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.
How do you lower your blood pressure?
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is called the “silent killer” for good reason.
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.
It usually doesn’t cause symptoms until there’s significant damage to the heart.
Lifestyle plays an important role in treating your high blood pressure. If you successfully control your blood pressure with a healthy lifestyle, you might avoid, delay or reduce the need for medication.
Speaking on Quora, Ray Schilling a blogger, retired physician and cancer researcher gives us nine ways that you can lower your blood pressure.
1. Medication: Your physician will tell you what blood pressure medications to take to control your blood pressure. The goal is to lower blood pressure to 120/80 or below. The old limit of 140/90 is now outdated. – 2017 Guideline for High Blood Pressure in Adults, American College of Cardiology
2. Quit smoking: But it is known that there are a number of lifestyle issues that can help lowering blood pressure as well. Quitting smoking is top of the list. The others are discussed below.
3. Alcohol consumption: Drinking large amounts of alcohol regularly will raise your blood pressure. So either cut alcohol out or reduce consumption to one glass of wine per day for women and no more than two glasses of wine for men.
4. Exercise: Regular exercise will increase your HDL cholesterol level, which opens up your arteries and at the same time lowers your blood pressure.
5. Nitric Oxide: A Mediterranean-type diet releases nitric oxide, which is a powerful molecule that normalises blood pressure, says Wikipedia. Both a healthy diet (rich in vegetables) and regular exercise increase nitric oxide production.
6. Relaxation: Relaxation methods like tai-chi, self-hypnosis, autogenic training, yoga and meditation have been shown to reduce inflammatory substances in the blood, which will widen your arteries and lower blood pressure.
7. Dietary Supplements: A number of supplements have been found to marginally lower blood pressure as well: garlic, CoQ-10, folic acid, magnesium, garlic and others.
8. Mineral Supplements: Minerals, such as magnesium, calcium and potassium. Folic acid. Supplements or products that increase nitric oxide or widen blood vessels (vasodilators), such as cocoa, coenzyme Q10, L-arginine or garlic. Omega-3 fatty acids, found in fatty fish, high-dose fish oil supplements or flaxseed.
9. Monitor yourself: Anybody who has high blood pressure should buy a home blood pressure monitor and write down their daily recordings. Give this record to your health-care provider. If your systolic blood pressure (the higher value) is above 120 or the diastolic blood pressure (the lower reading) is above 80, see your doctor.
