Sidestep salt

Avoid using too much table salt, limit salty fast foods, and read labels to find low-sodium foods in your grocery store

Watch what you eat

Choose a diet low in cholesterol and animal fat, and high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and low-fat milk products, with some nuts and seeds

Maintain a healthy weight

Lose excess weight and keep it off with a long-term program of exercise and healthier eating

Try CoQ10

Taking 100 mg a day of this powerful antioxidant may have a significant impact on your blood pressure after one to several months

Boost heart health with supplemental garlic

600 to 900 mg a day of a standardized garlic extract can improve heart and blood vessel health, and also has a mild blood pressure–lowering effect

Take minerals

Supplements of calcium (800 to 1,500 mg a day) and magnesium (350 to 500 mg a day) may be helpful

These recommendations are not comprehensive and are not intended to replace the advice of your doctor or pharmacist. Continue reading the full hypertension article for more in-depth, fully-referenced information on medicines, vitamins, herbs, and dietary and lifestyle changes that may be helpful.

The terms “hypertension" and “high blood pressure" as used here refer only to this most common form and not to pregnancy-induced hypertension or hypertension clearly linked to a known cause, such as Cushing’s syndrome, pheochromocytoma, or kidney disease. Hypertension must always be evaluated by a healthcare professional. Extremely high blood pressure (malignant hypertension) or rapidly worsening hypertension (accelerated hypertension) almost always requires treatment with conventional medicine. People with mild to moderate high blood pressure should work with a doctor before attempting to use the information contained here, as blood pressure requires monitoring and in some cases the use of blood pressure-lowering drugs.

As with conventional drugs, the use of natural supplements sometimes controls blood pressure if taken consistently but does not lead to a cure for high blood pressure. Thus, someone whose blood pressure is successfully reduced by weight loss, avoidance of salt, and increased intake of fruits and vegetables would need to maintain these changes permanently in order to retain control of blood pressure. Left untreated, hypertension significantly increases the risk of stroke and heart disease.

Vitamins that may be helpful

Both preliminary and double-blind trials have reported that supplementation with Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) leads to a significant decrease in blood pressure in people with hypertension. Much of this research has used 100 mg of CoQ10 per day for at least ten weeks.

EPA and DHA, the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil, lower blood pressure, according to an analysis of 31 trials. The effect was dependent on the amount of omega-3 oil used, with the best results occurring in trials using unsustainably high levels: 15 grams per day—the amount often found in 50 grams of fish oil.

Herbs that may be helpful

Garlic has a mild blood pressure - lowering effect.

Hawthorn leaf and flower extracts have been reported to have a mild blood pressure–lowering effect in people with early stage congestive heart failure. In a double-blind study, supplementation with a hawthorn extract significantly decreased diastolic blood pressure in people with type 2 diabetes. The amount used was 1,200 mg per day of an extract standardized to 2.2% flavonoids corresponding to 6 per day of dried flowering tops.

Natural supplements can be found here for hypertension.