Free image courtesy of bplanet/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Whether or not you’re facing high blood pressure issues, you should considering reducing your sodium intake as you try to improve your eating habits.

When considering your diet and which foods should be emphasized less, it’s not always obvious where you’ll find a lot of sodium. This slideshow of the 7 saltiest foods offer up a good start. For example, one can of soup has a whopping 1,622 mg of sodium! If you’re buying soup at the store, make sure to get the low-sodium version.

Next, 2 slices of pizza has an incredible 1,280 mg of sodium! If pizza is a big part of your diet, you need to reconsider your eating habits. Pizza is also loaded with simple carbs, so start thinking of replacements.

Check out the entire list for more ideas of foods that need to be a smaller part of your diet.

Free Image Courtesy of FreeDigitalPhoto.net

The CDC has done a great job of making the public aware of the dangers of hypertension yet many don’t make the changes necessary to keep their high blood pressure under control.

High blood pressure quadruples the risk of a death from stroke and triples it for heart disease. So the CDC is pushing for more action.

Previously, public health officials and groups in the private sector unveiled Million Hearts, a campaign to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. One plank of that plan is to improve the proportion of people with controlled blood pressure to 65 percent from 46 percent.

So what will it take to achieve a goal like that? The CDC has some ideas.

Among them:

Take the blood pressure medicines you’ve been prescribed.
Lose weight and stop smoking.
Measure and keep track of your blood pressure between doctor visits.

Simple lifestyle changes like consuming less salt and sodium and sugar along with maintaining a healthy weight and getting regular exercise go a long way toward keeping your blood pressure down.

Hypertension is a contributing factor to stroke, and heart attack.

Strokes kill twice as many women as breast cancer every year.

450,000 women will have a stroke this year alone.

The unique risk factors for women include hormone therapy such as birth control pills and hormone replacement at menopause.

High blood pressure is the universal risk factor for stroke for all people and anyone can have a stroke at any time.

It is important to seek medical attention immediately if you notice any stoke symptoms.

Every moment your brain is without oxygen irreparable damage can be done to the brain.

Scientists say that salt is the number one killer in the world.

High blood pressure is the culprit in most deaths worldwide and salt only exacerbates hypertension which causes heart attack and stroke.

It is not simply table salt, however, which contributes to alarmingly high sodium intake.

Fast food, packaged foods even breads and cereals contain a high amount of sodium to preserve shelf life and enhance the taste of otherwise low quality food products.

Reducing daily sodium intake by 2,000 milligrams at the population level could prevent 1.25 million deaths from stroke and almost 3 million deaths from cardiovascular disease each year, according to an analysis published in the British Medical Journal in 2009. A 1,200-milligram reduction could save up to $24 billion annually in U.S. health costs, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2010.

Inflammation is at the root of so many illnesses that prevention is the key to good health.

Heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, cancer and many auto-immune diseases like arthritis would greatly benefit from preventing and treating inflammation.

According to Liponis, there are blood tests, which can detect low levels of inflammation in the body. Doctors can either look at white blood cell count—the higher the count, the more inflammation—or look at c-reactive protein, which is an even more accurate test that can find levels of inflammation so low a person can’t feel them.
To prevent inflammation, Liponis recommended a few simple steps, including regular exercise, staying at a healthy weight, and taking various supplements such as vitamin D and fish oil.

Also, adding spices like turmeric, ginger and garlic can help keep inflammation at bay.

Dr. Andrew Weil offers and anti-inflammatory diet to fight chronic inflammation disease.