When the blood pressure is too high, a perilous state for the body, called hypertension, can arise. Therefore, if your blood pressure monitor often exceeds 90 mmHg for the minimum pressure and 140 mmHg for the maximum, it is essential to know immediately how to lower high blood pressure.
The main causes of arterial hypertension are genetic predisposition, overweight, alcohol abuse, sedentary life, and an incorrect diet.
So if it is good always to consult a doctor when talking about certain health conditions, it is also true that you can take behaviors and foods beneficial to control hypertension.
Let’s see what to do in hypertension and lower high blood pressure, starting immediately with good habits.
Table of Contents
Proper nutrition
What to do at the table if we suffer from high blood pressure? How does the pressure drop? In the field of natural remedies, general advice and foods are particularly suitable for lowering it.
The recommended diet, in the case of hypertension, must be:
- Low-calorie, if we are overweight: it is essential to losing weight when you realize you are suffering from high blood pressure, as this is proportionate to body weight.
- Low sodium, or better without salt: salt, as the first sodium level within our body, is also the first enemy of hypertension. Therefore, we should immediately eliminate it from our diet: it should never be added to food; rather, we should replace it with lemon and spices.
- Rich in potassium and magnesium: these two minerals have the opposite effect on sodium, helping to bring down the pressure quickly and naturally, even immediately after a significant intake; legumes, dried fruit, and dark chocolates are foods you should never miss.
Along with good habits, there are also particularly recommended natural products, such as:
- Garlic, which dilates the arteries and prevents the formation of thrombi.
- Lemon and parsley, which have an excellent diuretic effect and favor the elimination of harmful substances.
- Chocolate, as it is rich in flavonoids, favors the dilation of the arteries.
- The beet should then be consumed every day, as the high nitrate content it contains promotes blood flow and thereby helps circulation.
Keeping fit
If we ask ourselves how the minimum pressure is lowered, the first answer to consider will be ” getting in shape “: losing weight if you are overweight, taking a correct diet, and immediately starting to practice physical activity constantly.
To decrease the pressure, you need aerobic sports, that is, all those endurance activities that require a non-explosive but constant effort, such as running, hiking, swimming. Obviously, if we are not really athletes and come from a rather sedentary life, it will be sufficient to start with long brisk walking.
Aerobic activities are essential at least 3 or 4 times a week. This will allow you to quickly lower blood pressure and benefit immediately from the other positive effects of physical activity.
We find movement affecting up to 10% of blood pressure values among the natural remedies and food.
Take a healthy lifestyle.
How to lower the pressure immediately, changing lifestyle? Needless to say, a healthy lifestyle is essential to guarantee good physical shape. So what to do? If our blood pressure monitor often exceeds the limits we have discussed, it is absolutely advisable to abandon habits such as smoking and excessive alcohol consumption immediately. It is also good not to exceed the intake of caffeine and licorice.
It is absolutely advisable to quit smoking, without exception, in high blood pressure. But, there are currents of thought regarding alcohol that claim both tout-court and medical opinions instead of moderate alcohol consumption.
In any case, all the habits that lead to fattening and weakening our circulatory system will increase blood pressure. To lower it. First of all, it is necessary to assume a correct lifestyle.
After that, before thinking about taking drugs, we have the opportunity to consider other natural remedies, such as the use of natural diuretics (pineapple, birch, horsetail, fennel, nettle, elderberry).
The use of drugs
What to do when nutrition and lifestyle are not enough? If natural products are not sufficient to check the values related to vasopressin, the doctor will help us keep them under control with drugs.
The drugs used to combat high blood pressure are:
- Diuretics: like certain fruits and some vegetables, diuretics are essential to lower the total volume of blood quickly, and thereby blood pressure, thanks to the elimination of water and liquids from our body.
- Calcium antagonists: by blocking and limiting the action of some substances naturally existing in the body, they allow you to keep the muscle fibers relaxed, including those of the blood vessels.
- Sympatholytics are alpha and beta-blockers; block some receptors of the sympathetic system, preventing excessive vasoconstriction.
- Vasodilators: by dilating the blood vessels, they promote the flow of blood.
- Inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin system: these drugs allow you to lower your blood pressure by acting directly on the system that regulates it, the renin-angiotensin system.
There are multiple medical classifications for each of the categories mentioned, which should verify with our doctor.
How to lower the pressure right away? Is there a trick to lower it immediately?
Non-pharmacological methods of lowering blood pressure take time: taking a correct lifestyle as much as weight loss are factors that will definitely affect blood pressure within a few months.
But are there methods that, if necessary, allow you to lower the pressure immediately and with immediate effect? The only one whose effectiveness is known, also accepted by the medical community, consists of carrying out relaxation exercises.
Stress and agitation greatly – and negatively – affect blood pressure, so a good way to immediately lower it is through meditation.
How to lower the pressure right away? If you do not have any knowledge of disciplines such as yoga or tai chi, which are very useful in learning meditation techniques, you can follow a general meditation scheme:
- Choose a word, a mantra, which brings back positive and relaxing sensations.
- Sit in a comfortable position, preferably with your back straight, and close your eyes, keeping the mantra in mind.
- Please focus on the muscles of your body, starting from those furthest from the head (starting from the feet to reach the muscles of the face), thinking of them as relaxed.
- Breathe deeply with the abdomen; the breaths must be slow and deep and better if accompanied by the chosen mantra’s repetition (at least mental).
There are no tricks that allow you to lower the pressure immediately, regardless of the clinical picture. If there is needed for drastic and immediate lowering, refer to the drugs.
If it is possible, a meditation session can temporarily drop the minimum pressure even considerably, reducing stress and negative or anxiety-provoking thoughts.
The battle against hypertension starts with prevention!
We have seen how to lower the minimum pressure by assuming a correct lifestyle: the right diet, good physical shape, constant physical activity over time, the abandonment of smoking, and alcohol.
If changing our lifestyle, immediately losing excess weight, and following all the precepts indicated in the short term is not enough, it will still be possible to control hypertension with medications’ help.
Hypertension is a serious risk factor regarding the onset of life-threatening cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes. Therefore, it is advisable to periodically check the pressure values by acquiring a pressure meter or going to the pharmacy, where the measurement is carried out in a few minutes.
Very often, when it comes to risk factors rather than real diseases, what is important is prevention in the first place.