How to really lower your blood pressure without medication?

[sai]

My doctor told me that he would need to prescribe me medication soon, if my average blood pressure over the day won't go under 135/85 (it's ~110/70 at night). I guess you can all imagine that I don't like the thought of taking medicine for the rest of my life to achieve a normal blood pressure since I'm just 26 years old. :hmm
Does anyone know of anything that really helps to lower the BP in the long term? I already run 2 times a week, drink 2-3 liters of water a day, don't smoke, eat fruits everyday at least twice and try to get a good amount of fat from nuts. All of the above didn't really seem to help so far.

 

[tcrusson]

I guess it depends on many factors including genetic predisposition to high BP, etc. But: I used to have consistently high BP, and don't anymore. Most of it was I think from work related stress and the associated imbalances it creates in day-to-day life. It may sound wanky, but it stopped after I started my regular yoga practice (we're talking about 4 times a week for 1.5-2.5 hours each time). It didn't happen overnight. What seems to work best is inversions (head stand, shoulder stand, supported halasana, etc.).

 

[Ms Mer]

I agree with the yoga practice. It has had a big impact on my stress levels, not to mention my physical health. It will also have a direct impact on your freediving and I've learnt things through yoga that I have directly applied in my freediving. Regular meditation is something else you could consider.

 

[hteas]

If you try yoga, make sure the instructor includes correct breathing as a part of each pose.Quite a fwew freedivers use it.

 

[Kars]

You also may consider cutting out gluten from your diet.

 

[sai]

I already made some changes to my lifestyle. Eating more vegetables, running 3 times a week and replaced some mineral water with tea (especially hibiscus). I don't know what exacly helped, but my average bp already went down a good bit.

 

[efattah]

Regular cardio definitely helps, the more you do, the lower your BP.

A diet of all raw plant food will greatly lower your BP (raw fruits, raw vegetables, nuts, oils, seeds), but this diet is very complicated and even dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.

Raw onions, and garlic prepared certain ways, can greatly lower BP.

Naturally formed nitrates from certain vegetables lower your BP. The most famous experiment is to drink 500ml of raw beet juice every day. This will significantly lower BP and proven in studies to do so.

Increasing the potassium in your diet can help. Dates are very high in potassium. I used to blend dates with coconut milk; the drink greatly reduced my BP, almost dangerously so.

 

[Kars]

I think Eric should write a book, describing all his experiments and discoveries!

 

[sai]

Raw onions, and garlic prepared certain ways, can greatly lower BP.

Naturally formed nitrates from certain vegetables lower your BP. The most famous experiment is to drink 500ml of raw beet juice every day. This will significantly lower BP and proven in studies to do so.

Increasing the potassium in your diet can help. Dates are very high in potassium. I used to blend dates with coconut milk; the drink greatly reduced my BP, almost dangerously so.

I'll try this out.
But how do you eat raw garlic without being terribly lonely for the rest of the day? :hungover

 

[giddyuptiger]

what's your height/weight? or BMI?

 

[martin366]

Thanks Eric!
But what beet ? Red ?

And whats the differences what you achived using beet, dates etc ?

 

[sai]

what's your height/weight? or BMI?

1.75m, 74kg. BMI around 24 I think.

 

[Mr. X]

Deep slow breathing will lower your blood pressure. My wife tells me off for using this technique to keep my BP down when visiting the doctor

I'd stay off the coconut milk, seem to recall an association with coronary heart disease in Marshall Islanders.

 

[sai]

Deep slow breathing will lower your blood pressure. My wife tells me off for using this technique to keep my BP down when visiting the doctor

Does the opposite for me. I think it's a psychological thing. :duh

 

[giddyuptiger]

1.75m, 74kg. BMI around 24 I think.

I ask because my dad had high blood pressure and cholesterol. I put him on a food plan, no exercise (he's a lazy *******)- and in 6 weeks he halved his cholesterol and his blood pressure went into a healthy weight range. But he drank too much and ate the wrong foods. He didn't eat take out but mama's cookin' was all wrong.

Note, his doctor said he'd never lower his cholesterol levels just goes to show.

Edit: I think it's rather funny that deeperblue edits B*st*rd.

 

[Mr. X]

Does the opposite for me. I think it's a psychological thing. :duh

Probably not doing it right. The doctor lent me a digital BP meter & it was pretty easy to see and reproduce the effect. I breath in through my nose and out through my mouth - the out breath is longer, even, slow and calm - imagine breathing on the flame of a candle about an arms length in front of you (meditation technique). Can be useful for suppressing nausea and pain too - perhaps working by distraction and calming.

 

[sai]

- perhaps working by distraction and calming.

That's probably the point why it isn't working for me. My mind's just too active and not that easy to distract. Same goes for other meditation techniques like autogenic training, my heart-rate rises in exercises that should lower it. :duh

 

[Bill McIntyre]

This maybe a bit of a derail, but yesterday I had a treadmill stress test. My resting heart rate is around 40 (apparently a holdover from the days when I ran marathons and rode bicycles a long way) and the cardiologist wanted to make sure it increased properly with exercise.

My blood pressure tends to be "high normal" and doctors haven't been concerned.

I'm 74, and using that standard formula of 220 minus age, my predicted max is 146. I hit 148 on the treadmill, so I guess that is good.

They were taking my blood pressure every minute, and while I don't know the numbers, the nurse said it was appropriate as the treadmill speed and incline increased. Then they continued to take it as I sat cooling down, and one time the nurse said the high number was 246, which was way too high. The next time they took it, she said it was what it should have been.

The doc wasn't present for the treadmill test, but they said he'll call me to talk about it in a day or two. I guess its his interpretation rather than that of the nurse who was running the test that counts. But meanwhile, I thought I'd ask for your opinions.

 

[hogphish]

I wouldn't be too concerned with an isolated elevation in your systolic pressure. Was it an automated BP or manual? The most important issue in the stress test in my opinion is any ischemic changes in your ECG during peak exertion. This is what the cardiologist will look at and send you a report.

 

[Mr. X]

Bill, those are just crude rules-of-thumb. A neighbor in Chicago took me mountain biking to small, fairly steep hill in a nearby field - "this is Heart Rate Hill" he said. I wasn't impressed. We both rode up it twice. At the top, he suggested that we take our pulses - he with a heart rate monitor, me by feeling the pulse in my neck for 6 or 10 seconds. We both consistently got readings over 220 bpm! So much for maximum heart rate of 220-age. It did cross my mind that it might be dangerous to have your heart running at this rate (a friend suggested that a human heart might only have so many beats in it!) but we really weren't pushing ourselves that hard, just consistently for a relatively short (< quarter of a mile), steep distance. But apparently this small steep hill had the same effect on everyone, hence the name.

Re. resting heart rate. A family friend in the US was very healthy but had chronically low resting heart rate (40 like you) & low blood pressure. The latter caused some concern to her GP so they tried to treat it but the treatment just made her unwell. As she was otherwise well they just decided to leave it alone. She was no Olympian. She looked a little stocky at first but it turns out she carried very little body fat - she asked me to check her bicep* and it was large and rock hard. She didn't exercise as such but was a keen and active gardener and a busy mother.

*She was the second woman to make this odd request. The first woman also had a bicep the size of large orange, despite her skinny frame, she also didn't exercise but her sister was an Olympian - "genetically gifted"?

My only real conclusion from the above is that "folk vary" as do their readings, unusual readings indicate a difference but don't necessarily indicate a problem.