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Making some changes in one’s lifestyle can help lower blood pressure. Here are some ideas for you.

First of all, what IS blood pressure exactly? Your doctor tells you two numbers, say 130 over 80 – what do they mean?

The first or top number is the pressure or force the blood is exerting on the walls of the artery while the heart is contracting, and the bottom number is the pressure or force the blood is exerting on the walls of the artery when the heart is relaxing between beats, and filling up with blood.

So, if the pressure is high, it means the arteries may be constricted or possibly partially blocked, which is why blood pressure is an easy way to detect potential cardiovascular risk factors.

The bottom number is particularly telling, because if that number is higher than it should be when the heart is between beats, it is likely there is a problem. “Normal” blood pressure is considered to be 120/80, and most people get put on medication if their blood pressure rises to 140/90.

I find it interesting to note that in the primitive cultures that were studied in the 1920s and 30s, blood pressure tended to decline with age, rather than go up, as we are currently witnessing in Western society.

Here is the Cole’s Notes version for lowering blood pressure naturally. For more info on each, click through the links. (Except for the refined sugar and starch section, which I'll expand upon below.)

• Cut out all refined sugar and refined starch (flour products like baked goods, pasta, crackers).
• Figure out what your major stresses are, and deal with them if possible, accept them if they are out of your control.
• Dwell on the good in your life, and what makes you happy, rather than dwelling on what upsets you.
• Exercise enough to make you feel good. Walking is enough for many, not enough for some.
• Drink half your bodyweight in pounds, in ounces of pure water each day
• Switch from using white and dry table salt to using
  gray and moist air-dried sea salt.
• Get adequate dark time each night, so melatonin, your rest and repair hormone can do its magic.
• Eat according to yourmetabolic type.
• See an Osteopathic Manual Practitioner or a NUCCA chiropractor to ensure that your top vertebrae (the atlas) is in its proper alignment.

There are two mechanisms by which eating too much sugar and flour (which the body treats as sugar) increases blood pressure. First, diets high in refined sugar and starch cause a greater insulin response, which I have discussed at great length in other posts.

High insulin increases heart rate, constricts blood vessels, and stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, all of which increases blood pressure. So, eat no added sugar and refined carbohydrate, lower the insulin response, lower the blood pressure. I think that doctors that study their patient data have probably noticed that frequently high blood-pressure patients also have higher insulin levels.

The other way in which eating easily digestible and refined carbohydrates increases blood pressure is by causing the kidneys to retain salt. The body then retains water in order to keep the blood sodium concentration constant.

So water is not necessarily retained by consuming too much sodium, but rather by the easily digestible carbohydrates stopping the excretion of the sodium which is already there.

So, stop eating the added sugar and flour products, the kidneys stop retaining salt, the body stops retaining water. A much healthier diuretic than a drug!

Another idea that can work is seeking out Bemer Therapy, which improves microcirculation. Once capillary beds are open, less pressure is required to push the blood through the circulatory system.

A Bemer is a mat which one lies on, and it uses pulsed electromagnetic fields to improve microcirculation – arterial, venous, lymph circulation. The EMFs are very low – between the AM and FM radio signals, and definitely lower than what cell phones emit.

In addition to improving blood pressure, improved microcirculation also helps nutrition get to cells, and waste leave cells, and may reduce external pressure on arteries and veins caused by edema, by getting lymph to flow as well. If you want to actually see the impact of Bemer Therapy on improving microcirculation please watch this short video.
Unblocking a blood vessel with Bemer.

If you want to try Bemer therapy, google your home town and Bemer, to find out where you can go to give it a try, and if you are considering getting a Bemer for home, please comment below.

I'd love to hear your comments!

Related tips
Obesity – a behavioural or a metabolic issue?
Insulin, our storage hormone
Which salt is the healthiest?
Stress and cardiovascular disease
How we become over-fat
Obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes – what does history tell us?
Exercise intensity and over-training
Customized nutrition

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