10 Ways to Reduce Your Blood Pressure and Keep It Down
As a direct result of increasingly stressful lives and unhealthy eating, about a third of the American population suffers from high blood pressure.
Many of these people won’t even realize it until it is ‘far too late’. High blood pressure is an incredibly dangerous condition.
Left unmanaged, it can lead to an increase in the risk of heart disease and stroke.
This means that if you suffer from the condition, or believe you do, then you absolutely need to start working on ways in which you can manage the risk.
Hopefully the tips on this page are going to give you a nudge in the right direction.
#1 Exercise Regularly
I don’t care if you ignore absolutely every other method for reducing your blood pressure on this list. All I ask is you pay attention to this one as it is, without a doubt, the most important.
Exercise will help your blood pump a lot more efficiently around your body, ultimately reducing blood pressure. It will also help you to lose weight, and with obesity being one of the biggest causes of high blood pressure is incredibly important.
You don’t even need to do much in the way of exercise. Just 30-minutes of brisk walking per day should do it.
#2 Increase Magnesium Intake
At the moment, the impact of magnesium intake on blood pressure is still under study.
However, preliminary evidence seems to indicate that a magnesium deficiency could lead to increased blood pressure.
It probably doesn’t hurt trying to get a little bit more into your diet anyway. You won’t even need to supplement for it. Up your intake of legumes, vegetables, and meats. You should be good to go then.
#3 Use Supplements
I am not normally an ‘advocate’ of using supplements, because I firmly believe that you are able to get most of what you need through a proper diet.
However, when it comes to lowering your blood pressure, there are a few supplements out there which are really, really going to help.
This includes:
- Fish Oil Supplements: this supplement is well-known for boosting the health of your heart. Get it into your diet. Will help with brain health too.
- Aged Garlic Extract: studies have shown that this is a fantastic supplement for lowering your blood pressure. It is so effective that you could even use it as a stand-alone treatment (not really recommended)
- Whey Protein: some studies have indicated that whey protein can help lower your blood pressure. However, studies in this are still early. That being said, it can’t hurt to get a small amount into your diet anyway.
#4 Try Stress Relief Techniques
There are several stress relief techniques that you can use to lower your blood pressure. I am not going to go into too much detail here as you will be able to find a wealth of information online.
However, a bit of meditation and some breathing exercises are going to go a long way towards busting your high blood pressure.
#5 Reduce Sugar in Your Diet
I know this is going to be difficult for some of you, but I promise that this is something which is really, really going to help.
Study after study has shown that a high sugar intake is a huge contributor towards high blood pressure.
It doesn’t take much sugar to push up your blood pressure either. Just one can of soda is all it takes.
#6 Cut Out Refined Carbs
If something has white flour in it, then it is contributing towards high blood pressure.
This means white bread, pizza bases, tacos, and whatever else sounds tasty in your head.
You need to cut it out.
If you can’t cut it out completely, then you will at least want to lower the amount that you are consuming drastically. Have it as a bit of a treat every now and then.
#7 Say Goodbye to Smoking
Smoking is awful for your blood pressure.
It isn’t a slow impact on you either. Every single puff of that cigarette is going to push your blood pressure up a little (temporarily).
So, if you are smoking quite a lot per day, your blood pressure is going to be permanently high. Cutting out smoking is the way to go.
However, if you can’t do that quite yet, then reducing it drastically per day (even if this means cutting out just 4 or 5 cigarettes per day) is going to go a long way towards helping you.
#8 Lose Weight
Losing weight is fantastic when it comes to lowering your blood pressure. Study after study has shown that you do not even need to lose that much.
Cut just 5% of your weight, and you are going to be trimming down your blood pressure drastically.
Of course, your journey towards losing weight means that you are always going to be practicing some of the other techniques on this page e.g. exercising more frequently, or eating a little bit better (i.e. a balanced diet).
Obviously, you will probably not want to focus on losing weight if you are already a healthy weight.
#9 Cut Back on Caffeine
Just like smoking, caffeine will cause a temporary boost in your blood pressure.
This means that if you are drinking a lot of caffeine throughout the day, your blood pressure is going to be permanently high.
Try and cut back on it as much as you possibly can. If you are using the caffeine for an energy boost, you will find that practicing a healthy diet is more than enough to help you out.
#10 Reduce Sodium In Your Diet
Finally; cut down on the amount of salt in your diet. Perhaps the best thing you can do here is to eliminate processed foods i.e. make everything from scratch.
If you do not have the time for that, then at least keep an eye out for processed that are low in sodium.
You may also want to get more potassium-rich foods into your diet, as this is going to work wonders for removing the excess sodium kicking around your body.
Bananas, dairy, beans, nuts, and seeds are going to be fantastic here (make sure your nuts are not salted!)
To Conclude
I have tried to keep these ‘tips’ for reducing your blood pressure simple.
I know that absolutely everything on this page is something that you can start to put into practice today.
Of course, talk to your doctor if you are seriously concerned about your blood pressure, but I genuinely believe that if you follow the tips on this page, you are going to be going a long way towards improving your health.
Recommended reading:
Article by:
Daniel DeMoss
I’m a personal trainer based in Denver (Matrix Gym) and a true fitness nerd. If I’m not training clients or working out at my home gym, I’m probably skiing, cycling or hiking with my dog Rufus.
Get in touch: daniel@dumbbellsreview.com
