High blood pressure or hypertension is one of the most common lifestyle diseases today worldwide. According to research presented in 2018 at the 70th Annual Conference of the Cardiological Society of India (CSI), one in five young adults in India has high blood pressure; that equates to around 80 million people, which is more than the entire UK population. However, if you look at data 50-60 years back, the people suffering from high blood pressure in India were negligible.
The good news is that high blood pressure is a preventable and reversible disease with the help of right lifestyle changes and focusing primarily on plant foods. But before looking at these strategies, we need a mindset change - that we will not live with high BP, instead we will reverse it.
Strategy 1: Increase intake of plant foods: If we consume a plant-based, nutrition-dense diet that is high in fibre and micronutrients, blood pressure will reduce to a great extent. A diet rich in potassium, magnesium, omega-3 fatty acids and nitrates is crucial for the reversal of high blood pressure. Hence, foods like flax seeds, papaya, pomegranate, zucchini, and others are excellent for high BP.
Strategy 2: Start walking and stop smoking: Researchers have shown that walking can dilate your arteries and make them flexible. And more the arteries dilate, the more nitric oxide they produce - which is required for reversing high BP. Equally important is to avoid smoking which damages each and every blood vessel in our body.
Strategy 3: Meditate and pranayam: It has been proven scientifically that everyday practicing good lifestyle activities like yoga, meditation, pranayam can prove to be beneficial in numerous ways such as relaxing the nervous system, easing the tensions in the body and improving blood circulation.
Strategy 4: Superfoods: Although eating a plant-based food will definitely reverse lifestyle diseases and high blood pressure in particular, we should make note of these five superfoods that are excellent for reversing high BP: Flax seeds powder, ash gourd juice, drumsticks, beetroot, and spinach.
Strategy 5: Lemon water: Mix fresh lemon juice with plain water and drink throughout the day. Lemon water is highly alkaline and is an easy way to improve blood pressure.
Today, we are living in the world of information and ignorance can only be a choice. Hence the first step towards reversing high BP is right awareness and knowledge. Once we have understood what is right, all we need to do is make it our lifestyle and habit.
(Karan Kakkad is a Nutri-genomics and Disease Reversal expert based in India. He is the Founder & CEO of Reverse Factor. To know more, visit www.reversefactor.in)
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