18 Ways to Lower Your Blood Pressure

In fact, by making these changes early on you may be able to avoid needing medicines. This patient decision aid from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) (PDF, 132kb) nutrition guide for addiction recovery can also help you to understand your treatment options. Your GP can advise you about changes you can make to your lifestyle and discuss whether they think you’d benefit from medicine.

1. It’s possible to do everything right and still have elevated blood pressure.
2. In one study, researchers assigned people with high blood pressure to a low polyphenol diet or a high polyphenol diet containing berries, chocolate, fruits, and vegetables (31).
3. Studies have demonstrated small improvements in blood pressure that occur in people taking calcium, potassium, and magnesium supplements, but research results can be mixed.
4. If you have elevated blood pressure, exercise can help you avoid developing hypertension.
5. Lifestyle changes that help you to address one or more of these factors may help you control your blood pressure.

Still, he would never tell patients that managing stress would single-handedly do the job of lowering blood pressure if they’re also overweight or have a poor diet. Exercise improves circulation and cardiac output, and has a dilating effect on your blood vessels, Haythe said. It raises blood pressure in the moment, but in an appropriate way, both doctors noted.

Eat a healthy balanced diet

Maintaining a good blood pressure is an important way to keep your risk of heart and circulatory disease low. There are several things that you can do to help keep it down, although some people with high blood pressure will benefit from taking medication too. Getting more physically active can help lower your blood pressure, as well as improve your overall health and wellbeing. It doesn’t need to be in a gym or a long run – , a brisk walk or being more active around the house can help increase your activity levels.

Drink less alcohol

“It’s very important for people to try to find ways to reduce their chronic stress, whether they need to go to a therapist, be on medication for that or exercise, do yoga, meditation,” Haythe said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend doing at least 2.5 hours of moderate-intensity exercise per week, or around 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. For children and teens, the CDC recommend 1 hour of exercise per day. Many dietary and lifestyle changes, such as exercising more, improving your sleep, and limiting sugar and alcohol, could also help.

Eat garlic or take garlic extract supplements

If that feels like a lot, don’t panic; research shows that as little as 30 to 60 minutes of exercise per week has a notable impact on blood pressure. You don’t have to log 30 straight minutes of movement at a time either. Tweaks to your habits can lower blood pressure by at least as much as a single medication, says Dr. Jean. Long-term medication for alcohol use disorder (chronic) emotional stress may contribute to high blood pressure. More research is needed on the effects of stress reduction techniques to find out whether they can reduce blood pressure. Limiting alcohol to less than one drink a day for women or two drinks a day for men can help lower blood pressure by about 4 mm Hg.

Eat a healthy diet

Many studies have linked high salt intake with high blood pressure and heart events, including stroke (5, 6). Keep in mind that you should not use grapefruit juice with a number of other medications, including calcium channel blockers used to treat blood pressure and statin drugs to lower cholesterol. A stressful situation can raise your blood pressure temporarily, and chronic stress can raise your blood pressure long term.