How to control high blood pressure naturally? Can i reverse my high blood pressure with life style changes? Are there natural and effective ways of controlling high blood pressure? Looking for such answers, read below!
High blood pressure or hypertension is one of the alarming situations that need attention at this time. As soon as the person reaches 30, his blood pressure begins to rise. Sometimes the person is unaware of his rising blood pressure. However, after being diagnosed with higher blood pressure the main issue is to control it. Most of the time people are unaware of how to control high blood pressure.
What is Blood Pressure?
Blood pressure is a type of force or pressure that pumps blood from our heart to the arteries. It depends on the pressure of blood flow in the arteries. The blood pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury usually abbreviated as mm Hg. The normal blood pressure is between 90/60 mm Hg and 120/80 mm Hg. Blood pressure higher than 120/80 mm Hg is high blood pressure.
High blood pressure and how to control high blood pressure?
Before talking about how to control high blood pressure let us first learn about high blood pressure and why is it necessary to control it. Nevertheless, the blood pressure increases and decreases daily and every hour with the type of activities and diet you intake.
High blood pressure means the movement of blood through the arteries more forcefully, putting extreme pressure on the arteries thus damaging the blood vessels. High blood pressure or hypertension is also known as the silent killer. It causes health issues like heart disease, stroke, and sudden heart attacks.
Uncontrolled blood pressure can be fatal. Most people suffering from high blood pressure are unaware that they have it because it might have no signs and symptoms. Before controlling the blood pressure, it is necessary to diagnose it. Because diagnosing high blood pressure early can save you from seriously deteriorating your health.
Signs and symptoms of high blood pressure
Most of the time high blood pressure has no signs and symptoms. According to some health experts, extremely high blood pressure can cause severe and continuous headache. Severe headache and other symptoms only occur when the blood pressure is extremely high or above 180/120.
Some other symptoms also include nose bleeding, improper vision, confusion, fatigue, and irregular heartbeat. Although the best way to diagnose whether you are suffering from high blood pressure is to keep a regular checkup. Most importantly if you have a family history of hypertension then you are most likely to suffer from high blood pressure.
Hence, if you are diagnosed with high blood pressure or hypertension you should try to maintain your blood pressure below 130/80 mm Hg. Nevertheless, it is clear that an increase in blood pressure can affect your heart health. Although medication is necessary to control increasing blood pressure. Besides this, several other natural ways can be used to combat high blood pressure easily.
How to control high blood pressure easily at home
Here are some ways of controlling your blood pressure!
Control your weight
Mostly hypertension increases with the increase in weight of a person. If you are an overweight or obsessed person then there are most chances of your suffering from hypertension.
At this point, losing even a single pound of your weight can help you to control your blood pressure. Obsessed people also suffer from sleep apnea in which a person suffering from breathing problems during sleep. This also makes your heartbeat irregular. Hence it is necessary to shed extra weight in order to control high blood pressure.
You may want to know about snacks for weight loss!
Regular exercise
Now here a question arises, how to control high blood pressure through regular exercise? The answer is simple and clear. High blood pressure starts developing hypertension because your heart becomes weaker and pumps blood with great effort.
Only aerobic exercise or daily workouts can help to reduce blood pressure. It increases your heart and breathing rate making it stronger to manage the pumping system putting less effort on the arteries thus lowering your blood pressure.
You do not have to move to the gym for regular exercise. Regular aerobic exercise includes running, walking, jogging, pushups, using the stairs, doing household chores, gardening, cycling, etc.
How to control high blood pressure through diet?
Apart from regular exercise, diet plays an important role in increasing and decreasing your blood pressure. How a healthy and perfect diet can help you to control high blood pressure? Let us have a look.
Eat a healthy and well-balanced diet
A healthy diet and food that is lower in fat are necessary to control high blood pressure. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and whole grains. What is meant by a healthy diet? Most of us are unaware of what to eat to control our rising blood pressure. A healthy diet means to eat the right amount of calories your body requires.
By eating healthy, you have to balance the energy you consume with the energy you use. In case you eat an improper diet or eat excessively, it will end up putting extra weight and your energy will be stored as fat.
Most importantly, eat each and everything because your body should receive all the necessary nutrients needed for a perfect health. Make a plan to eat high fiber starchy carbohydrates, fruits, and vegetables, oily fish, and meat.
Cut down on saturated fats:
Fats are of two types. Saturated and unsaturated fats. Saturated fats are usually present in animal products. Too much saturated fats can increase your cholesterol level in the blood thus increasing your risk of developing heart diseases. According to the health experts, the healthy intake of the saturated fat per day is 30g for men and 20g for women.
Nevertheless, it is clear that fat increases the energy of your body whether it is saturated, Trans, or unsaturated fat. But if a person is suffering from high blood pressure, he must prefer to choose unsaturated fat.
Although saturated fat will provide you the energy you need, but on the other side, it will not increase the cholesterol level in your body.
How to control high blood pressure by quitting alcohol and smoking
Most importantly, if you are suffering from high blood pressure, it is necessary to quit alcohol and smoking. If you are unable to do so then you must limit the intake.
Now here the question that rises in every mind is how? How to control high blood pressure by ditching these two bad habits. Let us talk a bit about both.
Nevertheless, we all know that smoking is injurious to our health. Firstly, it can cause several lung diseases but do you know that smoking also raises your blood pressure?
A smoker is at higher risk of heart attack and other heart diseases. The nicotine present in the cigarettes make the blood vessels narrow. At this point, the heart beats fast to pump blood thus increasing your blood pressure.
Similarly, too much alcohol intake can increase blood pressure thus taking it to an unhealthy level. If you are diagnosed with high blood pressure then it is necessary to decrease the alcohol intake or quit it in moderation because it is not easy for a regular drinker to quit it at once. Most importantly, studies also found that alcohol reacts with certain blood pressure medicines to develop major side effects for your body.
Things to avoid with high blood pressure
Wondering about what we are about to talk now? Stress and anxiety. Yes, stress and anxiety are also the cause of high blood pressure. How to reduce high blood pressure by controlling stress and anxiety?
Stress is the root cause of high blood pressure as long term and sustained stress can cause hypertension. It can also lead to chronic habits like smoking, drinking, or harming yourself. Stress can make you feel worried thus making your heartbeat faster and narrowing your blood vessel. A major symptom of high blood pressure. Thus, control your stress to control high blood pressure.
Reduce high blood pressure by reducing sodium intake
Sodium is a prime offender in increasing blood pressure. Eating too much salt can increase blood pressure. When a person eats too much salt, his body requires a large amount of water to eliminate it from the body.
Too much water means too much stress on your body basically your heart and blood vessels. Limiting sodium intake to 1,500 milligrams can prove beneficial to control the high blood pressure in your body.
How to reduce sodium intake to reduce high blood pressure
There are several ways that a person can follow to reduce his sodium intake in order to control his rising blood pressure.
- Avoid processed food as they are high in sodium
- Avoid canned foods
- Frozen items and Snacks
- Pickled or marinated food in brine
- Use sodium-free herbs and seasoning mixes
- Never use lite salt
- Use salt substitute after concerning your healthcare
- Don’t use table salt
- Use food that are usually sodium-free or low in sodium.
How to control high blood pressure by getting enough sleep?
Now comes the sleep. Sleep is important for overall health. We have been hearing since our childhood that a person must sleep for seven to eight hours. A good and enough sleep is good for your body’s energy level. Sleep helps the body to relax and take a time to repair itself.
A person who gets enough sleep can function properly the whole day. Like several other body functions, our heartbeat and breathing rate also varies with our sleep.
When a person is sleeping, his blood pressure tends to reduce. If a person is not getting enough sleep, it will automatically disrupt his body and also increase his blood pressure.
According to some searches, lack of sleep can affect a person’s health. He becomes weak to control the stress hormones. This increases your blood pressure thus leading to several heart problems like heart attacks. Hence, to regulate normal blood pressure, it is necessary to get enough sleep.
How to control high blood pressure through supplements?
After talking about all the natural ways, let’s talk about some of the vitamins and supplements that can prove helpful to reduce the high BP. Several vitamins and supplements can prove helpful to reduce high blood pressure but everyone must follow doctor’s advice before taking any.
Potassium intake can control high blood pressure:
It is necessary for a person to get 2,000 to 4,000 mg of potassium per day. It is a prime supplement to lower blood pressure. Potassium helps to drain off all the sodium from your body through urination. There are several food items that are rich in potassium like bananas, potatoes, spinach, beans avocadoes, etc. You can easily get potassium from these fruits or consult your health care to get a potassium supplement.
Vitamin C:
Vitamin C can control high blood pressure. It is an antioxidant that protects the lining of the blood vessels thus managing a healthy blood flow and healthy blood pressure. We have a wide variety of vitamin C rich foods and supplements.
Control high blood pressure with Vitamin D:
Sun is a good source of vitamin D. Besides this, you can easily get it from fatty fishes and other food products. Milk too provides us with Vitamin D. Vitamin D helps in making an enzyme renin, which is linked to lower high blood pressure, and maintaining heart health.
Some healthy habits to control high blood pressure:
Several healthy habits can also contribute with you to control high blood pressure like
- Never skip breakfast
- Drink plenty of fluid and never remain thirsty
- Avoid too much sugar intake.
- Eat oily fishes
- Increase the intake of fruits and vegetables
- Take high fiber and starchy carbohydrates
- Eat food rich in dietary fiber
How to control high blood pressure with prescribed medicines:
If you are diagnosed with high blood pressure and the above-mentioned ways are not enough to control high blood pressure, then medication is necessary. Medication to control high blood pressure is prescribed by doctors. Seek your doctor’s help and follow the medication, he prescribes you.
