There are ways you can help control your blood pressure. By combining changes to lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise and smoking, with drugs and complementary therapies, even the most severely elevated blood pressure can be significantly reduced.

In milder cases, lifestyle changes alone could be enough to eliminate the problem. 

For people who feel they are at risk of developing hypertension, adopting a healthy diet and active lifestyle can be enough to prevent the condition ever presenting. 

Lifestyle

Diet, exercise, smoking, and stress all play a part in determining whether a person is at risk or not.  Simple changes to these areas can provide great benefits to those with established hypertension, as well as being effective in the prevention of its onset. 

Diet

Diet is a key contributor to the risk of increased high blood pressure.  With a careful diet, blood pressure can be significantly reduced.  Excessive weight also plays a part in the development of hypertension, and changing your your eating habits to reduce body weight can reap great benefits.

Exercise

Lack of physical activity increases the risk of developing hypertension.  Regular exercise, such as walking, will reduce the risk and benefit those who already have the condition.

Stress reduction

Stress leads to an immediate increase in blood pressure as part of the body's 'fight or flight' instincts.  Whether prolonged stress can cause high blood pressure is still under investigation.

Taking steps to reduce daily tension through the use of physical activity, complementary therapies and relaxation techniques will help to reduce pressure that can result from anxiety and stress.

Cutting down on alcohol

In most cases the advice for people with high blood pressure is to stay within the limits of 1 drink per day for females, 2 for males.

It appears that excessive alcohol consumption is likely to affect blood pressure in the long-term.  Therefore, people already at risk of developing hypertension should limit their intake. 

Giving up smoking

Although smoking does not itself cause hypertension, it can make it worse and increase the risks posed by it.

There is no safe limit to smoking; the advice in all cases is to stop.

Complementary medicine

This can often be used to reduce blood pressure, especially in combination with lifestyle changes and drug therapy.  It can improve general health and wellbeing, as well as reducing stress and aiding relaxation. 

It should not, however, replace therapy prescribed by a doctor, and it is important to remember that even herbal remedies can have side effects and contraindications.

• Relaxation techniques

Aromatherapy, floatation, yoga, acupuncture, reflexology, meditation, and massage all tend to lower blood pressure.  They work by relieving stress and tension, improving circulation, regulating the heart rhythm, and balancing the production of hormones and other substances.

• Herbal remedies

Plant extracts can have as powerful a medicinal effect as prescription drugs.  Many traditional drugs have been derived from plants, such as aspirin (willow tree) and the heart treatment digitalis (foxglove). 

Dandelion is useful in lowering blood pressure since it is a powerful diuretic.  Bugleweed and chrysanthemum also reduce blood pressure by vasodilation, and garlic reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease.

02/06/2009