Success in lowering blood pressure - tell me how

Hit the cardio.

I am salt sensitive. If I have eaten too much salt my blood pressure goes up. Tracking salt was my original reason for tracking food. I found that keeping my salt intake below 1500 mg and my potassium intake above 2500 mg keeps my blood pressure in the normal range. I have taken my blood pressure and tracked it in relation to salt intake for over a year. Too much salt equals high blood pressure.

I want to do my part in avoiding a stroke. High blood pressure is a silent killer. I really recommend controlling it. If that requires taking mild prescription such as hydrocholorot until you can get the salt in your diet under control, it's worth it.

And to those of you who are not salt sensitive, I will admit to being envious! Enjoy and savor. Salt is one of my favorite flavor accents.

hey, there are always meds for that...... I'm on one right now....

High protein diets have shown to lower blood pressure.
Shoot for at least 30% of your calories to come from lean sources of protein and it will naturally go down.

I am salt sensitive. If I have eaten too much salt my blood pressure goes up. Tracking salt was my original reason for tracking food. I found that keeping my salt intake below 1500 mg and my potassium intake above 2500 mg keeps my blood pressure in the normal range. I have taken my blood pressure and tracked it in relation to salt intake for over a year. Too much salt equals high blood pressure.

I want to do my part in avoiding a stroke. High blood pressure is a silent killer. I really recommend controlling it. If that requires taking mild prescription such as hydrocholorot until you can get the salt in your diet under control, it's worth it.

And to those of you who are not salt sensitive, I will admit to being envious! Enjoy and savor. Salt is one of my favorite flavor accents.

I can out simple sugar and process food, watch my sodium snd meditate. Even though I still take meds, I will be cutting it out soon. Good luck!

You can try suggesting to your doctor that you'd like to try to lower it naturally for 6 months, and if that doesn't work, you'll start the meds. If you're just borderline high that shouldn't present too much of a danger--although I would home monitor over that time--and if you can't get it down in that amount of time, it's probably wise to go ahead and accept a low dosage pill.

Take care, and good luck!

I actually just found out today that I lowered mine--officially (I monitor at home, but I hadn't met with my doctor until today). I was prehypertensive/hypertensive (just right on the edge). They wanted me to take meds, but I just started tracking calories in mid-January and lost 30lbs since then. I also began walking and running three or four times a week, doing aerobic videos twice a week, and doing kettlebell circuit training three times a week. I tried to keep salt around 2500mg, but I didn't worry about that too much. I get between 100-140g of protein a day, I keep carbs under or as close to 100g as I can (because of PCOS and IR) and my caloric intake is so low I don't worry about fat at all.

I have half of my book due on Tuesday, so I'm pretty much at the height of stress right now--it's a pretty awesome change to have brought my BP down so significantly (from 130-140/90-100 to 110/80) with just diet and exercise alone and in such a short time. If you can't get outside to work out, I would just find some videos you like (Amazon Instant Video has awesome options that you can stream from your computer or digital video player). I bought my kettlebells on Amazon for a great price too (15lb, 25lb, 50lb with free shipping!)

Smaller changes I made at the same time were: taking B vitamins, D3, and cinnamon supplements.

Feel free to friend me if you like!

Set sodium to 2000 mg & potassium to 4000 mg. Have at least 5 servings of dark colored veggies daily (green, orange, etc). Have berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries) and/or citrus fruits daily. Do cardio 45 - 60 minutes 5 - 6 days a week. Ask the doc to check your vitamin d level. Consider taking... vitamins c, d, e, and calcium, as well as fish oil & flaxseed. Also, deep breathing several times a day. You should see significant improvement within 2 - 3 months. No one can force you to take the meds. It's your body. Explain to the doc that you're diligently working on controlling your bp through diet & exercise. Tell him/her the changes you've made and that you will comply if you're not satisfied with the results after 3 months. Once they see improvement, they'll lay off of you. Good luck.

I eat tons of veggies and a ridiculous amount of strawberries, so I'd definitely agree about including those to round out your diet, but I'd watch the calcium supplements. My father-in-law and cousin are both medical researchers and recently warned me about calcium supplements. I've cut out my calcium supplements since then.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120523200752.htm

"But when the analysis looked at vitamin/mineral supplements, it found that those who took calcium supplements regularly were 86% more likely to have a heart attack than those who didn't use any supplements."

I have no trouble hitting 80-100% of my calcium needs just through foods alone.

I'm not recommending that you delay starting B/P meds if that's what the doctor thinks you should do, ....but (having said that) I've been able to reduce the amount (dosage) I take by half, by dropping weight and watching my salt, etc. It CAN be done. Good luck

I am confused, you lost weight and your blood pressure went up???

Weight loss is probably one of the best things you can do for weight loss.

Thanks PU. I didn't spot she said it went up when she lost weight. Odd. Yes should be the opposite.

BP is a tricky thing and it is very dependent on nerves / anxiety, etc. Many people have white coat hypertension (high readings at doctors but normal at home). I can tell you from personal history of this for over 30 years that the more you worry about BP the higher it will go especially at doctor.

As you mentioned in previous post, I would get a monitor and check it at home and log it. This way you can really see what it is and also good to take to your doctor visits.

I went from being hypertensive to having normal blood pressure without medication. I did initially try meds but due to the side effects I ended up stopping them. I wouldn't advocate not taking BP meds if you need them but I felt like I could lower my blood pressure without them. I know at some point later in my life I might need them, but now isn't that time.

My BP used to be on on average 160/95, as high as 219/118, and never below 140/90.

By changing my diet, taking magnesium supplements and doing intense cardio for 45 minutes 3-4 times a week I was able to lower it to usually no higher than 120/80.

Turns out my BP was sodium sensitive if I was deficient in magnesium and potassium. Eating super low sodium alone was not helping much. Eating low sodium (under 1500mg/day...usually around 1200mg/day) and making sure my potassium was 2-3 times my sodium intake really helped, even more so if I had enough magnesium. I take magnesium glyconate every day to make sure I have enough magnesium.

The cardio also made a big difference. The magnesium, sodium and potassium only lowered my BP from hypertensive to pre-hypertensive (around 135/85). The cardio is what lowered it to normal.

This morning it was 114/69.