For High Blood Pressure Video

Diet can help improve blood pressure, especially if blood pressure is not yet being treated by medication. Learn more about the appropriate diet for hypertension in this nutrition video.

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Avoid salty food
Avoid restaurant food
Increase fruits and vegetables in the diet
Increase fish in the diet

About this Author

David Hill is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also works as the vice-president of Cape Fear Pediatrics, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. David attended Rice University and Texas Medical School of Houston. He writes a monthly column for the Wilmington Parent, as well as, grant regular interviews with television channel WWAY regarding health topics. Sharing his extensive knowledge in a way that is accessible, and maintains healthy lifestyles is what Dr. Hill strives to achieve.

DR. DAVID HILL: Hey, today we are going to talk about the role of diet in helping you improve your blood pressure. Who can use diet for high blood pressure? It is probably most useful for people who have pre-hypertension. That is a moderately elevated blood pressure that doesn't yet require medicine. People who have pre-hypertension can alter their diet and sometimes avoid being on medicine altogether. Likewise, if you have already been diagnosed with high blood pressure, going on an appropriate diet and adding exercise to that, may enable you to stop some of the medications you are already on. If you don't have high blood pressure at all, there is evidence that a healthy diet may keep you from ever getting it. So, what do you want to do with your diet? For hypertensive, salt is one of the biggest enemies. So you want to get rid of salt anyway that you can. Canned foods and vegetables and fruits are common source of salt. Prepared foods, fast-food restaurants, really any restaurant is going to be dumping salt into your diet. Snacks like nuts, chips, all are going to be full of salt. And of course, if you add salt to your food, that is also a source of salt. Better to increase the number of fresh fruits and vegetables that you take in. Another thing that helps is consuming more fish. While fish oil supplements don't seem to be a healthy way to increase your level of omega 3 fatty acids, eating more fish does. In addition to that, try to avoid red meat, another high fat foods. Foods high in calcium such as low fat milk, chicken, turkey, fish, leafy green vegetables may help you out. Calcium supplements on the other hand, can be dangerous for some conditions. And you should talk to your doctor if you are not already taking calcium before you start taking it. Another thing that helps is potassium. Fruits and vegetables are naturally high in potassium. And those seem to be great for lowering your blood pressure. On the other hand, taking a potassium supplement may be dangerous, particularly with some anti-hypertensive medications. So, always talk to your doctor before you start on nutritional supplement like that. To review, you want to reduce salt in your diet as much as you can to treat or prevent hypertension. You want to increase your intake of fruits and vegetables, as well as low fat dairy products, and low fat meats like chicken, or turkey, or fish. You want to cut fat out of your diet and you want to exercise.

Healthy Food Choices for High Blood Pressure Video

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