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Other dietary changes
More than just what you eat, how you eat can affect your blood pressure. For example:
- Large meals cause your body to work hard to digest them, and may lead to troubling drops in blood pressure. Eat smaller meals more frequently to prevent this.
- Meals that are especially high in carbs hit the body fast and get digested quickly, leading to a crash that may include low blood pressure. Stick to whole grains instead of refined and processed carbs for things like bread, crackers, and cereal.
- Limit alcohol as it leads to dehydration, which is horrible for blood pressure.
Simple lifestyle changes
- Because you want to avoid dehydration at all costs, don’t exercise outdoors during the hottest days of summer, and avoid too much time in hot tubs and saunas.
- Changing body position rapidly can also cause a temporary dip in blood pressure. When you need to stand up, bend down, or roll over, do it slowly.
- Avoid prolonged periods in bed or lying down. Even if you’re ill, get up and move around a bit at least once every hour during the day.
- Compression socks help to move blood throughout the body by keeping it from pooling in the legs, which is why they are often recommended when people are laid up in the hospital. They can be helpful during sedentary days at work, too.
Always ask your doctor for specific recommendations regarding diet and lifestyle. Increasing intake of certain foods while limiting others can do a lot to regulate blood pressure, but be careful of automatically nixing all foods that are known to raise blood pressure, because you could end up deficient in vital nutrients if your diet becomes too unbalanced. Be sure to get regular blood pressure tests to help hone in on the perfect personal strategy to regulate and control your hypotension.