Diet and Lifestyle Tips to Reduce Your Blood Pressure
High blood pressure is a major cause of premature death worldwide. Moreover, around half of patients with high blood pressure are unaware they have it (1). The good news is that if you know you have high blood pressure there are plenty of lifestyle adjustments you can make to treat it.
Diet
There are a lot of studies looking at the impact of diet on blood pressure. This is summarised well by the British Dietetic Association (2).
The first recommendation is a low salt diet- that is less than one teaspoon of salt per day. There have even been studies that show reducing your salt intake can lower blood pressure within weeks! If you are not sure where to start with finding out how much salt is in your diet to begin with, the website Action On Salt provides helpful hints and tips (3).
A well balanced diet rich in fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, oily fish and low-fat dairy products have also been shown to lower blood pressure (2).
Reducing Alcohol
Drinking alcohol increases blood pressure and repeated drinking causes sustained high blood pressure. To calculate whether or not you are drinking at harmful levels and for information on reducing your intake check out drinkaware.co.uk (4).
Keep a Healthy Weight
There is a strong link between high blood pressure and having excess weight. This is especially true if you carry weight around your waist.
Losing weight (even as little as 5-10% of your starting weight) will help. Slow and steady weight loss (about 1-2 lbs/0.5-1kg per week) is a healthy way to lose weight and gives you a better chance of keeping the weight off (2).
Move More
Incorporating more exercise into your daily routine will have benefits for lowering your blood pressure. The current recommendations advise adults exercising for around 30 minutes 5 times per week and for 2 of those sessions to be strength building. If this sounds overwhelming or you have other health conditions a good suggestion is to download the App called EXi iPrescribe Exercise. It is a NHS approved app, which provides a personalised 12 week physical activity plan with tailored support for people with long term health conditions. It is free to use, just add the code ‘moving’ when logging on (5).
Reducing Caffeine
Reducing your intake of tea, coffee and other caffeine containing drinks can have an impact on your blood pressure.
Reducing Stress Levels
There is a well known connection between stress and blood pressure levels. There are many techniques for reducing stress levels and you can discuss this with your healthcare professional if you feel this is a factor. The NHS page on stress management provides simple but effective tools to get you started (6).
References:
