Key Points at a Glance
- It has long been known that high blood pressure poses a serious health risk.
- Heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular diseases are often caused by high blood pressure.
- People with high blood pressure must therefore see their doctor regularly.
- However, there are also a few things you can do on your own to lower these levels. Diet also plays a role in this.
One of the most widespread health problems of our time is definitely high blood pressure. It is caused by many factors, often a combination of several. These definitely include a lack of exercise, being overweight, nicotine and alcohol, too much salt, and high levels of stress—both at work and at home. On this page, you can read about what you can do—in addition to the measures prescribed by your doctor—to lower your blood pressure in the long term.
Blood pressure can (also) be lowered using natural remedies
Once again: High blood pressure is a dangerous condition; don’t take it lightly, and be sure to consult a doctor. What you read on this page are supportive measures that will usually only lower your blood pressure temporarily. As a rule, medication must do the bulk of the work. If you carefully read about the causes of high blood pressure—or where they might lie—it doesn’t take much imagination to figure out how to manage the condition.
A prolonged lack of physical activity usually becomes noticeable even before high blood pressure develops—for example, in one’s physique. For this reason, it’s quite important to check your weight regularly, as the rule of thumb is that a weight loss of four kilograms on average can lead to a reduction in blood pressure of about four mm Hg. An often poor or unbalanced diet contributes to the problem as well, but more on that below.
Stress, alcohol, and nicotine are factors that raise blood pressure
Stress, whether personal or work-related, can also cause blood pressure to rise. While it’s not always possible to avoid stress in our personal lives, at work we’re often the ones to blame if we don’t take breaks and don’t allow ourselves enough time to relax or get enough sleep.
It is now well known that neither alcohol nor nicotine has any positive effects whatsoever; we all know by now that high blood pressure is a direct consequence of their use. Even just one week without nicotine lowers blood pressure noticeably. As for alcohol, women should consume no more than 10 grams per day, and men no more than 20 grams (this refers to pure alcohol; half a liter contains roughly this amount).
How Food Affects Blood Pressure
Salt is very bad for your blood pressure. Every teaspoon of salt you cut out each day lowers your blood pressure by about four mm Hg. At the same time, there are foods that help lower blood pressure when you eat or drink them—such as beet juice. Half a liter a day lowers your systolic blood pressure by about five mm Hg for 24 hours.
Ginger, whether used as a cooking spice or steeped in hot water, also temporarily helps lower blood pressure. And there’s even something for those with a sweet tooth, since a quarter of a bar of dark chocolate also helps lower blood pressure for a little while—though the chocolate should have a cocoa content of at least 85 percent to achieve this effect.
