5 Lifestyle Changes for Keeping Your Blood Pressure Down

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a symptomless condition that can damage your blood vessels and lead to other serious health problems like heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease. Around 33% of the United States population struggles with high blood pressure and less than half of them have it under control.

While there is no cure for high blood pressure, there are lifestyle changes you can make in order to lower your blood pressure levels, hopefully helping you to avoid having to take medications.

At HealthStone Primary Care Partners, our team is ready to offer some tips on what lifestyle changes to make in order to keep your blood pressure levels at a healthy level and reduce your risk of serious health complications. 

1. Eat a healthy diet

To lower your blood pressure, you can work towards eating a well-balanced diet. This includes limiting your salt and alcohol intake along with avoiding foods that are high in fat, cholesterol, and sugar. You want to try and eat a lot of whole grains, lean meats, poultry, fish, and nuts. 

Potassium has also shown to lower blood pressure levels, so try and eat a lot of foods that include this beneficial nutrient. Baked potatoes, bananas, milk, leafy vegetables, and beans are all great foods to eat that are rich in potassium.

2. Stay active

While exercising is a part of any healthy lifestyle, it’s especially important for those with high blood pressure. Exercising regularly can help to strengthen your heart and regulate those blood pressure levels. 

Try and find something you love to do, whether it’s walking, dancing, biking, or swimming, and aim to do that activity for 150 minutes a week.

3. Shed a few extra pounds

Losing even just a few pounds can start to significantly lower your blood pressure. Eating a healthy diet and staying active should help you to start to see your weight go down and hopefully your blood pressure levels with it.

Losing weight is especially important if you tend to carry extra weight around your midsection. If you’re a woman with a waist over 35 inches or a man with a waist over 40 inches, that could be what’s causing your blood pressure to be so high.

4. Reduce stress levels

We all deal with stress in our lives. Stress on its own can increase your blood pressure, and how you cope with stress can also cause high blood pressure. If you manage stress through unhealthy eating, smoking, or drinking alcohol, your blood pressure levels are going to suffer.

When you’re stressed, try meditation, yoga, and deep breathing. You can also try to take time to relax and do things you enjoy, whether it’s reading, gardening, listening to music, or spending time with people you love.

5. Get plenty of sleep

Getting enough high-quality sleep is very necessary for regulating healthy blood pressure levels. The definition of high-quality sleep includes falling asleep within 30 minutes, not waking up more than once, and falling right back asleep if you do. 

You should be getting about 7 hours of this high-quality sleep in order for it to be positively affecting your blood pressure.

If you struggle with high blood pressure and need help managing it through lifestyle changes, our team is ready and happy to help you come up with a treatment plan that works best for you. 

To schedule an appointment with our expert team, contact our office located in Hollywood, Florida by giving us a call at 954-466-0850 or by using our convenient online scheduling tool today.