Your persistent cough might be killer Victorian disease and NOT Covid, doc warns

WE all know that exercise is good for us.

But there is evidence that suggests making sure your hands get a work out can help prevent deadly illness.

A study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that isometric exercises can help slash your blood pressure.

If your blood pressure is too high it can put a strain on your heart, leading to heart attacks and strokes,

The risk of hypertension is greater if you are over 65-years-old, are overweight, exercise rarely, and have a history of high blood pressure in the family.

You can take steps to lower your blood pressure by losing weight, which is helped by increasing exercise and eating a healthy diet.

Another step you can take is hand exercises.

The experts said that taking part in hand exercises in bouts of 20 minutes for three times a week, led to a drop in blood pressure.

"The results are very substantial reductions, comparable with those achieved with a single pharmacological agent and substantially more than the 3 mm Hg or so reduction resulting from regular dynamic exercise or from resistance exercise," they added.

Here are the three exercises you need to know that can help

1. Grip it

First you need to grab some sort of hand gripper to do the exercise with.

Rest for two minutes and then switch to the other hand, doing two sets on each hand.

There are some reasonably priced gadgets on the market to help including hand grippers and stress balls that you can use while watching TV.

2. Use what you have

There are items that you have lying around the home that could help with your hand grip strength.

Gather a set of bathroom scales, a timer and a pull-up bar - or something similar that will take your weight:

Record this result and continue to track your grip strength using this same method over time.

This will help you see any improvements after practising strengthening exercises.

The risk of hypertension is greater if you are over 65-years-old, are overweight, exercise rarely, and have a history of high blood pressure in the family.

You can take steps to lower your blood pressure by losing weight, which is helped by increasing exercise and eating a healthy diet.

Doctors also recommend reducing alcohol intake and cutting out smoking.

Reducing the sodium in your diet is also a good step to reducing bloody pressure, so make sure you read the labels on food, and avoid eating processed meats and canned veg where possible.

If you can't reduce it by natural methods, your doctor can then prescribe you medication.

3. Rubber bands

You can also buy thick rubber bands online that strengthen muscles in the fingers, wrists and forearms - and you don’t even need to leave the sofa.

Place the band over the fingertips of one hand and bring your fingertips together.

Then, expand them as far away from each other as possible, causing tension on the band. Repeat.

What is a normal blood pressure reading?

Doing the above exercises will help, but it's also important that you understand what a normal blood pressure reading is.

The ideal blood pressure should be below 120 and over 80 (120/80) and most UK adults have blood pressure in the range 120 over 80 (120/80) to 140 over 90 (140/90).

The higher number is the systolic pressure, which is the force at which your heart pumps blood around your body.

The lower number is the diastolic pressure, the resistance to the blood flow in the blood vessels.

You can request a blood pressure reading at your local GPas it hardly takes any time, just a few minutes.

Blood pressure is measured with an instrument called a sphygmomanometer.

A cuff is placed around your arm and inflated with a pump until the circulation is cut off.

Afterwards a small valve slowly deflates the cuff, giving the doctor a chance to measure the blood pressure.

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