Contents:
- Medical Video: Acupressure : Acupressure & High Blood Pressure
- How to reduce high blood pressure is effective?
- 1. Maintain weight
- 2. Exercise
- 3. Reduce salt consumption
- 4. Eat healthy food
- 5. Stop smoking
- 6. Activity outdoors
- 7. Check your blood pressure regularly
- Other ways to reduce high blood pressure that you can try
- 1. Eat beetroot
- 2. Drink yogurt
- 3. Cook using spices
- 4. Snacking dark chocolate
- 5. Eat fish
- 6. Lift the load
- 7. Join a yoga class
- Try other types of exercise as a way to reduce high blood pressure
- What are the benefits of exercise for hypertension?
- Recommended types of exercise for hypertension
- How often should exercise be a way to reduce high blood pressure?
- Fasting can also be a way to reduce high blood pressure
- Tips if you want to fast to overcome high blood pressure
Medical Video: Acupressure : Acupressure & High Blood Pressure
Doing various tips and ways to reduce high blood pressure is arguably an easy matter. High blood pressure, or also called hypertension, is a chronic condition in which blood pressure in the arterial wall increases.
Hypertension can be caused by lifestyle factors, heredity (genetic), or both. Although it looks trivial, however, hypertension can be dangerous if left untreated because it can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, such as heart attacks and strokes.
To find out your blood pressure, the only way you can do it is measuring blood pressure.
If hypertension is caused by hereditary (genetic) factors, you should take certain drugs to reduce blood pressure. However, if hypertension is caused by an unhealthy lifestyle, you must change your lifestyle into a healthier lifestyle
How to reduce high blood pressure is effective?
High blood pressure or hypertension is a condition when a person's blood pressure reaches 140/90 mmHg. Normally, blood pressure in healthy people ranges from 90/60 mmHg to 120/80 mmHg. Here are some things you can do as a way to reduce high blood pressure:
1. Maintain weight
One way to reduce high blood pressure is to maintain an ideal body weight, meaning the weight you should have according to your height. Maintaining a healthy weight for your body type can help maintain your blood pressure. Therefore, throwing excess weight is very important as the success of how to reduce high blood pressure
2. Exercise
Exercising regularly, at least 30 minutes per day in a week, can be a slow but sure way to reduce high blood pressure. Why should it be done regularly? The reason is because if you stop exercising, your blood pressure will increase again.
If you have pre-hypertension, exercise can help you to prevent hypertension. Or, if you already have hypertension, exercising will help your blood pressure at a safe level.
The form of exercise that you might try to lower blood pressure is a way, jogging, cycling, swimming, or even dancing. American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) says that simple exercises such as walking or doing homework can reduce blood pressure. ACSM recommends a minimum of half of moderate physical activity hours five days a week.
By combining cardiovascular exercises (such as running or swimming) in your routine, it can improve circulation, increase lung capacity, and improve heart efficiency. This combination will reduce your blood pressure.
3. Reduce salt consumption
One of the causes of high blood pressure is excessive salt consumption. Therefore, to reduce blood pressure, you must reduce salt intake to less than about one teaspoon of salt per day can make a big difference in your blood pressure.
4. Eat healthy food
As part of how to reduce high blood pressure, try to eat foods that are rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products and cholesterol. Although changing your eating habits is not an easy thing to do, you can try to adopt a healthy diet like the following:
- Write a food diary. The goal is to monitor what and how much food you have eaten.
- Consider increasing potassium by consuming fruits and vegetables. Potassium can reduce the effect of sodium on blood pressure.
- Be a smart buyer, by reading food nutrition label when you shop, and stick to a plan to eat healthy food - even if you eat out.
5. Stop smoking
Apparently, every cigarette you consume can contribute to your increased blood pressure. Therefore, quitting smoking will help you reduce blood pressure.
6. Activity outdoors
Low levels of vitamin D in the body play a role in increasing blood pressure. In addition, according to a study, it was found that taking vitamin D supplements did not help increase blood pressure.
For that, one way you can do it is to move outdoors so that your skin is exposed to sunlight. Based on a study in 2014, it was found that when the skin is exposed to sunlight, the chemical reaction will cause blood vessels to dilate and blood pressure to decrease.
7. Check your blood pressure regularly
Check your blood pressureda routinely can be a way to reduce high blood pressure. Regular monitoring of blood pressure can help you make prevention efforts to avoid an increase in blood pressure or even hypertension.
Other ways to reduce high blood pressure that you can try
Reducing food portions, maintaining food intake, regular exercise, or just not effective enough as a way to lower blood pressure. You still need to make various other changes in your life, from choosing ingredients to the type of physical activity that can be done.
1. Eat beetroot
Beetroot is a fruit with a lot of nitrate content that can dilate blood vessels so that it lowers blood pressure, said Christine Rosenbloom, PhD, emerita professor at Georgia State University.
Eat beetroot or drink beet juice before exercise can help reduce the amount of oxygen needed by muscles to do their job. This means that your body's endurance can increase.
To eat beets, try packing the beets in aluminum foil and bake them in the oven at 200 ° C for 40 minutes or until smooth. Slice and season with olive oil and fresh thyme. If you want to try the liquid form, drink about 120ml of beet juice before exercising.
2. Drink yogurt
Not only to facilitate digestion, yogurt can also help reduce high blood pressure. Eating 180 ml of yogurt per day can help you keep blood pressure in a healthy range. Special proteins and good probiotic bacteria in yogurt are responsible for this benefit. In order to feel the benefits of yogurt more optimally, you can choose greek yogurt without flavor with no more than 2 percent fat content.
Yogurt can be served with a variety of dishes, to present flavorless yogurt greek, sprinkle with blueberries. Besides the sweetness of indulging the tongue, blueberries also have the effect of controlling blood pressure.
3. Cook using spices
If you have been accustomed to spice up dishes with salt or MSG, replace them with natural flavorings. Try herbs that have a strong taste like garlic, pepper, cinnamon, cumin, curry powder, ginger, paprika, and so on.
You can add your smoothie with cinnamon. Cinnamon can help control your blood pressure to remain stable.
4. Snacking dark chocolate
choose dark chocolate as your snack choice. Choose at least 60 percent cocoa and limit consumption by approximately 30 grams per day. Dark chocolate contains two times more antioxidant flavonoids than milk chocolate. This content is useful for maintaining heart health and improving blood flow by reducing tension. To make chocolate snack more healthy, try aadd unsweetened chocolate powder to your oatmeal breakfast.
5. Eat fish
Choose salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines or tuna. These fish have two omega-3 fats. Omega-3 can reduce the effects of inflammation that dilates blood vessels and lowers blood pressure. As a way to reduce high blood pressure, it's good for you eat these fish at least two to three times a week.
6. Lift the load
Too much fat in the abdomen can increase your risk of getting high blood pressure. As prevention, practice weightlifting will benefit you more than use treadmill. You can burn more than twice the fat by lifting weights rather than just doing cardio.
Strength training builds muscle will encourage metabolism, so it's easier to burn fat. Keep in mind, do not do cardio exercise at all because cardio exercise is still the best way to reduce excess weight.
7. Join a yoga class
Yes, yoga is a way to reduce high blood pressure which is quite effective. In just three months of doing yoga, you can achieve better blood pressure targets. Yoga can also control your cholesterol level and help you lose weight.
Try starting with class beginner yoga if you are worried that your body is not flexible enough to do a variety of harder yoga poses.
Try other types of exercise as a way to reduce high blood pressure
In addition to changing your healthy diet and taking medication, you should also balance it with regular exercise to control high blood pressure. For those of you who don't have hypertension though, exercise remains one of the keys to a lifestyle that can prevent the risk of this one disease. Moreover, risk high blood pressure (hypertension) can increase with age. So, what are the benefits of exercise for hypertension and what are the recommendations for safe activity choices?
What are the benefits of exercise for hypertension?
Exercise can improve heart fitness to pump blood without having to be forced to work hard. That is, the heart rate will be lower and regular. When the heart works more efficiently, the circulation of blood flow in and out of the heart will be more smooth. In the end, this can maintain the elasticity of blood vessels to reduce and stabilize blood pressure.
Not only that, regular exercise also helps you maintain a healthy weight, which is another way to control blood pressure.
Especially for people who have a history of hypertension, regular exercise can reduce the need to drink blood pressure medication. Because exercise can reduce systolic blood pressure from 4-9 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg), which is as good as the benefits of taking hypertension drugs.
Remember, to keep blood pressure under control, you need to exercise regularly. It takes about one to three months to exercise regularly so that it can have an impact on your blood pressure. These benefits will generally last as long as you continue to exercise regularly.
Recommended types of exercise for hypertension
Every sport is actually just as good for controlling high blood pressure, from aerobic exercise, cardio, flexibility training, to strength training like weightlifting. The good news is, you don't need to spend a lot of money and time on gym membership.
Just enter moderate intensity physical activity into your daily routine to be able to reap this benefit. Basically, any physical activity that increases your heart rate and breathing is considered a sport for good hypertension.
Examples of simple exercises that you can do to control blood pressure are:
- Go up and down the stairs
- On foot
- Jogging
- Cycling
- Swim
- Dance
How often should exercise be a way to reduce high blood pressure?
As a way to reduce high blood pressure, you are recommended to do moderate intensity exercise (such as brisk walking and swimming) for 150 minutes a week. Generally, you can exercise for at least 30 minutes every day, at least 3-5 days a week. If you choose a type of high-intensity exercise, for example running, do it about 75 minutes per week. This time you can distribute regularly every day.
In order for maximum exercise results for hypertension, you can combine both. So, try to do moderate intensity exercise interspersed with high intensity at least 30 minutes every day of the week. Well, so as not to forget, consider making a reminder on your cellphone.
In addition, if you sit more while working, try to try to move even just to stand or walk for a few hours. Because various studies have found that sitting too long can participate in many serious health conditions. Also take time to do your own household activities so that you are more active, such as cutting grass, sweeping, gardening, or mopping the floor.
Fasting can also be a way to reduce high blood pressure
In addition to eating healthy foods, doing various types of exercise and keeping the mind from being stressed, high blood pressure can be lowered by fasting, you know. Even though during fasting you will very likely experience a surge in blood pressure. Why does fasting make blood pressure rise? Because the metabolic process in the body runs slower so that the accumulation of fat occurs faster.
This makes the blood flow not smooth so that the body needs more pressure so that blood carrying oxygen can immediately reach the organs of the body. As a result, blood pressure increases.
Even so, according to a study published in the 2016 Journal of Hypertension, fasting can actually help lower blood pressure in mild to moderate hypertensive patients. When fasting, there are changes in diet and sleep patterns. This condition affects the sympathetic nervous system, the renin system, and the antidiuretic hormone which makes blood pressure decrease.
In addition, fasting also provides an opportunity for your body to take a break from foods that trigger high blood pressure and emotional problems. As a result, blood pressure tends to be stable during fasting.
Without realizing it, lack of fluids in the body can affect your blood pressure. Therefore, the best key to controlling high blood pressure during fasting is to increase drinking water during dawn and breaking fast.
Tips if you want to fast to overcome high blood pressure
Make sure to always meet your body fluids for at least eight glasses a day. This is useful to prevent dehydration during fasting which can develop the risk of hypertensive complications in the future.
Remember, you are not recommended to drink caffeinated drinks such as coffee, tea, or soft drinks. Because, caffeinated drinks are reported to increase blood pressure up to 10 mmHg.
