15 Ways to Lower your Blood Pressure, Naturally.
High Blood Pressure (hypertension) is called the “silent killer” for good reason. It often has no symptoms but is a major risk of heart disease and stroke. And these diseases are among the leading causes of death in the United States.
Almost half of U.S. adults have high blood pressure. Your blood pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury, which is abbreviated as mm Hg. There are two number involved in the measurement:
Systolic blood pressure. The top number represents the force of the pressure when your heart pushes blood into the arteries throughout the rest of your body.
Diastolic blood pressure. The bottom number represents the pressure in your blood vessels between beats, when your heart is filling and relaxing.
Your blood pressure depends on how much blood your heart is pumping, and how much resistance there is to blood flow in your arteries. The narrower your arteries, the higher your blood pressure.
Blood pressure lower than 120/80 mm Hg is considered normal. Blood pressure that’s 130/80 mm Hg or more is considered high.
If your numbers are above normal but under 130/80 mm Hg, you fall into the category of elevated blood pressure. This means you’re at risk of developing high blood pressure.
The good news about elevated blood pressure is that you can make changes to significantly reduce your numbers and lower your risk — without requiring medications.
Here are 15 ways to lower your blood pressure levels Naturally.
1. Increase activity
As you regularly increase your heart and breathing rates, over time your heart gets stronger and pumps with less effort. This puts less pressure on your arteries and lowers your blood pressure.
How much activity should you strive for?
A 2019 report by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association advises moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity for 40-minute sessions, three to four times per week.
If finding 40 minutes at a time is a challenge, there are benefits when the time is divided into three or four 10- to 15-minute segments per day
The American College of Sports Medicine makes similar recommendations.
But you don’t have to run marathons. Increasing your activity level can be as simple as:
using the stairs
walking instead of driving
doing household chores
gardening
going for a bike ride
Yoga, Tai Chi & Breath work
Just do it regularly and work up to at 15-20 an hour per day of moderate activity.
Exercise and lowering blood pressure found that there are many combinations of exercise that can lower blood pressure.
These exercises include:
aerobic exercise
resistance training
high-intensity interval training
short bouts of exercise throughout the day
walking 10,000 steps a day
2. Increasing Potassium Intake and cutting back on salt
can also lower your blood pressure.
Potassium is a double winner: It lessens the effects of salt in your system and eases tension in your blood vessels. However, diets rich in potassium may be harmful to people with kidney disease, so talk with your doctor before increasing your potassium intake.
It’s easy to eat more potassium. So many foods are naturally high in potassium. Here are a few:
low fat dairy foods, such as milk and yogurt
fish
fruits, such as bananas, apricots, avocados, and oranges
vegetables, such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, tomatoes, greens, and spinach
Note that people respond to salt differently. Some people are salt-sensitive, meaning that a higher salt intake increases their blood pressure. Others are salt-insensitive. They can have a high salt intake and excrete it in their urine without raising their blood pressure. The National Institutes of Health recommends reducing salt intake using the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet. The Dash Diet emphasizes:
low sodium foods
fruits and vegetables
low fat dairy
whole grains
fish
poultry
beans
fewer sweets and red meats
3. Eat Less Processed Foods
Most of the extra salt in your diet comes from processed and foods from restaurants, not your salt shaker at home Popular high salt items include:
deli meats
canned soup
pizza
chips
other processed snacks full of preservatives
Foods labeled “low fat” are usually high in salt and sugar to compensate for the loss of fat. Fat is what gives food taste and makes you feel full.
Cutting down on — or even better, cutting out — processed food will help you eat less salt, less sugar, and fewer refined carbohydrates. All of this can result in lower blood pressure.
Make it a practice to check nutrition labels According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a sodium listing of 5 percent or less on a food label is considered low, while 20 percent or more is considered high.
4. Stop Smoking
It can be difficult to do, but it’s worth it: Stopping smoking is good for your all-around health. Smoking causes an immediate but temporary increase in your blood pressure and an increase in your heart rate. In the long term, the chemicals in tobacco can increase your blood pressure by damaging your blood vessel walls, causing inflammation, and narrowing your arteries. The hardened arteries cause higher blood pressure. The chemicals in tobacco can affect your blood vessels even if you’re around secondhand smoke. A study showed that nonsmokers who were able to go to smoke-free restaurants, bars, and workplaces had lower blood pressure than nonsmokers in areas that had no smoke-free policies affecting public places.
5. Decrease Stress
We live in stressful times. Workplace and family demands, national and international politics — they all contribute to stress. Finding ways to reduce your stress is important for your health and your blood pressure.
There are lots of ways to successfully relieve stress, so find what works for you. Practice breath work, take a walk, read a book, or watch a comedy, hire a wellness coach.
Listening to music daily has also been shown to reduce systolic blood pressure.
6. Try Meditation, Mindfulness & Yoga
Meditation & Mindfulness, including transcendental meditation, have long been used — and studied — as methods to reduce stress. Yoga, which commonly involves breathing control, posture, and meditation techniques, can also be very effective in reducing stress and blood pressure. A 2013 review on yoga and blood pressure found an average blood pressure decrease of 3.62 mm Hg diastolic and 4.17 mm Hg systolic when compared with those who didn’t exercise. Studies of yoga practices that included breath control, postures, and meditation were nearly twice as effective as yoga practices that didn’t include all three of these elements.
7. Eat Dark Chocolate
Yes, chocolate lovers: Dark Chocolate has been shown to lower blood pressure. But the dark chocolate should be 60 to 70 percent cacao. A review of studies on dark chocolate has found that eating one to two squares of dark chocolate per day may help lower the risk of heart disease by lowering blood pressure and inflammation. The benefits are thought to come from the flavonoids present in chocolate with more cocoa solids. The flavonoids help dilate, or widen, your blood vessels.
8. Medicinal Herbs
Herbal medicines have long been used in many cultures to treat a variety of ailments.
Some herbs have even been shown to possibly lower blood pressure. However, more research is needed to identify the doses and components in the herbs that are most useful. You can use these herbs in tea, in your foods or as supplements.
Always check with your doctor or pharmacist before taking herbal supplements. They may interfere with your prescription medications.
Here’s a partial list of plants and herbs that are used by cultures throughout the world to lower blood pressure:
black bean (Castanospermum australe)
cat’s claw (Uncaria rhynchophylla)
celery juice (Apium graveolens)
Chinese hawthorn (Crataegus pinnatifida)
ginger root
giant dodder (Cuscuta reflexa)
Indian plantago (blond psyllium)
maritime pine bark (Pinus pinaster)
river lily (Crinum glaucum)
roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa)
sesame oil (Sesamum indicum)
tomato extract (Lycopersicon esculentum)
tea (Camellia sinensis), especially green tea and oolong tea
umbrella tree bark (Musanga cecropioides)
9. Sleep Well
Your blood pressure typically dips down when you’re sleeping. If you don’t sleep well, it can affect your blood pressure.
People who experience insomnia, especially those who are middle-aged, have an increased risk of high blood pressure.
For some people, getting a good night’s sleep isn’t easy. These are some of the many ways to help you get a restful nights sleep.
Try setting a regular sleep schedule.
Spend time relaxing before bedtime.
Exercise during the day.
Avoid daytime naps.
Make your bedroom comfortable.
The 2010 national Sleep Heart Health Study found that regularly sleeping fewer than 7 hours a night and more than 9 hours a night was associated with an increased rate of high blood pressure. Regularly sleeping fewer than 5 hours a night was linked to a significant risk of high blood pressure long term.
10. Garlic
Fresh garlic or garlic extract are both widely used to lower blood pressure.
A meta-analysis found that for people with high blood pressure, garlic supplements reduced their systolic blood pressure by up to about 5 mm Hg and reduced their diastolic blood pressure as much as 2.5 mm Hg.
11. Eat Healthy High Protein Foods
A long-term study concluded in 2014 found that people who ate more protein had a lower risk of high blood pressure. For those who ate an average of 100 grams of protein per day, there was a 40 percent lower risk of having high blood pressure than those on a low protein diet. Those who also added regular fiber into their diet saw up to a 60 percent reduction of risk. However, a high protein diet may not be for everyone. Those with kidney disease may need to use caution. It’s best to talk with your doctor. It’s fairly easy to consume 100 grams of protein daily on most types of diets.
High Protein Foods include:
fish, such as salmon or canned tuna in water
eggs
poultry, such as chicken breast
beef
beans and legumes, such as kidney beans and lentils
nuts or nut butter, such as peanut butter
chickpeas
cheese, such as cheddar
A 3.5-ounce serving of salmon can have as much as 22 grams of protein, while a 3.5-ounce serving of chicken breast might contain 30 grams of protein. With regard to vegetarian options, a half-cup serving of most types of beans contains 7 to 10 grams of protein. Two tablespoons of peanut butter would provide 8 grams.
12. BP Lowering Supplements
These supplements are readily available and have demonstrated promise for lowering blood pressure: Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid Adding Omega-3 or Fish Oil to your diet can have many benefits. A meta-analysis of fish oil and blood pressure found a mean blood pressure reduction in those with high blood pressure of 4.5 mm Hg systolic and 3.0 mm Hg diastolic. Whey protein Why protein is complex derived from milk may have several health benefits in addition to possibly lowering blood pressure. Magnesium
Magnesium deficiency is related to higher blood pressure. A meta-analysis found a small reduction in blood pressure with magnesium supplementation . Citrulline Oral L-citulline is a building block of protein, which may lower blood pressure.
13. Drink Less Alcohol
Alcohol can raise your blood pressure, even if you’re healthy. It’s important to drink in moderation. According to a 2006 study, alcohol can raise your blood pressure by 1 mm Hg for each 10 grams of alcohol consumed. A standard drink contains 14 grams of alcohol. What constitutes a standard drink? One 12-ounce beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits. Moderate drinking is up to one drink a day for women and up to two drinks per day for men. A review found that although drinking more than 30 grams of alcohol may initially lower blood pressure, after 13 hours or more, systolic blood pressure increased by 3.7 mm HG and diastolic blood pressure increased by 2.4 mm Hg.
14. Cut back on Caffeine
Caffeine raises your blood pressure, but the effect is temporary.
Some people may be more sensitive to caffeine than others. If you’re caffeine-sensitive, you may want to cut back on your coffee consumption, or try decaffeinated coffee.
Research on caffeine including its health benefits, is in the news a lot. The choice of whether to cut back depends on many individual factors.
15. Loose Weight
If you’re overweight, losing 5 to 10 pounds can reduce your blood pressure. Plus, you’ll lower your risk of other potential medical problems.
A review of several studies reports that weight loss reduced blood pressure by an average of 3.2 mm Hg diastolic and 4.5 mm Hg systolic.
If you incorporate any of the above suggestions, it can truly help. If you need guidance or a coach to help, I am here. As always, before changing your diet regimen or adding supplements, talk with your physician.
Listed below are a few resources to check out.
https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/yoga-by-benefit/high-blood-pressure/yoga-for-high-blood-pressure/