Effective and Natural Ways to Fight Hypertension

Besides trying to keep yourself at a healthy weight and being active, these natural remedies can help keep you hypertension under control and lower high blood pressure.

A lot of people have hypertension, and while most are older, young people can also have high blood pressure. If you want to fight hypertension, read on to learn about what foods to eat and habits to get into.

What is hypertension?

With each beat of your heart, it’s sending blood through your arteries. When the pressure of the pumping your heart does is higher than normal, we call it hypertension.

There are two numbers that play into whether your blood pressure is high:

• One is your systolic blood pressure, which is your blood pressure as your heart pumps blood.
• The other is your diastolic blood pressure, which is your blood pressure as your heart rests between each beat.

Normal blood pressure is between 120/80mm Hg. Now, the first number is your systolic and the second, your diastolic. In addition, hypertension generally doesn’t have symptoms, meaning a blood pressure gauge is the only trustworthy way to measure it.

The consequences of hypertension

You want your blood pressure to be within normal ranges. When it goes up, your body feels it. Risks include damage to your heart, kidneys, and brain. Some of these consequences can be life-threatening if your hypertension is chronic.

Causes of hypertension

Certain factors play into an increase in blood pressure. Some of them are very closely linked to bad habits that, fortunately, you can change and improve:

• Obesity
• Excessive alcohol consumption
• A diet high in sodium
• Taking certain medications, like contraceptives or flu medicine
• A sedentary lifestyle

In addition, genes play a role. According to some studies, hypertension is genetic. However, regardless of the cause, natural remedies and changing your habits can help you fight hypertension.

Natural ways to fight hypertension

Garlic

Garlic: the hypertension-fighting seasoning. Some people eat one clove of garlic a day and that’s all it takes. It can also be used as a seasoning in food. You could also look for capsules of powdered garlic at the store, if you don’t like how it tastes.

Olive oil

Olive oil does a lot of things for your body, and one of them is helping your circulatory system work properly. It has been shown that it helps lower bad cholesterol (LDL) levels. And olive oil is a natural source of monounsaturated fatty acids, which are great for your health.

Dark chocolate

The higher the percentage of cacao, the better chocolate is for you. And if you want to fight hypertension, we recommend at least 70% cacao, and no sugar added. That’s because cacao contains flavonoids, natural antioxidants that combat hypertension.

Oats

Oats are well-known for lowering levels of cholesterol in your blood. And high cholesterol is directly associated with high blood pressure. Oatmeal is great for breakfast, and when it comes to serious cases of hypertension or high cholesterol, you can also have it like this:

• Soak the oats overnight.
• The next morning, add milk or water and drink it.

Apples

Parsley lemon smoothie

Parsley is a powerful diuretic, and don’t forget that fluid retention can increase your blood pressure. Hence our recommendation of this parsley lemon smoothie to fight hypertension. It will also help remove sodium from your body via urine.

Ingredients

• 1 lemon
• 1 cup of water
• 2 tablespoons of parsley (30 g)

Instructions

• Cut the lemon, and without peeling, add it to a blender along with the cup of water and the parsley.
• Then process for a few minutes.
• To finish, strain and drink on an empty stomach.

Pineapple

The diuretic properties of pineapples make it one of the best choices when you want to fight hypertension.

• Pineapple is good in juice form as well as slices.
• We always recommend not adding sugar, since sugar can make you gain weight and this is precisely one risk factor for high blood pressure.