Eating foods rich in potassium helps.

Losing weight and getting more excercise helps.

Diuetics (water pills) help you get rid of the salt in your urine. However,
it is much better to avoid the salt in the first place. Either find soup
that is low in sodium or make your own. And avoid other foods high in salt.

You should ask these questions to your doctor the next time you visit him or
her. And you should probably ask to speak to a nutritionist, as well.

No.

Besides, the symptoms of an allergic reaction are different that high blood
pressure.

For example, they would include a rash, low blood pressure, difficulty
breating and diarrhea.

It is really important that you have keep your blood pressure under control.
If not, you may suffer kidney, heart and brain damage. This is a serious
matter.

Jeff

You're very lucky.  Not everyone who has high blood pressure has the
kind that's sensitive to sodium consumption.  You may be able to
control your hypertension very well by restricting dietary sodium,
without resorting to antihypertensive drugs.  This isn't an allergy --
it's a metabolic problem common in middle age.

Most people consume far more salt than necessary, and it can take time
to adapt to the flavor of food that isn't heavily salted.  Most
prepared foods (canned and dehydrated soups are notorious) have a *lot*
of salt added.

There's an immense amount of information available on how to reduce
your sodium consumption relatively painlessly.  The most important
moves are to become aware of how much sodium you're consuming, which is
easy now that it's printed on the label of prepared foods, don't salt
food until you've tasted it, don't salt food while cooking it, and
don't keep a salt shaker on the table.  Gradually you'll learn to enjoy
the flavor of food that isn't loaded with salt.  You may want to use
pepper, herbs, onions and garlic to add flavour instead of salt.
Beware of prepared sauces like ketchup that are very high in sodium.
Read the label and look for low sodium versions of your favorites, but
read those labels too -- "sodium reduced" may still be high in sodium.

Most food is low in sodium until salt is added.  If you shift your diet
to consist mostly of vegetables, fruits and whole grains, and don't add
salt to these foods, you'll find yourself on a low sodium diet that has
a lot to recommend it for other health reasons.  You may find that just
cutting out obvious high-salt foods and not adding salt to what you do
eat is enough to control your blood pressure without further dietary
restriction.  In general, foods from plants are high in potassium and
low in sodium.  After a few months you may find yourself amazed at how
your friends pour more salt onto food that you find unpleasantly
salty.  A taste for excessive salt is learned, and can be unlearned.

Good luck to you.  It's important to control hypertension -- it can
cause a lot of damage to your body without any symptoms until it's too
late to do much to repair it.  You may be able to control your
hypertension for many years just by care in what you eat, and eating a
generally healthier diet, unlike many people with this condition.

diuretics reduce the impact of salt, but if you continue with a
high-sodium diet, you'll get into problems with low potassium.  Better
to reduce salt intake.  Eating foods rich in potassium and magnesium
and calcium is supposed to be helpful, but taking those supplements
alone doesn't reduce BP.  H2