High Blood Pressure Natural Remedies...

My dictionary gives me 20+ different shades of meaning for the word natural. This meaning, “that which occurs without any artificial intervention”, fits our purpose here.

High Blood Pressure Natural Remedies:

1. Taking naturally occurring substances:
   • Potassium: This works. Expect an average reduction in systolic pressure of 4.4 mm Hg.

   • Calcium: This works but to a lesser extent, perhaps a third as much as potassium. Look for an average of 1.4 mm Hg.

   • Fish oil supplementation: As good as potassium. Expect about 4.5 mm Hg reduction in systolic pressure. Unpleasant side-effects for 1/3 of people.

   • Magnesium: Frequently touted as one of the high blood pressure natural remedies. Inadequate data provides no reason to believe it works. Small studies demonstrated mixed results.

2. Avoiding naturally occurring substances:
   • Salt (Sodium chloride) : Provides some of the best results in pressure reduction. Cut your salt by a little more than half and see a 6.8 mm Hg reduction in systolic.

   • Saturated fat: Eating vegetables and fruits and other preferred food in place of saturated fats reduces systolic by 5.5 mm Hg.Excellent.

   • Excess alcohol: Hold it down to 2 or 3 drinks a day and see a 2.6 mm Hg reduction. African-American men get twice as much benefit.

   • Caffeine and Nicotine: These substances have a transient effect on blood pressure and don’t contribute to a sustained elevation. Elimination of these does not affect average blood pressure. We all can think of reasons to quit smoking.

3. Lifestyle modifications:
   • Proper diet: Eating fruits, vegetables, nuts and low-fat dairy products lowers blood pressure by 5.5 mm Hg systolic and you don’t have to lose weight.

   • Exercise: My favorite. Expect at least 4 mm Hg reduction. Many other benefits as well.

   • Weight loss: 4.5 mm Hg systolic drop. Could be a lot more. Other benefits accrue not the least of which are “lookin’ good” and “feelin’ good”.

We will take up the subjects of other types of medicine on a different page, Lowering Blood Pressure Naturally Many are offered as high blood pressure natural remedies. They are just listed here:

1. Whole Medical Systems:
   • Western: Homeopathic medicine and naturopathic medicine.

   • Eastern: Chinese medicine and Ayurveda (Indian).

2. Mind-Body medicine (support groups, cognitive-behavioral therapy).

3. Biologically Based Practices (herbs, supplements, etc.).

4. Manipulative and Body Based Practices (Osteopathy,chiropractory, massage.)

5. Energy Medicine:
   • Biofield therapies, the bodies own “energy fields”.

   • Bioelectromagnetic-based therapies, uses actual magnetic fields.

Doctor’s Practical Guide:

Some of you may have observed that alcohol is not a naturally occurring substance. That’s true, it just seems like it. We’ll include it here because of it’s universal availability and it’s history. Yes, beer since the Neolithic Period (10,000 years BC) and wine since Egyptian times (2,000 years BC).

Just look at all those things that you can do for your blood pressure and indeed get many side benefits as well. They all cost practically nothing and the gain is excellent. Why not institute as many as you can and see what happens?

Even if you can't normalize your weight or completely change your diet or institute a full exercise program, etc., any little bit helps. In other words, do as much as you can of the ones that you can!

And let’s not forget one of the main principles of this website: Unless you have a solidly normal blood pressure under all circumstances you cannot really know what your blood pressure is unless you take it yourself. See this page that tells you How and Why: HowTo Take Blood Pressure

Now go on to this sister page on other kinds of natural medicine: Lowering Blood Pressure Naturally