If you have high blood pressure then you'll know the problem only too well.
Modern medicines bring unpleasant side effects along with their benefits and there's a significant move away towards a more natural blood pressure treatment approach.
As a society we are becoming less healthy and more and more of us are developing heart or circulation problems.
The rise in both fat and salt in our diet sees a corresponding rise in the frequency of high BP and the risk of death from stroke or heart attack.
We can all do more to improve our heart health - but where should you start? Is there really a way to avoid a need for high blood pressure treatment? Most doctors with an interest in the subject would say categorically yes to that question.
It's really all a matter of taking a slow.
methodical and logical stepwise approach and before you know it your risk for heart attack could be dramatically reduced - and whats more you'll feel a lot better too.
One of my great hobby horses is the connection between salt intake and hypertension or raised BP.
Doctors now realise that large numbers of us are extremely sensitive to salt intake from our diet and it seems to be this that drives the body to run with a BP reading higher than it should be.
Salt creeps in everywhere nowadays - you'll even find it in your breakfast cereal if you look at the packet contents.
Why should there be salt in cornflakes? The other problem of course is that a lifetime of salt overuse makes our tastebuds less aware of it - so we add more and more to achieve the same flavour.
Packaged food companies pour it in and fast food venues add it to fries and burger sauce without even asking.
So how do you change this.
Here's my advice: You can work out if you are sensitive to salt by following these simple steps.
First - buy a blood pressure monitor - and get in the habit of checking your BP numbers regularly.
Learn to use it over a few days and make a note of the type of readings you achieve.
Second - put yourself on a "zero salt diet" for as long as you can tolerate.
Try for at least a week.
The easiest way to do this is by consuming only yogurt, fresh fruit or fruit juices.
You can have as much as you like but try to take nothing else for a week or more if you can manage it.
This will cut your salt levels down to almost nothing.
During that week - and especially at the end - you should check your readings again.
Have they improved? I bet they have.
Most people who reduce salt will see their blood pressure numbers come down by at least ten points and often more.
Third - sit down to a meal with lots of added salt...
and brace yourself to see your heart rate and blood pressure shoot up skywards, often within only a few minutes.
Please give this a try out.
If your body behaves like this then you've immediately found a very powerful tool that could both save your life and avoid the need to start high doses of blood pressure medication.
Let me know how you go with it - and good luck.