High Blood Pressure: How I tamed the Silent Killer

Have you been told your blood pressure is rising? Or that you have high blood pressure?

Welcome to the club, but I am here to tell you, that I managed to lower my blood pressure myself without any drugs.

This is my story:

At my last checkup, I was told my blood pressure was on the rise, it was 150/95 I had been 120/80 all my life, then out of the blue it starts to jump. My doctor got out her prescription pad, and I said "wait" do I have to take meds?. She highly recommended it, but I told her to give me 30 days, and see if I could do something about it myself, and if not, I would take the meds..

I promised to monitor my blood pressure weekly at the drugstore, but realized this was the perfect time to kick start a new health plan for myself. I was at the time about 20 pounds overweight, and although I exercised, it was not really enough.

I looked at my diet, and realized that I was getting indigestion every time I ate beef, more so in the last few years. So, I decided to stop eating beef or red meat, and make sure to fill up on fish, chicken, eggs and nuts for my protein. I changed nothing else, and I lost a few pounds right away (didn't realize just how much red meat I was eating!). I am a meat eater, so that was the only cut I made there. But right away my guts felt better.

Next, was more walking, and I invested in a good pair of running shoes, and starting adding a really quick walk between hydro poles, then down to a regular walk for 2 miles a day. They call this interval training, and I managed to get my quick walk up to a jog or trot with the good running shoes.

I made a few other simple tweaks to my diet, by changing the brands of some of my foods to ones with lower calories, not diet brands, just different brands. Sometimes a different brand of bread, for example, will have less calories.

But the major changes to my diet were: Dropping Red Meat, and revving up my walks, and after losing 12 pounds, I checked my blood pressure and it had dropped all the way back down to 118/80, which for me was just fine.

Sometimes it doesn't take much to lower your blood pressure. I am not saying you should stop any meds, because this is an important health issue, but in my case, mine was just getting started and I managed to nip it in the bud with some lifestyle changes. I have found personally, that I don't feel as lethargic as I did when I ate red meat, and was able to have the energy for more exercise.

I was amazed how 12 pounds could make that much difference, but this just proves that you can make a difference with a few little changes. Take charge of your health, work with your doctor, and take a good look at your lifestyle. You may be able to nip a few other problems in the bud, like I did with high blood pressure.