Reducing Blood Pressure Naturally

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Association claims that nearly one-third of Americans suffer from hypertension or high blood pressure. Blood vessels are like thin-walled hoses holding too much water pressure and become stretched and fragile. This intense pressure can also endanger other organs leading to heart and kidney failure, strokes, or blindness.

For those of you with blood pressure readings higher than the norm of 120/80 and lower than 140/90, you are considered prehypertensive. Any reading of 140/90 or higher is considered hypertensive and any physician will recommend medication in order to lower these readings.

If you are in the “prehypertensive” category, you still need to take steps to reduce your blood pressure so that it doesn’t continue climbing. The two best interventions to lower blood pressure is reducing body fat to less than 20 percent and a vigorous exercise program which includes three hours of cardio workout and two hours of resistance training per week.

Prehypertensives should reduce salt intake, restrict refined carbohydrates, and limit alcohol. Smoking should be avoided at all costs. Eating a diet rich in potassium found in bananas, nuts and figs and magnesium found in leafy green vegetables, seafood, whole grains and nuts are beneficial. A magnesium supplement of 300 to 500 mg is also beneficial. Eating cold-water fish such as salmon and sardines as both of these fish are rich in omega 3 fatty acids that help to reduce blood pressure. Combining fish with garlic helps the assimilation of the omega 3 fatty acids.

Another good whole food for a hypertensive to include in their diet is olive oil because it contains polyphenols that is a compound that helps reduce inflammation. Polyphenols also increase the production of nitric oxide that is a gaseous molecule that relaxes blood vessel walls.

Dr. Roundtree, an integrative physician who writes the “ask the doctor” column for Alternative Medicine also recommends taking olive leaf extract supplements as olive leaves contain oleuropein, a chemical shown to lower blood pressure. Olive leaf extract supplements usually come in 500 mg capsules. He recommends taking three to four a day. He also recommends taking L-arginine, an amino acid at 2 grams twice a day folic acid, a B-complex vitamin, at 1,000 mcg daily.

Drinking hibiscus tea also helps reduce blood pressure. A study published in Phytomedicine in 2004 revealed that patients suffering from mild to moderate hypertension were able to reduce their blood pressure by drinking 10 grams of hibiscus tea as effectively as taking captopril, a leading drug for hypertension.