High Blood Pressure

I reduced mine enough to get off meds by doing exactly what your doctor recommends- lowered the sodium in my diet to under 2,000 a day, and exercising (walking is great). Sadly, I haven't gotten to the quit smoking part yet :-(

A 1 hour walk every day and losing 30 pounds got mine under control. Sodium hasn't been that much of a factor for me, I've found. I definitely recommend buying a good home BP monitor and checking it often to see what affects yours, good luck. Good to take care of it early before the bad stuff develops.

Potassium is supposed to help lower blood pressure, that's in potatoes, bananas, dates, apricots, salmon, mushrooms, yogurt, avocados, nuts.

Before I started my journey just four months ago my blood pressure stayed around 135/87, my doctor told me that I needed to change my diet or I would have to go on BP meds. I am happy to say that with a diet change, drinking a lot of water, and cardio three times a week I'm down 42 pounds total and my BP stays around 118/72.

HBP has been chasing me for a long time, I keep making lifestyle adjustments but truthfully there isn't much left to adjust and it's catching up. Have avoided the drugs that my mom had to start at around 30 years old but thinking they are on the horizon.

First - I have never been fat, always worked out at least a few times a week, don't smoke, don't drink much, don't eat a lot of bad foods, so there weren't a lot of lifestyle adjustments available to me, but:

In mid-30s it got high, I quit birth control pills, that lowered it right away but then I got two more kids

Then at 40 it crept back up, I started eating nuts and fish (was vegetarian before) that helped

Then it crept back up, I was having extreme stress and losing weight, interpersonal drama and violence, split with the man and found a new job too, this helped.

Then it crept back up, I started taking co-q10 and the running and yoga instead of jazzercise, this did help some.

New man and less stress in life, but again now it is high in the afternoons at work, every day. Legitimately high. Not at home and not when asleep and not in the mornings after running, it's low at those times. My job is not unusually stressful, so maybe it is from sitting down too long? I do not know. I do know that my body is VERY stress reactive, mental stress freaks it out more than just about anything else.

The supplements that have helped drop it a few points
CoQ10
Tribulus (this is sandspur, ridiculous, but it's a vasodilator)
Olive Leaf
Celery Seed

The ones that did nothing at all for me
Hawthorn
Magnesium
Pomegranate

The ones I am not sure about
Vitamin D
Ashwagandha

I worry about medication because mine is low in the mornings and evenings, it's only high in the late mornings and afternoons. Really feel kind of stuck.

I lowered mine with weight loss and exercise (just walking), no supplements (unless you count the occasional glass of low-sodium vegetable juice or red wine or bite of dark chocolate). I wasn't a smoker, and I already ate a decent amount of veggies and fruits, but I probably got a little more than I had been because I was paying closer attention.