High blood pressure is a relatively common issue, but it doesn’t have to be. Fortunately, there are numerous natural ways to lower your pulse naturally and effectively.
Long-term lifestyle modifications, such as eating a nutritious diet, exercising regularly and limiting salt consumption, can all help lower your blood pressure. Additionally, make sure your healthcare provider checks on you regularly to monitor any changes in your condition.
1. Eat a Healthy Diet
Eating a nutritious diet is one of the best ways to naturally lower your blood pressure. Additionally, it has numerous health benefits and may reduce your risk for certain chronic illnesses.
Include green vegetables, fruits and whole grains in your daily meals to reap the benefits of dietary fiber – which has been known to reduce both systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels.
Reduce consumption of foods high in saturated fat and sodium, such as animal products (cheese, meat and milk), fatty dairy products and some plant oils like palm or coconut oil.
Reduce your salt consumption to no more than 4 grams a day, which is equivalent to 1600 milligrams of sodium. Doing this may reduce the risk for heart disease and stroke.
2. Exercise Regularly
Exercise helps keep your heart and blood vessels healthy, decreasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Additionally, it aids weight management, provides energy boosts and reduces stress.
Start by gradually adding physical activity into your daily routine. Even taking a brisk walk every day can improve your health and lower blood pressure.
According to the American Heart Association, adults should aim for 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise per week or 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week. Furthermore, strength training should be included at least two days a week.
3. Get Enough Sleep
Sleep is one of the best ways to naturally lower your blood pressure. It gives both your body and mind a chance to recharge, leaving you feeling revived when you awake in the morning.
On average, adults need 7 to 8 hours of sleep nightly. However, if your sleeping patterns differ significantly from this recommendation, it could have detrimental effects on your health.
Diabetes may increase the risk for heart disease, stroke, obesity, type 2 diabetes and poor mental health.
Fortunately, there are numerous ways to improve your sleep quality. The most crucial is setting a regular bedtime and getting up at the same time each day.
4. Manage Your Stress
When stressed, your body releases hormones that cause your heart to beat faster and blood vessels to narrow. While these effects may temporarily raise your blood pressure when under stress, they disappear once you no longer are.
Chronic stress can have a significant impact on your body, and may contribute to hypertension (high blood pressure). Even though this condition may not always be visible, it remains an important health risk for many individuals.
Therefore, managing stress – both short-term and chronic – is essential to improve overall health and lower blood pressure naturally. This can be accomplished through healthy coping techniques such as eating nutritiously, exercising regularly and getting enough sleep each night.
5. Stay Hydrated
Maintaining hydration is one of the most effective ways to naturally lower your blood pressure. This includes drinking water, abstaining from dehydrating drinks like soda and alcohol, and eating foods that contain water.
The amount of fluid you should drink daily depends on individual needs, but experts generally suggest consuming between 25 percent and 50 percent of one’s body weight in ounces of hydrating fluids each day.
Hydration is especially essential for those who exercise frequently, are in hot weather, are sick (fever, vomiting, diarrhea), have certain medical conditions or are pregnant or breast-feeding. Hydration also helps reduce your risk for kidney stones – hard deposits of minerals that form inside kidneys.