Managing high blood pressure is essential to your health. Blood flow is essential to the health of every cell in your body. Blood delivers the oxygen and nutrients cells need and removes the carbon dioxide and metabolite wastes they produce.
Part of healthy blood flow is maintaining the proper amount of pressure in the arteries. If the pressure is too high, it increases the risk of heart disease and stroke and can damage the brain, kidneys, eyes, and other organs. If it is too low, blood can’t get to the tissues where it is needed.
Unfortunately, a large percentage of people have issues with blood pressure. The current estimate is that high blood pressure (hypertension) is a problem for about one-third of the adults in the USA, about 100 million people. Another 59 million Americans have pre-hypertension, which means their blood pressure is not dangerously high but higher than optimal.
While low blood pressure (hypotension) is less common, it still causes problems with dizziness, mental confusion, fatigue, headaches, blurred vision, and even heart palpitations. Orthostatic hypotension is a temporary form of low blood pressure that occurs when the body is slow to compensate after moving from sitting to standing.
Blood Pressure and Heart Rate
Healthy blood pressure ranges between 90/60 and 130/90. Blood pressure above 130/90 is considered high, and pressure below 90/60 is considered low. The optimal blood pressure falls between 115/70 and 125/80.
You may have noticed a top number and a bottom number. The top number is systolic and represents the pressure the heart has to pump blood through your blood vessels. The bottom number, diastolic, represents the pressure in your blood vessels when your heart is not pumping.
Your heart rate is another vital number when trying to understand blood flow. It measures how many times your heart beats in a minute, which indicates how hard your heart is working. The average resting heart rate is between 60 to 100 beats.
Natural and Lifestyle Tips to Help
Restrict sugar intake. Excess sugar can contribute to high blood pressure. A Mediterranean diet, which focuses on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, olive oil, and limited saturated fat, is beneficial for managing high blood pressure.
Magnesium deficiency can contribute to high blood pressure, and many people have found that they are deficient in magnesium. Magnesium is used by every cell in the body and helps the body protect itself from heart disease.
Enhance nitric oxide production. Nitric oxide acts as a natural vasodilator, allowing your blood vessels to relax, which can contribute to lower blood pressure. Far Infrared Heat and beets, due to their nitrates, can help with nitric oxide production.
To support a healthy circulatory system, consider herbs like capsicum, garlic, ginkgo, hawthorn, nettle leaf, olive leaf, and rosemary. You can also diffuse essential oils like lavender to help you relax, rosemary to promote awareness, and ylang-ylang to help support healthy blood pressure.
In this month’s Sunshine Sharing, we will explore the causes of hypertension and hypotension and natural solutions for balancing blood pressure without drugs. These solutions can also help permanently correct blood pressure problems rather than just managing symptoms.