25% of Vietnamese adults have high blood pressure, how does DASH prevent it?

The number of people with high blood pressure is up to 25% in Vietnamese adults (2.5 out of 10 adults have high blood pressure) and is on the rise. So how to prevent high blood pressure?

Nutrition pyramid helps limit high blood pressure - Photo: Provided by the hospital

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Hoai, Director of the National Heart Institute, Bach Mai Hospital, said that besides drug therapy, lifestyle changes are the "golden key" in the overall strategy to prevent and treat high blood pressure. So what does that "golden key" include?

Diet

Diet is a very important factor for health in general, and cardiovascular health in particular. A healthy, appropriate diet will help prevent and support effective treatment of high blood pressure.

According to the recommendations of the Vietnam Heart Association on the prevention and treatment of hypertension, DASH is the best diet to reduce blood pressure that has been proven. DASH is a nutritional regimen to support the prevention and treatment of hypertension. This is a scientifically and reasonably designed diet that has been proven to be very effective in weight loss as well as supporting the control of hypertension.

DASH depends on each person's taste, each country, and culinary culture can be customized in a variety of ways, but respects the following basic principles:

Increase vegetables, fruits, whole grains

Low-fat dairy products have reduced saturated fat content, limiting saturated fat

Increase intake of fish and poultry, limit red meat

Limit salt, carbonated drinks, sweets

Supplement minerals and vitamins such as potassium, magnesium...

A healthy diet can reduce systolic blood pressure by up to 5mmHg (which may be equivalent to the effect of a low-dose antihypertensive drug) in patients with hypertension and by about 3mmHg in people without hypertension.

Weight control

A person's weight should be maintained optimally, not too fat, not too thin. Through the body mass index, each person can determine their ideal weight to achieve. The ideal body mass index (BMI) is from 19 to 23.

Overweight and obesity are clear risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Being overweight increases the risk of high blood pressure.

Weight loss has obvious benefits in treating hypertension. The vital principle in weight loss is calorie deficit, which means that the total amount of calories the body takes in must be less than the total amount of calories the body consumes in a day in order to lose weight.

Therefore, to lose weight, it is necessary to affect both factors: increase calorie consumption by increasing physical activity, increase basal metabolism appropriately and reduce calorie intake by appropriate diet.

Losing 1kg of weight in overweight people can reduce systolic blood pressure by 1mmHg in hypertensive people, with a maximum effect of reducing systolic blood pressure by 5 to 10mmHg.

Reduce salt in your diet

Sodium (salt) is an important element in the body, an indispensable component for the body's cell activities. Too much sodium is one of the causes of high blood pressure. Current recommendations for high blood pressure recommend reducing sodium intake in the diet to prevent and treat high blood pressure.

Ideally, the amount of sodium in the diet should be less than 1500mg per day, equivalent to about 3 grams of salt. At an acceptable level, according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization, the amount of salt consumed per day for an adult should not exceed 5 grams, equivalent to 2 spoons of yogurt.

When converted to spices and foods commonly used in Vietnam, 5 grams of salt is equivalent to about 8 grams of seasoning powder, 10 grams of seasoning powder (2 teaspoons), 25 grams of fish sauce (5 teaspoons) and about 35 grams of soy sauce.

Reducing dietary sodium by about 1000mmHg can reduce systolic blood pressure by 1 to 3mmHg, a good sodium-restricted diet can help reduce systolic blood pressure by about 5 to 10mmHg

Other measures

Other measures have also been shown to help reduce blood pressure in people with hypertension and are very good in preventing high blood pressure in healthy people, such as:

Exercise regimen : Need to exercise regularly, consistently, especially full-body exercises such as walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, cardio...

Potassium-rich diet : A diet supplemented with an appropriate amount of potassium is very good for the prevention and treatment of hypertension. However, potassium is an important element in the body, greatly affecting cardiovascular activity, so it is necessary to monitor and control blood potassium levels well and maintain them at an appropriate level.

Drink less wine, beer and alcoholic beverages

"If we strictly follow lifestyle changes, we can help prevent and treat as well as support the treatment of high blood pressure very effectively, safely and sustainably," Dr. Hoai emphasized.

LINH HAN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/25-nguoi-truong-thanh-viet-nam-mac-tang-huyet-ap-bi-quyet-dash-phong-tranh-nhu-the-nao-20250825164734147.htm