Managing Your Blood Pressure

High blood pressure is a common problem among many Americans. If you have high blood pressure or difficulty regulating your blood pressure, here is a list of things you can do to help keep your blood pressure at a healthy level.

Manage Your Diet

Salt, or sodium as it appears on food labels, is the enemy of healthy blood pressure. When we have too much salt, it causes our bodies to retain water, which can shoot our blood pressure sky high. It is suggested that you have no more than 1500 milligrams of sodium a day, and that number may be too high for someone with high blood pressure. 

To lower your sodium intake, don’t add salt to your food and limit, or completely eliminated, prepared foods from restaurants and the grocery store. Stick to fresh foods you prepare yourself.

Get Active

You don’t have to run a marathon to be healthier, but any level of activity will begin to help regulate your blood pressure. When you exercise, your body sweats and releases natural reserves of sodium.

Learn to Manage Your Emotions

If you’re susceptible to becoming stressed out, you need to either learn to regulate your emotions or remove yourself from an unhealthy situation. As part of the fight, flight, or freeze response, our bodies were designed by God to respond in a certain way when we sense stress or danger: our heart rate increases, our blood pressure rises, and our body releases adrenaline. These are all incredibly helpful if you need to get to safety quickly, but can cause damage to your body when your body has this response on a regular basis.

Talk to Your Doctor

While these three things mentioned may be the best thing you can do for your overall health and your blood pressure, you also might need assistance from a medical professional. While a pill will not replace the need to care for your body through improved diet and exercise, medication may be necessary to help reduce your blood pressure if it is at an unsafe level.