Talk with your doctor.

Diet and exercise are probably the best. Decreasing salt intake and eating
plenty of fruits and vegetables should help as well. Fruits and vegetables
contain potassium, which also help lower blood pressure.

Jeff

exercise exercise exercise
nymike

"ScooterNDevon" <scooterndevon@wmconnect.com> wrote...

Weight reduction and exercise are the best (non-pharmacologic)
methods--toughest to implement for most people, unfortunately.
Restricting salt helps in some people, but it seems a minority are really
salt sensitive.
A lot of other methods sounded good--calcium, potassium supplements, fish
oils, garlic--but never panned out in clinical trials.  Even stress
reduction (while maybe desirable in itself) hasn't been shown to be really
effective in lowering blood pressure.

130... Is that your weight?  Or your systolic blood pressure (the
first number)?  Unless that's the number of your diastolic bp (which I
HIGHLY doubt), or you have diabetis, I think your concern for your
present state of health is a little exagerated.  I don't think you
have much reason to worry.  On the other hand, it never hurts to be
healthier, however if that's the case, I don't think you should be
looking for a "best" or "fast" way to lower your bp.  It's something
that is a result of lifestyle, and therefore in order to get your bp
down and make it stay down, you need to make adjustments that you can
live with for the rest of your life (or at least longer than a few
months or year).  That is why regular physical activity (ie.
exercise), while one of the best things you can do for your body, is
often passed over in the hustle and bustle of modern times.

The other half of the solution is diet.  This is as, if not more,
important as regular exercise.  If you're eating McDonald's every
other day, stop (I read that even their salads are very high in
calories, so be careful.)  It could never hurt to stay away from salty
and foods and to make sure you get enough of your essential vitamins
and minerals throughout the day.  That's not to say you have to cut it
all out of your life and never even look at fried chicken again.  You
reward yourself with a treat every now and then, but just make sure
you don't go overboard.

What's really most important, and it may be an unorthodox idea, is
that you're happy with yourself.  There is no reason to starve
yourself, or work out to the point of exaustion just to lose 10 points
off of an arbitrary scale created by the medical profession.  Each
person is genetically unique.  There are people out there who have
been smoking all of their lives, and yet will never develop lung
cancer (not because they died young either), and there are people who
eat enough for ten (ok, exagerating but not by much) but won't gain a
pound or have high cholesterol.  Aside from these special cases,
though there are many skeptics, positive thinking has benificial
effects beyond the understanding of modern western medicin.  Just to
give an example, there have been studies done on the placebo effect.
Basically in this study, one group of patients were given a placebo
(something they're told will help with their condition, but actually
has no medicinal or nutritional value) and another group of patients
are given nothing (the control group).  And what do you know the
patients who were given the placebo do better than those who are
"untreated."  I wish I had the articles onhand, but you'll just have
to research it on your own time if you want to find out more.  But the
bottom line is, "Don't worry, be Happy." :)  And in the words of
Forest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that."

Depends on the underlying cause.

If you have a tendency to have high blood pressure because of
essential hypertension, your blood pressure will be higher when you
are heavier.

For this reason (if you have essential hypertension), you should ask
your doctor about the 2PD Approach:

http://www.heartmdphd.com/wtloss.asp.

A systolic blood pressure of 130 mmHg is higher than the optimal 115
mmHg recognized by JNC VII

Hopefully with physician supervision.

Lifestyle changes.

No unless you mean in conjunction with regular aerobic exercise with
physician supervision.

Servant to the humblest person in the universe,

Andrew

--
Dr. Andrew B. Chung, MD/PhD
Board-Certified Cardiologist
http://www.heartmdphd.com/

**
Who is the humblest person in the universe?
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What is all this about?
http://makeashorterlink.com/?R20632B48

Is this spam?
http://makeashorterlink.com/?N69721867

I'd bet dollars to donuts that losing 10 lbs and consuming 7-8
servings/day of fruits and veggies would lower your systolic BP by 10
mm Hg.  Potassium, magnesium, and calcium are important minerals that
help regulate BP.  Bananas and mangos, although containing lots of
(natural) sugars, will provide ample potassium which works wonders for
keeping my BP at good levels.

BTW, my BP was about 30 mm Hg higher in late winter the past few
years, which I now believe was a result of elevated parathyroid
hormone from low vitamin D (which I had tested).  One month of casual
sun exposure, vitamin D and calcium supplements, and the some extra
fruits (potassium!) quickly lowered my BP by 30 points!

Cheers,
Mike