I once had blood pressure that fluctuated between borderline hypertension and hypertension. At that time, I was told that poor health management could easily lead to hypertension, so I was very cautious and managed my diet carefully and exercised regularly, which allowed me to bring my blood pressure back to normal from borderline hypertension.
I will share the methods I used to manage my high blood pressure.
Since I often eat outside, I didn't consume enough vegetables and mostly had meals centered around carbohydrates and proteins. Additionally, various stresses added to the situation, and since I didn't exercise, my blood pressure nearly reached hypertensive levels.
Sometimes, when the stress is severe, my blood pressure rises to 170 or 180 (hypertensive levels), and I also experience intense headaches.
I was worried I might end up choking myself, so I made up my mind and started taking care of my health, which helped me lower my high blood pressure.
1. Vegetable-focused diet management
Eat a bowl of vegetables every day without fail
In the evening, I washed and prepared the vegetables, and in the morning, I put a large bowl of vegetables and ate it every day.
Usually, I ate it divided into morning and evening.
2. Regular aerobic exercise
I walked about 30 minutes to an hour, 4 to 5 days a week.
When blood pressure is high, sudden strength exercises that require exertion can raise blood pressure and be dangerous, so I focused on walking exercises until my blood pressure stabilized.
If your blood pressure is not very high, walking quickly will cause your pulse to speed up and your blood pressure to rise to some extent, but the increase in blood pressure due to exercise is said to be naturally regulated.
3. Diet
When weight decreases, blood pressure also tends to decrease.
When I was overweight before, I experienced a blood pressure reduction of about 10 just by losing weight.
Even people with high blood pressure can see a significant reduction in blood pressure just by losing weight.
I ate three meals a day, but I followed a diet that reduced carbohydrate intake.
I limited fatty foods to fresh meat only and avoided fried foods.
4. Eating without squeezing or pressing
Eating salty food raises blood pressure as well.
I was especially careful because many of the restaurant foods are salty.
Even when eating soup, I hardly drank the broth.
I only scooped out and ate the toppings from the ramen.
I understand that eating salty foods is a shortcut to high blood pressure, and I plan to be careful about it in the future.
Diet and lifestyle management and regular exercise
I am currently maintaining normal blood pressure through stress management.
Even if your blood pressure is normally normal, it can temporarily spike when you are under stress. To prevent it from leading to hypertension, stress management is also necessary.