High blood pressure is a dangerous condition that can damage your heart. It affects one in three people in the US and 1 billion people worldwide.
If left uncontrolled, it raises your risk of heart disease and stroke.
But there’s good news. There are a number of things you can do to lower your blood pressure naturally, even without medication.
High blood pressure or hypertension is a cardiovascular disease that affects millions of people worldwide. According to an estimate, high blood pressure or hypertension would affect 1.56 billion people in the year 2025.
This means every fifth person on the planet would be threatened by its symptoms. It is a "silent killer" in the sense that it does not produce symptoms that are recognized by a layman; however, if ignored it can often lead to fatal consequences.
By following current guidelines on exercise—30 minutes a day, most days a week—you can bring down your blood pressure significantly, says Gerald Fletcher, MD, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic, in Jacksonville, Fla., and a spokesman for the American Heart Association.
If you’ve been sedentary, try aerobic exercise to reduce your systolic blood pressure—the top number—by three to five points, and the bottom by two to three, says Dr. Fletcher.
People who get moving are often able to reduce the number of hypertension medications they’re on, he adds. Pick something you like—walking, running, swimming, cycling—and stick with it.
Increasing your potassium intake can also offset the effects of sodium. You can get more of this mineral by incorporating foods such as apricots, greens, and mushrooms into your diet. Potassium-rich foods such as tuna are an important part of the DASH diet, too. You’re well on your way to improving your potassium levels if you adopt it.
The AHA recommends that you limit your potassium intake to no more than 4,700 mg a day.
Certain groups of people—the elderly, African Americans, and those with a family history of high blood pressure—are more likely than others to have blood pressure that's particularly salt (or sodium) sensitive. But because there's no way to tell whether any one individual is sodium sensitive, everyone should lower sodium intake, says Eva Obarzanek, PhD, a research nutritionist at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. How far? To 1,500 mg daily if you want low blood pressure, about half the average American intake, she says. (Half a teaspoon of salt contains about 1,200 mg of sodium.)
Cutting sodium means more than going easy on the saltshaker, which contributes just 15% of the sodium in the typical American diet. (For more ways to reduce your sodium, see 6 simple ways to lower your salt intake.) Watch for sodium in processed foods, Obarzanek warns. That’s where most of the sodium in your diet comes from, she says. Season foods with spices, herbs, lemon, and salt-free seasoning blends.
Dark chocolate varieties contain flavanols that make blood vessels more elastic and increase the chances of low blood pressure. In one study, 18% of patients who ate it every day saw blood pressure decrease. Have half an ounce daily, and make sure it contains at least 70% cocoa.
If you’ve ever downed a cup of coffee before you’ve had your blood pressure taken, you’ll know that caffeine causes an instant boost.
However, there’s not a lot of evidence to suggest that drinking caffeine regularly can cause a lasting increase.
In fact, people who drink caffeinated coffee and tea tend to have a lower risk of heart disease, including high blood pressure, than those who don’t.
Caffeine may have a stronger effect on people who don’t consume it regularly.
If you suspect you’re caffeine-sensitive, cut back to see if it lowers your blood pressure.
Bottom Line: Caffeine can cause a short-term spike in blood pressure, although for many people it does not cause a lasting increase.
This pungent seasoning can do more than just flavor your food and ruin your breath. Garlic has the ability to lower your blood pressure by causing your blood vessels to relax and dilate. This lets blood flow more freely and reduces blood pressure.
You can add fresh garlic to a number of your favorite recipes. If the flavor is just too strong for you, roast the garlic first. And if you simply can’t eat the stuff, you can get garlic in supplement form.
Tomatoes are loaded with calcium, potassium, vitamins A, C, and E and lycopene. Compounds in tomatoes can lower cholesterol buildup in blood vessels and combat the development of hypertension in a variety of ways. Lycopene, one of the tomato’s most useful compounds, is activated by heat, so add tomatoes to your next chili or stew.
The beautiful, perfume-like scent of lavender is not the only useful aspect of the plant. Oil of lavender can also induce relaxation and may lower your blood pressure. Although not many people think to use lavender as a culinary herb, you can use the flowers in baked goods. The leaves can be used in the same way you would use rosemary.
Insomnia may be linked to high blood pressure, a recent study in the journal Hypertension found. Try to identify your triggers— an evening coffee, stress, or late night iPad use— and make modifications to get more shut-eye.
Speaking of stress, try not to do it. It drives people to smoke, drink or engage in other unhealthy activities, and the kind of stress many people experience at work can tighten blood vessels, increasing pressure, Prevention.com notes. But there are ways to reduce that stress, such as drinking herbal tea, exercising, listening to music and leaving work at the office.
Keeping yourself hydrated is one of the basics when it comes to lowering blood pressure to a significant extent. Water helps to flush out excessive amount of salt from your body and thus goes a long way in controlling hypertension.
