Foods To Reduce High Blood Pressure When You're Over 50

When you're over 50 and you've been diagnosed with high blood pressure, it goes without saying that changes need to be made to your eating habits to improve the situation. Sure some medication may help, but watching what you eat will make a bigger difference to your health, and it will do it naturally, rather than with high cost prescription drugs with known and unknown side effects.

The leading advice given to high blood pressure sufferers, especially those over 50... is to cut down the salt intake. Foods that you need to avoid include fast foods, fried foods, oily foods, frozen dinners, canned vegetables, pickled foods, instant noodles, processed foods, bouillon cubes, steak sauce, barbecue sauce and more. Yes, I know it can get quite depressing if you just focus on what you cannot eat. However, what I'm about to share with you here is that it is better to have a positive approach instead by focusing on what you can and should eat.

So, right here, I am going to share with you are 5 kinds of foods that will help you fight your high blood pressure woes. Ready? Okay, here they are!

#1 is Garlic

You can add fresh cloves of garlic or garlic powder to your cooking or you can take garlic supplements. Garlic helps lower blood pressure because it contains components and compounds that can dilate your arteries. What this means is that your blood vessels open wider, which means your blood is able to flow easier. There have been several studies done to investigate if garlic really does help lower blood pressure. As a matter of fact, the University of Adelaide in South Australia did a review on 11 studies that involved garlic supplements. They concluded that garlic supplements can successfully lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure when taken on a regular basis. However, do not expect that eating garlic by itself will make your blood problem go away. It is only an aid and not the entire solution. Also, the fact that it is a blood thinner makes it unsuitable for certain people over the age of 50.

#2 is Celery

Yep, that's right. You see, celery is an old Chinese remedy to lower blood pressure. The University of Chicago Medical Center did some research on it and found that phtalide (3nb), a compound found in celery, helps improve blood flow. Also, it is very interesting how the research came about. For one week, the father of one of the researchers consumed about 4 stalks of celery everyday. As a result, his blood pressure dropped from 158/96 to 118/82. Amazing isn't it?
There are several ways to add celery to your diet. You can use it as an ingredient in your soups. You can also eat celery sticks as a snack or juice it along with tomatoes or carrots.

#3 is Tomatoes

Why? Because the lycopene found in tomatoes effectively lowers blood pressure! This is confirmed by a study conducted by Dr. Esther Paran of Soroka Medical Center in Israel. What he did was to select patients that were not responding well to hypertension medications, and gave them a daily supplement of tomato extract. Within 4 weeks, they all experienced a significant reduction in their blood pressure. It is recommended that you eat at least 4 tomatoes daily to see these positive results. You can make tomato juice, add tomatoes to your salad and sauces or make tomato salsa. You can also run to the pharmacy to buy tomato-concentrate pills... which is what I suggest, rather than trying to eat 4 tomatoes a day.

#4 is High Fiber Foods

Don't forget to include high fiber foods to your diet. All that simply means is to eat a lot of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grain.

#5 is Potassium Rich Foods

One of the major contributing factors to high blood pressure is not having enough potassium and too much sodium. It's really best to get your daily potassium from natural foods instead of supplements. Potassium rich foods include potatoes, meat, oranges, and bananas. However, too much potassium is also not good and can be dangerous to your health. You just want a good balance of potassium-to-sodium.

So, as you can see, simply eating naturally and organically as much as possible can bring your blood pressure down effectively when you start to eat right. I know it's not always easy to make dietary changes, and you may find it difficult to break some old habits. However, you'll find the effort you put in will soon bring about pleasant results to your health.

This is the results you're looking for, right? Okay, now take action and go for it!