How can i control my high blood pressure without taking meds?

High blood pressure is one of the most common health conditions in the United States. Most people diagnosed with high blood pressure are treated with medications. This article will teach you five easy steps you can use to lower your blood pressure without medications. For further self education on the subject, the following book is an excellent start and written by a medical physician in San Francisco, CA. '; High Blood Pressure For Dummies.'; ( ISBN: 0-7645-5424-7 )





Steps


Avoid Salt (sodium). Sodium causes you to retain fluids, which makes your blood have more fluid volume. When your blood has more volume, your heart has to pump harder to move that excess volume throughout the body. This causes the blood pressure to go up. Remember, it's not just the salt that you put on your food while cooking or at the table, it's also the amount of sodium that's in the food that you buy. You should become ';label conscious'; and buy ';low sodium'; foods. Preserved foods, tinned foods, bakery products and MSG, all tend to have sodium content. Many American diets include up to 5,000 milligrams of sodium daily which nearly all medical professionals consider extremely unhealthy. Medical professionals often prescribe LOW sodium diets that consist of between 1100 and 1500 milligrams daily. The American Heart Association advises that the human body actually can function with as little as only 200mg of sodium daily. If one can't live without a ';salty'; flavor, there are multiple brands of what amounts to fake salt products on the market. Not just low or ';lite'; salt products, but SALT SUBSTITUTES.


Avoid Caffeine. Even one or two cups of fresh ground coffee can raise blood pressure into the unhealthy Stage 1 level. If a person already has Stage 1 Hypertension, coffee usually complicates the problem even further. Caffeine is a stimulant. This causes the heart to beat faster. When the heart beats faster, the blood pressure raises. If you are a person who drinks a lot of caffeine (more than 4 caffeinated drinks/day), you may need to taper yourself off of the caffeine to prevent withdraw symptoms such as headaches.


Stop Smoking. Smoking causes your blood pressure to elevate because of the stimulants in the cigarette smoke. If you stop smoking, you can not only lower your blood pressure, but you can also help your heart to become more healthy and reduce your chances for other health-related problems like lung cancer.


Lose Weight. Carrying around this extra weight causes your heart to work harder all the time and this increases your blood pressure. Imagine having an extra 20 pounds (9 kg) on your body. That would be the same thing as carrying around a 20 pound (9 kg) bag of dog food. Try walking around the block while carrying this bag of dog food. Soon, your heart will begin to beat faster and harder, you'll become out of breath, and you'll feel very tired. Eventually, you'll get to the point where you can't wait to put that bag down. Imagine how hard it is for your body to carry around that extra weight all the time! Unfortunately, most of us are carrying around a lot more than just an extra 20 pounds (9 kg). By losing this extra weight, your heart won't have to beat as hard and you'll lower your blood pressure. An inexpensive and very user-friendly software product titled ';Fit Day'; can be downloaded from their website (fitday.com) and is incredibly easy to use in weight and health monitoring. Highly recommended. Approximate cost: $40.00


Avoid Drugs and Alcohol. Excessive use of drugs and alcohol can damage many organs in the body including the liver and the kidneys. When these organs are damaged, they can cause a build-up of fluids in the body. Like we talked about in step one, extra fluids make the heart beat harder and this increases the blood pressure. Also, many drugs are stimulants. These cause the heart to beat faster. As we stated earlier, the faster the heart beats, the higher the blood pressure goes. By cutting out drugs and alcohol, you'll succeed in reducing your blood pressure. Also, remember above where the common warning about sodium was described? Some over the counter medications such as simple headache remedy Ibuprofen cause the body to RETAIN sodium. So, people who are already complicating their high blood pressure condition with sodium also are RETAINING that sodium more than the body naturally would which causes even higher stress on your system.


Relax: Many people have a temporary raise in blood pressure when they are under stress. If you have high blood pressure because you are over weight or have a family history of hypertension, then stress raises it that much more. Try taking a walk, meditating or listening to relaxing music to take the edge off a stressful day. Make time for decompressing each and every day. A hot bath for 15 minutes actually will suppress one's blood pressure for anywhere up to several hours. Taking a hot bath just prior to bedtime can help the body retain lower blood pressure for hours or even the entire night.


Walk every day for at least 30 minutes at a moderate speed of about 3.0 miles per hour. Study after study has demonstrated that the mere act of walking has a suppression effect on hypertension. Can't walk outside? Used treadmills can be found at all sorts of online sites for as little as $250. The advantage: walk even as it rains or snows outside. You can even walk in your pajamas without the neighbors seeing you! But do yourself a favor. Walk every day without fail. 30 minutes is all it takes, daily.











Tips


The following list is not a daily intake description but what one finds on a food label for a specific food item. For example, a piece of fruit would be ';low sodium'; with a content of less than 140 mg.


Low Sodium = 0 mg - 140 mg


Moderate Sodium = 140 mg - 400 mg


High Sodium = 400 mg or higher


Regular exercise such as walking is useful for lowering blood pressure


Meditation destresses and lowers high blood pressure


Listening to or voicing rhythmic chants causes breathing tempo to stabilize, which in turn, can be beneficial.


Taking fish oil tablets regularly can reduce your blood pressure.


Broccoli sprouts may reduce your blood pressure if eaten regularly.











Warnings


While all of these tips are effective in lowering your blood pressure without medications, sometimes they are not enough. If your blood pressure stays at 140 mmHg over 90 mmHg (usually written 140/90) or higher even while using these tips, you should see your doctor. The consequences of untreated or unchecked hypertension include STROKE which can put a person in a wheelchair for the remainder of his/her life. Stroke sometimes can alter a person's brain function enough such that speech is permanently disrupted. Kidney failure is another consequence which can require that a person be put on kidney dialysis for life. If you find that engaging in prevention tactics is boring to you, just write STROKE %26amp; KIDNEY FAILURE on a piece of paper %26amp; tape that to your refrigerator as a reminder of what can happen to you with high blood pressure.How can i control my high blood pressure without taking meds?
healthy diet and lots of exercise.


Talk to a nutritonist and your dr before starting a diet and exercise program.How can i control my high blood pressure without taking meds?
Get to a healthy weight, exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, meditate. But if you can't control it within six months. Go on meds. Occasionally it is a genetic condition that cannot be controlled just with lifestyle changes./
Only borderline high blood pressure can be controled without taking meds. This is according to the NIH (national institutes of health) in a study conducted on 25,000 people with various conditions.





So if you have like an AVERAGE blood pressure for 40 reading in a weeks time of say 128 to 135 / 89 to 92 and an AVERAGE monthly reading of the same consisting of no less than 120 readings in a months time YOU ARE A CANDIDATE to control without meds. Those consist of losing weight, exercise, and elimination of sodium, proper rest, and elimination of stress in your job. Remember, a single measurement or two means notihng, a spike in Blood pressure means noting, a drop in blood pressure in one reading means noting, Its the AVERAGE of hundreds of readings that determines your blood pressure that the heart sees and must cope with.





People with blood pressures above those mentioned in the above paragraph are NOT candidates for non Med control.





You can destroy your heart valves, heart muscles, arteries, veins and even the hearts electrical system by procrastanating on treatment with by the medication method if determined you need that.





So depending on your AVERAGE blood pressure, ( youl need to buy a machine to determine this) your path to proced will be determined by the DATA you generate for that week, that month and so on.





Dont expect a doc to determine your BP in a single reading or two. Take control yourself.
exercise and drink lots of water - 80 to 120 oz per day.





Research has shown that eating dark chocolate can lower your bp. In a study, participants ate 3.5 oz of dark chocolate (min. 70% cocoa) daily for two weeks. Systolic and diastolic pressures both came down by 10mmHg.
For some diet,exercise and avoiding stress is enough but for others they need to add the meds. Be thankful these medication are in fact available when all else fails.
defineatley stay away from salty foods,drink lots of water%26amp; walk. also, i would check out something in a herbal form.
the first step physicians use to treat hypertension (HTN) are lifestyle modifications... add 30 minutes of exercise 5 times a week to your schedule, eat low sodium, fat and cholesterol foods, lose weight, eat healthier foods, avoid caffeine, quit smoking, dont drink alcohol, and one of the BIG ones, reduce your stress load. if this is unsuccessful for 3-6 months then they will add a diuretic to your regimen, it that is unsuccessful they will add a different type of heart medication (mainly vasodilators) and increase your diuretic. good luck with everything just remember in the long run that no matter how you need to get your BP under control because it can lead to other problems like kidney failure....
wine is bad for people who have pressur trouble...other than that maybe the meds are what is best...to control it..
Medicine is just about the only way. You might be able to lose weight and get it down some but probably not.
I am going to be honest when I say it is way to tough to just do it. It takes crazy effort and diet and exercise and stuff to lower it. And everything you do will only make 10% max a change in it. It is genetic, you are stuck with it. You really do need to take meds for now. BUT you can help it alot and eventually cut down the meds by doing these things : exercise 30 min a day (eg.walk), eat plenty healthy lean meats, fruits and veggies and whole grains, and meditate or do yoga or go fishing. My guess is you lead a high stress life. Try taking time to do stuff that makes you, deep inside truely happy and at peace (lower stress helps lower blood pressure. Take the meds to get you out of the red, and then work on your life and see what combo of the two (your actions and medicine) works best to keep you happy and healthy. Best of luck.


Oh yea, having a pet also is proven to lower blood pressure. Get some fish or a cat if you can take proper care of them that is. Watching fish swim immediately lowers bp, as does petting a cat!
TO CORRECT EARLIER ANSWERS:


1) The research literature shows conclusively that red wine is actually beneficial for cardiovascular health, taken as 2 glasses per day;


2) Lifestyle changes - eg healthy diet, exercise, smoking cessation have been proven to lower systolic BP by up to 20 mmHg (NOT 10 mmHg as stated earlier). This is a very significant margin - and a powerful incentive for changes in personal habits.


See your local nurse practitioner for counselling, monitoring and pro-active PROFESSIONAL advice!!!