How Do I Decrease My Blood Pressure?

When you’re diagnosed with high blood pressure, the instant solution will be to make changes to your lifestyle to reduce your blood pressure. 

We all lead different lifestyles, so examining different aspects of how you live, will ensure you can do the best for you. Not everyone likes to add extra salt on their dinner, so you may not have to address reducing salt, but you will still need to keep a close eye on how much salt is in your ready-made processed meals.

Let’s take a look at lifestyle changes you may need to make to adjust your blood pressure.

Low Salt Diet

So, we already mentioned salt. Eating less salt can help significantly, because too much salt makes your body retain water which increases pressure. It may be challenging to reduce salt at first, but your tastebuds will quickly get used to it and you wont know what you’re missing!

As an adult, your intake of salt shouldn’t be more than 6g salt a day. Check the packaging on your produce you buy and opt for low salt if you can. 

Eat More Fruit & Vegetables

Avoid saturated fats and strive towards a low-fat healthy diet. Red meat and dairy contain a lot of saturated fats and the easiest way to eat healthy, is to incorporate more fruit and fibre. 

Exercise More

Maintaining a healthy weight means you won’t go overweight which could otherwise lead to your heart struggling to pump the blood around your body, thus raising blood pressure. 30 minutes of exercise a day can help increase your heart rate and do wonders for you.

Reduce Alcohol Intake

Or better still, avoid it altogether. Alcohol is proven to raise blood pressure and is high in calories. 

Stop Smoking

Nicotine raises blood pressure and narrows blood vessels too. Similarly to alcohol, cigarettes can mean your heart has to work harder to pump. 

Reduce Caffeine intake

Steer away from too much coffee and coke, and opt for more water to rule out caffeine being the contributor towards your high blood pressure.

Get To Bed On Time

Getting to bed early can make a difference. If you lack sleep then you may find it is the cause for high blood pressure. You should be aiming for 6 hours sleep each night. There are many apps out there that help you monitor your sleep patterns.     

Treating High Blood Pressure

At MyMedsUK, we stock treatments for high blood pressure, called beta-blockers.

Propranolol is effective in relaxing blood vessels and reducing the heart rate to decrease blood pressure. 

It is available in 10mg or 40mg.