What is High Blood Pressure?
High blood pressure, widely known as hypertension, is one of the leading causes of heart stroke and attacks. If the reading of your blood pressure is 140/90 mmHg or even above, you are surely concluded to have high blood pressure. Since most patients do not reveal any symptoms, high blood pressure is considered as the “silent killer”. Under a report conducted by CDC (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), high blood pressure influences one in four adults in the United States.
What causes High Blood Pressure?
Hypertension can be triggered by lots of factors in so many ways, in which, age, stress, genetics, obesity, alcohol intake, smoking or a sedentary lifestyle are major contributors. As mentioned above, hypertension does not cause any specific symptom in the very early stage. The only way to know whether you contract this issue or not is to have your blood pressure checked frequently. When it comes to hypertension, good news is you can manage and control some risk factors. In addition to keeping the blood pressure in check, consuming a healthy and balanced diet with some antioxidant-rich foods and saturated fats-low foods plays a critical role in controlling the issue. In case you want to use medical treatments, make sure that you are told and instructed carefully by doctors.
Following are top superfoods that can aid in lowering high blood pressure:
1. Avocado
One of the most impressive health benefits of avocado is treating high blood pressure. Basically, a half of an avocado provides you with one percent of calcium, ten percent of potassium and 5 percent of magnesium you really need daily.
This healthy fruit confers health promoting carotenoids, heart healthy monounsaturated fats and pressure soothing minerals that assist in reducing hypertension very well.
2. Lemon
Lemon is known as a citrus fruit and it is well-known for its regulation of high blood pressure. Thanks to its package of Vitamin C, lemon does you good by neutralizing the damaging effects from free radical.
This can lower your blood pressure and high cholesterol; hence enhancing your general heart health. Apart from that, lemons are rich sources of potassium that keeps your blood pressure low by reducing the harmful effects of sodium.
All you need to do is try to sip a glass of warm water with lemon juice in every morning on your empty stomach. For the positive outcome, you can include sugar and salt.
3. Garlic
Another superfood that helps lower hypertension is garlic. Garlic aids in relaxing the blood vessels by encouraging the nitric oxide production, which supports greatly your stable blood pressure. Besides, the ingredient helps stimulate the blood circulation, lowering high cholesterol; thereby preventing against some heart diseases.
You are told to consume from two to three garlic cloves each day on your empty stomach. You can also grab some garlic supplements, but before that, let’s ask for your doctor’s consultation.
4. Potatoes
If you do not like garlic because of its effect that can cause onion breath, then let’s go for potatoes. This ingredient is high in phytochemicals that aid in reducing your high blood pressure. Also, they are loaded with magnesium lactate dehydrate and potassium, which are known as two important minerals that help combat with the issue.
A 2011 study showed that among some kinds of potatoes, the purple ones help lower significantly the high blood pressure in individuals with obesity..
You can opt for eating boiled or baked potatoes without butter, margarine and sour cream.
5. Beets
The nitrate properties present in beets is of great help in curing high blood pressure. The content later will be converted into the nitrites and gas called nitric oxide, which can widen your arteries and hence, lowing hypertension. More than that, beets can weaken the risk of contracting heart attacks and stroke as well as another cardiovascular issues.
You had better consume a cup of beet juice on a daily basis to help manage the blood pressure. Another option is to add beets to your soup and salad.