Tips and Tricks on How to Naturally Lower Your Blood Pressure

Controlling Your Blood Pressure Naturally

To preserve your health and prevent calamities associated with high blood pressure, such as stroke and heart attack, it is essential to get your hypertension under control.

For some, medications are absolutely necessary to keep blood pressure in check, but there are a lot of things that you can do to lessen your need for blood pressure medication or improve your blood pressure without medication.

The following are ten steps you can take to improve cardiovascular health through simple lifestyle changes.

Lose Weight to Control Blood Pressure

Body fat percentage has a strong correlation with elevated blood pressure. For one thing, adipose fat deposits, which tend to build up around the stomach, hips, and thighs, affect hormone balance in a way that increases blood pressure.

Furthermore, overweight men and women are more likely to suffer from sleep apnea and poor sleep, further exacerbating standard cardiovascular patterns.

If you are overweight, simply dropping ten pounds can significantly affect your blood pressure.

Are you at risk for elevated blood pressure due to weight? The rule of thumb is that women with a waist larger than thirty-five inches are at risk, and for men, over forty inches. Risk increases with increased size.

Exercise More to Lower Blood Pressure

Ideally, a combination of eating better and increasing physical activity is a 1-2 punch to both lose weight and improve blood pressure. Consistent physical activity is key to controlling blood pressure.

We recommend at least half an hour of daily activity that boosts your heart rate. Dancing, swimming, biking, jogging, walking, or lifting weights are great options for improving cardiovascular health.

Do whatever makes you happy and works for you! Exercise works both for people that have hypertension and those that want to help get their hypertension under control.

Eat Better to Improve Cardiovascular Health

The modern diet does no favors for the heart. If you want to get your blood pressure under control, we recommend significantly reducing your intake of cholesterol and saturated fat while increasing your consumption of low-fat dairy, veggies, fruits, and whole grains. If you're interested in a more specific diet plan, the DASH Diet is considered the best diet plan available for controlling hypertension and modulating blood pressure.

Eat Less Salt for Hypertension

Salt has a nasty way of making your blood pressure issues worse. Though there is some contention about whether salt intake is a root cause of hypertension, it certainly exacerbates existing problems, potentially dangerous. Dropping your salt intake just a little can significantly benefit your health.

One of the best ways to reduce your sodium consumption is to start eating more natural foods or simply to start cooking more for yourself.

Packaged foods are often loaded with salt to mask reduced food quality and flavor so that you can avoid a lot of salt that way. Also, consider other options to add taste to your food, such as pepper and other spices and herbs.

Finally, understand that the modern palate has grown accustomed to abnormally high salt levels and other cheap flavorings.

If you're having trouble ditching the salt quickly, slowly reduce the amount of salt in the foods you eat, and in no time, you'll find that your palate has become more refined, and your need for salt will have significantly diminished.

Drink Less for Better Blood Pressure

Alcohol is a double-edged sword when it comes to hypertension. Very moderate drinking can be beneficial, but anything more than two drinks per day (one drink per day for people over sixty-five), and the effect is reversed.

If you're having issues with your blood pressure and you are a heavy drinker, finding a way to drink less or stop drinking altogether may be a literal life-saver. It's also important to realize that drinking while taking certain medications for Hypertension can limit the benefits of these drugs.

Stop Smoking to Relieve Hypertension

Smoking has numerous awful effects on your health and wellness beyond yellow teeth, coughing, and pulmonary issues. Smoking has a direct impact on blood pressure. Blood pressure elevates immediately after you finish a cigarette and continues for quite a while afterward.

When you give up smoking altogether, you'll have healthier and more stable blood pressure, which reduces your risk of heart attack, stroke, and other potentially fatal health issues which reduce your life expectancy.

Reduce Caffeine Intake to Regulate Blood Pressure

There are still a lot of unanswered questions when it comes to the connection between blood pressure and caffeine. It appears that caffeine has the most substantial notable effect on blood pressure when people who don't consume a lot of caffeine suddenly do.

If you, like many Americans, have a strong dependency on caffeine, consumption has a minimal impact on blood pressure.

It may be best to use a blood pressure device for yourself to see how caffeine impacts your blood flow. If you see an increase in blood pressure in the half-hour after taking in caffeine, you should scale back your caffeine consumption. It appears that some people have caffeine sensitivity while others don't. It's best to talk to your physician about caffeine and your personal health.

Mitigate Stress to Improve Blood Flow

Everyone has stress. It's part of being human - alive even. It's essential to react the right way to stress, however. Many grab a cigarette or a beer when they're anxious. Others seek comfort in unhealthy food. Unfortunately, all of these things are bad for your blood pressure.

Use stress as an opportunity to engage in good habits. Exercise and journal-keeping both have a positive impact on stress levels and mental state, for example. Take time to meditate, start practicing yoga, or simply set aside time in your day to engage in quiet, peaceful, mindful thinking.

Track Your Blood Pressure to Know Your Triggers and Help Your Doctor Keep You Healthy

You can do many things to help keep your blood pressure in the healthy range, as we've mentioned above, but taking the time to monitor your own blood pressure periodically can be the best thing you can do to get a handle on your heart. That way, you can see the benefits of your healthy lifestyle changes and recognize certain factors related to hypertension.

Armed with this information, you are a more informed patient, which will help you get the best possible care from your doctor during your checkups.

Get a Little Help From Your Friends to Improve Cardiovascular Health

Going along can make it very difficult for some people to manage their blood pressure and other health issues in their lives. Reaching out to friends and family and letting them know about your goals can help.

Having someone that's concerned for you or willing to exercise with you or have a healthy dinner with you can help a ton!

Support groups are available across the country to help people like you improve your health and wellness. You can join a support group that revolves explicitly around hypertension or any number of groups that can help you uplift your lifestyle!

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