Want To Lower Blood Pressure, Follow These Next Steps

Someone needs to lower blood pressure if their blood pressure exceeds 130/80 mmHg. There are several ways to reduce blood pressure, starting from living a healthy lifestyle, special diets, to taking drugs.

Normal blood pressure is around 120/80 mmHg or slightly lower. If a person's blood pressure is above this number, he is said to have increased blood pressure. If blood pressure rises to more than 130/80 mmHg, this condition is called high blood pressure or hypertension.

There are several things that can cause a person to experience high blood pressure, namely:

• Old age.
• Heredity factor, or have a biological family with a history of high blood pressure.
• It's rare to exercise, or overweight (obesity).
• Frequently eat unhealthy foods, including consuming lots of salt.
• Smoking or consuming alcohol.
• Often stressed.
• Certain diseases, such as diabetes, kidney disease, thyroid disorders, and sleep apnea.

By changing your lifestyle to be healthier, managing or lowering blood pressure is not impossible. But if hypertension is caused by an illness, then the disease needs to be treated first with a doctor.

How to Lower Blood Pressure

The following are a few easy steps to help lower blood pressure:

1. Reduce weight

Being overweight can make the heart work harder and cause hypertension. Therefore, cutting body weight is one effective way to control and reduce blood pressure.

If you have excess weight or obesity, it is recommended to lose weight to reach your ideal body weight.

2. Have a healthy diet

Eating healthy foods, such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products, and reducing your intake of saturated fats and cholesterol can help lower blood pressure.

Also, don't forget to eat foods that contain potassium, such as bananas, potatoes, oranges, carrots, grapes, and spinach. Potassium is one of the nutrients that can help reduce high blood pressure. The recommended potassium intake that needs to be fulfilled is around 4500-4700 mg per day.

3. Limit salt consumption

Sodium (sodium) is mostly contained in salt, both salt in cooking, snacks, canned food, and soft drinks. If the amount of sodium in the body is excessive, this can increase blood pressure.

Therefore, people with hypertension are advised to reduce their consumption of salt-containing foods or undergo a low-salt diet. Please note that adults are only recommended to consume sodium as much as 1500-2000 mg per day.

4. Exercise regularly

The recommended exercise to reduce blood pressure is exercise carried out for 30-60 minutes, 3-5 times a week. Exercise that is carried out regularly and consistently can reduce blood pressure by 5-8 mmHg.

How many examples of good exercise to reduce blood pressure are walking, jogging , cycling, gymnastics, and swimming.

5. Reduces stress

Prolonged or too frequent stress can increase the body's blood pressure. Yuk , control stress so that high blood pressure goes down. You can control it by doing relaxation, yoga, meditation, or activities that you like.

6. Stop smoking and consume alcohol

Both of these bad habits are one of the causes of high blood pressure which often occur. People who often smoke are said to be more at risk for complications of hypertension, such as heart disease and stroke.

So, let's stop smoking and consuming alcohol to reduce blood pressure.

7. Taking drugs

To reduce high blood pressure, antihypertensive drugs are often needed. Especially if the above methods do not succeed in lowering blood pressure after more than 6 months.

However, the use of this drug may not be arbitrary and must be prescribed by a doctor. The doctor will adjust the type and dose of the antihypertensive drug according to your age, your body's response to the drug, and other history of your illness.

Some types of antihypertensive drugs that can be used to reduce high blood pressure are:

• ACE-inhibitors, like captopril , lisinopril, and ramipril.
• Angiotensin-2 receptor blockers (ARB), such as candesartan, irbesartan, losartan, valsartan, and olmesartan.
• Diuretics, such as furosemide and hydrochlorothiazide .
• Calcium channel blockers, like amlodipine , felodipine , nifedipine , diltiazem, and verapamil.
• Beta-blockers or beta blockers , such as propranolol, atenolol, bisoprolol, and metoprolol.

If you have been diagnosed with hypertension, you need to regularly check blood pressure. You can do it yourself at home, using tensimeter.

By living a healthy lifestyle, you can reduce high blood pressure and avoid complications. Do not forget also to routinely check with your doctor, to monitor your health condition.

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