How to Naturally Reverse High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure is a very common health issue: its estimated 48% of adults in the United States have high blood pressure and/or are taking a medication for hypertension.

Your blood pressure measurement is the amount of pressure pushing against your blood vessels (arteries and veins”) all day.

The average normal blood pressure is around 120 (systolic ) / 80 (diastolic) units in mmHg

The top number (systolic) represents the maximum pressure in your vessels when your heart pumps and the bottom number (diastolic) represents the lower pressure in your vessels when your heart relaxes.

Having high blood pressure increases your risk of heart attack, heart disease, stroke, kidney disease.

What are evidence-proven, natural ways to decrease your blood pressure?

  • Weight Loss

    11 lbs of weight loss was associated with an average blood pressure reduction of 2-4 mmHg

  • Low Salt Diet

    A low salt diet of 1500-2000mg of salt per day can be expected to lower your blood pressure about 2-5 mmHg

  • High Potassium Diet

    Higher potassium intake (around 3500-5000mg per day) has been associated with blood pressure lowering effect of 3-4.5 mmHg.
    Natural sources of potassium include fruits, leafy greens, beans, nuts, and certain starchy roots (such as potatoes and winter squash).

  • Physical Activity

    Aerobic exercises of at least 150 minutes per week (30 minutes x 5 days) has demonstrated to lower blood pressure by about 4-5 mmHg. Resistance exercises has been shown to decrease blood pressure by 3.5 mmHg and a combination of exercise by 6-6.5 mmHg.

  • Less Alcohol Intake

    Any reduction in intake can be beneficial. Moderate alcohol consumption is defined as less than 1 standard drink per day for women and less than 2 standard drinks for men.

  • Overall Diet Pattern

    DASH diet and Mediterranean diet has been studied in a prospective study of reducing blood pressure.

    DASH diet is HIGH in fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy; and LOW in saturated fat, total fat, cholesterol foods. People on a DASH diet compared to control group in 8 weeks were able to decrease their blood pressure by 5-7.3 mmHg.

    Mediterranean diet is HIGH in whole grains, vegetables, legumes, fish, olive oil, fruit, nuts seeds herbs. After 8 weeks on a Mediterranean diet compared to control group, people had lower blood pressure by 2.7 mmHg.

Reference: Carey RM, Moran AE, Whelton PK. Treatment of Hypertension: A Review. JAMA. 2022; 328(18):1849–1861. doi:10.1001/jama.2022.19590.

Link: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2798165

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