Tips to Support Lower Blood Pressure

When High Is Bad and Low is Good

High blood pressure or hypertension is when your blood pushes against the walls of your blood vessels with too much force. This force adds strain on your heart and blood vessels. High blood pressure often has no symptoms and over time, if untreated, it can cause health conditions, such as heart disease and stroke. Your goal should be to have a blood pressure between 90/60 mmHg and 120/80 mmHg. In Australia and New Zealand, most doctors will use a cut-off point of 140/90 mmHg or higher over a couple of weeks as the basis of diagnosing you as having high blood pressure.

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Why High Blood Pressure is Bad for Your Health

In the majority of cases, hypertension damages your body over time. It’s terrible for your health because it can lead to:

Stroke and dementia
Heart attack and heart failure
Kidney disease
Loss of vision
Angina (chest pain)
An aneurysm in your aorta (the largest artery in your body).
Atherosclerosis and peripheral artery disease (PAD)
Sexual dysfunction. High blood pressure can lower women’s libido and cause erectile dysfunction in men.

Nobody wants to have high blood pressure or hypertension. For those who are at risk of developing it there are natural ways to support lower blood pressure or prevent the development of hypertension.

Please Note: If you are already taking anti-hypertensive medications, you must consult your doctor before you start your journey of going all-natural to deal with high blood pressure, DO NOT stop taking your anti-hypertensive medications without the knowledge of your attending doctor.

Lower Your High Blood Pressure NATURALLY by

Increasing your physical activity and exercise. Is there a difference between the two? Yes. Physical activities are your daily actions, like walking to your neighbour’s house or the convenience store, commuting and getting off public transport, walking to your destination, doing household chores, etc. As long as you’re moving, you’re doing some form of physical activity. Exercise involves organised activities like swimming, yoga, running, and cycling. Both terms are interchangeable at times. Giving extra time for both will lower your blood pressure. To be consistent, look for physical activities and exercises that you enjoy doing.

How much exercise is enough? New Zealand, Australia, UK, and the US all share similar guidelines and recommendations regarding how much exercise you should be doing. For people aged 18 to 64, it’s recommended that you get at least 2.5 hours or 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity (or exercise) per week. However, if you consider yourself more advanced, reasonably fit, or well versed when exercising, you can increase the duration up to 5 hours or 300 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week.

Alternatively, you can try vigorous physical activities for at least 1.25 hours or 75 minutes per week. The health experts leave it up to you to distribute the number of hours or minutes per day as long as you meet the per week requirement. This allows some degree of flexibility in your schedule.

Refer to the table below for examples of physical activities under each specific intensity.

Intensity	Examples
Sedentary Behaviour	What you’re most probably doing now (reading this article), sitting, reclining, lying down, watching Netflix.
Light	Light housework, cooking, walking slowly
Moderate	Brisk walking, active yoga, recreational swimming, ballroom dancing, cycling, tramping
Vigorous	Running/jogging, singles tennis, swimming laps, cycling > 16 kilometres per hour
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Increasing your physical activity and exercising consistently can decrease your high blood pressure by up to 8 mm Hg. But, unfortunately, it goes back up if you stop exercising.

Lose the extra kilograms. A healthy diet and consistent exercising will aid in weight loss. Research studies have shown that you can lower your systolic and diastolic blood pressures by as much as 4 mm Hg and 3 mm Hg, respectively, if you drop down to your ideal weight range. Losing the extra kilograms is also of great benefit for other aspects of your life and other chronic medical conditions you may have.
Welcome the DASH diet into your life. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. Neat, huh? It mainly centres on consuming vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products and lessens or avoids eating foods high in cholesterol and saturated fat.
Additional tips on how to lower your blood pressure through dietary adjustments include:
1. Jotting down the food you eat in a food diary even on a weekly basis and meticulously reading food labels as part of the whole “smart food” shopping focus.
2. img src="https://return2.health/media/wysiwyg/blog/newimg/top-view-of-teaspoon-with-fine-sea-salt-67581779.jpg" alt="top-view-of-teaspoon-with-fine-sea-salt-67581779" width="300" height="142" class="alignright size-full ">Love potassium more than sodium. Potassium dampens the harmful effects of sodium in your body. Choose food sources of potassium over supplements. Before taking any potassium supplements, consult with your doctor first. You don’t need to hate sodium but limiting your intake of table salt eat less processed foods, and don’t add any more salt to the food you’re about to eat. Limiting your salt intake can lower your blood pressure by as much as 10 mm Hg.
3. Garlic can replace salt when preparing your meals. It improves the flavour, especially in soups and stir-fries. Several studies have documented its positive impact in decreasing both systolic and diastolic blood pressures. It acts by increasing your body’s ability to produce nitric oxide. Nitric oxide relaxes your blood vessels leading to a reduction in high blood pressure.
4. Kiwifruit. A research study published in the Journal of Blood Pressure (2015) found that eating three kiwifruits daily was associated with lower blood pressure when compared to one apple a day.
5. Coleus forskohlii is a herb widely used in Ayurvedic medicine. There’s mixed evidence as to whether extracts from this herb may actually help lower high blood pressure. Its claimed mechanism of action in reducing high blood pressure is through relaxation of blood vessels and anti-inflammatory properties.
6. Ginger, when ingested in larger quantities (> 2 grams a day), showed the most significant potential in preventing the development of high blood pressure and other chronic diseases (according to a study published in the Journal Of Nutrition 2017). Studies have likened its mechanism of decreasing high blood pressure to calcium channel blockers and ACE inhibitors, which are blood pressure medicines. Ginger is famous in complementary medicine and tremendously versatile and easy to include in your meals.
7. Green tea is known to sharpen thinking and improve mental alertness. Additionally, researchers from the University of Copenhagen and University of California, have discovered that the antioxidants present in green tea relax smooth muscles found in blood vessels. For a refreshing new flavour, add a few fresh mint leaves or go spicy by adding fresh ginger.
8. Cacao from cacao beans is the rawest form of chocolate you can consume directly. They can also be roasted and transformed into cocoa powder or made into chocolate. Fair warning, we’re talking about chocolate that’s closer to raw cacao and not Dairy Milk or that Kit Kat you're about to eat right now. Flavanols found in cacao were documented to promote relaxation in your blood vessels, improve cholesterol levels, and reduce blood pressure.
9. Nattokinase. This soybean-derived enzyme, primarily available in supplement form, is believed to benefit people with circulation problems and high blood pressure. It is extracted from a Japanese fermented food called natto. A study documented its ability to reduce high blood pressure among people with hypertension. The results suggested that nattokinase ingestion may lower high blood pressure. More studies are needed though, to solidify the findings.
  Please Note: If you have a bleeding disorder, are about to have surgery, or are taking blood thinners, DO NOT take nattokinase. Schedule a consultation with your doctor before taking this supplement.
10. Celery seeds. We all picture celery as a stalk (main stem) or stalks. What we may not know is that the seeds are also nutritious and delicious. Most of the time, celery seeds are used in cooking to add bitter flavour (as a spice). Celery seeds are also available in supplement form (capsule or extract). A pilot study that appeared in the Natural Medicine Journal, successfully documented the positive effect of celery seed extract among people with mild to moderate hypertension. Its diuretic effect was promising, but more thorough investigations are needed. Hopefully, in the future, we will be able to appreciate its blood pressure-lowering capabilities. You can have an early start and begin enjoying its other benefits. This time, eat the entire plant.
Factors that Elevate Your Blood Pressure

Minimise these factors or try to stay away from them as much as you can. However, you can observe that all these factors are modifiable, which means you can do something about them.
- Chewing or smoking tobacco damages the walls of your heart and blood vessels.
- Excessive alcohol use. Drinking too much alcohol damages your heart and blood vessels in the long run. Australia’s Heart Foundation also advises against drinking red wine to prevent cardiovascular disease. You shouldn’t drink more than ten standard alcoholic drinks per week and no more than four standard drinks on any given day. If you have high blood pressure, consider cutting out alcohol altogether.
- Everyone experiences stress, with extreme levels causing temporary increases in blood pressure. Unfortunately, many people tend to engage in unhealthy stress-related habits,like drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, staying up late, and eating more. These habits, of course, also increase your blood pressure.
- Being obese or overweight.
- Kidney disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases affect blood pressure. Schedule a visit with your doctor and make sure you follow up.
- Drinking more than four cups of coffee per day can increase your blood pressure. Energy drinks are also notorious for containing excessive amounts of caffeine.
Non-modifiable factors that increase your risk for high blood pressure include:
- Age. The older you get, the more likely you’re going to have high blood pressure.
- Family history. If your parents or blood relatives have hypertension, there’s a greater chance that you’ll have it too.
- Sex. Before the age of 64, males are more likely to develop hypertension. From 65 and older, it’s reversed. Women are more likely to develop hypertension.
- Race. In the US, African-Americans are more inclined to develop hypertension compared to other racial backgrounds.

Lowering your high blood pressure or preventing its development through natural means is possible. Identify the things you can modify, commit and stick to the things you can actively do on a daily basis and be consistent. The tips provided in this article are practical, straightforward, and may serve as your guide as you start your journey towards healthy blood pressure levels.