How To Lower Blood Pressure Without Medication
Lifestyle changes are effective in controlling high blood pressure. A healthy lifestyle can avoid, delay, or reduce the need for blood pressure medications.
Here are 10 ways to control blood pressure without medications:
What Can I Do If My Blood Pressure Goes Up Right Before Doctors Visits
Have you ever heard of white coat syndrome? Its what happens when you typically have normal-ranged blood pressure but significantly higher blood pressure in medical settings like hospitals or doctors offices. This is often caused by feeling nervousness or anxiety around medical settings. Unfortunately, this means your health provider might think your blood pressure is higher than it really is.
White coat syndrome isnt uncommon. In fact, one study suggests that 15% to 30% of people who have high blood pressure readings might suffer from white coat syndrome. In cases like these, some patients wonder whether its possible to quickly lower their blood pressure before a reading. If youre in this situation, the safest and most effective thing you can do is try your best to relax.
Here are a few relaxation methods you can try:
If you or your doctor suspect white coat syndrome, your doctor may send you home with a blood pressure monitor that will check your blood pressure periodically throughout a normal day. This gives a more accurate reading of what your blood pressure really is and helps the doctor figure out whether the stress of a physical trip to a medical facility is affecting you.
So Why Wasnt My Doctor Happy With My Transformation
A visit to my doctor the following week with blood pressure now comfortably in the safe zone was met with disbelief. And, I must say, a little annoyance.
I think she was exasperated and embarrassed, perhaps? that I had chosen my own path. And that it had worked so astonishingly well.
She asked me more than once if Id increased my meds without consulting her.
I told her that I hadnt and that I wanted to come off my meds. A request that she refused.
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The Meds Came With Side
- regular, nagging headaches.
- Some very bad stomach problems if you know what I mean. That got embarrassing more than once.
- Perhaps most upsetting were the feelings of anxiety I began experiencing.
Ive always been a happy, cheerful person. Yet now I experienced worries I couldnt explain. Unhappiness that seemed to have no real cause. Nervousness. Fear, even.
This had never happened to me before. I hated it.
But my doctor assured me that meds will always create side-effects. If not these ones, Id have others. I could expect to experience them for as long as I took the meds.
Which, she cheerfully informed me, would probably be for the rest of my life.
How Is High Blood Pressure Treated
Your healthcare provider will create a treatment plan for you. Your treatment plan will be based on the results of your tests, your physical examination, and on your individual needs.
Making healthy lifestyle choices is an important part of treatment. It can help bring high blood pressure under control. This may include losing extra weight, eating meals with less fat and salt, limiting alcohol to no more than two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for woman, and starting a regular exercise program approved by your healthcare provider. If you are a smoker, your healthcare provider will advise you to stop. Smoking increases your risk of complications such as heart attacks or strokes.
Medicines may also be needed to get your blood pressure under control. There are many effective medicines for high blood pressure. Sometimes a combination of different medicines may be needed. These medicines should be taken as instructed, even if you are feeling fine. This is because high blood pressure is damaging even when it causes no symptoms.
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Lifestyle Changes To Lower Blood Pressure
1. Limit Your Alcohol Intake
Studies show that alcohol consumption can greatly influence your blood pressurefor better or worse. When drinking, try to limit your intake to no more than two drinks per day if youre male and no more than one daily for females, while going without when you can.
Although light-to-moderate drinking may lower your blood pressure and general risk of heart disease, there is no reason to start drinking if you currently do not.
Drinking too much alcohol can raise your blood pressure to unhealthy levels.
2. Quit Smoking
Smoking offers a host of health problems, the biggest being an increased cancer risk. But it can also lead to acute increases in blood pressure immediately following a cigarette, likely due to oxygen constriction.
Furthermore, lung cancer can create problems to your entire cardiovascular system and massively increase the risk of heart attack.
3. Get Adequate Sleep
Sleep is strongly associated with blood pressure, and if youre not getting enough deep, restful sleep you could be at increased risk for hypertension.
This could be, in part, because a lack of sleep leads to increased stress, cravings for junk food, weight gain, and lower activity levels.
4. Manage Stress
Experiencing chronic stress can boost blood pressure and diminish heart health by keeping your heart pumping at a rapid pace. This can be heightened by stresss ability to stimulate fat storage, trouble sleeping, uncontrolled eating, smoking, and drinking.
What We Properly Treat Heals
It was clear that standard treatments were never going to make me well.
Meds messed with my body but never properly tackled why I was ill.
Whereas The Blood Pressure Program went straight to the root cause of my blood pressure problems.
It hit the problem head-on, removing its causes. and leaving the illness with no way of sustaining itself.
Which is why Im now healthy. Without a cause how can I be ill?
Treat your high blood pressure the way I did and see the difference it makes
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So, I have just unstrapped my blood pressure monitor and the reading is 100/70.
Just about average for my blood pressure over the last 16 months.
Which if you know anything about blood pressure readings has me very, very safely inside the healthy blood pressure range.
No problems here!
Im as fit as a fiddle.
Eating Less Saltinformationen About $cms: If$$cms: Valueconvert2$$cms: End: If$
Reducing your salt intake by one teaspoon can lower your systolic blood pressure by about 5 mmHg and your diastolic blood pressure by about 3 mmHg.
There’s less salt in fresh and unprocessed foods. Salt levels are especially high in convenience foods, potato chips , canned food, cured or smoked meat and many types of cheese. One small bag of potato chips has nearly 1 gram of salt in it, for instance.
The taste may take some getting used to so it’s a good idea to gradually reduce the amount of salt you eat instead of stopping all at once. Eventually it will taste just as good without the salt.
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What Is Blood Pressure
Blood pressure is the force applied by the blood to the inner walls of the arteries. It shows minor fluctuations throughout the daydeclining while relaxing and momentarily increasing while being excited or under stress. An increase in the resting blood pressure can scar, stiffen, or harden the arteries.
Risks Of Blood Pressure
Blood pressure-lowering medications include diuretics, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, and calcium channel blockers. Often, more than one is needed to control hypertension.
Initially, these medications were only recommended for people whose blood pressure exceeded 160/100 mmHg, but they are now routinely prescribed when blood pressure approaches 140/90 mmHg, even in the absence of any previous cardiovascular event. Treating mild hypertension with drugs has not been shown to be effective, yet it is common practice .
Some of the risks of blood pressure-lowering medications include headaches, dizziness, depression, sleep problems, erectile dysfunction, and renal or cardiac dysfunction. Often, these side effects lead to additional prescription drugs like testosterone or Viagra. The good news is that dietary changes, lifestyle strategies, and supplements have the potential to reverse high blood pressure without the need for lifelong prescriptions.
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Which Ill Tell You About Right Now
Standard drug remedies proved ineffective.
Diuretics achieved nothing. My average blood pressure readings actually rose slightly in the two or three months after diagnosis.
So we added blockers. Still, my blood pressure continued to rise until, finally, it flattened out.
It had stabilized although my doctor suspected it would have done that anyway.
Regardless, it was way, way too high. And it looked like it was going to stay high.
/7increase Cardio And Aerobic Exercises In Your Schedule
Exercise, particularly cardio and aerobic exercise, has been considered as a potent blood pressure regulator. If you don’t have time to exercise, up your physical activity and keep a healthy weight to assist lower your blood pressure. Great amount of physical moments strengthens and improves the heart’s ability to pump blood, lowering blood pressure, and risk of heart diseases. Furthermore, exercises like yoga, deep breathing, and meditation combats stress, which causes irregularities in the bloods pressure level by increasing the heart rate and constricting the blood vessels.
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Measure your blood pressure at different times of day and keep a log so you and your doctor can identify any patterns. If the result is high, also include what you were doing just before the measurement.
Its common to have white coat hypertension or higher blood pressure when youre nervous at the doctors office. You dont want to make any decisions based on that high number, Blankstein said. Ask the staff to measure your blood pressure again at the end of the visit when you’ve had a chance to relax.
Weight Loss Is Essential
Its imperative to shed any extra pounds, both doctors said. The rising rate of obesity in the U.S. means doctors are seeing more young people with high blood pressure because it rises as body weight increases. Being overweight puts extra strain on your heart, the American Heart Association noted, but losing just five to 10 pounds may help.
There are many advantages of weight loss, but certainly thats one of the most important ones lowering blood pressure, Blankstein said.
Theres good evidence plant-based diets high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes will lead to lower blood pressure and weight loss, Blankstein noted. Youll also naturally get more potassium, which is associated with lower blood pressure.
At the same time, banish processed foods.
You have to stick to real foods, which are foods that havent been taken by a company and processed and put in a box or plastic bag, Haythe said.
Bottom line: Your weight and eating style should be at the core of your strategy.
The combination of weight loss and diet together is incredibly powerful for lowering blood pressure. I have patients who have had enormous success doing that, Blankstein said.
We need sodium to live, but too much salt leads the body to hold on to more fluids and that causes volume changes inside blood vessels. Over time, blood pressure rises.
The problem is, salt is everywhere, Haythe noted.
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Lowering Blood Pressure Without Medication
Constant high blood pressure can damage blood vessels and increase the likelihood of long-term health consequences. It’s possible to lower your blood pressure somewhat without using medication.
There are different ways to manage high blood pressure. The aim is always to get blood pressure down to a level that reduces the risk of long-term health consequences. If your blood pressure is only a little too high, it could be worth trying to change some of your habits and generally pay more attention to your health. If that doesnt lower your blood pressure, medication may be an option.
There’s a whole lot of advice about lowering blood pressure on the internet and in other media. It is often claimed that certain diets, acupuncture, teas or special dietary supplements can help to lower blood pressure. But these claims aren’t backed up by scientific research.
Only a few methods have been proven to work so it may be a good idea to focus on what is truly effective:
- losing a bit of weight,
- eating less salt, and
Research has shown that losing some weight can lower blood pressure. The people in the studies lost an average of four kilograms , which reduced their systolic blood pressure by an average of 4 to 5 mmHg, and their diastolic blood pressure by 3 mmHg.
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He advised cardio over weight lifting and considered the general recommendation of 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, five times a week, to be the absolute minimum. An hour of exercise a day on most days of the week is better.
Squeezing in a workout, but then just sitting the rest of the day is still not enough activity: Regularly get up and move, Blankstein said. He recommended aiming for 10,000 steps a day.
Drinking too much alcohol can raise blood pressure, so have no more than two drinks a day if youre a man, and no more than one drink a day if youre a woman, the American Heart Association advises.
Eliminating alcohol altogether might be useful for someone who already has high blood pressure, Blankstein said.
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Effective Ways For Reducing High Blood Pressure
Once detected, high blood pressure can be controlled with lifestyle changes or medication. For individuals with systolic blood pressure under 140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure under 90 mmHg a physician will often advise lifestyle changes. Individuals with hypertension may need one or more medications, in addition to lifestyle changes, to help reduce their blood pressure. The following are effective ways for reducing high blood pressure without the use of medication:
- Be physically active for 30 to 60 minutes most days of the week.
- Choose the following foods more often:
- Vegetables and fruit
- Foods low in saturated and trans fat
- Foods low in sodium or salt
- Whole grains
- Lean meat, fish and poultry
I Can Indulge Myself And Still Have A Healthy Blood Pressure
Because now it doesnt matter if my weight fluctuates a bit The Blood Pressure Program keeps my blood pressure at normal levels anyway.
If I eat something salty or tuck into foods that are on the naughty list so be it. Itll have no effect.
Nor does it matter if I have a few too many alcoholic beverages at a celebration I know Im going to be okay.
And if Im a bit lazy and dont do much exercise? No sweat my blood pressure isnt going to leave the safe zone.
The peace of mind Im enjoying now is incredible. Whatever else life throws at me, I dont ever expect high blood pressure to ever rear its ugly head ever again.
And thatll do for me!
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Consider Taking Vitamins And Supplements
Research shows that a few vitamins and minerals may be helpful in lowering blood pressure. But talk to your doctor before taking any. Make sure they know everything you take.
- Vitamin C: This has antioxidants that protect the linings of your blood vessels. Orange juice is a good source, as are fruits like kiwi and strawberries, and vegetables like broccoli, kale, tomatoes, and sweet red peppers. Adults should get 400 mg per day.
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Potassium: This helps your body get rid of sodium through your pee. Men should aim for 3,400 mg a day, and women around 2,600. Itâs found in fruits like bananas and prunes and vegetables like potatoes, tomatoes, and artichoke.
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Vitamin D: This helps make the enzyme renin, which is linked to blood pressure health. You can get vitamin D from fatty fish, like salmon or mackerel, or milk. You also can absorb vitamin D from sunlight or take it in a supplement.