Are you one of the millions of Americans suffering from the side effects of prescription drugs for high blood pressure? Did you know there is an alternative to drugs to treat high blood pressure?

Thousands of Americans are taking the advice of the American Heart Association on lifestyle changes that literally can lower blood pressure without any drugs. Think about that for a second. What would that mean to you? How great would it be not to have to worry about taking your beta blocker or calcium channel blocker or diuretic or whatever prescription you are on. No more side effects and you get your blood pressure under control.

Is that possible?

The short answer is yes but it takes a commitment on your part to follow certain guidelines regarding diet, exercise and stress management. In fact, if you are faithful to a natural approach lifestyle, you can lower your blood pressure reading for both systolic and diastolic by 20 points inside of two weeks.

How can that be? Why would my doctor put me on medication if I could control my pressure without it?

Excellent question. First of all if you are on medication, continue to take it as directed. With some blood pressure drugs, quitting cold turkey can be very hazardous. Secondly, most Western educated doctors are trained to dispense pharmaceuticals for everything. That gets into a whole new area of discussion that we don’t have room for here. However, there are a growing number of physicians who now understand the value of a natural approach and are only prescribing medicine if the patient’s condition is severe, or if the patient cannot follow a healthy lifestyle.

Nobody knows for certain what causes high blood pressure but there are common lifestyle conditions in those who have it.

Really think about this for a minute. Before you were diagnosed were you overweight? Did you eat a lot of processed foods and fast foods. Did you smoke. Was it your habit to have more than 2 alcoholic drinks per day? How much fresh fruits and vegetables did you eat. Did you get any exercise? Did you get a full night’s sleep?

If any of these applied to the way you lived then you were simply a high blood pressure case waiting to happen.

Is your lifestyle the same now as it was before you were diagnosed with high blood pressure? If it is, then you need the blood pressure drugs just to combat your bad habits.

If on the other hand you are tired of having this killer disease hanging over your head, and you’re tired of feeling lousy from the pressure drugs; then the first step is to visit the National Institutes of Health site and check out the DASH diet. You’ll soon find out that the produces aisle offers far more effective “medication” than the pharmacy does.

Next you absolutely must commit to thirty minutes of mild aerobic exercise each day. While most people do this in the morning to get their day started right, you may want to do it in the evening to burn off the chemicals that stress has built up throughout the day.

Stress management plays a big part in reducing your blood pressure. Sleep is a great natural cure for stress so get at least 7 hours a night.

It’s important to understand that for this approach to work you have to commit to all three of the lifestyle changes. If you change your diet but don’t exercise it won’t work. Do your research and you’ll discover how these three elements actually reverse the damage done to your blood vessels and can give you a longer healthier life. Your heart will thank you.