When it comes to "natural" ways to improve blood pressure, sodium restriction snags the spotlight. (But all the focus on slashing sodium to reduce hypertension could be backfiring, according to a controversial new scientific-journal report covered in the upcoming August/September issue of EatingWell Magazine.) Most experts agree that limiting sodium is a smart strategy for those looking to lower blood pressure, but why focus on what you can’t—or shouldn’t—have? Shift your emphasis to positive lifestyle changes you can make to improve blood pressure.

1. Nosh on plenty of produce. Fruits and vegetables are low in sodium and rich in potassium, which offsets sodium’s effect on blood pressure. Potassium-packed picks: baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, spinach, winter squash, bananas, oranges, cantaloupe, beans and tomatoes.

2. Enhance meals with healthy fats. Substituting some carbohydrates in your diet with sources of healthy fats helps control blood pressure, according to a recent study. Remember to swap, and not add, them in. Think: Nuts instead of croutons—not both—on your salad.

3. Go for whole grains over refined starches. Some studies suggest that whole grains help the body hang on to potassium.

4. Include low-fat dairy in your diet. Calcium plays a key role in regulating blood pressure. Low-fat dairy products offer all the nutrients of full-fat varieties, but without the saturated fat and cholesterol that raise hear-disease risk.

5. Learn to love legumes. Beans, nuts and seeds are rich in magnesium, which contributes to maintaining healthy blood pressure. Aim for 4 to 5 servings (1/2 cup of beans or 1 ounce of nuts/seeds) a week.

6. Savor small amounts of dark chocolate. Studies attest to the blood-pressure benefits of products made with cocoa, which contains antioxidants that activate a substance called nitric oxide that relaxes blood vessels.

7. Move more. Moderate exercise has been shown to improve blood pressure. National guidelines advise 30 minutes of daily moderate activity, such as brisk walking, jogging or cycling.

8. Cultivate inner calm. Studies show that meditation brings blood pressure down—probably by modulating physiological stress responses. You don’t have to sit in the lotus position, say "om" or think spiritual thoughts. Simply tuning in to your breathing—for even 10 minutes—may do the trick. Close your eyes (and the door), turn off the cellphone. Now… breathe.

Hot Tomatoes: Eating to control blood pressure

Tomatoes, with their wealth of antioxidants and potassium, may help control blood pressure.

The tomato, long beloved for its juiciness and rich flavor, is quietly earning a place in disease prevention. Beyond its celebrated role in warding off prostate cancer, the garden favorite can now add mild hypertension to the list.

The news comes from a recent study at Ben Gurion University in Israel where for 16 weeks investigators measured the effects of daily tomato extract supplements on 31 volunteers with mild hypertension. The extract reduced systolic blood pressure (the top number) by an average of 10 points and diastolic (the bottom number) by an average of four points, a significant decrease, according to the researchers.

More studies are needed to determine whether results could be sustained for a long period of time, but the tomato extract is particularly appealing because, unlike some medications for hypertension, it has no side effects. The researchers suggest that it may be the tomato’s antioxidants, including lycopene, beta carotene and vitamin E, that cause the benefits. Potassium, also found in tomatoes, has been associated with improved blood pressure as well. According to Thomas D. Giles, M.D., president of the American Society of Hypertension, "Artery walls are subject to oxidative stress—we are all rusting away. Anything with antioxidants may be helpful."

Lyc-O-Mato capsules are available in health-food stores, but a half-cup serving of tomato sauce contains a similar dose of antioxidants. Commercial tomato sauces can be high in sodium, though, a problem for anyone with hypertension. Giles suggests choosing low-sodium products (with 140 milligrams or less sodium per serving) or making homemade sauce from "good fresh tomatoes."

Source: http://www.eatingwell.com/health-diet/nutrition-watch

Slower Breathing May Lower Blood Pressure

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, The Associated Press

Jul 31, 2006

WASHINGTON - Take a slow deep breath, then exhale just as slowly. Can you take fewer than 10 breaths a minute? Research suggests breathing that slowly for a few minutes a day is enough to help some people nudge down bad blood pressure.

Why would that brief interlude of calm really work? A scientist at the National Institutes of Health thinks how we breathe may hold a key to how the body regulates blood pressure - and that it has less to do with relaxation than with breaking down all that salt most of us eat.

Now Dr. David Anderson is trying to prove it, with the help of a special gadget that trains volunteers with hypertension to slow-breathe.

If he's right, the work could shed new light on the intersection between hypertension, stress and diet.

"If you sit there under-breathing all day and you have a high salt intake, your kidneys may be less effective at getting rid of that salt than if you're out hiking in the woods," said Anderson, who heads research into behavior and hypertension at the NIH's National Institute on Aging.

An estimated 65 million Americans have high blood pressure, putting them at increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, kidney damage, blindness and dementia. Many don't know it. Hypertension is often called the silent killer, because patients may notice no symptoms until it already has done serious damage.

Anyone can get high blood pressure, measured as a level of 140 over 90 or more. But being overweight and inactive, and eating too much salt - Americans eat nearly double the upper limit for good health - all increase the risk. Indeed, losing weight, physical activity and cutting sodium are the most effective lifestyle changes people can make to lower blood pressure. Still, most hypertension patients need medications, too.

While they know risk factors, scientists don't fully understand the root causes of hypertension: What skews the body's usually finely tuned mechanisms for regulating the force of blood pounding against artery walls, until it can't compensate for some extra pounds on a couch potato? Understanding those mechanisms could point to better ways to prevent and treat hypertension.

Enter breathing.

Meditation, yoga and similar relaxation techniques that incorporate slow, deep breathing have long been thought to aid blood pressure, although research to prove an effect has been spotty.

Then in 2002, the Food and Drug Administration cleared the nonprescription sale of a medical device called RESPeRATE, to help lower blood pressure by pacing breathing. The Internet-sold device counts breaths by sensing chest or abdominal movement, and sounds gradually slowing chimes that signal when to inhale and exhale. Users follow the tone until their breathing slows from the usual 16 to 19 breaths a minute to 10 or fewer.

In clinical trials funded by maker InterCure Inc., people who used the slow-breathing device for 15 minutes a day for two months saw their blood pressure drop 10 to 15 points. It's not supposed to be a substitute for diet, exercise or medication, but an addition to standard treatment.

Why slow-breathing works "is still a bit of a black box," says Dr. William J. Elliott of Chicago's Rush University Medical Center, who headed some of that research and was surprised at the effect.

Slow, deep breathing does relax and dilate blood vessels temporarily, but that's not enough to explain a lasting drop in blood pressure, says NIH's Anderson.

So, in a laboratory at Baltimore's Harbor Hospital, Anderson is using the machine to test his own theory: When under chronic stress, people tend to take shallow breaths and unconsciously hold them, what Anderson calls inhibitory breathing. Holding a breath diverts more blood to the brain to increase alertness - good if the boss is yelling - but it knocks off kilter the blood's chemical balance. More acidic blood in turn makes the kidneys less efficient at pumping out sodium.

In animals, Anderson's experiments have shown that inhibitory breathing delays salt excretion enough to raise blood pressure. Now he's testing if better breathing helps people reverse that effect.

"They may be changing their blood gases and the way their kidneys are regulating salt," he says.

If Anderson's right, it would offer another explanation for why hypertension is what he calls "a disease of civilization and a sedentary lifestyle."

Meanwhile, health authorities recommend that everyone take simple steps to lower blood pressure: by dropping a few pounds, taking a walk or getting physical activity, and eating less sodium - no more than 2,300 milligrams a day - and more fruits and vegetables.

Source:http://www.examiner.com/a-200834~Slower_Breathing_May_Lower_Blood_Pressure.html