A high blood pressure (hypertension) is harmful to your health. It is a major risk factor for this heart and vascular disease and can cause various complaints. Fortunately, you can do various things yourself to lower your (too) high blood pressure. We share five tips for high blood pressure.
Tip 1: Move
Regular exercise is one of the best ways to combat high blood pressure. The advice is to exercise moderately intensively for at least 2.5 hours a week. Cycling or walking several times a week, for example, already has a positive effect on your blood pressure. It is true that you quickly lose that advantage if you move little for a while. Daily exercise must therefore be part of your lifestyle.
Tip 2: Lose weight and eat healthy
Obesity is an important risk factor for high blood pressure. Are you too heavy? Then you do your heart and your vessels a favor by losing weight, especially if you also have too large a belly size. Losing 5 to 15 percent weight can already have a positive effect on your blood pressure.
Healthy food is important for everyone, especially if you have high blood pressure. Additional points for attention here are:
- Eat many foods that are good for your heart and blood vessels, such as vegetables, fruit, legumes, (a handful of) nuts, fish and whole grains.
- Use less salt.
- Choose low-fat dairy products.
- Moderate on meat and choose lean varieties such as chicken or turkey. Vary meats with fish, legumes, eggs and nuts.
- Drink less – or preferably no – alcohol.
- Limit licorice and licorice tea. These contain glycyrrhizin, a blood pressure-increasing substance.
Tip 3: Sleep better
A good night’s sleep is essential for healthy blood pressure. Sleeping an hour too short every night can already lead to high blood pressure. Enough daylight during the day, especially in the morning, exercising for half an hour a day and going to bed on time increase the quality of your night’s sleep.
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Tip 4: Stop smoking
Smoking increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and therefore high blood pressure. Quitting smoking is therefore an important remedy for high blood pressure.
Tip 5: Fight stress
The cause of high blood pressure is not always physical. Permanent stress or being angry and annoyed often can also increase blood pressure. Stress is often thought of as a high working pressure, but stress can also be caused by (un) conscious fears, a tendency to want to control everything, not being able to fulfill expectations, or not being in control of situations. In stressed people, the hormone levels of, for example, adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol can be permanently high. This has a direct influence on the functioning of organs, the composition of your blood and also on your blood pressure.
Do you suffer from stress? Fighting high blood pressure due to stress starts with looking for the cause. Discuss your fears, annoyances or other sources of stress with your environment and seek medical help if necessary. A coach of psychologist can be found at solvo.nl. Relaxation exercises, scheduling rest times in your diary and more exercise can help your body to de-stress.
Healthy lifestyle habits are important for everyone. This is not only about good nutrition, but also about sufficient exercise and a healthy mindset.
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For this article we collaborated with Gezondheidsplein.nl. There you will find many more articles on health, checked by doctors and medical specialists.
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