“How do you lower high blood pressure?”
I am a 49 year old male. I want to know how do you lower high blood pressure?
5 Answers
CardiologistCardiologist
Salt restriction
Weight reduction
Exercise
Weight reduction
Exercise
Mark Rasak
Cardiologist
Go to your doctor and make sure all secondary causes are evaluated. Need an echo of your heart to see if any hypertensive changes as well as labs and urine analysis. See your eye doctor as well. Keep your salt intake under 2000 mg per day. There is a good chance that you are going to need medication as well.
Mostly, having high blood pressure is a hereditary trait – these genes are common because they can give a survival advantage in situations where salt is scarce and it is hot (e.g. inland Africa, where much of our evolution took place). The problem is that where salt is easy to get and you are not perspiring a lot it puts the BP up and this causes an increased risk of strokes and heart attacks in the over 50s (and evolution isn't that bothered about what happens after you have successfully passed on your genes). So, although limiting your salt intake, losing weight if you are overweight and undertaking regular exercise can help a bit, you basically have to defeat your hypertension genes which requires regular medication longterm. Modern BP-lowering medications are very effective with few side-effects so just get started and take enough to get your BP down to near-normal – and look forward to living to a ripe old age...
High blood pressure management usually requires prescription medications given by your doctor, although there are some self-proclaimed experts who recommend otherwise. First, keep an active lifestyle, manage stress and anxiety with good and adequate sleep. Medications are very effective to lower the number (in general, below 130 mm Hg systole, below 90 mmHg diastole). In most cases, 2 kinds of medications are enough. In some cases, 3 or 4 kinds are needed. In very rare cases, 5 kinds are required. There is active investigation going on to tackle the renal artery to lower blood pressure to reduce the burden of medications. I recommend my patients to buy a home blood pressure kit to monitor blood pressure.
Lose weight, decrease sodium intake, and exercise, ways to decrease blood pressure.
