Key TakeawaysIf you are diagnosed with borderline or high blood pressure, healthcare providers typically recommend changing your diet and exercise habits to keep your blood pressure healthy.Both pieces are important, but most people with high blood pressure should prioritize reducing sodium with the DASH diet.

Key Takeaways

If you are diagnosed with borderline or high blood pressure, healthcare providers typically recommend changing your diet and exercise habits to keep your blood pressure healthy.Both pieces are important, but most people with high blood pressure should prioritize reducing sodium with the DASH diet.

High blood pressure(hypertension) is a health condition that puts you at a greater risk of having a heart attack or stroke, and that risk only increases with age. Changing your diet and getting regular exercise can make a big difference.

But for many people, it can be daunting to find a starting point for your health journey. Do you cut all salt out of your diet immediately, start going for long runs in the morning, or do you have to do both? The good news is: you don’t have to overhaul your whole diet or run a marathon to keep your blood pressure healthy.

Diet is usually the best place to begin because most patients who have high blood pressure also have overweight or obesity, NYU Langone cardiologistSean Heffron, MD, told Verywell. Exercise is easier once you lose a bit of weight, he said, and dieting tends to be more effective for weight loss.

Other factors that affect your risk of high blood pressure include age and genetics, so lifestyle changes won’t always cut it; some people needmedicationto manage hypertension. But for most, gradually reducing sodium intake is the right place to start.

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Salt Is Everywhere!

Reducing the amount ofsodium in your dietcan help lower your blood pressure, but that’s no easy feat, Katz said. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), much of the food you eat contains “too much sodium,” and that’s before you reach for the salt shaker.

More than 70% of the sodium consumed in the standard American diet comes from packaged, prepared, and restaurant foods, according to the AHA. In many cases, salt is added for flavoring or preserving foods with a longer shelf life.

But in the human body, added salt leads to excess fluid retention. Katz explained that when you have more salt, your body holds more fluid to maintain equilibrium. More fluid means more pressure in the bloodstream, thus increasing your blood pressure.

With this balance in mind, one of the best things you can do to lower your blood pressure is to decrease your salt intake. Cutting back on salt in the long term may also reduce your risk of hypertension-related illness.

A recent study published in theJournal of the American College of Cardiologyfound that people who don’t shake extra salt in their foods tend to have a significantly lower risk of heart disease-related events.

Try the DASH Diet—But Not a Mad Dash

People who follow a DASH diet have seen significant decreases in blood pressure, independent of other factors like exercise. The diet’s main cornerstone is reducing salt intake and limiting red meat and sugary snacks.

The standard DASH diet limits sodium to 2,300 milligrams or about a teaspoon of table salt daily. A more stringent goal is less than 1,500 milligrams per day, which would help lower blood pressure even further and faster.

Meeting the targets for sodium can be the most challenging aspect of the DASH diet, Katz said. “You don’t have to be perfect every day, but you should try to strive to continue to enhance your diet and make healthier eating choices,” he said.

A typical serving guide for the DASH diet, based on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet, may look like this:

Overall, this way of eating emphasizes a balance of nutrient-dense food, including fresh produce, whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, moderate amounts of lean protein, and low-fat dairy. ThinkMediterranean diet, but hold the salt.

Staying Active Is Important Too

Healthcare providers recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise—or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise—weekly, often alongside light resistance training to strengthen your muscles. A combination of light-to-moderate aerobic activities and muscle strengthening tends to have the best outcome for blood pressure management, according to a 2022 study.

Walking is an excellent form of aerobic exercise, but Hefrron said many of his patients live sedentary and car-centric lifestyles. If you can walk outside or on a treadmill at three miles per hour, that’s moderate exercise; he said, for city dwellers, that’s a pretty average pace.

Aerobic exercisecan include anything that increases your heart and breathing rates, including:

6 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.American Heart Association.Get the scoop on sodium and salt.Ma H, Wang X, Li X, Heianza Y, Qi L.Adding salt to foods and risk of cardiovascular disease.J Am Coll Cardiol. 2022;80(23):2157-2167. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2022.09.039Gardner CD, Vadiveloo MK, Petersen KS, et al.Popular dietary patterns: alignment with American Heart Association 2021 dietary guidance: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association.Circulation. 2023;147(22):1715-1730. doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000001146National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.DASH eating plan.Ozemek C, Laddu DR, Arena R, Lavie CJ.The role of diet for prevention and management of hypertension.Curr Opin Cardiol. 2018;33(4):388-393. doi:10.1097/HCO.0000000000000532Saco-Ledo G, Valenzuela PL, Ruilope LM, Lucia A.Physical exercise in resistant hypertension: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Front Cardiovasc Med. 2022;9:893811. doi:10.3389/fcvm.2022.893811

6 Sources

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.American Heart Association.Get the scoop on sodium and salt.Ma H, Wang X, Li X, Heianza Y, Qi L.Adding salt to foods and risk of cardiovascular disease.J Am Coll Cardiol. 2022;80(23):2157-2167. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2022.09.039Gardner CD, Vadiveloo MK, Petersen KS, et al.Popular dietary patterns: alignment with American Heart Association 2021 dietary guidance: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association.Circulation. 2023;147(22):1715-1730. doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000001146National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.DASH eating plan.Ozemek C, Laddu DR, Arena R, Lavie CJ.The role of diet for prevention and management of hypertension.Curr Opin Cardiol. 2018;33(4):388-393. doi:10.1097/HCO.0000000000000532Saco-Ledo G, Valenzuela PL, Ruilope LM, Lucia A.Physical exercise in resistant hypertension: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Front Cardiovasc Med. 2022;9:893811. doi:10.3389/fcvm.2022.893811

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

American Heart Association.Get the scoop on sodium and salt.Ma H, Wang X, Li X, Heianza Y, Qi L.Adding salt to foods and risk of cardiovascular disease.J Am Coll Cardiol. 2022;80(23):2157-2167. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2022.09.039Gardner CD, Vadiveloo MK, Petersen KS, et al.Popular dietary patterns: alignment with American Heart Association 2021 dietary guidance: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association.Circulation. 2023;147(22):1715-1730. doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000001146National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.DASH eating plan.Ozemek C, Laddu DR, Arena R, Lavie CJ.The role of diet for prevention and management of hypertension.Curr Opin Cardiol. 2018;33(4):388-393. doi:10.1097/HCO.0000000000000532Saco-Ledo G, Valenzuela PL, Ruilope LM, Lucia A.Physical exercise in resistant hypertension: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Front Cardiovasc Med. 2022;9:893811. doi:10.3389/fcvm.2022.893811

American Heart Association.Get the scoop on sodium and salt.

Ma H, Wang X, Li X, Heianza Y, Qi L.Adding salt to foods and risk of cardiovascular disease.J Am Coll Cardiol. 2022;80(23):2157-2167. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2022.09.039

Gardner CD, Vadiveloo MK, Petersen KS, et al.Popular dietary patterns: alignment with American Heart Association 2021 dietary guidance: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association.Circulation. 2023;147(22):1715-1730. doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000001146

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.DASH eating plan.

Ozemek C, Laddu DR, Arena R, Lavie CJ.The role of diet for prevention and management of hypertension.Curr Opin Cardiol. 2018;33(4):388-393. doi:10.1097/HCO.0000000000000532

Saco-Ledo G, Valenzuela PL, Ruilope LM, Lucia A.Physical exercise in resistant hypertension: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Front Cardiovasc Med. 2022;9:893811. doi:10.3389/fcvm.2022.893811

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