High Blood Pressure

High Blood Pressure

Poor diet, lack of exercise, heavy-duty weight training, even innocuous-sounding activities such as public speaking can make your blood pressure leap. But when your blood pressure goes up and stays up, there's cause for concern: Of all the risk factors for heart attack, high blood pressure remains the most accurate predictor of who will get cardiovascular disease after age 65.

Anyone with high blood pressure needs to be under a doctor's care-not only for regular monitoring but often for medication as well. The good news is that many of the 60 million Americans with high blood pressure can do something about it without drugs. If you're among them, your doctor has no doubt mentioned the importance of regular exercise, avoiding smoking, managing stress and changing your diet to put limits on alcohol, salt and fat. But here are some lesser-known factors that can take your blood pressure down a notch or two and significantly slash your risk of heart failure, stroke and kidney disease.

Munch on celery. Celery and its oil have been used in oriental folk medicine for centuries to treat high blood pressure and circulatory problems, and now the West may know why. University of Chicago researchers have found that a compound in the vegetable helps lower blood pressure by relaxing muscles lining the arteries. This allows the muscles that regulate blood pressure to dilate.

Best of all, it doesn't take much to reap the rewards. Eating the equivalent of only four stalks a day can lower blood pressure in rats an average of 13 percent, reports William Elliott, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Rush-St. Luke's-Presbyterian Center in Chicago.

And gobble down garlic. The reason isn't as well established, but garlic is another blood pressure buster. "We know that eating garlic can lower your, blood pressure, but we're still trying to learn exactly why," according to Yu-Yan Yeh, Ph.D., associate professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University in University Park and a researcher on the healing properties of garlic. "Eating as little as one clove a day--either raw or used in cooking--seems to have a beneficial effect."

Note: In animal studies, garlic has also been shown to lower cholesterol and triglycerides--other factors that have an impact on heart disease. And it doesn't matter whether you eat fresh garlic or take it in a capsule: In either form, it has the beneficial effect.

Get a pet. "We know that when people touch or pet their animals, there's almost always a small but significant drop in blood pressure," according to Alan Beck, Sc.D., coauthor of Between Pets and People and professor of ecology at Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine in West Lafayette, Indiana. "Even just looking at an animal, such as a fish in a tank, results in a consistent drop in blood pressure. Being around animals seems to put people at ease and help reduce their stress."

Speak softly. According to some studies, speaking loudly and rapidly can significantly raise your blood pressure during normal conversation. And if people do this while engaged in emotional exchanges, especially angry ones, their blood pressure can shoot up even higher, says Aron Siegman, Ph.D., professor of psychology and director of the Behavioral Medicine Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in Catonsville.

Chronic anger-produced elevations in blood pressure may be a serious risk factor for coronary heart disease, according to Dr. Siegman. "As people raise their voices, it increases their blood pressure, and as their blood pressure goes up, they tend to raise their voices further in an ever-increasing cycle that tends to turn anger into rage," he says. The good news is that speaking softly and slowly, even about the most anger-provoking events, totally eliminates the cardiovascular upheaveal.

Don't lie around. Besides speaking softly, speak the truth. Lying has been found to boost blood pressure, because it requires more brain function. The more you lie, the more you add stress (and, hence, increase your blood pressure), says David Robertson, M.D., director of the Clinical Research Center at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee.

Make your exercise aerobic, not isometric. While regular exercise is one of the best ways to lower blood pressure, it has to be the right kind. Isometric exercises in which you clench and hold, such as weight lifting, should be avoided, says David Spodick, M.D., director of clinical cardiology at St. Vincent Hospital at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. That's because heavy weight lifting can cause blood pressure to temporarily skyrocket, especially if you hold your breath while lifting (as most people do).

Have a few laughs. Laughter is the best medicine-or at least it's as good as relaxation therapy, exercise or other methods used to combat stress, says Steven Allen, Jr., M.D., son of the famous comedian and clinical assistant professor of family medicine at the State University of New York Health Science Center at Syracuse College of Medicine.

"When you laugh, you decrease adrenaline and cortisone production," says Dr. Allen, who specializes in laughter therapy. (Adrenaline and cortisone are both hormonal compounds that have an adverse effect on blood pressure.) "My prescription is that you should do something silly at least twice a day or as needed."

While laughter can help everyone, Dr. Allen points out that people with high blood pressure who are particularly angry, frustrated or unhappy often benefit the most from laughter therapy. "Laughter is one of those ways that's cheap as well as effective," says Dr. Allen.