

[00:11:21]Your milk. If you're lactose intolerance, then you go for plant-based milk. If you're also someone that is trying to feed on plant-based diet, you don't want to do anymore anymore. You can still stick on your tiger nut milk, your coconut milk, your almond milk.

[00:11:40]These are other sources of plantbased and healthy milk that you can take for yourself. Magnesium, you can still find it in whole grain, leafy vegetables and not seed. You can find your magnesium there if you don't want to take it um from as supplement. Okay. So both the DASH diet and the Meditarian diet are highly beneficial for controlling blood pressure but you have to follow it consistency consistently. You don't have to do it once and then give up because for you to achieve a goal you have to continue with it before you see the visible sign. Let's take this question.

[00:12:22]I think I have been told what on my genital and general ginger area and around where around and back real far there whip off dry this smell like bad.

[00:12:34]Okay. Can you send me a direct message so we can talk about it because there are some questions I still need to ask you so I don't give you a generalized solution to it.

[00:12:50]Okay. Okay. No problem then. All right.

[00:12:56]So, there's an evidence from um a random a random control trial by some scientists that's normally they call it arocetis. It suggests that exercise training intervention can help reduce blood pressure. So when they carried out this research they had a group of people who were just doing exercise and they had another group who were doing exercise at the same time they were they were on anti-hypertensive medication. So after some weeks of exercise they observed that from the two parties the ones that were on exercise and at the same time taking the anti-hypertensive medication they improve greatly. This simply means that exercise plays a huge role in hypertension both for people having it and for people that want to prevent so they do not have it.

[00:14:02]Okay.

[00:14:11]So, let's also look at the consumption of um coffee, caffeinated beverages like tea and all that from a study looking at caffeine intake from a study. So, this study was done in Japan. So on the other hand, a Japanese cohort study revealed that heavy coffee consumption among participants that have severe hypertension, this one I'm not talking about the prevention. I'm talking about people that already have it.

[00:14:44]If you already have hypertension and you're addicted to coffee from this study, it was associate associated with high increased risk of cardiovascular mortality.

[00:14:57]Why am I quoting these journals? Like I said earlier, science is fact. If someone is asking you to try a new lifestyle, it's also important to link the person to studies that have been carried out results they observed and why the person is telling you you should try this is going to work out for you because there are sometimes that you want you already having a particular aness and you're managing the aness but there are some lifestyle that can make that an not work. So at the end of the day, you feel that your medical practitioner is not working very well, but they're working well. They're giving you the right medication, but it's lifestyle that is limiting that illness from reducing. So that's just the issue. So this Japanese people they did this study and it revealed that people that drink heavy coffee and at the same time the hypertensive that associated with increased risk of cardiovascular mortality cardiovascular mortality heart attack all that. So why why is this important?

[00:16:10]Because sometimes some things happen to people. We lose our loved ones and we can call it stress or call it different things but there are some little little lifestyle that have been piling up over a long time that the end of the day it resulted to that mortality and all that.

[00:16:29]Okay. However, this association was not observed in individuals with mild hypertension or those without hypertension. This simply means that this heavy consumption of of coffee, it doesn't affect people that have little that's their hypertensive but is still on a low. No, no, no. Their hypertensive but is not really really severe. That's just the right word to use. Or people that do not have it.

[00:17:04]Heavy consumption of coffee does not affect them. But people that are really really hypertensive, very severe, that cannot do go a day without taking their medication, if they keep consuming coffee every time. When I mean every time, they're addicted to it. Not just a cup, they can have several cups. It can lead to cardiovascular mortality. Okay. Then let's look at at u weight management. It was also established that overweight and obesity significantly increases the risk of developing hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases. So people that are overweight, people that have obesity, the tendency of them having hypertension, other heart diseases, you know, having cholesterol, having you know other heart diseases is very very high.

[00:18:04]That is why sometimes if you notice someone that is obeseed, if the person walk a long distance, they get weak. If they run small, they get weak.

[00:18:14]It just normal. So weight management is very very important. That is why I think I have to do it in my next video.

[00:18:22]Everybody should have a teos tape. What that tape helps you to do sometimes to check your waist to hip measurement.

[00:18:31]When you check it, you calculate it. If it's more than 0.7 as a man then for women more than 0.8 to 0.9 years then I I think that's the figure then there's something wrong you need to work on it.

[00:18:49]Okay. So weight management is very very essential. You just have to ensure that you have the act a good body mass index and you also have to check your waist to hip ratio cuz people who are obese who are overweight they actually have a very high risk of having hypertension later.

[00:19:14]Okay. Then um let's look at exercise and then look at a study carried out on exercise.

[00:19:26]Okay. So according to a latest guideline including still um this group of people international society of hypertension they said adopting regular aerobic exercise like bris walking jogging cycling demonstrated a significant BP lowering effect.

[00:19:50]So someone that is suffering from hypertension have to engage in exercise.

[00:19:57]It must not be a strenous exercise. When I advise people on exercise, I tell them if you hear things about exercise is good, engaging exercise, it helps you for your health. Please the first day you don't need to run 100 miles or 100 m rather. You don't need it. The first day all you need to do is just to walk around the compound. The second day you just engage your neighborhood, walk around. Then the third day you can now start brisk walking because you've not been doing this for a long time. So starting on the first day and you want to hit hard the road, it makes some people they break down. They can't continue and they don't want to do it again. So you just take it easy. Getting a new if you want to start a new good habit is a gradual process. If you also want to stop a bad habit is also a gradual process. If you rush it you fall back. So that's how it works. The same thing happens when somebody want to lose weight.

[00:21:03]Especially when somebody want to lose weight because you want a dress to fit in for an event. If you rush it, the dress will fit in for the event and after that you notice the tendency of going double the weight you were will be there. There's every tendency you go double the weight you were before the weight loss program started. So if you do bris walking, jogging, cycling as someone that is hypertensive, it helps.

[00:21:32]If you also do it as a preventive measure is also important. We can't talk less about exercise. Exercise is very very good. last week when I had an invitation by uh from from a cancer center to do a presentation about diet during you know during cancer treatment during when I did my research I was able to read so many journals and one of the things I observed from the journal and I have to sit down and think about it was when it comes to breast cancer if you check women who engage engage in exercise, you know, they go for Olympic, they do all that or even on their own engage in exercise a lot. They hardly have breast cancer.

[00:22:27]Different different studies that I read about it is difficult for them to have breast cancer.

[00:22:36]So the same thing applies to other health issues. Exercise helps a lot.

[00:22:42]Sometimes you need to check just take a walk before you board a vehicle. It's very very important. Okay.

[00:22:51]Furthermore, another arrow city that's random control trial.

[00:22:56]I found that combining aerobic and resistant exercise such as weightlifting or using resistant bands can also lead to reduction of the same high blood pressure. So it's either you do the aerobic which is just brick work um brisk walking jogging cycling and all that or if you can you can join it with the resistant training that's weight lifting but do according to your capacity. Don't listen to this thing today and say oh this nutritionist say we should do excess let me start weightlifting today start gradually so you can be able to m maintain it. So let's see what they observed from their study. Evidence from the ARC suggests that exercise training intervention can produce BP reduction comparably to those seen with anti-hypertensive medication.

[00:23:57]So people that on anti-hypertensive medication stay taking the having exercise it helps a lot.

[00:24:06]So in conclusion, the combination of exercise and anti-hypertensive medication result is even greater for BP reduction than the medication alone.

[00:24:20]So that's why if you've observed they'll tell you that someone lives on BP drug for their lifetime. The reason why some people live on BP drug for their lifesty lifetime is because that's some lifestyle they have not adjusted to. If they can adjust to that lifestyle, eating some kind of food, exercising and taking the BP drug, the tendency of them stopping the medication is very high. But when they just realize, oh, I wake up in the morning, I check my blood pressure, I take this medication, I'm fine, they can live on that medication for their lifetime because they don't want to adjust to lifestyle that can help improve it. Okay.

[00:25:07]So I've talked about the Mediterranean diet where you take healthy fat whole grain fish and what are these whole grain and you can get it your lentil you you have your foil you have your finger millet why am I mentioning these particular ones because they really really heady they won't also spike your blood sugar and you know that some people that have some people that have hypertension also have diabetes. is sometimes hypertension is not a standalone illness in some individuals.

[00:25:44]That is why even as you're giving a general information we keep saying please if you have this disease yes you've heard that you should take fruits you should take vegetables but if you have it attached with other health issues you need to meet your dietician to guide you properly on the right diet to take. Let me say for example someone is having hypertension and the same time the person is having diabetes and I'm here teaching you that the Mediterranean diet emphasizes consumption of fruits and vegetables.

[00:26:17]The person can decide to take lots of fruits. Yes, she've heard that you should take fruits but at the same time fruits contain sugar.

[00:26:26]That is the truth. But someone is having diabetes. Now, if you want to take fruit, I always recommend take cucumber.

[00:26:36]For diabetic patient that come to us for counseling, I advise take cucumber, leave pineapple. Pineapple is too sweet, but they're also fruits. So even in the consumption advising people to consume fruits and vegetable they have the level of um fructose that's a sugar in fruit is called fructose they have the level of the level of sugar in them. So sometimes you need to understand what the person is the illness and know the particular one to advise the person say okay you can take cucumber if you're having you're having diabetes you can take um what's it called avocado because of the it contains healthy fat and it's going to help the person's heart in seed you say okay fine you can take um sesame seed you can take flax seed grind it to powder put put it when you're taking your beverage or you can even put it when you're taking your grill, your pop and cereals. Okay, fine.

[00:27:42]>> So another important thing to note is yoga is also a form of exercise.

[00:27:48]Breathing exercise. You can also engage in breathing exercise. Breathing exercise helps a lot in management of hypertension and even in prevention of hypertension. Just take your time engage in just take your time engage in breathing exercise. It helps to relax um it relax the heart muscles and it helps a lot in management is a healthy lifestyle and one that is encouraged for someone that is having hypertension or someone who want to prevent hypertension. And of course if you're listening to this please do not say oh I don't have hypertension I don't need to worry about my lifestyle. There is something I always tell people. You don't wait until you have the health issue. You start running around. It's very funny. We the nutritionist what we face and also the dieticians that work with us. Someone who have abused the body for 20 years will come to you and expect a magic in 7 days. It doesn't work that way.

[00:29:04]So, it's better you start on time.

[00:29:08]It's better you start on time. I was speaking with a fellow a few days ago and I told the person that I've not had sorry my audience that are not Nigerian.

[00:29:19]I told them that I've not had suya in years. And the person said why? I said because cholecta cancer and soya they friends.

[00:29:29]So if I decide I want to eat it again, I have to find a place that they don't make it over charcoal because I know the chemical reaction that happens when those fat from the meat drops to that charcoal that they use in roasting it, even roasted meat and fish and all that. So you can have that information and still want to fall for it. And looking at how things are going, b research is colorctal cancer is now coming up.

[00:30:04]And one of the things that tie to color cancer is eating smoked food which is very very common from where I come from.

[00:30:13]Okay. So let's still continue what we are saying.

[00:30:20]So it's also documented that high sodium intake is associated with high blood pressure which is normal. People always know that one. No no you don't need to take sodium so much. If you have high blood pressure you have to reduce the sodium. This is fine. So reducing sodium consumption there's something you need to note. When they talk about high sodium consumption people's mind go straight to the food they cooking. the salt they put in the food they cooking.

[00:30:51]But it's beyond that. Have you ever bought a food a package snacks and you read the label? It's not common for people to read food label but just try and engage in leading reading food label. If you read the label of the food, you see a spot where they wrote sodium content.

[00:31:11]And most times some food that they tell you, oh there's no sugar in it. Fine.

[00:31:16]Beautiful.

[00:31:18]Check the sodium content of that snacks you are taking. If the sodium content is like um cuz dietary sodium intake for someone who is having it already should be less than 2 g in a day. When you check the sodium content of that snack you're taking. It may even be up to 2 g and you're supposed to take less than 2 g in a day. So if you're taking two parts of that particular snack, you've taken more than expected. And when you get home, you now eat a properly made food, not snacks that still made the prepared with sodium. Are you seeing how they increase sodium intake happens? So when they say li limit sodium intake is not just food that you prepare at home the snacks you eat the ones that have label the one that do not have label that you cannot even track their nutrient profile.

[00:32:16]That is why anytime you are eating you must ensure if it's a packaged food look at the nutrition profile.

[00:32:24]When you look at the nutrition profile, come down and look at the common allergen they write it boldly just that people don't read. Some people have fallen ill.

[00:32:35]Some people have died because of food they ate because maybe they reacted to a particular ingredient used in producing that food. But some people believe they don't have food allergy. But food allergy is really is real.

[00:32:52]Some people have died of food allergy and they they thought maybe someone poisoned their food but it's just food allergy body reacting to a particular food. That is why reading food label is very very important. There are some food I there are some drinks I can't pick because I react to some of the ingredients.

[00:33:14]There's a particular drink I can't mention them but once I take it I start feeling lightaded. I react to a particular ingredient in that drink and it's a common drink and the drink does not contain sugar but what they use for their sugar replacement I react to it.

[00:33:30]Some other person may react to it but they may not know because they don't read the food label and they think is normal. Okay. So I've also taught you how to calculate your daily sodium intake.

[00:33:45]your daily sodium intake, the food you eat at home. Normally, if they prepare a whole food with, let's just do this mathematics together. If they prepare a whole food with small teaspoon, small teaspoon is like 5 g.

[00:34:02]That's a family food. And what you'll be taking out of the food may be a little plate that at the end of the day, what you just consume is just one g of sod.

[00:34:13]But if that same day, which is less than 2 g for someone that is hypertensive, but if it's that same day you took snacks, different snacks, packaged and unpackaged one, there's still little little sodium accumulated in those snacks. And that is why if you're having the anation, you may not see improvement because of your sodium intake.

[00:34:39]Okay. So let's see what um the current guide the current guide they say less than two gram per day for people having hypertension. The current guide suggest a moderate limit on sodium intake to promote better health outcome while in the United States the recommendation are even more stringent.

[00:34:57]In United States the recommendation is less than 1.5 g of sodium per day for people people who are already hypertensive.

[00:35:08]I usually tell people that sometimes I don't know when I say it I some people still argue it there's some illnesses that when you look at it it looks like you cannot you cannot be cured let me use that word you just have to live with it manage it for the rest but I can tell you that most of these illnesses lifestyle good lifestyle healthy diet you can still come out of it. I have a friend who have survived cancer and she's she's living she's happy but they said you cannot survive it. I have a friend who have worked out of diabetes but they told her that she's going to live all her life as a diabetic patient.

[00:35:57]At the same time I have two people have lost to cancer. So that is life.

[00:36:03]These things there are ways you can manage it and still come out of it.

[00:36:07]Eating good food is not enough. Diet is not enough. There's some lifestyle that must be attached to that diet for you to get your desired result.

[00:36:19]If you have questions, you can actually drop your questions.

[00:36:23]We've talked about caffeine.

[00:36:26]Um talked about exercise and um we've mentioned some food you should take.

[00:36:37]some food you can take that can help reduce um hypertension and we made emphasis on dash and meditarian diet dash and meditarian diet and of course no matter the food you taking quantity is very very important if they tell you that this food can help address a particular health issue it doesn't mean you should take it in essence because you want instant results You can even worsen your case if you take it that way. Still consider the quantity that you take. If you're having hypertension, fiber should be your friend. In fact, every day you should take food that are loaded with fiber. Vegetable, you should take vegetables every day. Just like people that are having cancer or you want to prevent cancer, you can't joke with um cabbage, you can't joke with kale, you can't joke with spinach, you can't joke with um discoum, you can't joke with kajun kajan. There are some things you cannot joke with.

[00:37:46]Kunos kajan is pigeon pee disco is yam the tree yam. You can't joke with this particular food because you know they have a role to play in what you're passing through. Then breathing exercise is also essential. You have to engage in breathing exercise.

[00:38:06]Do it a lot. And sometimes you can make your sauce. Don't do the frying method.

[00:38:11]Use healthy oil. You know you should check even the smoking point. Just you don't need to in cooking your oil must not fry so must not heat so much for you to put your onions so you can hear that sound. You're not helping yourself by cooking food that way. must not you don't need the oil to bleach so much to a high smoking point because there are some cooking method that instead of you to eat nutrients you're eating poison spice stop poison in your body and if you continue cooking that particular way it accumulates and one day it comes out with a disease and the doctors will give it a name of course so let's look at what the world health organization have for us the world health organization guideline recommend that adults engage in 150 to 300 minutes per week of moderate intensity exercise.

[00:39:09]That's 7 75 to 15 minutes of riorous exercise or an equivalent of both. So they say you should engage in exercise. We you and I I've done my trekking this morning. I tked from a long distance before I bought a vehicle to come for an event and I was happy I did. Okay.

[00:39:34]So engage in this and some people that are um that don't keep to this number one people who work from home remote workers exercise is quite difficult for them because they wake up they open their laptop they start working which is wrong. You have to engage in exercise with smoking. It can lead to immediate or longtime issue including blood pressure, high blood pressure and also other cardiovascular health. Quit smoking.

[00:40:04]Smoking may not be easy but you have to just find a way to quit it. Thank you all for giving me your 37 minutes of your time today. I'm so so so so happy.

[00:40:18]Mickey, thank you for joining. I really appreciate. Please um share this video to your friends. We are not able to join today. And please, if you have questions, I'm open to questions.

[00:40:30]And um by this time, next tomorrow, we'll also be having a webinar. A weekly webinar is always on Thursday. But I just have to fe this particular one because just to celebrate the world hypertension day. Appreciate and I would love to see you on Thursday. Do enjoy the rest of your day. Bye.