Not eating enough potassium external icon —a mineral that your body needs to work properly—also can increase blood pressure. Potassium is found in many foods; bananas, potatoes, beans, and yogurt have high levels of potassium. Getting regular physical activity helps your heart and blood vessels stay strong and healthy, which may help lower your blood pressure. Regular physical activity can also help you keep a healthy weight, which may also help lower your blood pressure.
Having obesity is having excess body fat. Having obesity or overweight also means your heart must work harder to pump blood and oxygen around your body. Over time, this can add stress to your heart and blood vessels.
Learn more about cholesterol. In addition to high blood pressure, having obesity can also lead to heart disease and diabetes. Talk to your health care team about a plan to reduce your weight to a healthy level. Tobacco use increases your risk for high blood pressure.
Smoking can damage the heart and blood vessels. Nicotine raises blood pressure, and breathing in carbon monoxide—which is produced from smoking tobacco—reduces the amount of oxygen that your blood can carry.
Family members share genes, behaviors, lifestyles, and environments that can influence their health and their risk for disease. High blood pressure can run in a family, and your risk for high blood pressure can increase based on your age and your race or ethnicity. When members of a family pass traits from one generation to another through genes, that process is called heredity.
Genes likely play some role in high blood pressure, heart disease, and other related conditions. However, it is also likely that people with a family history of high blood pressure share common environments and other potential factors that increase their risk. At 65 and older, women are more likely to get high blood pressure.
Learn more about women and high blood pressure. Race African-Americans tend to develop high blood pressure more often than people of any other racial background in the United States. It also tends to be more severe in African Americans, and some medications are less effective in treating HBP in blacks.
Learn more about African-Americans and high blood pressure. And, having HBP may also may also cause further kidney damage.
Modifiable risk factors These are the risk factors you can change to help prevent and manage high blood pressure , including: Lack of physical activity : Not getting enough physical activity as part of your lifestyle increases your risk of getting high blood pressure.
Physical activity is great for your heart and circulatory system in general, and blood pressure is no exception. Learn more about getting regular physical activity. An unhealthy diet, especially one high in sodium : Good nutrition from a variety of sources is critical for your health. A diet that is too high in salt consumption, as well as calories, saturated and trans fat and sugar, carries an additional risk of high blood pressure. On the other hand, making healthy food choices can actually help lower blood pressure.
Learn more about improving your diet. Being overweight or obese : Carrying too much weight puts an extra strain on your heart and circulatory system that can cause serious health problems. It also increases your risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. Learn more about managing your weight. Exercise and other kinds of physical activity help keep arteries flexible and also reduce activity in the sympathetic nervous system , which can tighten blood vessels and boost blood pressure.
If you already have high blood pressure, regular exercise alone could lower your numbers by 8 to 10 points, according to the American Heart Association. Feed healthy blood pressure. The minerals calcium, magnesium and potassium found in low-fat and fat-free dairy products, such as milk and yogurt, as well as in produce and dried beans help your body regulate blood pressure.
Too little can raise your blood pressure. So can high amounts of sodium—found in many processed foods—by making your body retain water which boosts blood volume and even tightening small blood vessels. Saturated fat found in meat, cheese, butter, full-fat dairy products and many processed foods may also raise blood pressure.
Quit smoking. Smoking damages arteries and raises the risk of heart disease. Soothe stress. One technique, meditation, has been shown to reduce the risk for heart attacks and strokes in people with high blood pressure. To bring your high blood pressure down to a healthy level, your doctor will likely recommend healthy lifestyle changes, medication or both.
Losing 5 percent to 10 percent of your body weight, reducing sodium, improving your diet and exercising regularly will usually result in a lowering of your blood pressure. If your blood pressure is higher, your doctor will still recommend these changes along with blood pressure medications. You may need medications that work on several different mechanisms to bring your blood pressure down. Or your doctor may be able to give you lower medication doses, and reduce the chances for side effects, by combining two or three medications.
Your doctor may increase your dose gradually. Report side effects. He or she may be able to make adjustments or switch your medication. Learn more about the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of hypertension in the Health Library. High blood pressure often has no symptoms. That can make staying on track with healthy lifestyle changes and medication challenging—you may not feel the difference.
These steps can help you stay committed to controlling your blood pressure on a day-to-day basis:. Use a medication reminder system. Monitor at home. See your doctor as recommended. If your blood pressure is within a healthy range and you do not need medication, you may only need a recheck every two years.
Watch for lows and highs. Sometimes blood pressure medications can reduce your blood pressure too much. If you have signs of low blood pressure—dizziness, fainting, blurred vision, nausea—contact your doctor. On the other hand, if your systolic top number rises to or higher or if your diastolic bottom number rises to or higher, get immediate medical help.
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