Foods For High Blood Pressure

Using a network of arteries and capillaries, your heart pumps blood throughout your body. Blood pressure is the force of your blood exerted against the walls of your arteries as your heart beats.

When your heart contracts it pushes blood into your arteries. This causes an increase in pressure. Systolic pressure refers to this highest level of pressure. As your heart relaxes and refills with blood, the pressure in your arteries is reduced. Diastolic pressure refers to this lowest level of pressure. Your blood pressure is always based on these two numbers. The systolic pressure is the first or top number, and the diastolic pressure is the second or bottom number (for example, 120/80).

These ranges can be quite expansive, and they often depend on what you're doing throughout your day. For instance, your lowest blood pressure measurements occur when you're asleep or when all your muscles are relaxed and at ease. Standing up, exercising, anxiety, and nervousness can all cause an increase in your blood pressure. In a single day your blood pressure may vary by 30 to 40 mmHg systolic with similar proportionate changes in diastolic pressure. This is why it's important to have your blood pressure measured under the same conditions every time.

When the blood pressure level remains high throughout the day (an example of high would be in 140/90 or higher range), you have a condition called high blood pressure or hypertension. With high blood pressure, the heart has to work harder to pump the blood through your arteries. In turn, your arteries take a beating from the force of blood. This combination can dramatically increase your risk of a stroke, heart attack, and kidney problems.

The truth is ... we don't really understand what causes high blood pressure in most cases. Certain conditions such as kidney disease or thyroid disease may cause a rise in blood pressure. And of course, medications can sometimes raise your blood pressure. Heredity, obesity and even stress to some extent are believed to contribute to high blood pressure as well.

Studies have determined that foods rich in flavanols are excellent at lowering blood pressure. Now, if you're unfamiliar with flavanols (also referred to as flavonol glycosides and flavandiols), these naturally occur in plants and possess antioxidant characteristics. The cocoa plant is one such plant.

A recent, small study involved twenty subjects - ten men, ten women - all suffering from high blood pressure. Half of the group was given dark chocolate, the other half white chocolate. The quantity was consistent between both groups, a single 3.5oz bar each day for fifteen days.

The results?

A significant reduction of blood pressure was found in the group that consumed the dark chocolate, while there was no change in the group eating white chocolate. A happy side effect - the group eating dark chocolate also experienced a reduction in insulin resistance. A second happy side effect - they also had a 10 percent drop in their bad cholesterol levels.

Another recent study concluded that small amounts of dark chocolate lowered blood pressure in much the same way (though not as dramatically), without adding excessive sugar and fat to your diet. For this study, they used 6.3 grams of dark chocolate daily (one piece of a 16 piece bar of 100g).

Bottom line: dark chocolate helps lower your high blood pressure. Just don't eat too much of it!

Just because you're watching your blood pressure doesn't mean you can't have a little fun once in awhile. How about adding a little wine and cheese to your diet? How does that sound?

Recent studies have shown that drinking red wine improves the function of your artery linings. When the linings of your arteries are working well, they dilate properly and help lower your blood pressure.

Red wine also contains a protective antioxidant (the flavonol called resveratrol) that helps prevent the hardening of your arteries and helps to keep your blood platelets from clumping together.

A glass or two of red wine a day is perfect for keeping your heart and arteries young and keeping your blood pressure normal. The darker the red wine, the better.

How about cheese?

Although cheese has saturated fat and can raise cholesterol levels, in moderation it's actually good for you. During processing, while the milk is fermenting, peptides are released from the milk proteins. These peptides help control your blood pressure by inhibiting the enzymes that convert angiotensin.

So here's the good news: after a hard day at the office, try some nice cheeses with a glass of red wine. Maybe a glass of Shiraz with a slice of Gruyere.

High blood pressure is a condition that can require ongoing management. The good news is that if discovered early, high blood pressure can be managed by a change in lifestyle rather than medication.

With that said, the following list of medication types are most often used in the treatment for elevated blood pressure:

Diuretics: Diuretics are sometimes called water pills because they work in the kidney and flush excess water and sodium from the body, lowering blood pressure.

Beta-blockers: Beta-blockers reduce nerve impulses to the heart and blood vessels. This makes the heart beat slower and with less force. As a result of these drugs, the blood pressure drops and the heart works less hard.

ACE inhibitors: Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors prevent the formation of a hormone called angiotensin II, which normally causes blood vessels to narrow. The ACE inhibitors cause the vessels to relax and blood pressure goes down.

Angiotensin antagonists: Angiotensin antagonists shield blood vessels from angiotensin II. As a result, the vessels become wider and blood pressure goes down.

Calcium channel blockers (CCBs): CCBs keep calcium from entering the muscle cells of the heart and blood vessels. This causes the blood vessels to relax and pressure goes down.

Alpha-blockers: Alpha-blockers reduce nerve impulses to blood vessels, which allows blood to pass more easily, causing the blood pressure to go down.

Alpha-beta-blockers: Alpha-beta-blockers work the same way as alpha-blockers but also slow the heartbeat, as beta-blockers do. As a result of using these drugs, less blood is pumped through the vessels and the blood pressure goes down.

Nervous system inhibitors: Nervous system inhibitors relax blood vessels by controlling nerve impulses, and this causes the blood vessels to become wider and the blood pressure to go down.

Vasodilators: Vasodilators directly open blood vessels by relaxing the muscles in the vessel walls, causing the blood pressure to go down.

A recent double-blind study conducted in Israel confirmed what hearth-healthy Italians have enjoyed for centuries - tomatoes (and tomato sauce) lower blood pressure and the risk of heart disease.

Dr. Esther Paran, head of the hypertension division of Soroka Medical Center, led up the Israeli study. It involved patients who were already being treated for hypertension, but were not responding well to the medications. Dr. Paran had patients take a supplement of tomato extract. The results were a significant drop in blood pressure after just four weeks.

Tomatoes are so effective at lowering blood pressure because they contain lycopene. This potent antioxidant is the focus of some hybrid tomatoes grown by the Israeli company, Lycomato, in order to have higher concentrations of lycopene in each piece of fruit. Other antioxidants found in tomatoes make this one super-food in the prevention of heart disease. It can even help keep LDL cholesterol from oxidizing which makes it stick to the arteries and narrow the passage way causing blood pressure to increase.

Adding tomatoes to your diet can reduce systolic blood pressure by 10 points and diastolic pressure by 4 points.

Yep, even grapefruit is a powerful food for high blood pressure. In a study of participants with high cholesterol, those that ate red grapefruit had the greatest impact on lowering their blood pressure. Yellow grapefruit also lowering blood pressure readings, but not as significantly as red grapefruit.

Overall, the study found that grapefruit was more effective in lowering blood pressure than statin drugs. This could be because grapefruit is high in fiber, vitamin C, Vitamin A, and antioxidants - carotenoids, limonoid glucosides, flavonones.

It's recommended that you eat at least one or two red grapefruit per day. If you eat ½ just before your meal or drink a glass of fresh grapefruit, you can expect to lose 1 or 2 lbs during the month in addition to lowering your blood pressure.

Caution: If you're taking any medications, do not add grapefruit to your diet. Grapefruit will enhance the effects of your medications. So it's vital that you first discuss adding grapefruit to your diet with your physician.

You've probably heard that limiting your salt intake is an important step to controlling high blood pressure. Research has shown that table salt will increase an average blood pressure reading. It has also shown that blood pressure for some people reacts more dramatically to salt than it does for other people.

Overall, however, you'll do your health a favor by keeping an eye on your salt intake. Evidence suggests Americans should consume no more than 2,400 mg of sodium a day. That equals about 6 grams of salt. This amount also is recommended in the 1995 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and in the 1996 Dietary Guidelines for Healthy American Adults, put out by the American Heart Association.

Here Are Some Low Sodium Foods

• All fruits and vegetables
  
• Unprocessed meats, fish, and poultry
  
• Cooked cereal, plus granola, puffed rice, puffed wheat, Shredded Wheat
  
• White and whole grain bread
  
• Eggs
  
• Peanut butter
  
• Graham crackers
  
• Melba toast
  
• Macaroni, noodles, spaghetti
  
• Rice
  
• Some Cheeses, try Monterey, Mozzarella, or Ricotta
  
• Milk

Although celery is high in sodium, it's also rich in calcium and potassium and has long been recognized within Chinese medicine circles as being helpful for reducing high blood pressure.

Recent research has pointed to the phthalides (several related compounds such as butylphthalide and sedanolide) in celery as the reason it's so effective. These compounds improve blood flow by relaxing the muscles around the blood vessels. In unpublished studies, injecting celery extract into laboratory animals resulted in a twelve to fourteen percent drop in blood pressure readings. Very positive results.

While it's easy to conclude that celery's sodium levels counteract any benefits from the phthalides, that does not appear to be the case. In fact, two stalks of celery contain only 100 milligrams of sodium. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recommended daily allowance for sodium is 2,400 milligrams. So you can see there's really no need for concern.

Of course, until further studies are completed, the amount of daily celery intake to achieve a beneficial drop in blood pressure is still undetermined. Some researchers have suggested as little as four stalks a day will do the trick. However, it may turn out to be much greater than that.

Garlic has been used as a remedy for various ailments for generations. Unfortunately, its use hasn't been accompanied by the research you might like to see before giving it a try.

The most recent effort took place in October of 2007, and was essentially a study or review of all the previous studies of the effect of garlic on blood pressure. Most often, garlic powder was used for these studies, in doses between 600mg and 900mg a day. Treatment lasted between three months and twenty-three weeks.

The results were promising. Though garlic was found to have relatively little impact on those people with normal blood pressure, it resulted in a drop of the systolic blood pressure by 8.4mmHg and of the diastolic blood pressure by 7.3mmHg. These were significant findings. In fact, they're comparable with the drop seen in patients taking medications such as beta blockers and ACE inhibitors. However, you do want to be cautious here, since we're talking about apples and oranges in this case. The garlic studies were against placebos and not against commonly prescribed medications for high blood pressure.

Though more research is needed, the current research does indicate that garlic can reduce high blood pressure.

Research has shown that potassium may help lower blood pressure. In fact, they've shown that a lower intake of potassium tends to lead to higher blood pressure. And since a tablespoon of dried coriander contains 80 mg of potassium it's often mentioned as a food for high blood pressure.

Coriander is an annual herb in the Apiaceae family. In its leaf form it goes by the name of cilantro, when it goes to seed, it's called coriander. The leaf has been widely used in Mediterranean, Chinese, Southeast Asia for centuries and is currently popular as a spice for flavoring. It's pungent and sweet.

Drinking a full 8 ounce glass of coriander juice three times a day for a period of one to two months is rcommended. As your blood pressure improves, you can reduce your intake to two glasses a day, and eventually to a single glass in the morning. You might want to try mixing it with bananas, carrots, and spinach (all together in a juicer) to make it a little more appetizing.

Even with the increase in potassium, it's recommended that you watch your salt intake and eat healthy balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, dairy foods and fish.

A recent study at The London School of Medicine found that drinking 500ml of beetroot juice a day will significanly reduce a person's blood pressure. Researchers found that both systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels responded positively and the drops occurred within only a few short hours after drinking the juice. While the diastolic reading returned to its previous level within 24 hours, the systolic reading remained at a lower level even after 24 hours had passed.

While one might conclude that it's the potassium in the beetroot juice that causes the drop in blood pressure, it actually appears to be the dietary nitrate that does the job. In fact, they found they if a person drank the beetroot juice but spit out all the saliva, then there was no reduction in the systolic blood pressure. Therefore, they concluded that it was the conversion of nitrate to nitrite by the bacteria in the saliva that played the primary role in the success of the juice.

So, whether you take in dietary nitrate from beetroot juice or from another vegetable that's rich in nitrate, it appears that it's not only an effective way to reduce your blood pressure, but it can be a natural, low cost alternative to more common medications. As always, though, I encourage you to discuss this alternative approach with your doctor first.