High Blood pressure: how to prevent or improve from a Dietetic point of view

 Here are some practical tips on how to improve and control better your blood pressure and specific food that can help with that 

If you were ever prescribed any blood pressure medication you might have heard from your Doctor that the very first step is to make changes in your lifestyle to even have a chance to avoid these medications

Instead if you are lucky enough to not take any blood pressure medication then the best thing is to prevent any risk with simple healthier choices 

Food that can help to improve your blood pressure thanks to their content of specific vitamins and minerals:

- Pisatchios, Chia seeds, Carrots, Celery, Broccoli, Nectarine, Oranges and Lemons 

- Food high in Potassium (like Banana, Pumpkin seeds)

- Food with a good amount of Fibre (like Legumes)

- Food High in antioxidants (like Berries

- Fish high in Omega 3 (like Salmon)

- Spices like: Saffron, Lemongrass, Ginseng, Cardamom, Ginger

Lifestyle changes to consider: 

- Think and Check when buying something:

As we said this many times is always important to chekc labels and in this case to check that the added salt among the ingredients is not too high and make sure that the amount of sodium in the labels is not marked as amber or red (depending on the country) or simply compare different brands of the same product to choose the lower in salt and sugar 

A low amount of Salt is:

Anything under 0.3 gr per 100 gr of the product\

Under 1.5 gr per 100 gr instead it's a Medium amount of Salt

A low amount of Sodium is:

Anything under 0.1 gr per 100 gr of the product 

Under 0.6 gr per 100 gr instead it's a Medium amount of Sodium 

- Smoking

Each cigarette increases your blood pressure immediately after having one so it's quite easy to understand how stop smoking can improve it among other benefits 

- Sodium Intake 

We have already discussed the salt intake and alternatives that can help to reduce the overall sodium in your diet, for more details here is the link for that post:

Salt, valid alternatives to use instead, to decrease your sodium intake and to still enhance the flavours of your food

- Managing better the stress

We can't always avoid the stress but understanding better your limits your expecations and your triggers will help a lot to reduce or avoid certain situations and that is not only for your blood pressure to improve but generally for your mental health as well

- Reducing weight and circumferences (body fat percentage) 

Keep in mind that if overweight or obese, the first step is to lose weight to improve different aspects including the blood pressure, feel free to browse in the previous posts to get more ideas on how to do that, you might be able to decrease your blood pressure of:

1 mm HG for each Kg you have lost 

Also here more links related to this topic: 

Importance of Fluid intake and alternatives to water, how to calculate your personal intake and how to reach the target

What is the LOW GI (Glycemic index) and how to achieve this and a handy food list to use