Study participants who used the counseling reduced their systolic blood pressure by 10 mmHg – an effect similar to adding an additional blood pressure-lowering medication.
Ortiz, now 43, worked with her doctor to lower her numbers.
“I went home and immediately started walking,” she said.
She also eliminated the fast food that had become a mainstay in her busy life of juggling four children and full-time work. She cut her sodium intake and she began spending Sundays prepping meals for the next week to assure healthy food would be on the menu.
“I went from not eating anything green to making smoothies with kale in them,” she said.
After three months, she’d dropped 30 pounds and felt full of energy.
“I wasn’t sluggish anymore,” Ortiz said. “I felt the best I ever had in my life.”
Mary Ann Bauman, M.D., an internal medicine doctor and national board member of the AHA, said limiting sodium and making lifestyle changes is crucial for controlling high blood pressure.
“Little changes can make big differences. Even losing a few pounds can help bring your blood pressure down,” she said. “If you bring your top number (systolic) down by 10 points you can decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke by 30 to 50 percent.”
Ortiz’s blood pressure stabilized initially with her healthy changes, but it crept up again — driven by genetics.
“I felt defeated,” she said. “I had done all this work and I still had to take medication,”
Ortiz said part of her resistance to the medication stemmed from fear of side effects, but she found that maintaining a healthy diet and regular exercise has mostly negated them.
The changes Ortiz made also had an impact on her 18-year-old daughter Yesenia, who lost 25 pounds by joining her mom at the gym and making similar changes to her eating habits. The entire family is eating more fruits and vegetables, though, sometimes that means sneaking them into smoothies, Ortiz said.
“It’s still hard to get them to follow what I have changed personally, but the shopping list is definitely not the same,” she said.
