Home Remedies For Managing High Blood Pressure
What is high blood pressure?
Blood pressure is the force at which blood pumps from the heart into the arteries. A normal blood pressure reading is less than 120/80 mm Hg.
When blood pressure is high, the blood moves through the arteries more forcefully. This puts increased pressure on the delicate tissues in the arteries and damages the blood vessels.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects about half of American adults, estimates the American College of Cardiology.
Known as a silent killer, it usually doesnt cause symptoms until theres significant damage done to the heart. Without visible symptoms, most people are unaware that they have high blood pressure.
Wear Earplugs When You Sleep
A study published in 2019 in Psychosomatic Medicine shows a link between poor sleep habits and high blood pressure. One of the culprits? Noise! Research suggests that being exposed to noiseeven while sleepingcan increase your blood pressure and heart rate. Thats why the National Sleep Foundation recommends wearing earplugs at night, especially if you live in a noisy environment.
What Is The Pritikin Program For Lowering Blood Pressure
The Pritikin Program, taught by the dietitians, exercise physiologists, physicians, and psychologists at the Pritikin Longevity Center, addresses all the adverse effects associated with hypertension by:
- Providing at least 5 servings of vegetables and 4 servings of fruits daily, which help ensure that you eat plenty of foods that are full of stomach-filling volume yet are low in calories, enhancing weight-loss efforts. Losing excess weight is one of the most effective ways to lower blood pressure in the short term. Eating plenty of nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables also means youll be eating excellent sources of potassium, magnesium, and calcium. Many studies have found that foods rich in these minerals help blunt some of the toxic effects of sodium.
- Cutting back on calorie-dense foods loaded with fat, sugar, and/or refined grains to promote weight-loss efforts.
- Limiting the consumption of sodium to a healthy level less than 1,500 mg daily for people under 50 years, less than 1,300 mg daily for those 50 to 69 years, and no more than 1,200 mg daily for people 70 years and older.
- Discouraging excess alcohol drinking .
- Adding a daily exercise regime that aids in weight loss and stimulates nitric oxide production, a beneficial chemical that relaxes muscles in the artery walls and lowers blood pressure.
- Getting an adequate intake of calcium, omega-3 fatty acids, and vitamin D by consuming moderate amounts of nonfat dairy foods or soymilk, seafood, and a little sunshine.
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Consume Pomegranate Juice In The High Blood Pressure Diet
Another beverage that is good to drink if you are trying to lower blood pressure quickly is pomegranate juice.
One small trial involving men with high blood pressure found that consuming 150 ml of pomegranate juice helped lower blood pressure fast. Most participants in the trial noted a reduction in blood pressure within a 4 to 6-hour period. The researchers noted that pomegranate juice should be recommended on a high blood pressure diet.
You can learn more about the health benefits of pomegranate in this article.
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What Is A Healthy Blood Pressure
You will be familiar with the way in which blood pressure gets recorded in the form of two numbers written in a ratio. The upper figure is the systolic blood pressure while the lower figure represents diastolic pressure.A healthy persons blood pressure should be below 120 : 80 for a normal adult. If a persons blood pressure is higher than 140 : 90, it is regarded as high.
There are numerous risk factors for high blood pressure including a poor diet, stress, smoking, lack of exercise and genetic factors. Fortunately, a number of these factors can be controlled by simple lifestyle changes like losing weight, exercising and quitting the cigarettes.
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Potassium And Your Diet
The recommended potassium intake for an average adult is 4,700 milligrams per day.
Many of the elements of the DASH diet fruits, vegetables, fat-free or low-fat dairy foods and fish are good natural sources of potassium. For example, a medium banana has about 420 mg of potassium and half a cup of plain mashed sweet potatoes has 475 mg.
Other potassium-rich foods include:
- Fat-free or low-fat milk
- Fat-free yogurt
- Grapefruit and grapefruit juice
- Greens
Dehydration And Blood Pressure
Can dehydration cause blood pressure to rise? It absolutely can.
Basically, when you fail to drink enough water, the body will compensate through sodium retention, which can lead to high blood pressure.
In other words, sodium is like the bodys water insurance policy. It helps regulate the amount of water that is around and in your cells.
Dehydration forces the body to slowly shut down some of its capillary beds throughout your entire system. When some of these capillary beds shut down, this puts greater pressure on both your capillaries and arteries, and in turn raises your blood pressure.
Not drinking enough water also causes the blood to thicken. The heart then squeezes and pushes the thick blood to the aorta. The blood then must fall out from the bend of the aorta.
When blood is too thick, this can reduce blood flow, and therefore gravity is not strong enough to pull it down toward your feet. As a result, the muscles must squeeze and work harder.
When these muscles squeeze, they increase the pressure inside your blood vessels, and this leads to hypertension.
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Reduce Stress Through Meditation And Rest
Chronic stress can lead to chronic elevations in the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline, says Dr. Desai. These hormones constrict the arteries and cause weight gain, which further increases blood pressure.
He recommends reducing stress by using breathing exercises, practicing meditation, completing physical exercise, practicing yoga, logging quality sleep, taking breaks throughout the day, spending time in nature, listening to music and eating a balanced diet.
What Is Blood Pressure
Blood pressure is a combination of systolic and diastolic pressure. Systolic pressure represents blood force, or pressure, while the heart is beating and diastolic pressure stands for blood pressure when the heart is at rest.
Systolic pressure is always the first or top measurement in a blood pressure reading. In a reading of 130/80, 130 represents systolic pressure and 80 represents diastolic pressure. In prehypertension, systolic numbers range from 120129 and diastolic numbers are less than 80.
Blood pressure ranges include:
- Normal: Less than 120/80 mm Hg
- Prehypertension: Systolic between 120129 and diastolic less than 80
- Stage 1 high blood pressure: Systolic between 130139 or diastolic between 8089
- Stage 2 high blood pressure: Systolic at least 140 or diastolic at least 90 mm Hg
Numbers for stage 1 hypertension vary from 130139 for systolic values and/or 8089 in diastolic numbers. With stage 2 hypertension, systolic readings are 140 or higher and/or diastolic readings measure 90 or higher. Although both numbers are significant, after about age 50, the systolic number is most important. Only 10 percent of high blood pressure cases are due to secondary or identifiable causes such as medications, or conditions and diseases of other organs.
Results of high blood pressure include:
- Arterial damage
- Heavy-metal poisoning
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Why Does Hypertension Matter
If you are in this 130/80 range, reducing your blood pressure can help protect you from heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, eye disease, and even cognitive decline. The goal of the new guidelines is to encourage you to treat your high blood pressure seriously and to take action to bring it down, primarily using lifestyle interventions. “It is well documented that lifestyle changes can lower blood pressure as much as pills can, and sometimes even more,” says Dr. Fisher.
Making those changes can be challenging. More than one woman has woken up in the morning committed to healthy eating only to be derailed by a plate of cookies on a table in the office or a dinner out with friends.
Tips For Making Healthy Lifestyle Changes
If you suffer with high blood pressure, its easy to feel intimidated by the changes you need to make in order to improve your health. While some people may only need to work on one or two areas to reduce their blood pressuregetting more exercise or quitting smoking, for examplemost of us find that we need to improve our habits in at least 3 or 4 areas. But even if you smoke, drink heavily, are overweight, stressed out, sedentary, and eat nothing but junk and processed food, that doesnt mean you have to tackle everything all at once. Making lots of different lifestyle changes at the same time can be overwhelming. And when we feel overwhelmed, its easy to opt for doing nothing rather than doing something.
Start gradually and make one or two changes to begin with. Once those changes have become habit, you can tackle one or two more, and so on. For example, you may decide to start by giving up smokingand adopting some relaxation techniques to help with the stress of quittingthen move on to losing weight or improving your diet.
Lose the all or nothing thinking. Doing something, no matter how small, is always better than doing nothing. If youre eating healthy food during the week, for example, then resorting to takeouts at the weekends, your blood pressure and overall health will still be in better shape than if you were eating takeout every day.
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What Are The Symptoms Of High Blood Pressure
Perhaps youre not sure if you have high blood pressure. If it has been a while since youve had your blood pressure taken, consider scheduling a wellness visit with your medical provider. In the meantime, here are some of the key signs of high blood pressure to watch out for:
- Headaches
- Bloody urine
How Can I Lower My Blood Pressure On The Day Of My Medical Exam
Blood pressure has long been a source of stress for the truck driver. It is frequently referred to as the silent killer by many of us who work in health care. If you suffer high blood pressure it is important that it is controlled and managed. This can be done through natural means such as with exercises, diet and weight loss. It may also be accomplished through medical management such as with the prescription of blood pressure medications. Whatever way you choose, the blood pressure on the day of your exam must still be below 140/90 in order to certify without delay. Lets first take a look at some basic information about blood pressure before getting into managing it on the day of your exam.
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Final Thoughts On Drinking Water And Blood Pressure
How does drinking water lower blood pressure? Here are a few key takeaways from this article on drinking water and blood pressure:
- Dehydration is a key result when you fail to drink enough water, and this can lead to high blood pressure.
- Not drinking enough water also leads the blood to thicken. In turn, drinking more water can help thin thickened blood.
- Avoid drinking too much water. This can lead to overhydration and a condition known as hyponatremia.
- To maintain healthy blood pressure levels, drink a glass of water every two hours and follow a plant-based diet with lots of water-rich vegetables and fruit.
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Eat Garlic Or Take Garlic Extract Supplements
Fresh garlic or garlic extract are both widely used to lower blood pressure .
According to one clinical study, a time-release garlic extract preparation may have a greater effect on blood pressure than regular garlic powder tablets .
One 2012 review noted a study of 87 people with high blood pressure that found a diastolic reduction of 6 mm Hg and a systolic reduction of 12 mm Hg in those who consumed garlic, compared to people without any treatment (
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/5blood Pressure Levels Needs Regular Monitoring
High blood pressure or hypertension is one of the most dangerous conditions that can increase the risk of heart, brain, kidney and other diseases. As per the World Health Organization , an estimated 1.28 billion adults aged 30-79 years worldwide have hypertension.
There are many reasons behind why high blood pressure is popularly called a ‘silent killer’. Unlike diseases that are self-diagnosable and can be identified through early symptoms, hypertension can lead to sudden attacks and may even result in death. That said, here are some factors that make high blood pressure a serious illness, which needs special attention.
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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Cut Back On Sugar And Refined Carbohydrates
Many scientific studies show that restricting sugar and refined carbohydrates can help you lose weight and lower your blood pressure.
A 2010 study compared a low-carb diet to a low-fat diet. The low-fat diet included a diet drug. Both diets produced weight loss, but the low-carb diet was much more effective in lowering blood pressure.
The low-carb diet lowered blood pressure by 4.5 mm Hg diastolic and 5.9 mm Hg systolic. The diet of low-fat plus the diet drug lowered blood pressure by only 0.4 mm Hg diastolic and 1.5 mm Hg systolic .
A 2012 analysis of low-carb diets and heart disease risk found that these diets lowered blood pressure by an average of 3.10 mm Hg diastolic and 4.81 mm Hg systolic .
Another side effect of a low-carb, low-sugar diet is that you feel fuller longer, because youre consuming more protein and fat.
/5ways You Can Reduce Your Risk Of High Blood Pressure
While it may be difficult to tell whether a person has high blood pressure or not, there are ways you can reduce the risk.
Besides conducting frequent and regular blood pressure checks, it is important to eat a healthy diet. One must eat foods rich in potassium, fiber, and protein and low in salt. One must remember to maintain a healthy weight. To do that, physical activity is extremely crucial.
People who smoke and drink must slowly refrain from these unhealthy habits as it only increases the risk of cardiovascular ailments.
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Try Meditation Or Deep Breathing
While these two behaviors could also fall under stress reduction techniques, meditation and deep breathing deserve specific mention.
Both meditation and deep breathing may activate the parasympathetic nervous system. This system is engaged when the body relaxes, slowing the heart rate, and lowering blood pressure.
Theres quite a bit of research in this area, with studies showing that different styles of meditation appear to have benefits for lowering blood pressure .
Deep breathing techniques can also be quite effective.
In one study, participants were asked to either take six deep breaths over the course of 30 seconds or simply sit still for 30 seconds. Those who took breaths lowered their blood pressure more than those who just sat .
Try guided meditation or deep breathing. Heres a video to get you started.
Bottom line: Both meditation and deep breathing can activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps slow your heart rate and lower blood pressure.
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Drink Only Natural Spring Water
Its safe to say that as much as we need nitrate-rich foods, we will also need only natural, clean and mineral-rich water that will help you breakdown and absorb all the nutrients that you ought to get from nitrate foods.
Natural spring water is the only naturally-occurring water that contains almost the most minerals that your body needs. Remember, it is one thing to consume nutrient-rich foods and another thing for your body to properly absorb the nutrients.
So, in as much as youd want to consume nitrate-rich foods, endeavor to drink only natural spring water as well and avoid all other forms of drinking water, packaged alkaline water or juices.