High blood pressure is something that millions across the U.S. suffer from, but the good news is that high blood pressure can be manageable. While there’s plenty of medications out there designed to help lower your blood pressure, there are also a few steps you can take to lower it yourself naturally.
1. Lose a bit of weight. According to Harvard Health, losing a few extra pounds can go a long way towards lowering your blood pressure. You don’t even have to lose a lot of weight. Just losing an extra 10 pounds with something like the Dash diet can make a world of difference.
2. Lower your sodium intake. Almost everyone knows that salty foods lead to an increase in blood pressure, so make sure to read all food labels to make sure that you’re consuming as little sodium as possible.
3. Exercise. Exercise is not only essentially to maintaining a healthy weight, but it’ll also contribute to your health overall. Exercising strengthens your heart and muscles, and it even helps lower stress.
4. De-stress. Stress is another contributor to high blood pressure, so de-stressing is key to keep your blood pressure low. Calm yourself via exercise or participating in soothing activities that you enjoy like reading or swimming. Daily meditation and deep breathing sessions can help lower stress and thereby lowering blood pressure.
5. Limit alcohol consumption. Alcohol increases your blood pressure as well, so if you do drink, make sure that you do so moderately, drinking no more than one drink a day for women or two a day for men.
