❤️ 5 Ways To Lower Blood Pressure 

1️⃣ Mostly vegetables, fruits, wholegrains, nuts, seeds, legumes, limiting discretionary, and thus naturally low in sodium and high in potassium, are all components of healthy dietary patterns shown to lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP) 🥑🥦🥬🥕🌽🥒🍆🍉🍇🍌🍞🌰🥜

Healthy dietary patterns and their blood pressure lowering effects: 

• Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH): SBP -7.62 to -3.20 mmHg and DBP -4.22 to -2.50 mmHg in adults with and without high BP (5 systematic review and meta-analyses, ≈78 trials, n= 9448+) and 19% lower risk of developing high BP (9 studies, n= 63496+) (1,2).
• Portfolio: SBP -1.75 mmHg and DBP -1.36 mmHg in adults with hyperlipidaemia (5 trials, n= 439) (1,3). 
• Mediterranean: SBP -3.02 to -1.45 mmHg and DBP -1.99 to -1.70 mmHg in adults with and without high BP (3 systematic review and meta-analyses, ≈12 trials, n= 3852) (1).
• Nordic: SBP -5.20 to -3.97 mmHg and DBP -3.85 to -2.08 mmHg in adults (2 systematic review and meta-analyses, ≈7 trials, n= 798) (1).

2️⃣ Reduce sodium in your diet to <1500-2300mg/day i.e. salt, sauces containing salt such as soy, fish and oyster sauce, processed foods with added salt 🚫🧂

How? Reducing sodium intake can reduce extracellular fluid volume to reduce blood pressure. Effects may be greater in subpopulations e.g. Asian and African descent (4,5). 

Quick tips to reduce sodium intake:

🔸Use healthy flavour instead e.g. herbs, spices, yeast, lime, lemon, vinegar

🔸Swap to unprocessed/unsmoked proteins

🔸Swap to healthy snacks e.g. fruit, yoghurt, nuts, baked chickpeas

🔸Choose products with ‘no added salt’ or ‘low sodium’ with <120mg/100g 

🔸When eating out ask for sauces to be served on the side

👅In as little as one to four weeks, dietary sodium restriction can reduce salt taste threshold (the amount required to recognise and detect saltiness) i.e. increase salt taste sensitivity (6,7).

3️⃣ Food sources with potassium e.g. fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, legumes, nuts, seeds, dairy, fish 🍌🌽🍑🌰🍶🐟

How? Relaxes blood vessel walls and promotes excretion of sodium through urine to lower blood pressure (8,9)

4️⃣ Limit alcohol to ≤2 standard drinks a day ⬇️🥃🍷🍾🍸

How? Excessive drinking can increase blood pressure through several mechanisms e.g. narrowing blood vessels (10,11)

5️⃣ Caffeine increases blood pressure in the short-term. Keep to safe limits ≤400mg a day in adults e.g. 3 cups coffee/ 4 cups tea, or ≤200mg pregnancy & lactation e.g. 1.5 cups coffee/ 2 cups tea ☕️ 🍵 (12). 

Sources: 

1. Sukhato K, Akksilp K, Dellow A, Vathesatogkit P, Anothaisintawee T. Efficacy of different dietary patterns on lowering of blood pressure level: an umbrella review. Am J Clin Nutr. 2020 Dec 10;112(6):1584-1598. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqaa252. PMID: 33022695.
2. Theodoridis X, Chourdakis M, Chrysoula L, Chroni V, Tirodimos I, Dipla K, Gkaliagkousi E, Triantafyllou A. Adherence to the DASH Diet and Risk of Hypertension: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Nutrients. 2023 Jul 24;15(14):3261. doi: 10.3390/nu15143261. PMID: 37513679; PMCID: PMC10383418.
3. Chiavaroli L, Nishi SK, Khan TA, Braunstein CR, Glenn AJ, Mejia SB, Rahelić D, Kahleová H, Salas-Salvadó J, Jenkins DJA, Kendall CWC, Sievenpiper JL. Portfolio Dietary Pattern and Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Controlled Trials. Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2018 May-Jun;61(1):43-53. doi: 10.1016/j.pcad.2018.05.004. Epub 2018 May 26. PMID: 29807048.
4. Graudal NA, Hubeck-Graudal T, Jurgens G. Effects of low sodium diet versus high sodium diet on blood pressure, renin, aldosterone, catecholamines, cholesterol, and triglyceride. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020 Dec 12;12(12):CD004022. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD004022.pub5. PMID: 33314019.
5. Hoshide S, Yamamoto K, Katsurada K, Yano Y, Nishiyama A, Wang JG, Narasingan SN, Verma N, Erwinanto E, Turana Y, Ihm SH, Park S, Hanafi NS, Chia YC, Unurjargal T, Siddique S, Ona DID, Venketasubramanian N, Teo BW, Constantine G, Kao HL, Hung CS, Sukonthasarn A, Kunanon S, Minh HV, Kario K, Node K, Itoh H, Rakugi H. Agreement regarding overcoming hypertension in the Asian Hypertension Society Network 2022. Hypertens Res. 2023 Jan;46(1):3-8. doi: 10.1038/s41440-022-00994-1. Epub 2022 Oct 14. PMID: 36229522.
6. Kusaba T, Mori Y, Masami O, Hiroko N, Adachi T, Sugishita C, Sonomura K, Kimura T, Kishimoto N, Nakagawa H, Okigaki M, Hatta T, Matsubara H. Sodium restriction improves the gustatory threshold for salty taste in patients with chronic kidney disease. Kidney Int. 2009 Sep;76(6):638-43. doi: 10.1038/ki.2009.214. Epub 2009 Jun 10. PMID: 19516246.
7. Cattaneo C, Mambrini SP, Gilardini L, Scacchi M, Pagliarini E, Bertoli S. Impact of 4-week of a restricted Mediterranean diet on taste perception, anthropometric, and blood parameters in subjects with severe obesity. Front Nutr. 2023 Aug 25;10:1196157. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1196157. PMID: 37693245.
8. Kim BS, Yu MY, Shin J. Effect of low sodium and high potassium diet on lowering blood pressure and cardiovascular events. Clin Hypertens. 2024 Jan 2;30(1):2. doi: 10.1186/s40885-023-00259-0. PMID: 38163867. 
9. Food Standards Australia New Zealand. 2014. Systematic review of the evidence for a relationship between potassium and blood pressure. 
10. Roerecke M, Kaczorowski J, Tobe SW, Gmel G, Hasan OSM, Rehm J. The effect of a reduction in alcohol consumption on blood pressure: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Public Health. 2017 Feb;2(2):e108-e120. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(17)30003-8. Epub 2017 Feb 7. PMID: 29253389. 
11. Okojie OM, Javed F, Chiwome L, Hamid P. Hypertension and Alcohol: A Mechanistic Approach. Cureus. 2020 Aug 27;12(8):e10086. doi: 10.7759/cureus.10086. PMID: 33005509. 
12. De Giuseppe R, Di Napoli I, Granata F, Mottolese A, Cena H. Caffeine and blood pressure: a critical review perspective. Nutr Res Rev. 2019 Dec;32(2):169-175. doi: 10.1017/S0954422419000015. Epub 2019 Apr 5. PMID: 30947761.