How to lower blood pressure? The 5 keys to achieve it

Suffering from high blood pressure is a very common ailment. It is estimated that 1 in 4 people suffer from it. Surely you know someone who suffers from hypertension or maybe you yourself can know what it is to have too high blood pressure.

It is known that a healthy life prevents suffering from this type of cardiovascular ailment, but sometimes it is not so simple and even stress peaks They can give us problems by raising our blood pressure. In this article We will talk about the five keys to lower your blood pressure.

• Related article: "9 healthy snacks (very easy to prepare)"

What is blood pressure?

The increase in blood pressure or hypertension occurs when the blood, while it is passing through each of the blood vessels in our body, exerts too high a pressure on them. Explaining it in a graphic way, it is as if in a hose the water passes through. The water has less room to pass and goes faster.

This happens when blood pressure is equal to or above what is considered normal. In blood pressure readings they are usually given as two numbers. The top number is called the systolic blood pressure. The bottom number is called the diastolic blood pressure.

In this way, a figure of around 120 mm Hg for systolic blood pressure and 80 mm Hg for diastolic blood pressure is normal.

For our body, a certain change in pressure is healthy when performing some activities. The problem comes when the body cannot control the pressure peaks and it remains high for a longer time than necessary. In these cases, injuries to our organs can occur. The heart, kidneys, and brain are some of the worst offenders.

The 5 key issues to lower blood pressure

It is well known that people take drugs to control blood pressure, but we cannot leave our health to drugs alone. These have a helping effect, but cannot do all the work to lower blood pressure.

Next we are going to talk about the 5 most important issues to consider in order to have blood pressure under control. Most have a marked natural background, as they are based on promoting good habits. And if you still do not suffer from hypertension, do not hesitate to apply them anyway: there is no doubt that prevention is better than cure.

1. Feeding

The best known natural method to lower blood pressure and perhaps the most recommended and followed by those who suffer from the disease is control through diet.

Diet has a very high impact on blood pressure, so maintaining a healthy diet is the first objective of those who want to treat their hypertension. In general, it is necessary to avoid salt and all kinds of chemical additives such as sodium glutamate, as well as food products that contain added sugars.

Find quality protein sources as lean meat it is important, since maintaining a diet rather away from saturated fat is essential. Avoiding fried is also important. But it is trans fats that must be truly restricted, as they are characteristic of products processed by the food industry.

It is also advisable to increase your intake of soluble fiber. Foods like legumes, greens, vegetables, and whole grains are healthy food sources. Instead, it is important to avoid fast food establishments, where it is common to add sauces and saturated fat.

2. Be on the lookout for medication

There are medications that are used for other ailments, which have nothing to do with blood pressure, which have an increase in blood pressure as a side effect. These are the so-called side effects. Among them are some antipsychotics, contraceptive pills, drugs for migraine, corticosteroids and some medicines to treat cancer.

Therefore, it is highly recommended to stop taking these medications whenever it is a real possibility. For example, using birth control pills can be substituted for other contraceptive measures. In other cases, it is more important to keep taking the medicine to treat a more serious condition than a possible rise in blood pressure.

Likewise, it is important to note that of the more than 200 drugs sold to combat hypertension, many of them also bring notable undesirable side effects. If possible, it is better to look for alternatives to taking medications to lower blood pressure. Medicines are thus a remedy and an evil at the same time.

3. Avoid coffee

Exactly how caffeine works in relation to blood pressure spikes is unknown, but in many people it can cause a significant increase in blood pressure. There are people who drink coffee regularly who have a greater tolerance to the effect that caffeine causes in other people.

Caffeine is believed to be able to block certain substances that help keep blood vessels open. There is also the hypothesis that caffeine is related to increased adrenaline release from the adrenal glands, which increases blood pressure.

Be that as it may, it is better to be attentive to the effects that it can cause in the body of each one. Taking your blood pressure before and after drinking coffee is a good measure to understand the effect it can have on your own body. It is better to ration the amounts and avoid drinking coffee before exercising or doing heavy work.

4. Give up smoking

Anyone who wants to know how to lower blood pressure and is a smoker should know that the negative effect of tobacco on blood pressure is undeniable; tobacco causes increased blood pressure. When we smoke, nicotine increases the levels of substances called catecholamines, which cause vasoconstriction.

This contraction of the blood vessels causes the blood to have to travel through the same blood vessels but which have undergone a reduction in diameter, increasing blood pressure. In addition, cigarette smoke increases sodium retention, while other substances in cigarettes such as cadmium also promote blood pressure.

Related to the previous section, it is relevant to comment that it has been shown that combining the habit of smoking with that of drinking coffee intensifies the increase in blood pressure.

5. Practice meditation

There will be some people skeptical about the power of meditation to improve health and reverse disease patterns, but science is proving the value of this ancient practice. New scientific findings are showing that meditation can also lower blood pressure.

The mind plays an important role in physical health and disease reduction. That the mind exerts control over the intense intense flow of daily thoughts can be a new medical tool, which can be integrated into drug treatments and surgical.

Bibliographic references:

• Cañizares J. (1992). Hypertension: An always current topic. Hexagon. 1(2), 5-12.
• Doll, R., Peto, R., Wheatley, K., Gray, R. and Sutherland, I. (1994). Mortality in relation to smoking: 40 years' observations on male British doctors. BMJ, 309, 901-911.
• Evans, R. (1990). Risk factors for coronary ischemic heart disease. Rev Per Epidem;,: 25-34.
• Guemez, J., Alba, A., Argote, A., Méndez. R. and Moreno, L. (1992). Relationships between weight, age and blood pressure in the Mexican population. Arch Inst Cardiol Mex, 62, 171-177.
• Sánchez-Palacios P. (1998). Arterial hypertension. VI Report of the Joint National Committee of the National Institutes of Health of the United States of America. Innovartis, 25-50.