title: Beneficial effects of nonpharmacological interventions in the management of essential hypertension.
abstract: Essential hypertension is a major health problem causing excess cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Management of essential hypertension consists of pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions. In order to prevent and/or treat hypertension, parameters like nutrition, body weight, and physical exercise should be evaluated and taken under consideration for improvement. A large body of evidence clearly support that the role of salt, alcohol, fruits, and vegetables is important for high blood pressure. Furthermore, maintaining a normal body weight should be succeeded along with physical activity few times per week if not daily. Nonpharmacological intervention is rather a dynamic procedure that takes a multilevel approach with repeated training of the hypertensives by a team of expert physicians, rather than a single based guidance. Additionally, it should be based on a profile customization and personalized approach. Intensive interventions aiming at lifestyle changes through educational meetings are considered more effective in lowering high blood pressure. This consists of a lifestyle modification with a permanent basis for patient's daily schedule and eventually should become a philosophy for a better quality of life through improvement of nutritional and exercise behavior. Further studies are needed so intervention guideline models can be even more effective for patients with essential hypertension.
authors.affiliation: 3rd Department of Internal Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Anastasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vamvakis
authors.affiliation: 3rd Department of Internal Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Eugenia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gkaliagkousi
authors.affiliation: 3rd Department of Internal Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Areti
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Triantafyllou
authors.affiliation: 3rd Department of Internal Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gavriilaki
authors.affiliation: 3rd Department of Internal Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Stella
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Douma
keywords: Essential hypertension; body weight; exercise; lifestyle interventions; nutrition