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How to Lower Blood Pressure Naturally :)

How you can lower your blood pressure naturally – starting now

How to lower blood pressure naturally is becoming more important to more people.

lower blood pressure naturally Of course, there are plenty blood pressure-lowering medications you can take. However, the problem with taking blood pressure drugs is that not only do they have a lot of unpleasant side-effects, but once you start taking them you have to stay on them for life to keep your blood pressure down.

This is because high blood pressure medications don’t actually treat the cause of your high blood pressure, they just dampen the symptoms.

The advantage of lowering blood pressure naturally is that doing so addresses the causes of high blood pressure. This enables you to effectively bring your blood pressure down and keep it down – and without nasty side-effects.

You could say that to lower blood pressure naturally does have some side-effects but these are good ones. Being healthier, fitter, less stressed are side-effects you’re probably happy to have 🙂

So what’s the best way to lower blood pressure naturally?

How to lower blood pressure naturally

To lower blood pressure naturally, you need to deal with the causes of your high blood pressure. These vary from person to person and there’s some element of genetics involved. However, whether hypertension runs in your family or not, there’s plenty you can do to lower blood pressure naturally.

The three main (non-genetic) causes are: eating and drinking unhealthy things, not being fit and active enough, and experiencing frequent stress.

So to lower blood pressure naturally, you need to deal with these three causes. You can focus on eating and drinking things which help lower blood pressure. You can get more exercise and be more active generally. And you can spend some time relaxing and learning how to lower your stress levels.

Which of these is the best way to lower blood pressure naturally depends on your own individual make-up and lifestyle. You might be quite sure already which of the above factors could be affecting your blood pressure. However, for many of us, our high blood pressure results from a combination of factors.

As such, the best way to lower blood pressure naturally is often to take a broad-based approach and adjust all these aspects of your lifestyle: what you eat and drink, how active you are, and how stressed you are.

How to lower blood pressure naturally: 3 ways to start

To better explain how to lower blood pressure naturally, here are some specific examples to get you started.

1. Diet: eat more ‘real’ unprocessed foods

The main problem with diet for most of us is probably eating too many processed foods. I don’t just mean fast foods and take-out foods but also the plethora of ready-made goods sold in grocery stores and supermarkets.

These foods tend to be full of ingredients which contribute to raising blood pressure. Salt, so-called ‘bad’ cholesterol and trans fats are the ones which get the most bad press. But eating too many starchy foods based on refined grains – white flour etc. – can also cause high blood pressure. And scientists are now discovering that sugar is another serious culprit.

So in terms of how to lower blood pressure naturally through diet, the best thing you can do is stop eating these foods. It’s not just ready-made meals that are best avoided but also simpler ready-made foods. These include pasta sauces, condiments, pastries, cakes, processed meats, breakfast cereals. They often contain added sugar and salt – even the ones that aren’t obviously sweet or salt.

Instead, cook more of your meals from fresh ingredients. Eat plenty vegetables, fatty fish, beans and pulses. Snack on fruits, nuts and seeds. Some dairy is good too (rich in calcium for a start). And don’t worry about it being rich in fat because research is showing that low-fat diets aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

Start at the beginning

It might sound daunting to change your diet this way but you can start with just one thing at a time – and you can start with your breakfast. Many of us eat breakfast cereals in the morning and we might think they’re healthy, but most of them contain a lot of added sugar.

Instead, have a bowl of oats in the morning. In the winter go for hot steaming porridge (you can add nuts and seeds and fruits and spices) and in summer try a bowl of crunchy muesli (again, make it yourself if you can or look for versions that don’t have added sugar).

The advantage of oats is that they are good for your blood pressure – eating oats can actually lower your cholesterol levels and stabilize your blood sugar levels, as well as keeping you going for a good while.

2. Exercise: go for a walk

There are so many ways you can exercise and be active, but perhaps the simplest is to walk. Not only is walking easy to integrate into your everyday lifestyle (with a bit of imagination), but it’s also suited to all levels of fitness.

Try going for a short walk in the morning – even if just for ten or fifteen minutes. Walk as briskly as is comfortable for you. If you can, do the same again early evening, after your day at work. Walking is not only good for the heart and blood pressure but also helps work out stress and calm the mind.

Exercise releases ‘good mood’ chemicals in your brain so you’ll not only the physical benefits but also benefits for your mind. Which brings us to the third way to lower blood pressure naturally:

3. De-stress: do some slow breathing

If you have a high-stress lifestyle – or even if you don’t – it can be really helpful for lowering blood pressure to take some time out every day to focus on relaxing. As with exercise, there are many ways you can learn to relax – yoga and meditation are the classic methods. But even things as simple as listening to music can be relaxing.

One technique that’s becoming increasingly popular is slow breathing. In 2013, the American Heart Association reviewed studies of slow breathing and found that slow breathing can lower your blood pressure literally within minutes. It’s actually the fastest way to lower your blood pressure without medication.

To get the most benefit, you really need to breathe slowly for at least fifteen minutes. The studies found that doing slow breathing for fifteen minutes a day could not only lower your blood pressure while you were doing it, but also help lower your blood pressure generally – as long as you keep practising it regularly.

Setting aside quarter of an hour each day to breathe slowly can really help you relax and lower your blood pressure naturally. After all, what’s more natural than breathing?

How to lower blood pressure naturally – the easy way

Of course there are many more ways you can increase your activity. And many more ways you can reduce your stress levels and learn to relax more deeply. And there are many healthy things you can eat and drink in order to lower your blood pressure naturally.

However, to make it simple, we’ve put together a guide to lowering your blood pressure naturally.

The guide outlines proven strategies on how to lower your blood pressure and keep it low through easy, effective and enjoyable changes in lifestyle.

The guide is arranged into nine easy to follow steps. These steps are based on the principle that positive incremental change is always best in health matters. Each chapter will take you further along the road of greater vigour and peace of mind (and a healthy blood pressure).

Click on the link below for more information:

Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide

P.S. This guide shows you how to lower your blood pressure permanently and naturally without side-effects or complications. Follow each step to get your blood pressure back in balance.

Choose between a wide range of delicious foods that reduce your blood pressure. Include a number of mental and physical exercises in your schedule for both relaxation and invigoration.

This is a guide for good healthy living and will be beneficial for all – even if you don’t currently suffer from high blood pressure.

Hawthorn for lowering blood pressure

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Hawthorn for high blood pressure

Hawthorn for lowering blood pressure has become increasingly popular lately and for good reason – it works. But using Hawthorn for high blood pressure is no fad. It’s been a well-trusted cure for hundreds of years.

Hawthorn trees and Hawthorn tincture

Welsh Mountain Hawthorn

Hawthorn is one of the three sacred trees of the Irish and has always played a big role in Celtic folklore. As a symbol of protection a cutting was placed on doorways to ward off evil. Ribbons were also placed on the tree as decorations on May Day.

Although Hawthorn don’t grow very large they are tough and can live for up to 400 years. Today the Hawthorn is found clinging onto the mountainsides here in Wales and is often used as a hedgerow shrub.

Hawthorn for lowering blood pressure

The hawthorn berry has long been regarded as a ‘heart herb’. Tinctures and teas made from it has been used to relieve stress and strengthen the heart by the Druids.

Modern science backs these beliefs. Hawthorn has a mixture of phenols that strengthen the heart, lower cholesterol, reduce resistance in arteries, and lower blood pressure. It acts as a vasodilator – helping the arteries to relax and widen and let the blood flow more smoothly with less pressure.

One Iranian study showed a significant decrease in blood pressure over a three month period of using Hawthorn. The effects of Hawthorn build up over time if taken regularly. Hawthorn’s cardio-protective effect actually gets stronger over time.

Supplements containing hawthorn

If you want to use hawthorn for lowering blood pressure but don’t have access to hawthorn trees, or just prefer to take hawthorn in a pre-made preparation, you can buy supplements containing hawthorn.

You can get supplements containing only hawthorn extract, or you can get supplements with other blood pressure-lowering ingredients too, such as Alistrol. More details:

Hawthorn tablets:

Some natural health practitioners recommend hawthorn supplements of 100-250mg, taken three times a day. Some also recommend that hawthorn supplements contain at least 10% procyanidins (a key group of antioxidants).

Do-it-yourself hawthorn for lower blood pressure

Hawthorn (using the berries and flowers) can be taken as a tea or a tincture. I take it every morning – 25 to 30 drops of tincture in a glass of water. You can buy Hawthorn tincture at most good health food shops. Or you can make your own:

To make Hawthorn tincture pick the flowers in the May/early June and/or the berries in late September/October. Place the berries and/or flowers in a jar and fill the jar with a spirit of 50% to 60% volume alcohol.

Strong vodka is usually recommended but I have used moonshine with good results. Leave the mixture for 2 – 4 weeks out of direct sunlight. Then strain it and dispose of the solid stuff. Store the tincture in small dark bottles with a dropper for easy access and use.

Take 25 – 30 drops of Hawthorn tincture up to three times daily for cumulative and beneficial results and lower blood pressure.

If you have enough tincture left over from the year before, you can use it to extract the goodness from another picking of Hawtorn flowers and/or berries.

Consider Hawthorn a powerful ally in your quest for lowering blood pressure and restoring good health. Taken with a health diet and ample exercise and you should see your blood pressure come start to come down in no time at all.

Personally I prefer using just the Hawthorn berries to make the tincture as they are simpler to pick and use. It’s also easy to see when the mixture is ready to be strained. When the dark red berries have turned white, the heart tonic phenols are in the liquid, not the berry and it’s time to separate the two into tincture and compost.

Avoid leaving the berries too long in the alcohol. If you leave it too long (over 3 or 4 months) it will just turn into a mushy jelly unsuitable for use.

P.S. If you do make your own hawthorn tincture, don’t eat the berries while you’re picking as their seeds contain a substance which is turned into cyanide in the stomach….! If you really want to try the berries, make sure to spit out the seeds.

NOTE: Hawthorn can interact with some medications

Hawthorn is known to interact with some blood pressure and heart medications (including beta-blockers, calcium channel-blockers and digoxin). So talk to your doctor before starting to take hawthorn if you’re on prescription medications.

More herbs, foods, drinks, exercises, tips for lowering blood pressure

By the way, if you need to lower your blood pressure starting today, and want to accomplish it without taking medications it’s not as hard as you may think.

You can just follow the 9 steps in our new guide to get back to healthy blood pressure the way nature intended it.

Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally is a comprehensive guide to the many things you can do to lower your blood pressure, such as changing some of what you eat and drink, being more active, and learning to relax more deeply and deal with stress better.

The guide is laid out in a step-by-step format which you can take at your own pace, so that it’s easy to follow, fun to read – and it works.

Can Cayenne control hypertension?

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Cayenne, chilli pepper, call it what you will, but can Cayenne control hypertension? Well, not just on its own but it’s a good thing to include in your meals (and even drinks) if you’re on a general mission to lower your blood pressure.

How can Cayenne control hypertension?

Cayenne, a type of chilli pepper, is from the Capsicum family of vegetables, and has been used by Native Americans for over 9,000 years as both a
food and medicine. Cayenne, or chilli, has also featured in various Asian traditional medicine systems as a treatment for circulatory and digestive problems, amongst others.

Capsaicin is the ingredient which gives cayenne and other chilli peppers their hot and spicy taste and studies have found that it can help relieve pain and lower blood sugar levels.

Now, having low, or at least stable, blood sugar levels is really important if you want to get your blood pressure down. Sugar, especially added sugars, are probably more of an issue than salt when it comes to high blood pressure, but that’s a story for another post…

Studies with animals have suggested that cayenne can lower cholesterol levels and blood pressure though. So although obviously more research needs to be done on humans on the specific relationship between cayenne and blood pressure, it’s worth pointing out that Chinese researchers have noticed that areas of China where chilli peppers are used heavily in local cuisine have signficantly lower incidences of high blood pressure than areas which use little chilli.

How should I use Cayenne to lower my blood pressure?

As mentioned above, Capsaicin is the ingredient which gives Cayenne its helpful healing properties and all hot peppers (habanero, jalapeno) contain this, so you can use any of these.

Cayenne is handy though, as it’s easy to get in powdered form (get it from a good source if you can, organic where possible).

Of course you can add cayenne to stews and chillis and curries etc. But there are a few other ways you can take it too:

mix a little cayenne (up to a teaspoon) in warm water, add a little honey and/or lemon for flavour and extra antioxidants, and drink it carefully
add a dash of cayenne to an olive oil-based vinaigrette (put some apple cider vinegar and garlic in too for extra blood pressure benefits)
mix cayenne into cocoa and add hot water for a rich blood-pressure-lowering treat (cinnamon and cardamom are good for blood pressure too, as is quality cocoa, but avoid milk in this drink as it offsets the cocoa’s benefits)
cayenne is good in mulled wine if you’re having a winter warmer
make a raw tomato salsa with onions, tomato, garlic, hot chillies, lime, coriander – almost all of these ingredients are great for lowering blood pressure

But take care!

Chilli peppers can be very hot and can even burn your skin so take care when chopping up raw chilli peppers. Vinegar can help get it off your skin if it’s stinging. And DO NOT chop chillies and then put in/take out contact lenses (I speak from painful experience…)!
Please note: Cayenne may interact with ACE inhibitors and blood-thinning
medications so, if you take these, check with your doctor before increasing
your use of cayenne. Also check with your doctor if you’re diabetic, due to
cayenne’s effect on blood sugar.

Alright, hope that’s spiced up your day a little. At this time of year, chilli or cayenne is perfect to warm you up and get your metabolism going too, so let yourself get a little hot…

Lower blood pressure: for life

If you are serious about controlling your hypertension, then you’ll know that just adding a bit of cayenne here and there isn’t going to be enough (although every wee bit helps).

To lower your blood pressure in the long-term, there are a whole variety of ways you can adjust what you eat and drink and your lifestyle more generally – being active, being less stressed.

This might sound daunting, especially if you’re just starting out on this route to better health, but to help you out, we’ve put together a complete guide to lowering your blood pressure naturally.

There are a lot of guides out there with good information, and of course you can find plenty advice yourself on the internet. But it can be difficult to synthesize it all and make it work for you.

To solve this problem, our guide – Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – is laid out in 9 straightforward steps.

You just follow the advice for each step – take it a week at a time or a month at a time, whatever suits you – and you’ll be on your way to lower blood pressure and better health in general.

Not only is the guide easy to follow, but it’s also fun to follow, with lots of tasty food and drink suggestions, and useful tips and insights on lifestyle changes like getting more exercise, sleeping better, getting more relaxation time…. Lowering your blood pressure naturally doesn’t have to be hard!

For more information, to buy, or to get a free sample, click here:

Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide

Laughing and Blood Pressure – What’s Going On?

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Laughing and blood pressure – it’s a serious subject. Does laughing lower your blood pressure or raise it? This is no laughing matter for those with high blood pressure…

Funnily enough, laughing raises and lowers your blood pressure. Sounds like a bad joke? Read on.

What’s the relationship between laughing and blood pressure?

Basically, the relationship between laughing and blood pressure varies depending on how often you’re laughing.

Laughing briefly raises your blood pressure while you’re laughing. But if you laugh regularly – we’re talking deep belly laughs here, not polite chuckles – it can actually lower your blood pressure in general. In other words, regular laughing lowers blood pressure even when you’re not laughing.

Sounds funny? Well, several studies are now demonstrating the mental and physical benefits of laughing. A Japanese study of middle-aged men and women who attended regular sessions of laughter yoga experienced significant reductions in blood pressure. The laughing sessions lowered blood pressure immediately after a laughter session. And after doing a laughter session weekly for three months, their average blood pressure readings were lower too.

In other words, the effect of regular laughing seemed to persist for some time.

A similar effect was found in stressed Indian information technology-workers, with blood pressure drops of around 6 mm/Hg after just a few weeks of laughter sessions.

How does laughter lower blood pressure?

How laughter lowers blood pressure involves a few factors.

Firstly, laughing is excellent stress relief. And since stress is often at least a partial cause of many people’s high blood pressure, this is significant.

When you get stressed, your body release stress hormones like cortisol. Cortisol directly acts on the walls (the lining) of the blood vessels, causing them to contract. And the narrower your blood vessels, the greater the pressure of the blood against the vessel walls. Cortisol also makes the heart beat faster, further raising blood pressure.

So how does laughing lower blood pressure? Well it helps to counteract this physical response to stress.

According to the “Clown Doctors” of Australia’s Humour Foundation,

Laughter reduces the production of stress hormones, not only during the time of laughter but also for some time after. Laughter also works the muscles, leading to an initial rise in blood pressure followed by a more sustained drop. Blood vessels dilate and an increased amount of oxygen enters the circulation due to deeper breathing. The ‘heartier’ the laugh, the better – laughing 15-20 minutes a day is good for heart health.

Even just watching funny videos has been shown to decrease levels of cortisol (a stress hormone), raise endorphin levels (‘feel good hormones’), and improve blood flow in the arteries.

Researchers emphasise that the most benefits come from real hearty belly laughs lasting for a minute or so – a polite chuckle or two isn’t quite enough. Struggling to find enough humour in your daily life though? No worries. Here are some tried-and-tested ways to have a good laugh. Why not get the most out of the beneficial relationship of laughing and blood pressure?!

How to laugh more to lower your blood pressure

To start off, Dr Peter Spitzer (aka Dr Fruit-Loop), Medical Director of the Humour Foundation recommends the following ways to laugh more:

• Look for opportunities to introduce humour

• Watch comedy DVDs and shows

• Go to comedy clubs…or form your own

• Listen to comedy and laugh whilst driving

• Spend less time with overly serious people

• Spend more time playing

• Connect with funny people

• Visit toy and magic shops

• When all else fails, don’t take yourself too seriously; just take the opportunity to laugh at yourself and enjoy

• Tell your doctor you’re laughing more these days.

However, what if you’re finding even these suggestions difficult to follow? Or what if you’re able to find your life gently humorous, but are just needing more of those deep belly laughs. If this is the case, then laughter yoga may be just the thing.

Laughter yoga, laughter therapy and laughter clubs

You’re joking, right? Laughter yoga? Actually it’s no joke. And actually, it turns out you don’t even need to find something funny in order to start laughing.

‘Laughter yoga’ or ‘laughter therapy’ was developed by an Indian doctor, Madan Kataria, and works on the principle that the body can’t differentiate between fake and real laughter.

So if you force yourself to laugh, at some point your body takes over and you start laughing for real. The advantage of this is that you don’t need to feel happy or amused to initiate and benefit from a good belly laugh.

Laughter yoga combines body-triggered laughter with deep breathing, and the social contact of being in a group, to get people laughing deeply for extended periods. As well as being healthy, laughter yoga groups or clubs are a lot of fun.

There are now over six thousand laughter clubs (mostly free) in over sixty countries, proving laughter yoga is not something to be taken lightly…

Click here for some links to find (or start) a laughter club near you (scroll down to the “Have a laugh” section): Laughing resources

Beyond laughing and blood pressure – there’s more you can do…

Laughing of course is not the only way to lower your blood pressure, although it’s a damn fine start. By the way, that last link to laughing resources, above, contains information on relaxation techniques too. Whether or not you tend to be stressed or anxious, relaxing more deeply is a powerful aspect of lowering blood pressure.

As well as relaxing, there are a lot of other activities you can do to lower your blood pressure. And there are also many many things you can eat and drink which have beneficial blood pressure-reducing effects.

To find out about all of these, have a look at our book – Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide

It’s a comprehensive and easy-to-follow guide to lowering blood pressure the natural way – i.e., without pharmaceutical medications. (Although if you already take these, natural methods of lowering blood pressure can help you lower your blood pressure further.)

Each step leads you through a different set of things you can do to lower your blood pressure. You can just take each step at your own pace – one a week or one a month or more. And gradually bring your blood pressure down and keep it down.

This doesn’t have to involve undue suffering either. It’s not about denial but about introducing good foods, drinks, and enjoyable activities into your life, which will improve your general health and well-being too. You can still drink alcohol and you can eat more dark chocolate.

Laughing and blood pressure – references and more information

The Humour Foundation – Laughter Lowers Blood Pressure: https://www.humourfoundation.com.au/resources/seriously-funny-medicine/62-laughter-lowers-blood-pressure.html

Music and laughter and blood pressure – University of Maryland study:
https://umm.edu/news-and-events/news-releases/2008/joyful-music-may-promote-heart-health

Music and laughter and blood pressure – University of Osaka study:
https://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/news/20110325/music-and-laughter-may-help-lower-blood-pressure

Laughter and memory: https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/health/laughter-can-improve-short-term-memory/

Health benefits of laughing – Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/laughing-may-help-ease-blood-pressure-boost-mood-and-enrich-health-in-other-ways/2011/10/18/gIQAq8Y5CM_story.html

Laughing and pain thresholds: https://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2011/09/19/rspb.2011.1373

Effects of watching comedy videos versus depressing documentaries: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/151941.php

Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally: General Resources

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This webpage is a companion to the Introduction of our book:

Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide

The introduction discusses the main causes of high blood pressure and looks at how you can start to deal with these and reduce your blood pressure using natural methods. The introduction is also a reminder of the importance of understanding your own body, and taking control of your path to better health!

Click here for more information on the book: Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally

Learn about high blood pressure and how to lower it naturally

Learn About High Blood Pressure

Understanding high blood pressure is a good start. These websites give a good overview of high blood pressure, its risk factors and causes:

Hypertension – Health Library (ACLS) – very comprehensive article on high blood pressure

High Blood Pressure – US National Institutes for Health

Health News and Information

These websites are reliable sources of news and research relating to health, diet, conventional and alternative medications and remedies:

Natural News – Reference Base

Natural, Alternative and Complementary Remedies and Supplements and Nutrition

These websites focus specifically on alternative remedies and nutritional medicine:

The Food Medic – bridging the gap between medicine and nutrition

Dr Sarah Brewer – Nutrional Medicine – foods, herbs and supplements

Healthy Eating for Lower Blood Pressure

Various national and governmental bodies have helpful websites with tips on healthy eating. These are mostly for general health, so some of their guidelines may differ slightly from recommendations in this guide, which is geared towards eating for lower blood pressure specifically.

Harvard Medical School has resources on nutrition, which are well-researched and which sometimes differ from the US governmental dietary advice.

Harvard Medical School – Nutrition Source

Cooking and Recipes

The Internet can be a confusing source of health information but an amazing source of recipes. If you want to figure out a make a healthier version of one of your favourite not-so-healthy foods, just search online: “healthy xxx recipe” etc.

Buying healthy foods

Groceries and supermarkets are getting better at stocking healthier foods, although local health food stores often have a better range. Buying online can be useful for specific products and supplements that might be harder to get.

(You’ll find links for specific products on the resource page for the Step in which they’re mentioned.)

Healthy Heart Market

Specific Nutrient Information

For more detailed information on specific nutrients:

US National Institutes for Health – Dietary Supplement Fact Sheets

Healthaliciousness – Nutrient Ranking Tool

Send us your ideas and suggestions

If there are other websites, resources or products you’ve found useful and you think would be useful to others, please email them to us and we’ll include them: simon [at] highbloodpressurebegone.com

NOTE: This page is designed to be a companion page to the Introduction of our guide, ‘Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally’. As such, it only contains supplementary resources rather than being a full discussion of the ins and outs of high blood pressure.

To learn about high blood pressure and how to lower it naturally, you can further browse this website or, of course, buy the guide..!

Click here for details: Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide

Sugar and High Blood Pressure

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sugar and high blood pressure You might have seen the headlines in the papers a week or so ago: “quickest way to lower blood pressure”, shouts the Daily Express (UK) and so on.

So what’s the secret? Well, it’s simple. It’s sugar.

Or rather it’s avoiding sugar that’s key to lowering your blood pressure – at least if you’re getting too much sugar which most of us are.

Sugar and high blood pressure: the evidence

Since when has there been a link between sugar and high blood pressure? you might ask. Surely salt’s the one to cut down on. Well, many studies are now showing that sugar is far worse for your blood pressure – and pretty much every other aspect of your health – than salt. Which is not to say don’t be careful with salt but be very very careful with sugar.

Easier said than done though, but we’ll come to that shortly. First of all, what’s the evidence relating to sugar and high blood pressure?

The study that recent newspaper headlines (including the one picture above) have been reporting was conducted in San Francisco on obese children. 43 obese kids with high blood pressure were put on a different diet which contained much less sugar but the same amount overall of calories, fat, protein, and carbohydrates (sugar was replaced with starch products).

The researchers found that the kids’ blood pressure dropped, their weight dropped, their cholesterol levels dropped, their blood sugar levels dropped; in fact all kinds of unhealthy ‘levels’ fell – in just nine days – !

This is quite stunning stuff. Not only for the size of the results (blood pressure dropped on average by 5 points, comparable with the effects of blood pressure medications) but for the speed at which they occurred; and for the fact that this proves that it’s the reduction in sugar itself which was responsible.

Why is there a link between sugar and high blood pressure?

Up until now, we’ve tended to think that sugar can be bad for our health and blood pressure because it’s high-calorie and therefore can lead to weight gain, which is known to be bad for blood pressure.

However, scientists have lately been unpicking the effects of sugar and discovering that sugar is the problem directly – not indirectly via weight gain.

““This study definitively shows that sugar is metabolically harmful not because of its calories or its effects on weight; rather sugar is metabolically harmful because it’s sugar,” said lead author Robert Lustig, MD, at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco.

It’s not just that one study though. Many studies have now found a significant association between sugar and high blood pressure – the more sugar you have, the higher your blood pressure.

Scientists now think that sugar can cause an increase in heart rate and blood vessel constriction, increasing blood pressure. Too much sugar in your system also leads to a condition called ‘insulin resistance’ which – through various processes – increases blood pressure (and which often also develops into type 2 diabetes).

Recent research also indicates that high sugar consumption does more to increase bad cholesterol levels (and reduce good cholesterol) than saturated fats! So there are many, many reasons to seriously reduce the amount of sugar you’re getting.

How to reduce sugar and high blood pressure

hidden sugar and high blood pressure So what to do about it? You don’t have to cut out sugar completely. As with salt, this is an issue of scale and amount. Our bodies need some sugar – our cells basically run on it – but almost all of us are getting too much, more than our bodies can healthily process.

The reason is that most of the sugar most of us consume is ‘hidden’ – added as a preservative or flavour enhancer to almost all the processed food we buy, which means we’re eating and drinking far more sugar than we realise.

Even if you don’t actually eat a lot of sweet things you might be surprised by how much sugar your diet contains.

Even so-called healthy products may contain added sugar, e.g., some yoghurts, most breakfast cereals, many sauces and dressings.

Added sugar is also often found in low-fat products, for example, low-fat mayonnaise usually contains hefty amounts of added sugar.

(The healthiness of a low-fat diet is in doubt now anyway – see this post for details – but what’s now very clear is that it’s far more important to reduce sugar than to reduce fat.)

As a result, it’s not so much the sugar you might add to your tea or coffee that’s bumping up your sugar intake – although you’d be wise to cut that down – but the sugar you’re getting without realising.

Coincidentally, it’s also these added sugars which are the worst for you, such as added fructose (including ‘high fructose corn syrup’). Natural sugars, such as those found in fruit, don’t have nearly such bad effects.

Tips on cutting down on sugar

First of all, if you’re finding it hard to eat less sugar-containing foods, don’t give up. Studies show that whatever reductions you make will make a difference to your blood pressure and your health in general.

And don’t give yourself a hard time either. Sugar has been found to be more addictive than cocaine in rats and probably in humans too (watch out for those white crystals!) so it’s okay if you need to ‘come off it’ gradually.

To avoid sugar in processed food, you have to read the labels, and even then it’s not always easy to spot added sugar as it goes by many different names. One clue is that many of them end in ‘ose’ (glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, etc.), and anything calling itself ‘syrup’ is sugar.

However, the simplest way is to eat less processed food altogether and make more of your meals from scratch with fresh ingredients as far as possible.

Think about what you drink too. One thing you should absolutely avoid is soft drinks and sodas – they contain huge amounts of the worst added sugar of all and are exceptionally bad for your blood pressure and general health.

Don’t bother with ‘low-sugar’ / ‘no-sugar’ substitutes either as many of these are really bad for you (aspartame is linked with cancer, for example). Instead, if you really need some sweetness, go for naturally sweet foods – honey, maple syrup, blackstrap molasses, fruit and dried fruit. They contain other nutrients which balance the effects of the sugar so are less harmful.

One other thing – exercise

One other thing to keep in mind is that getting too much sugar is not just an issue of diet, It’s also an issue of lifestyle because, however much sugar we eat, if we’re not exercising enough to use it up effectively then it’s still ‘too much’ for our body.

Exercise is hugely beneficial for lowering blood pressure anyway – so do yourself a favour and get moving more.

Sugar and high blood pressure: conclusion

There’s a lot more I could say about sugar and high blood pressure, including a lot more tips on how to reduce the amount of added sugars you’re getting and how to make your favourite foods and drinks with less sugar.

If you want to know more, then have a look at our book: Lowering Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide.

It is – as the title suggests – a nine-step guide to lowering your blood pressure naturally. Each step looks at different aspects of your lifestyle: what you eat and drink, how active you are, and your habits and tendencies to do with stress and relaxation.

Step 8 looks in detail at sugar and high blood pressure. However, there are many things you can do to help lower your blood pressure without resorting to blood pressure-lowering medications.

For example, there are different ways you can exercise without ever going to a gym or aerobics class, there are different ways you can change your daily routine to make your life more relaxing and less stressed, and there are a huge variety of good, tasty foods and drinks you can indulge in for super health benefits.

Lowering your blood pressure doesn’t have to be about denial. It can be about genuinely improving your life to better suit you, and our step-by-step guide enjoyably leads you through the process.

Click here for more details (and for a free sample chapter): Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally.

Image credits: Mike Mozart, Steve Rotman, tomates and friends, Tharrin, yaybiscuits123 on Flickr.com

Some references:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/wellbeing/diet/9160114/The-bitter-truth-about-sugar.html
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/286795.php
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/615097/sugar-calories-research-health
https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2015/10/136676/obese-childrens-health-rapidly-improves-sugar-reduction-unrelated-calories
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/02/25/sugar-blood-pressure.aspx

Does CBD Oil Lower Blood Pressure?

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Does CBD Oil Lower Blood Pressure? is a guest post: This article by Madeleine Taylor is originally published at SundayScaries.

does CBD oil lower blood pressure (it's relaxing)

High blood pressure is a serious condition that currently affects thousands of adults in America. Statistics show that 33% of adults who are above the age of 20 struggle with high blood pressure and that figure reaches a whopping 66% for those in their mid-60 and over. It goes without saying that high blood pressure is becoming a nasty rising trend, which is only going to worsen if changes to the system aren’t made. While there is already a substantial amount of research into hypertension, a succinct cure is yet to be found. And, thanks to the rise of natural medicines, including medical marijuana, many people now suspect that cannabis-based products could provide the answers we have been looking for with regards to lowering blood pressure in modern society.

Hypertension doesn’t immediately strike us as a fatal condition when you compare it to aggressive illnesses like cancer of epilepsy. However, high blood pressure has been coined as a silent killer in the medical industry, based on the reality that hypertension is often not accompanied by any warning symptoms. This dreaded condition will put you at a higher risk of having a heart attack, heart failure, strokes, and even kidney disease. It is a condition that must be taken seriously in order to avoid its fatal repercussions.

What Are the Symptoms of Hypertension?

While there are some medical conditions in existence that can be diagnosed at home, high blood pressure is not one of them. It is virtually impossible to tell if your blood pressure is too high without experiencing other negative symptoms and by that point, it could be too late. You should always schedule regular check-ups with your physician to monitor blood pressure and you should make an appointment at your local medical center as soon as possible if you start noticing any of the following symptoms:

A more severe headache than normal
Feeling permanently tired
Problems with your vision
An irregular heartbeat
Difficulty breathing

How Can CBD help?

The big question is: “Does CBD oil lower blood pressure?” CBD is a natural that is relatively new to the mainstream market. It is known to help with chronic pain and cancer-related pain, severe diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease. One of its primary uses, however, is to manage and lower the symptoms of anxiety and stress disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder; therefore, lowering your blood pressure. When you feel calm, you are able to relax, so your blood pressure responds accordingly and decreases in time with your heart rate. Cannabidiol is a natural vasodilator; it will help ensure that your blood is flowing easily and smoothly. A particularly nasty symptom of hypertension is that it can cause irreversible damage to your arteries and heart. You then tend to end up with conditions like coronary heart disease. Fortunately, CBD has proven to be effective to alleviate the negative consequences of affected blood vessels.

The Benefits of Taking CBD for High Blood Pressure

As time passes, more states are moving to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes and other derivatives from the cannabis plant and that means more people across the U.S. are using cannabis-based products like CBD hemp oil to treat and reduce the effects of a wide range of ailments. CBD contains some incredibly unique properties, which all contribute to making it a very effective and in-demand alternative medication for patients worldwide.

Without a doubt, one of the primary benefits to consider when you use CBD to lower blood pressure is that it not only targets your hypertension, it also works to lower anxiety, relieve insomnia, and heal any pain you might have in your body. The average American who suffers from high blood pressure is usually prescribed a range of pharmaceuticals to overcome the multitude of symptoms that come with hypertension. And over time all of these toxic medicines can have negative consequences to their overall health, so this is the primary driving force behind people turning to CBD for their health issues, as it naturally heals all aspects of hypertension.

CBD specifically lowers high blood pressure in two primary ways:

It Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties

When a part of your body becomes swollen and painful, it is referred to as inflammation. Hypertension can cause inflammation and in turn, inflammation causes hypertension. Many patients battling hypertension find that they also have to deal with inflammation and pain on an almost daily basis. CBD is an entirely natural anti-inflammatory, which helps eliminate and soothe any swelling you might have, so by healing your inflammation CBD also causes your blood pressure to lower.

It Reduces Anxiety

Hypertension can often be caused by anxiety and stress and vice versa. Many people are surprised to learn that the reason they feel stressed and anxious is because of high blood pressure. CBD will take care of any anxiety issues by lowering your heart rate and keep you in a calmer state. When your stress levels drop, so does your blood pressure.

Ways to Take Cannabis

There are a variety of ways that you can consume CBD in order to experience its potency, including:

Oils or tinctures
CBD sprays
Gummy sweets
Tea
Edibles

Thanks to a variety of ingestion methods, you can try each one until you find a method that suits you best.

Dosage

If you want to enjoy all of the positive benefits of CBD, then you will need to get your dosage right. Dosage is a very individual aspect of CBD, so sometimes what works for one person doesn’t work for another. It is always recommended that you start with a smaller dose and increase it gradually if you feel you need to. You can also consult a holistic physician to get more clarity on the best dose for your needs.

Does CBD Oil Lower Blood Pressure? Final Thoughts

Modern society is that it comprises a variety of aspects that result in many of us having busy lifestyles and we always seem to be rushing from A to B. If this culture continues in the same way, even more people will develop hypertension, which is why it is so important to understand all of your treatment options in advance. CBD can be an effective and non-damaging way to treat the symptoms of high blood pressure and gives patients more of a choice with regards to moving forward with treatment.

More Ways to Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally

Taking CBD products can lower your blood pressure, both directly and through helping you be less stressed. With stress being a common cause of high blood pressure, being happier and more relaxed goes a long way to lowering your blood pressure.

As well as taking CBD, there are many other ways you can lower your blood pressure. For a start, what you eat and drink are also crucial. Just a few simple changes to your daily diet can have profound effects on your blood pressure. And there are many different kinds of activities which will reduce your blood pressure. And of course there are quite a few different ways to alleviate stress.

If you’ve researched this a bit already, you’ll know that there’s a lot of information out there on lowering blood pressure naturally. However, to make it easy, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide:

Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide

As the (highly imaginative) title suggests, the guide is arranged into nine steps which you can follow at your own pace. Each step is easy to follow and gives clear guidance on the different aspects of lowering blood pressure naturally.

There are tips on different kinds of exercise to lower blood pressure. (Even gentle walking can help, and there’s also a blood pressure-lowering exercise that you can do on your sofa.)

There’s loads of info on good foods and drinks for lowering blood pressure, along with a few recipes.

And we outline a host of techniques to de-stress.

The guide is designed to be easy to follow and to help you live a healthier and happier life. Lowering your blood pressure doesn’t have to be about denial. There are enough tasty foods, refreshing drinks, enjoyable activities and relaxing practices to keep you going – with lower blood pressure – for a lifetime…