Health x Wellness
Tips to Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally
Adjust your blood pressure levels with the right lifestyle choices
Medication is an effective solution for keeping your blood pressure in check. However, it could cause side effects such as dizziness and insomnia. Your blood pressure might also rise when you stop consuming those medications.
Besides relying on medicine, there are other ways to reduce your blood pressure levels naturally. This includes performing sufficient exercise and choosing healthier choices for your meals. Here are several tips on how you could achieve that:
Power Walk
Brisk walk regularly for your body to pump oxygen efficiently. You can also perform other workouts such as cycling or swimming, for a minimum of 30 minutes a day to lower your blood pressure.
Aim for consistency to prevent your blood pressure from rising. You can also challenge your body by increasing the speed or distance of your workouts. Regular exercise also helps avoid other illnesses such as hypertension.
Reduce Alcohol in your Diet
Drinking in moderation plays a part in controlling your blood pressure. However, binge drinking contributes to the adverse effect of increasing your blood pressure. The effectiveness of your medication for blood pressure also diminishes due to over-consumption of alcohol.
If you are an alcoholic, you should seek professional help or limit yourself with the guidelines shared by Health Promotion Board. Excessive drinking could result in other illnesses such as brain damage, obesity and even mouth cancer.
Reduce Sodium Intake
High sodium intake is associated with your high blood pressure. By lowering the amount of sodium in your diet, you can lower your blood pressure by 2 to 8 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) or more.
If you are constantly eating out, order your food with less salt. Replace the preservative with herbs or spices if you want to enhance the flavour of your food. When preparing your grocery list, go for low-sodium options and avoid purchasing processed foods as the latter has high sodium content. Slowly decrease the amount of sodium in your diet so that your palate will be able to adjust to the new diet better.
Eat Dark Chocolate
To satisfy your sugar cravings, munch on dark chocolate instead of your usual sweet treats. Containing compounds known as flavanols, dark chocolate could have a positive influence on your high blood pressure. However, you do need to practice portion control in order to absorb the health benefits from dark chocolate.
Consuming more than 14g of dark chocolate could cause you to exceed your calorie intake and increase your blood sugar. You should also look out for the amount of cocoa that the dark chocolate contains. Consume those with a minimum level of 70 percent cocoa content. Do not rely on dark chocolate to control your blood pressure. Healthy eating and regular workouts are more effective solutions.
Be Positive
Chronic stress is a significant factor that contributes to high blood pressure, especially when you relieve stress through binge drinking, smoking and eating unhealthily. Find out the reasons for your stress and aim to remove or cope with it.
Several methods to manage your stress levels include setting realistic expectations, coming up with viable solutions for respective issues and setting relaxation time for yourself.
Work Less
Avoid overworking your mind and body. Long hours of work indicate lesser time spent on exercise and relaxation. This leads to stress and even increases your risk of developing high blood pressure.
Learn to manage your workload and priorities. Purchase a planner so that you will be able to keep track of deadlines better. Not only will you be able to cope with stress, you can also meet your deadlines and leave on time. This leaves you with sufficient time to work out and relax.
Manage your Weight
With a heavier body mass, your heart is required to pump harder so that blood could still be carried through your system efficiently. As a result, your blood pressure increases.
Setting a weight loss program is one of the most effective solutions to lower blood pressure. To achieve your body goals, you should adjust your diet and daily schedule. Do not rush the process of losing weight as it might cause you more health problems instead. Opt to lose weight healthily.
Seek support from your family and friends so that they can encourage you to take care of your health and even join you in living a healthy lifestyle.
