If you’re someone with family heritage that includes high blood pressure, and you find yourself now experiencing it yourself, you can look to a few different natural ways to control high blood pressure. Maybe your not in need of a pharmaceutical yet to help control it, and if that’s the case lucky you! You have a number of options available to you to stay off of the meds. If you’re someone that’s on a pharmaceutical drug to help control high blood pressure, you can make these same lifestyle changes and possibly find yourself improving enough to come off of medication.
Eat More Whole Foods
Keeping your high blood pressure in check with whole grains, legumes, fruits, veggies, and healthy fats is a great starting point to manage this condition. These foods aren’t processed with excess salt and additives that will contribute to increased blood pressure. Also, including 2 to 3 weekly servings of fatty fish like unsalted sardines and wild salmon, rather than red meat may make a significant difference in blood pressure levels. Fish contains good Omega 3 oils that may be helpful in decreasing high blood pressure.
Cut Back On Processed Foods (Excess Salt)
The standard American diet is chocked full of processed food. This type of food is excessively salt ridden and as such contributes greatly to the 3,400 mgs of salt that the average American consumes daily. An average daily dose of 2,300 would suffice. This equates to approximately one teaspoon of salt just to give you an idea of what we actually need. Cutting back on all things processed can help to be an effective tool to help you manage high blood pressure levels.
Boost Your Intake Of Potassium
Try increasing your potassium intake along with decreasing your salt intake. This combo has proved to be a very effective way to fight high blood pressure, according to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Often times, people will take each measure individually which hasn’t proved to be as effective as combining both. 4.7 grams of potassium is the adult dose, but most people get around half of that. Citrus fruits, bananas, tomatoes, potatoes, legumes and melons are good sources of this.
Exercise
Implementing regular aerobic exercise can prove to be a substantial way to improve systolic (the top number) blood pressure. It’s will also help you to achieve a healthy weight which will further contribute to lowering your blood pressure. Research has also shown that strength training is helpful to lowering your diastolic pressure (the bottom number). Regular weight lifters have shown lower diastolic pressures. It’s suggested to make strength training a twice weekly routine.
These easy and attainable suggestions can be the difference between high blood pressure that requires a drug to control it, or a manageable condition that you can maintain with diet and lifestyle changes. As you become more accustomed to these changes you’ll begin to see your health transform and that can give you the steady motivation you need to continue on.
Eat well, live well, enjoy!
Source:
Body and Soul Magazine, February 2010 issue
