Top 3 Tips To Lower Your Blood Pressure
What is high blood pressure?
If your blood pressure is too high, it can put extra strain on your heart and blood vessels. This is called high blood pressure, or hypertension. Over time it can lead to a number of health problems including heart attacks, stroke, kidney disease and some forms of dementia. However, the good news is that there are many things you can do to lower it.
What are the symptoms of high blood pressure?
More often than not you won’t notice that you have high blood pressure. That’s why it’s called the silent killer. The only way to find out if you have high blood pressure checked. I would recommend that you really understand what your blood pressure is doing with a 24 hour recording.
Occasionally, people with very high blood pressure have symptoms including:
- Headaches
- Change in vision
- Blood shot eyes
- Nausea or feeling generally unwell
What are the best ways to reduce blood pressure without medication?
Fortunately we have devised to sage advice to help lower your blood pressure. The three best ways to help lower your blood pressure are…
1. Sleep
The most important rule in my opinion is to sleep well. That nocturnal dip below is really important in resetting your blood pressure and decreasing the stress on your heart. If you’re not sleeping well, you need to ask yourself why (blog on sleep habits coming soon).
The nocturnal dip helps reset your blood pressure, allowing it to climb a little higher during the day. If, for example, you’re not sleeping well because of stress or alcohol you nocturnal dip could suffer.
2. Exercise
Exercise exercise exercise. Exercise is protective for so many reasons. It will lower your blood pressure, and improve cardiac function and contractility. It will also increase your insulin sensitivity and make you less prone to diabetes and other conditions that could affect your long term cardiovascular health. In addition, it will regulate your circadian rhythm, improve your mental health and ultimately help you sleep. It really is the elixir of health!
3. Meditate
Remember meditation comes in many forms, so you don’t necessarily need to reach a trance-like state, or even enlightenment to benefit from meditation. Sometimes all that you need to do is spend 10-15 minutes on your own in a quiet room. Spending some time following your thoughts will help. Trust me, you’ll feel better for it, and it’ll open your eyes to any stressful factors in your life that you may need to address.
