digest
Intro
Today we're diving into a condition that 90% of you will develop at some point in your life, and that's hypertension. It's known as the silent killer, and for a good reason. So I'm going to tell you about 10 proven strategies that I recommend to all my patients to lower their blood pressure naturally, without medications.
To understand hypertension, you have to understand how blood circulates in our body. For blood to flow forward, it needs to push against the wall of your blood vessels at all times, just like water in a pipe. But as you can imagine, that pressure is constantly changing. When your heart contracts, your blood pressure rises to that top number, the systolic blood pressure. When your heart relaxes between beats, the blood pressure decreases to the lower number, called the diastolic blood pressure. But no matter the cause, high blood pressure over time is extremely damaging to your blood vessels. In fact, up to 50% of heart attacks and strokes are caused by hypertension.
So now let's dive into the top 10 ways that you can naturally lower your blood pressure.
Diet
As you can imagine, diet plays a big role in your blood pressure, and there's one particular diet that's proven to lower your blood pressure by an impressive five to six points: the DASH diet. It's basically what most people think of as a healthy diet: eat more whole foods and lean proteins, and eat less salt and processed foods.
One of the important recommendations on the DASH diet is to lower your sodium intake. I realize that sodium has become a bit of a controversial topic recently, but the scientific evidence is clear. If your blood pressure is high and you want to fix it naturally, you need to lower your sodium intake to a maximum of 2 grams per day.
Sodium
One common mistake I find my patients make when they're trying to focus on decreasing their salt intake is focusing on the salt shaker. Believe it or not, added salt only accounts for a small amount of people's salt intake. In reality, 80% of your salt intake comes from processed foods and eating out. Check out this healthy-looking Mediterranean bowl, honestly probably something I would order from a restaurant. That one dish has more sodium in it than you're supposed to eat in the entire day.
Let me give you a real-world example of how a modest decrease in sodium can have an unbelievable impact. A few decades ago in Finland, they passed laws requiring warning labels on high-salt foods and promotional labels on healthy low-sodium, high-potassium options. They made sure food still tasted really good. Even McDonald's was pressured into releasing a low-sodium hamburger. Researchers then looked at the impact these policies had on the health of the nation, and the results were astonishing. Over the next few decades, sodium intake dropped by 30%, and the average systolic blood pressure dropped by 10 points. But it gets even better: in the middle-aged population, death rates from heart attack and stroke decreased by 80%, and life expectancy went up by several years for both men and women.
Potassium
But it wasn't just sodium reduction that they focused on. They also promoted foods high in potassium. This is really important, because you can almost think of potassium as an antidote to sodium. Where sodium stiffens blood vessels, potassium relaxes them. Not only that, potassium helps your kidneys get rid of excess sodium by peeing it out. Studies have shown that by increasing the amount of potassium-rich foods you eat, like bananas, oranges, sweet potatoes, spinach, and beans, you can lower your blood pressure by as much as 5 to 7 points.
But be careful. Loading up on potassium isn't for everyone. If you have kidney problems, or if you take medications that cause you to retain potassium, this is not the strategy for you. So talk to your doctor before you make any drastic changes.
Exercise
Okay, now on to exercise. Up until recently, it seemed like cardio was the best way to lower your blood pressure, but emerging research is showing that other types of training may be even more effective. This meta-analysis from the BMJ in 2023 looked at 270 different trials to figure out which exercises were most effective at lowering blood pressure naturally. The clear winner was isometric exercises, things like wall squats or planks, which lowered the systolic blood pressure by up to eight points.
Now, if doing planks and wall sits sounds like fun to you, I'm so happy for you, that's awesome. But for the rest of us, keep in mind that this study also showed that any type of exercise you do will help lower your blood pressure. High intensity, low intensity, cardio, strength training: it all makes a difference. So find what works for you.
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Now, if you're following the DASH diet and you're exercising regularly, you're probably also going to lose some weight, which is great, because weight loss is another powerful tool.
Weight Loss
For every one kilogram, or approximately 2.2 pounds, of weight loss, your blood pressure should decrease by one point.
Alcohol
Alcohol is a bit of a sneaky one. It might make you feel a bit more relaxed, which is why people are often surprised to learn that it actually raises your blood pressure, especially if you're having more than two drinks per day.
Smoking
If you needed another reason not to smoke, it also has a really big impact on your blood pressure. Not only does nicotine increase your blood pressure, but smoking also damages the inner lining of your blood vessels, which causes them to stiffen and increases your blood pressure in the long term.
Sleep
Sleep is another important one. Less sleep increases the risk of high blood pressure. If you want to sleep more but have trouble falling asleep, I have a video where I walk through proven strategies to fall asleep quickly, and I'll leave that link up here. But some people can sleep the entire night and still feel exhausted the next day. This can be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea, a condition where your breathing starts and stops throughout the night, and it's actually one of the major causes of resistant hypertension. So if you're really tired during the day even after getting a good night's sleep, or if your partner tells you that you're sort of choking or gasping, or really loudly snoring at night, those would be reasons to see your doctor and talk about getting tested.
Stress
So what about stress? The answer is actually less straightforward than you might think. Intuitively, we all know that stress has a serious impact on our body, and it's true that acute stress can cause a brief elevation of your blood pressure. When it comes to chronic stress, the research isn't as clear, and it seems like the biggest issue is probably how we cope with that stress. Whether it's eating more unhealthy food, drinking more, or smoking more, all of that impacts our blood pressure. So taking a moment to be mindful and think about how you're going to manage stress in a healthy way is really important.
Pets
Okay, and I'm going to throw this one in just for fun. Studies have shown that pet owners, and particularly dog owners, tend to have lower blood pressure, and one small study showed that the effect of adopting a pet was even greater than a standard blood pressure medication.
What's the BEST blood pressure?
Okay, so let's say you're doing all of these things and your blood pressure is coming down nicely. What number are we actually aiming for, and can you go too low? The SPRINT trial aimed to answer this question. Researchers compared a target systolic blood pressure of 140 with 120 in a large group of adults who had high blood pressure and were at increased risk of heart disease. The results were groundbreaking. The group with the lower target had a 25% lower risk of heart attack and stroke, and a 27% lower risk of death from any cause, although the more intensive treatment did come with some trade-offs, like higher side-effect rates, things like dizziness and kidney issues. It's one of the reasons why some of the major guidelines have lowered their threshold for diagnosing hypertension from 140/90 down to 130/80.
Now, the goal of this video is not to overwhelm you. You don't have to make all of these changes at the same time. Sustainability is key, and adding in small changes over time can have a huge impact in the long run. So I challenge you to pick one thing on this list that you're going to implement, and leave a comment to let me know, as a way of committing to it.
Even if you do everything right, your blood pressure may still be elevated, and that's where medications can be very helpful. So if you've learned something valuable today, share this video with someone who might benefit from it. High blood pressure affects over a billion people worldwide, and together we can raise awareness and empower others to take control of their health. So, as always, stay curious, stay healthy, and I'll see you in the next video. Bye for now.