7 Simple Herbal Remedies for High Blood Pressure
Diet and Lifestyle Remedies
According to the American Heart Association (AHA), the normal blood
pressure reading is equal to 120/80 mmHg. If your blood pressure reads
more than 140/90 mmHg, you suffer from hypertension. Even before you
adopt any home remedy for high blood pressure, you must adopt certain
diet and lifestyle related habits to help medicines as well as home and
herbal remedies do their work properly.
- Exercise daily for about 30-60 minutes. If not
daily, do it for at least 3-4 days per week. If you have never been into
exercising, start with walking and gradually move on to other forms of
exercises. Consult your doctor regarding any exercise that you plan to
do. Exercising brings down your blood pressure readings by 4 to 9 mmHg.
- Forget Crash diets and follow DASH diet. Dash
meaning ‘Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension’ may lower your blood
pressure reading by upto 14 mmHg. This diet includes fruits, vegetables,
whole grains, nuts, low-fat dairy, lean meats, and fish. Along with
inclusion of such foods, you also have to stop having foods that are
high in saturated fats, trans fats, and cholesterol. These include
processed and fried foods, whole milk dairy products and fatty meats.
- This is very important. Lower your sodium intake.
This means that you should limit your salt intake drastically because
AHA says people with high blood pressure should only have less than 1500
mg of sodium per day. This is equal to only a little more than a ½
teaspoon! Not only you have to cook food with little salt but also avoid
sprinkling that table salt on your foods. Watch for processed foods as
well as those that come from restaurants, they have high amounts of
sodium.
- Quit smoking. If a single cigarette will raise your
blood pressure by 10+ mmHg for an hour, you will have your blood
pressure elevated for almost whole of the day if you smoke heavily.
- Drink alcohol but in limited quantity. Like an
apple, a glass of wine is perfect for your heart’s health but if you
drink more alcohol, you may aggravate your hypertension. AHA recommends
only two drinks for men and one for women per day. Don’t cross your
limits!
- Do not take stress. It’s easier said than done but
you have to do this. Do anything under the sun- exercise, breathe
deeply, meditate, talk to friends and family, take help of support
groups, anything- but just don’t let your problems give you tension
enough to raise your blood pressureNow off to some herbal remedies to lower your high blood pressure.
Amazing Herbs and Foods for High Blood Pressure
Here are some herbs and foods that you can easily find around
yourself, in kitchen or health stores. Many of them are already being
used by you for your cooking or in raw form. Just when you know that
these herbs can decrease your blood pressure, you can use them more
effectively.
Have Raw or Dried Garlic
When I say Allium sativum, you may not recognize it but as soon as I
say garlic, you immediately are convinced because you know that garlic
is an established good herb not only for hypertension but for many other
medical conditions like hay fever, herpes, sunburns, and of course
heart ailments like arteriosclerosis and cholesterol problems. The
component of garlic called allicin is behind its miracle for lowering
blood pressure. It is said to increase nitric oxide production which
results in smooth muscle relaxation and vasodilatation (the widening of
blood vessels) thus assisting in smooth blood flow.
Some of the researches, however, maintain that garlic used in cooking
may not be as beneficial as a dried garlic would be. When a raw garlic
is crushed or chewed, it produces the beneficial component allicin but
when you cook it, allicin gets destroyed. Therefore, many doctors
recommend having garlic pearls or tablets and even dried garlic in
prescribed doses rather than depending upon cooked garlic in your
dishes. While it seems a rather difficult task to eat a raw garlic, you
may easily dry them up and swallow these dried cloves of garlic with
water. It is said that 1.8 mg allicin per dose is required to have any
beneficial effect of garlic for lowering high blood pressure.
Make Fresh Celery Juice
Apium graveolens or the common celery and its seed extracts have been
found to lower high blood pressure significantly and that too without
any side effects which accompany high BP drugs that you take.
Traditional Chinese medicine use celery as it acts upon liver. One of
the types of hypertension is associated with liver too. There is a
compound called 3-n-butylphthalide (3nB) in celery seed extract which
not only lowers blood pressure but also give relief from arthritis. A
recent study conducted on humans has shown that a celery seeds extract
dosage of 150mg per day can significantly decrease both systolic (SBP)
and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) when compared to baseline
measurements.
Not only celery seed extract but celery juice too does wonders for high BP patients. To make celery juice for your hypertension,
You will need:
Equal amounts of
• Celery juice
• Honey
Directions:
• Mix celery juice and honey.
• Have one cup of this juice three times a day.
• Have three cups daily for a week.
You will see significant decrease in both systolic and diastolic BP.
You may reduce the amount of juice taken daily after a week. Celery
juice can also give you relief from dizziness, headache and shoulder
pain associated with hypertension. You just have to mix vinegar with
fresh celery juice to get this relief.
Have Wholegrain Oats Daily
Avena sativa or green oats can considerably control high BP due to
its dietary soluble fibers. Many researches have found that people who
eat oats regularly for at least 6-8 weeks substantially reduce their bad
cholesterol levels. Therefore, adding soluble fiber-rich whole oats in
your diet can not only reduce the risks of high blood pressure but can
also prevent it.
Have your Daily Dose of Flaxseed
Linum usitatissimum, commonly known as linseed or flaxseed may have
originated in Egypt but is available everywhere and used by many people
all over world to keep them healthy. The component of flaxseed,
α-linolenic acid belonging to the group of omega 3 fatty acids, is
beneficial for heart diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis,
and many other health problems. Flaxseed act as antioxidants. It
protects against cardiovascular disease by reducing serum cholesterol,
platelet aggregation, and inflammatory markers as well as by improving
glucose tolerance.
Have 15 to 50 gm of ground flaxseed daily to reduce your cholesterol
and low-density lipoproteins without changing the levels of
triglycerides or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (the good
cholesterol). Reducing bad cholesterol means opening up your arteries
and vessels to ensure smooth blood flow! You may do it easily by mixing
your ground flaxseed with salad, yogurt, curries, gravies etc.
Basil Beats Blood Pressure
Ocimum basilicum or the basil herb can be an effective remedy to
lower systolic, diastolic, and mean blood pressure. One of the studies
conducted at Xinjiang Medical University found that basil extract
reduced blood pressure in the similar way as its medication does. Basil
is said to work by affecting the levels of endothelins, the proteins
which constrict blood vessels. The effective dose for basil extract that
can lower BP is said to be 30 mg/kg. You can even use fresh basil
leaves to this effect. You can crush a few fresh leaves of basil and
have them first thing in the morning. If you can’t have them like this,
mix the juice taken from crushed leaves with water and have this water.
If you are using dried leaves, make a tea out of it by steeping the
leaves in hot water.
Have Tasty Pomegranate Juice
Lythraceae or Pomegranate can be your friend when it comes to
lowering high blood pressure. This tasty fruit drink also will not feel
like any medicine. Some researches have shown that pomegranate reduces
the activity of angiotensin converting enzymes considerably. While many
clinical research doesn’t support this finding but one of another
studies has shown modest reduction in systolic BP after having 50 ml
pomegranate juice per day for a whole year.
Add More Potassium to Your Diet
Although importance of DASH diet has already been mentioned above in
this article, I am laying more stress on having added potassium in your
diet. It helps in reducing your risk of high blood pressure. You should
consume at least 4,700 milligrams of potassium daily in order to attain
and maintain a healthy blood pressure. Almost all fruits, vegetables and
dairy products contain certain amount of potassium but some of the
foods have high content of this important nutrient. They include banana,
apricots, avocados, Brussels sprouts, dates, figs, kiwi fruit, orange
juice, pears, peanuts, prunes, raisins, spinach, tomatoes, winter
squash, and plain yogurt. Include them in your diet and lower your blood
pressure for good. Just don’t go for their processed or canned
varieties. As soon as you do that, you are adding more sodium to your
diet which is a complete no-no for a patient of hypertension.
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