Food Medicine for High Blood Pressure

I had a conversation with someone this weekend about how to lower your blood pressure. The American Heart Association says that, “in 90–95 percent of cases, scientists don’t know what causes high blood pressure.” Of course, its important to talk to your doctor about the possible causes but, it can’t hurt to increase your intake of some or all of the following healthy foods and nutrients backed by nutritional research. Please note this is not a complete list-it only represents the foods I’ve found research for in the past year.

Soy nuts - isoflavones in soy help relax muscles around your blood vessels so your blood can easily travel through
Magnesium (found in nuts, whole grains, vegetables, and fish) - improves circulation and blood flow
Potassium (cruciferous vegetables, eggplant, mushrooms, tomatoes) - improves circulation and blood flow
Dark chocolate - flavonoids found in dark chocolate help to balance blood pressure and reduce cholesterol and blood clotting
Omega-3s (found in fish, flaxseed oil, etc.) - a study found that flaxseed oil supplements significantly lowered systolic and diastolic blood pressure in men

Ever heard someone claim that coffee increases your blood pressure or risk of heart disease? No worries here.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Blood Pressure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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3 Responses to “Food Medicine for High Blood Pressure”

Blood Pressure Numbers Says:
February 6th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
“Dark chocolate - flavonoids found in dark chocolate help to balance blood pressure and reduce cholesterol and blood clotting ”

Can’t chocolate and other “junk” foods also harm blood pressure?
David "foods that lower blood pressure" Says:
February 12th, 2008 at 9:16 am
I too am surprised with the inclusion of dark chocolate. I never really thought they can be good for blood pressure, I thought the otherwise.
what causes high blood pressure Says:
February 12th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
“Omega-3s (found in fish, flaxseed oil, etc.) - a study found that flaxseed oil supplements significantly lowered systolic and diastolic blood pressure in men.”

Yes, I agree with this one since many medical researches prove that Omega-3 rich foods especially those from fishes like tuna and salmon actually are good sources of good cholesterol that works by excreting bad cholesterol out of the body as waste.