Youthful Habits Check High Blood Pressure

Scientific studies are finding that acting like a kid may reset your body's clock and help you beat high blood pressure. Uncontrolled high blood pressure (hypertension) increases your risk of heart attack, heart disease, kidney failure, blindness and stroke. But lowering your blood pressure can be easy -- and fun -- if you just act like a kid again!

• See the doctor every year. Those annual visits to the pediatrician kept us healthy and on track when we were kids, but most adults only see a doctor when they're sick. Annual checkups set a baseline for normal body functions and tell us when things are getting out of whack. Early treatment prevents small, solvable problems from becoming big, life-threatening ones.
• Drink milk. Drinking nonfat milk products reduces your risk of hypertension by 50%. If you're allergic to milk or are lactose intolerant, you can get similar benefits from the milk protein casein which can be found in certain lactose-free products and supplements. Casein blocks the chemical reactions that cause blood vessels to narrow and make pressure rise.
• Play. And you don't even need to play every day. Just 30 minutes of brisk exercise three times a week will lower your blood pressure. Walk, play hopscotch with the kids, jump rope, toss a frisbee -- just make sure you get your heart rate up.
• Eat candy. But not just any candy -- dark chocolate, the darker the better. Eating 30 calories of dark chocolate a day will lower your blood pressure without weight gain.
• Take a nap. People who only get five hours (or less) of sleep a night increase their risk of getting hypertension. If you have trouble sleeping, make sure you take a nap during the day.