How To Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally

Try The Nitrate Rich Foods That Make Exercise Easier

What if it was easier to exercise and you could think clearer?

Sounds like a job for dietary nitrates.

Your body converts nitrates into nitric oxide. Nitric oxide helps dilate your blood vessels and increase blood flow. Not only can it help lower blood pressure , it can improve your exercise performance and brain function.

For example:

A study funded by the British Heart Foundation tested dietary nitrates for sustained blood pressure reduction. They gave 68 hypertensive patients either 250 mL of beet juice with nitrates daily or a nitrate-free beetroot juice .

Those in the beetroot juice with nitrates group lowered their blood pressure about 7.7/2.4mmHg. Unlike medications, there werent any negative side effects. Those in the nitrate-free beetroot juice group had no change in blood pressure.

Beetroot juice is one of many foods that offer affordable medication-free treatment for blood pressure.

Which Foods Have the Most Nitrates?

Plants are the best sources of dietary nitrates because your body can convert them into nitric oxide. Animal products do not contain nitrates naturally. The meat industry adds nitrites to keep the meat pink. Nitrites are classified as probably carcinogenic to humans .

The best source of dietary nitrates include:

Arugula

• Eat some of your favorite nitrate-rich wholefood plants every day

Put Down The Saltshaker

Keeping your sodium intake to a minimum can be vital for lowering blood pressure.

In some people, when you eat too much sodium, your body starts to retain fluid. This results in a sharp rise in blood pressure.

The AHA recommends limiting your sodium intake to between 1,500 milligrams and 2,300 mg per day. Thats a little over half a teaspoon of table salt.

To decrease sodium in your diet, dont add salt to your food. One teaspoon of table salt has 2,300 mg of sodium!

Use herbs and spices to add flavor instead. Processed foods also tend to be loaded with sodium. Always read food labels and choose low-sodium alternatives when possible.

Nix Your Nicotine Addiction

Each cigarette you smoke temporarily raises blood pressure for several minutes after you finish. If youre a heavy smoker, your blood pressure can stay elevated for extended periods of time.

People with high blood pressure who smoke are at greater risk for developing dangerously high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke.

Even secondhand smoke can put you at increased risk for high blood pressure and heart disease.

Aside from providing numerous other health benefits, quitting smoking can help your blood pressure return to normal. Visit our smoking cessation center to take steps to quit today.

Drinking a glass of red wine with your dinner is perfectly fine. It might even offer heart-health benefits when done in moderation.

But drinking excessive amounts of alcohol can lead to lots of health issues, including high blood pressure.

Excessive drinking can also reduce the effectiveness of certain blood pressure medications.

What does drinking in moderation mean? The AHA recommends that men limit their consumption to two alcoholic drinks per day. Women should limit their intake to one alcoholic drink per day.

One drink equals:

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Stop Making Tobacco Companies Rich

Tobacco companies have been one of the best investments for decades. Why?

Few people are greedy enough to invest in tobacco companies. But millions of people are willing to pay them to ruin their health. The choice is yours.

Nicotine raises your blood pressure both immediately and in the long term. Although the immediate increase is temporary, the damage is long-term.

How does nicotine raise your blood pressure?

Nicotine raises your blood pressure by damaging blood vessel walls, causing inflammation, and narrowing arteries .

Even secondhand smoke can damage your arteries and raise your blood pressure.

For example:

One study found that children exposed to secondhand smoke at home had higher blood pressure than children from nonsmoking homes .

If youre serious about your health and/or your childrens health, avoid smoking in all forms. Nicotine includes the following:

• Cigarettes

Check Food Labels For These Hidden Clues

Food manufacturers spend millions of dollars to hide how bad their food is for you, but they leave clues. Read the label and watch out for the following clues:

• Small listed serving sizes. The smaller the serving size, the less they can put on the label. For example, the amount of sodium per serving appears low with small serving size. How many servings do you eat?
• Low fat. Low fat usually means it contains more sodium or sugar to make up for its taste.
• Low Sodium. Low sodium is good, but make sure they didnt add more saturated fat or sugar to make up for it.
• Sodium Listing. The FDA warns that a sodium listing of 20% or moreis high, and 5% or less is low .
• Natural flavors. Legally, natural flavors can mean almost anything. If they dont list all the ingredients, they could be hiding something.
• Hydrogenated oils.
• Added sugar.
• Artificial sweeteners.

If you see something on a food label you dont know, dont assume its safe, Google it.

Action Plan:

• Read the ingredients on the food label of everything you buy.
• Forget food labels and buy whole vegetables, fruits, herbs, and spices and prepare all your own food.

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Why Does Reducing Cholesterol Lower Blood Pressure

This is because

• Adding fibre to your diet, not only lowers cholesterol, your but helps stabilise blood glucose levels. Fibre helps you eat less, as it makes you feel fuller for longer. A high fibre diet can help you lose weight.
• High-fibre diets reduce insulin resistance this is an unhealthy metabolic situation that occurs when your body becomes less sensitive to the hormone insulin. Insulin resistance is associated with high blood pressure.
• In one 2015 study, increasing total fibre to 6.8g/1000 calories/ day reduced systolic blood pressure by 1.69 mm Hg.

How To Lower Blood Pressure Naturally

The term lifestyle changes implies you will need to change your habits to bring your blood pressure down. Broadly speaking, these modifications are natural non-pharmaceutical ways of lowering blood pressure. Six methods have been proven effective in clinical studies, and two others are recommended:

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Enjoy Chocolate And Tea

And there are two bonus approaches to lower blood pressure: eating dark chocolate and drinking hibiscus tea.

Some research indicates that having a small amount of dark chocolate each day can help manage blood pressure. Also, several controlled studies have shown that drinking hibiscus tea can help reduce blood pressure. As with everything, these pleasures should be enjoyed in moderation just two or three cups of tea a day, and one small square of dark chocolate. After all, packing on pounds is a sure way to raise your blood pressure.

Cut Added Sugar And Refined Carbs

Theres a growing body of research showing a link between added sugar and high blood pressure 00649-8/fulltext” rel=”nofollow”> 30, 31).

In the Framingham Womens Health Study, women who drank even one soda per day had higher levels than those who drank less than one soda per day .

Another study found that having one less sugar-sweetened beverage per day was linked to lower blood pressure .

And its not just sugar all refined carbs, such as the kind found in white flour convert rapidly to sugar in your bloodstream and may cause problems.

Some studies have shown that low carb diets may also help reduce blood pressure.

One study on people undergoing statin therapy found that those who went on a 6-week, carb-restricted diet saw a greater improvement in blood pressure and other heart disease markers than people who did not restrict carbs .

Bottom line: Refined carbs, especially sugar, may raise blood pressure. Some studies have shown that low carb diets may help reduce your levels.

Berries are full of more than just juicy flavor.

Theyre also packed with polyphenols, natural plant compounds that are good for your heart.

Polyphenols can reduce the risk of stroke, heart conditions, and diabetes, as well as improving blood pressure, insulin resistance, and systemic inflammation .

One study assigned people with high blood pressure to a low-polyphenol diet or a high-polyphenol diet containing berries, chocolate, fruits, and vegetables .

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How To Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally

In keeping with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention about 32%, or 1 in 3 People experiences hypertension , a situation known as hypertension. Then, solely half of hypertensive Americans have their high blood pressure beneath management.

Take a couple of minutes to find out about blood strain so to get yours checked out and perceive what to do if itâs excessive. Hypertension can severely harm your coronary heart over time, so itâs vital to maintain your blood strain at a wholesome stage.

These pure methods to decrease your blood strain might be useful for many who wish to avoid remedy, or to these whose remedy isnât reducing blood strain by itself. A more healthy life-style will result in decrease blood strain, so many of those solutions are nice methods to enhance your well being in a number of methods.

These tricks to decrease your blood strain naturally are methods which you could be proactive in bettering your coronary heart well being.

How To Reduce Salt In Your Diet

• Stop adding salt to food when cooking, or on your plate.
• Dont have a salt-shaker on the table.
• Read the labels and avoid hidden salt Cook from scratch, then you know what you are eating.
• Avoid salty snacks like crisps and salted nuts.
• Take care with sauces such as soy sauce, and gravy stock cubes contain a lot of salt.
• Choose a low salt substitute for cooking.

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Understand The Risks And Benefits Of Medication

Why do less than half of the patients keep taking their blood pressure medications ?

High blood pressure is asymptomatic, you cant feel high blood pressure .

When people take blood pressure medication they feel worse, not better, because of the negative side effects such as fatigue, erectile dysfunction, and muscle cramps. Then medical providers give them more drugs to counteract the side effects, such as Viagra for erectile dysfunction caused by blood pressure drugs.

Do blood pressure drugs work?

Blood pressure drugs can lower your blood pressure. But because the drugs dont treat the underlying cause your body raises it again.

Unless you make lifestyle changes to treat the cause, medications will not be effective long-term.

If you dont make lifestyle changes, dont bother taking blood pressure medications, because they wont work effectively ~Luke Laffin, MD.

Plant-based medicine can help lower blood pressure, with little or no side effects. And they cost less, some as little as a penny a day. But you wont see commercials for plants because blood pressure medications make over 10 billion dollars a year.

Action Plan:

• Talk with your doctor about the pros and cons of blood pressure medication.

Eat Some Blueberries Every Day

One cup of blueberries is pretty much all you need to eat every day to lower your systolic blood pressure, according to a 2019 study published in the Journal of Gerontology. When the scientists behind the study had healthy volunteers consume the equivalent of 200 grams of blueberries every day for a month, the average participant saw a reduction in their blood pressure by 5 mmHg. The researchers hypothesize that much of this benefit is due to the anthocyanins in blueberries, which also give the fruit their dark hue.

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And Munch On Some Watermelon Too

If you’re not a big fan of blueberries, then consider upping your watermelon intake instead. One 2014 study published in the American Journal of Hypertension found that over the course of 12 weeks, overweight individuals who were given two types of watermelon extract saw improvements in both their blood pressure and cardiac stress.

How To Lower Blood Pressure Quickly And Naturally

When someone has high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, it means their blood is pumping with too much force against the artery walls. The condition can eventually lead to heart disease, stroke, or other cardiac conditions. High blood pressure is extremely common in the United States. More than 103 million people in the country have itand many dont even know theirs is too high, because it can be asymptomatic, says John Osborne, MD, director of cardiology at LowT Center/HerKare and a volunteer for the American Heart Association .

The reason many people dont know? There are often few or no symptoms associated with high blood pressure, says Sondra DePalma, a cardiac physician assistant at PinnacleHealth CardioVascular Institute with UPMC Pinnacle in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which is why it is called the silent killer.

If youre wondering how to lower blood pressure, luckily, there are natural ways to do so with the proper diet and healthy lifestyle changes.

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Try The Best Intermittent Fasting Schedule For Blood Pressure

Intermittent fasting, where you eat the same amount of food in a narrow eating window, can drop blood pressure as well as potent blood pressure drugs .

What is the best intermittent fasting schedule for blood pressure?

One study found that people who ate between 8 AM and 3 PM dropped their blood pressure from 123/82 down to 112/72 in five weeks . The other positive side effects of this schedule were drops in oxidative stress and insulin resistance.

Your blood pressure goes back when you start eating again, but not as high as before.

Intermittent fasting in the evening has negative side effects because you are eating too much before bed.

Action Plan:

How To Lower Your Blood Pressure Without Medication

All the suggestions on the list below have been shown to lower blood pressure. However, you wont be able to do them all at once. Pick one item from the list and try it put it into action. Once thats established, pick a second one, and so on. Maybe try a new one, once a month. Think how far you will have come by this time next year!

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What Causes High Blood Pressure

There are many factors that can cause high blood pressure and often it is a complex mix of factors that can put you in a higher risk category.

At the more manageable end of the spectrum, most of the things that cause hypertension are related to lifestyle choices. Smoking, alcohol, obesity, high cholesterol and a high sodium diet are just a few examples of things that people can choose to change to reduce the risks associated with high blood pressure.

Sleep apnea, diabetes, and stress, each of which may be controlled , can also put a strain on the cardiovascular system and intensify blood pressure and related problems. Factors that put you in a high-risk category but that are difficult to control include family history, gender, and chronic kidney disease.

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What Is A Dangerous Level Of Blood Pressure

As far as specific numbers for high blood pressure, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology released updated guidelines in November 2017. It can be broken down into two categories: elevated and high.

Elevated blood pressure ranges from 121/80 to 129/80. Its generally not treated, but serves more as a warning sign that it should be monitored and the patient might explore how to lower blood pressure by making some lifestyle changes.

High blood pressure starts at 130/80 or higherthats stage one. Stage two, or the worst degree, is 140/90 and above. If the upper limit of blood pressure is more than 180, thats where it starts getting really dangerous, increasing the likelihood of an immediate heart attack, heart failure, or stroke.

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Types Of High Blood Pressure

HBP is either Primary or Secondary.

If your high blood pressure develops over years, you suffer from primary blood pressure.

Secondary blood pressure is an entirely different condition.

It is sometimes called situational because your BP is higher in some situations than others.

Secondary HBP can also develop as a side effect of certain medicines. Other medical conditions can also cause secondary blood pressure.

When you remove the cause, secondary HBP almost always resolves itself quickly.

Primary blood pressure can be treated with pharmaceutical drugs. Yet, many of the popular and traditional blood pressure medicines can lead to debilitating side effects.

If you want to know if you have hypertension, you should take your BP regularly and at different times of the day because BP is not static. It is dynamic, meaning it fluctuates during the course of a day.

What Is The Best Natural Supplement For High Blood Pressure

Three main minerals are used to naturally lower blood pressure. If you follow a heart-healthy diet, youre likely to get enough of these from your foodbut for people with poor eating habits, supplementing might be a good idea. Try these:

• Calcium
• Magnesium
• Potassium*

*Some may recommend taking a potassium supplement, but its especially important to get your current potassium levels tested before doing so. Too much potassium can have potentially fatal side effects.

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What Is Systolic Blood Pressure

When your doctor measures your blood pressure, you hear two numbers. The first is your systolic blood pressure, the amount of pressure that your heart exerts against the walls of your arteries with each pump. The second number, your diastolic blood pressure, is the pressure that your heart exerts between beats.

Many factors can push systolic blood pressure beyond normal, or above 120 millimeters of mercury, according to the American Heart Association. One factor is age. Over time, plaque can build up in the walls of your arteries, requiring the heart to exert more effort with each pump. But diet, weight, exercise habits and stress can exacerbate the problem.

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