Commonly Used Treatments And Medications
The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension eating plan
In addition to the nutrients listed below, eating pattern plays a key role in blood pressure regulation. For example, adherence to the DASH eating plan a diet rich in fruit, vegetables, and low-fat dairy while low in saturated and total fat has been linked to significant reductions in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
For more information about the DASH eating plan, see the National Institutes of Health.
Antihypertensive Medications
There are many medications prescribed to lower blood pressure. The five main classes of blood pressure-lowering medication and potential nutritional interactions are listed in Table 1.
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Hypertension: Vitamin C Benefits In Controlling High Blood Pressure
According to a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, in short-term trials, vitamin C supplementation reduced blood pressure. Long-term trials on the effects of vitamin C supplementation on BP and clinical events are needed.
Priyanka Agarwal who is a Nutritionist at Max hospital explains, “The daily recommended dose of vitamin C is 75-90 mg/day for adults. According to a study conducted by scientists from Johns Hopkins University school of medicine in 2012 high doses of vitamin C, an average of 500 mg/ day that means 6 cups of orange juice may result in a small reduction of blood pressure.”
“Vitamin C may act as a diuretic removing excess fluid from the body. This may help lower the pressure within the blood vessels. Blood pressure-lowering effects of vitamin C in clinical trials are inconsistent,” she further adds.
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How To Correct Omega
The best way to ensure you are not deficient in Omega-3 fats is by eating more fatty fish.
At least 2 grams per day is desirable, equal to around 3 oz of fresh salmon or canned tuna. For vegetarians, its 1 oz of walnuts, 1/3 oz of flax seeds or ¼ oz of chia seeds but note that marine sources of Omega-3 are much better utilised by the body than plant sources .
If fish is difficult to access in your situation, fish oil supplements are an effective and often more affordable alternative. With a goal of lowering blood pressure, 2-3 grams of fish oil per day is recommended. Fish oil pills tend to be 1 or 2 grams total, depending on the brand. If you plan on taking more than 3 grams per day, consult with your doctor first.
Note that quality matters when it comes to supplements, and fish oil is no exception. Anecdotal reports suggest that budget/cheap fish oil varieties are less effective than premium brands.
Summary: A diet low in Omega-3 fats is thought to be bad for high blood pressure. This is likely due to the importance our dietary Omega-6: Omega-3 ratio has on heart health. For this reason, there is strong evidence that increasing Omega-3 fats in the diet can help lower blood pressure. Fresh fish is the best source, but supplements are a great alternative.
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Medications That Can Cause High Blood Pressure
Below are 10 common medications that can cause high blood pressure or make hypertension worse. If you use these medications for just a short time, their effects on blood pressure usually happen only when you are taking them, meaning that your high blood pressure will go back to normal after you stop taking them. However, if you take them for years, their blood pressure effects can lead to chronic hypertension.
With some of these medications , it may be more dangerous to stop the medicine than to manage their high blood pressure side effects separately. This is where its up to your doctor to weigh the pros and cons and decide if the medicine is right for you.
Is Too Much Vitamin K Bad For Those With High Blood Pressure
It seems to make perfect sense that too much vitamin K may not be the best thing for your blood pressure control. Your suspicions may further be validated by the wide use of anti-coagulant prescriptions to prevent strokes, heart attacks or embolisms. According to the American Heart Association, an anti-coagulant may prevent your blood from clotting or existing clots from getting larger by doing so, the drug inhibits vitamin K. However, if you only have high blood pressure, vitamin K is not going to worsen blood flow and may even help.
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Supplements That Impact Blood Sugar
Supplements may cause unwelcomeor dangerousside effects, especially if they interact with your medications. While some ingredients could intensify the effects of your diabetes meds, causing hypoglycemia , others may have the opposite effect, leading to hyperglycemia .
Research on many supplements is inconclusive. Talk to your health care provider before you start taking chromium, vitamin E, St. Johns wort, or niacin.
Confused about what to take? Unless your health care provider recommends a specific vitamin or supplement, its probably not all that helpfulor economicalto add another pill to your regimen.
Data Synthesis And Analysis
To provide doseresponse evidence from all cohort studies, we used the 2-step generalized least-squares method . Study-specific slope coefficients were examined by restricted cubic splines with three knots at 25%, 50%, and 75% of the distribution of circulating 25D levels. For the doseresponse analyses of 25D, the reference category was re-scaled to 75 nmol/L, which is the cutoff value between insufficient and sufficient vitamin D status. P values for nonlinearity were calculated by using the Wald 2 test, assuming the coefficient of the second spline was zero. We used the DerSimonian and Laird random effects model to estimate the study-specific doseresponse risk, and we calculated the pooled risk of hypertension for every 25 nmol/L increment in 25D levels using a random effects model .
We assessed the effect of vitamin D supplementation by the mean blood pressure changes in the intervention group minus the changes in blood pressure in the placebo group. The standard deviations were obtained as reported or calculated from 95% CIs, P values for t statistics, or individual standard errors from intervention and placebo groups. If the studies did not report blood pressure changes from baseline, we calculated the mean values by using blood pressure after intervention minus blood pressure at baseline, and the SD of changes was obtained according the following formula, described in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions :
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Supplements And Blood Pressure
According to the Mayo Clinic, these herbal supplements may be linked to an increase in blood pressure:
Bitter orange . The fruit of bitter orange contains p-synephrine, a substance that is similar in structure to the stimulant ephedrine that used to be found in weight-loss medication, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has banned ephedra from dietary supplements since 2004 because it had been shown to raise blood pressure. Some manufacturers have replaced ephedra with bitter orange. Studies on whether bitter orange raises blood pressure are inconclusive, the center says.
Ma huang . Used as a stimulant for weight loss and to suppress appetite, Ma huang is sold under a number of different names: sea ephedrine, ephedra, ephedra alkaloids, yellow astringent, sea grape, yellow horse, squaw tea, Mormon tea, popotillo, teamster’s tea and joint fir, according to the America College of Cardiology. Among its many possible side effects is an increase in blood pressure. Ma huang is not recommended for people with heart and blood pressure conditions.
Read more:Are Supplements Safe? Here’s What You Really Need to Know.
How To Correct Coq10 Levels
There are tests available to check CoQ10 levels, but theyre not particularly cheap nor easy to access.
The best course of action is to ensure you regularly eat foods rich in CoQ10. There are no official dietary recommendations to follow, but a ballpark figure to aim for is at least 5 mg per day.
Supplemental CoQ10 is also an option especially if you have any of the diseases mentioned above or regularly use a statin drug for lowering cholesterol but you should speak with your doctor first. The standard dose ranges from 90-200 mg and should be taken with meals due to its reliance on food for absorption.
Summary: CoQ10 is thought to influence blood pressure and flow through a mechanism related to nitric oxide. Although most of our CoQ10 is produced by the body itself, certain disease states and long-term statin drug use can cause a deficiency. Eating a diet rich in cruciferous vegetables, nuts, oily fish and beef will help, although in some cases a supplement is necessary too.
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Food Sources Of Vitamin C
She further explains best sources of vitamin C and the exact amount of vitamin C these can offer. She adds, while a cup of orange juice or a half-cup of red pepper would be enough to meet your RDA for Vitamin C, here are some other sources of vitamin C:
- Cantaloupe, 1 cup : 59 mg
- Orange juice, 1 cup: 97 mg
- Broccoli, cooked, 1 cup: 74 mg
- Red cabbage, 1/2 cup: 40 mg
- Green pepper, 1/2 cup, 60 mg
- Red pepper, 1/2 cup, 95 mg
- Kiwi, 1 medium: 70 mg
- Tomato juice, 1 cup: 45 mg
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Orange is a good source of vitamin C
To fight hypertension effectively you need to consume a healthy diet and follow an active lifestyle. You should consult your doctor before adding high amounts of vitamin C to your diet. Consult your doctor if you experience constant high blood pressure.
How To Take It
The best way to take vitamin C supplements is 2 – 3 times per day, with meals, depending on the dosage. Some studies suggest that adults should take 250 – 500 mg twice a day for any benefit. Talk to your doctor before taking more than 1,000 mg of vitamin C on a daily basis and before giving vitamin C to a child.
Daily intake of dietary vitamin C is listed below.
Pediatric
- Men over 18 years: 90 mg
- Women over 18 years: 75 mg
- Pregnant women 14 – 18 years: 80 mg
- Pregnant women over 18 years: 85 mg
- Breastfeeding women 14 – 18 years: 115 mg
- Breastfeeding women over 18 years: 120 mg
Because smoking depletes vitamin C, people who smoke may need an additional 35 mg per day.
The dose recommended to prevent or treat many of the conditions mentioned in the Uses section is often 500 – 1,000 mg per day.
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Are You Ready To Take Control Of Your Life Naturally
When left untreated, high blood pressure is challenging disease to deal with and causes an extremely high number of unnecessary deaths each day in the US. But in most cases, its not difficult to manage when you take the right steps.
Why put yourself at risk of an early death when you can take simple steps now to lower your risk of life-threatening illnesses? By adding a simple supplement to your healthy diet and exercise routine, youre bound to see your health improve in a short period of time, leading to a longer, happier life.
Like this article?
Check out the article How To Lower Blood Sugar Naturally: 5 Top Supplements for more natural solutions to common health concerns.
Beware Of False Claims
Some websites state that Vitamin K is the same thing as the mineral potassium. In the medical field, potassium is commonly abbreviated as K+ it is an element in the periodic table abundantly found in fruits and vegetables, has different functions in the body than that of vitamin K and is absolutely not the same as vitamin K.
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Natural Ways To Lower Blood Pressure
The advice Dick gives to her patients to lower blood pressure without medications is to lose weight, stop smoking and maintain a regular exercise routine.
How much exercise you need to control your blood pressure without medication will vary based on your age, race, weight and all risk factors. The American Heart Association recommends 150 to 200 minutes a week of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes a week of vigorous exercise, she said.
The recommendations break down to 30 minutes a day, five days a week. Adding in strength training two days a week is also a good idea.
Reducing stress also helps, Dick said. She tells her patients to find hobbies, volunteer in the community or meditate.
I do have the occasional patient who changes jobs or retires and suddenly we have their blood pressure under control, she said.
Preventing High Blood Pressure With Vitamin D
Vitamin D is an important nutrient that regulates several of the bodys metabolic actions. Vitamin D is produced in the deep layers of the skin using energy from sunlight. Because the body can make vitamin D, it is not considered to be an essential nutrient, though a significant portion of the vitamin D needed by the human body does come from the diet.
Vitamin D, working with parathyroid hormone, is primarily responsible for regulating the amount of calcium and phosphorus in the blood. Vitamin D also encourages the formation of bone tissue and is known to stimulate the production of cells in the immune system.
A growing body of research suggests that vitamin D may also play a role in blood pressure regulation and heart health. It is known, for example, that cases of high blood pressure increase during the winter and in places that are further from the equator — both are situations where a decrease in available sunlight leads to lower vitamin D production.
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Vitamin K And Blood Pressure
In a study published in the journal Kidney and Blood Pressure Research in 2010, researchers from the Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan found that low vitamin K may be associated with increased hardening of the arteries. This causes the heart to work harder to pump blood to the rest of the body, which may contribute to high blood pressure and increase the risk for cardiovascular disease.
Should I Take Oral Vitamin D Supplements
There is no evidence suggesting that oral vitamin D supplementation provides any protective effect against high blood pressure or heart disease. The evidence so far suggests that dietary sources of vitamin D are sufficient to avoid the low vitamin conditions that have been associated with the disease. For normal, healthy adults, a well-balanced diet can provide an adequate supply of vitamin D. People who have a documented vitamin D deficiency may require oral supplementation, but this is not for cardiovascular reasons.
- 1-70 years old: 15 micrograms / 600IU
- More than 70 Years old: 20 micrograms / 800IU
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Is Collagen Good For High Blood Pressure
No. , a collagen-rich protein found in skin, hair, nails, and other body parts. Its also found on the skin of the arms, legs, feet, hands, face, mouth, tongue, ears, nose, eyes, teeth, skin and in the lining of blood vessels. The collagen is also present in blood plasma, which is the bodys main source of oxygen. In addition, collagen can be found naturally in foods such as nuts, seeds, beans, fish, chicken, eggs, dairy products, meat, poultry, seafood, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. However, its not recommended to eat too much collagen.
Which Vitamins Do Not Take Potassium On Blood Pressure
Several health benefits can be obtained from vitamin D, asserts he. In theory, too much calcium could deposit calcium on blood vessel walls, valves in the heart, and even in liver and kidneys when consumed in excess. In other words, we dont recommend starting the diet with vitamin D to lower blood pressure.
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What Are The Symptoms Of High Blood Pressure
The best and earliest indicator of high blood pressure is an elevated blood pressure reading. Other symptoms surface when the disease has taken root and could be life-threatening.
These symptoms include:
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Problems with vision
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Dizziness
When you first get an elevated blood pressure reading, your doctor will recommend taking regular checks to monitor your blood pressure. Persistently elevated blood pressure may be caused by underlying conditions or be an indicator of hypertension.
You can manage hypertension and persistently elevated blood pressure by incorporating vitamins that help reduce blood pressure into your diet.
How To Correct Magnesium Levels
Magnesium levels can be tested by your doctor, and usually come as part of a routine blood test.
Regardless of your levels, magnesium-rich foods are a healthy addition to any diet. Several tasty foods are brilliant sources of magnesium Namely almonds, cashews and spinach.
The current recommended daily intake for magnesium in the US is 310-420 mg . Just half a cup of almonds or cashews provides a whopping 180 mg what I recommend to clients in order to maintain optimum levels.
Magnesium supplements are also an option, but only under the guidance of your doctor.
Summary: Magnesium deficiency is very strongly associated with high blood pressure. Many studies have shown replacing this magnesium deficiency will significantly improve blood pressure, especially if you already have high blood pressure. Cashews and almonds are very high in magnesium, with one cup providing your daily requirements.
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