Lower BP Without Medications . . .

There are ways to lower your raised blood pressure that don’t involve taking meds, though of course, they may not all be free. Here are the main ones, taken from the 7^th Report of the Joint National Committee of the NIH on the subject.

1. Lose excess weight. Loss of 20 lbs can lower systolic pressure by 5 to 20 mmHg.
2. Follow the DASH diet. This can lower systolic pressure by 8 to 14 mmHg.
3. Exercise 30 minute (aerobic) daily. This can lower systolic 4 to 9 mmHg.
4. Limit sodium intake. Less than 2,400 mg daily can lower systolic pressure 2 to 8 mmHg.
5. Control your alcohol intake – not more than 2 drinks a day (men) or 1 a day (women) can lower your systolic pressure 2-4 points.

If you do all these, you could reduce your systolic blood pressure by 21 to 75 mmHg (whew!) – clearly a better result than most meds can offer. And if you want to go a step further, consider Transcendental Meditation (TM). A meta-analysis done by Dr Anderson of the University of Kentucky, and published in the American Journal of Hypertension, shows that the average reduction of systolic pressure with TM was 4.7 mmHg. And there are other benefits from TM, too.

Finally, you could get a dog – it works for many people.