Like increased cholesterol levels, high blood pressure (also known as hypertension) is one of the many ailments you might be affected with as you get older. Blood pressure is the force that your blood exerts on the walls of your blood vessels as blood is circulated around the body. High blood pressure is blood pressure that is higher than normal. Normal blood pressure for adults is a systolic pressure of less than 120 and a diastolic pressure of less than 80—any higher than that and your blood pressure is considered elevated.
Of course, it is normal for your blood pressure to temporarily change during some daily activities—during exercise, for example, your systolic blood pressure will rise to between 160 and 220 because your heart is pumping faster. However, if your blood pressure is consistently above the normal range even when you’re not engaging in cardiovascular activities, you should be taking steps to try to reduce it.
Why is high blood pressure undesirable?
This is because it is associated with an increased risk of serious health problems like heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease, and coronary heart disease. When you have hypertension, your heart has to work harder to pump blood, and this further contributes to your arteries hardening, thus affecting blood flow and blood supply. In this article, we will look at the common causes and effects of high blood pressure, as well as some changes you can make to your lifestyle and diet to try to bring your blood pressure down or simply to reduce the risk of having hypertension in the future.
Causes and Effects of High Blood Pressure
Some causes of high blood pressure are natural and inevitable. Your blood pressure is likely to rise as you age because your blood vessels become stiffer when you get older, which means that your heart has to work harder to pump blood to other parts of your body.
Women are more likely to experience high blood pressure after menopause. Existing health conditions like diabetes and obesity (or even being overweight) can also cause high blood pressure (i.e. hypertension).
Unhealthy lifestyle choices—like not getting enough exercise, chronic stress, smoking, or too much alcohol consumption—also make it more likely for you to experience high blood pressure.
High Blood Pressure Risk Factors
As mentioned, high blood pressure can cause serious health complications. It can damage your blood vessels by making their walls less elastic, which in turn decreases the flow of blood to your heart. This decreased blood flow to the heart can cause multiple cardiovascular complications: chest pains, heart disease (like coronary artery disease), heart attacks, and heart failure. When the blood supply to your heart is affected by hypertension, your heart muscle doesn’t get enough oxygen, and this can lead to long-term damage to your heart.
This doesn’t just affect your heart and your cardiovascular system—when your heart is damaged, it can’t pump enough blood and oxygen to your other organs as well. It is crucial for your arteries to supply your brain with enough blood and oxygen—without enough oxygen, your brain cells will die. When hypertension causes these arteries to become blocked or to burst, this can lead to a stroke. A stroke can be fatal, and if it doesn’t kill you, your speech and movement can become seriously disabled. Even if you don’t suffer a stroke, high blood pressure can lead to reduced cognitive function and dementia when you get older.
As you can see, high blood pressure is associated with multiple health complications (especially reduced heart health and impaired cognitive health) and can affect your entire body. If you have severe hypertension, you should see a doctor who may prescribe medication to manage the condition. However, if your hypertension isn’t too severe, or if you’re trying to prevent high blood pressure, there are some steps you can take to improve the situation.
Lifestyle Changes to Manage High Blood Pressure
There are some lifestyle changes you can make to manage high blood pressure. These tips are also beneficial to your overall health.
Exercise regularly: It is recommended that you get at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week, which comes up to around 30 minutes of exercise per day for 5 days per week. This exercise should be of moderate intensity (such as jogging).
Get 7-9 hours of sleep per night: Getting enough sleep is absolutely crucial for your body to repair and recharge itself. Chronic sleep deprivation has been linked to an increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease. So if you want to maintain the health of your blood vessels and your heart, you should aim to get enough sleep every night.
Avoid smoking: Each cigarette you smoke causes a rise in blood pressure. In the long term, this contributes significantly to hypertension. Smoking also damages the walls of your blood vessels and makes your arteries narrower.
Manage stress levels: The link between stress and high blood pressure has been established. Persistent stress is incredibly damaging to your body. When you feel stressed out, your body is also physically affected—during a stressful event, your blood pressure rises. Your nervous system is also stimulated to produce large amounts of stress hormones that have a vasoconstricting effect (i.e. narrowing of the blood vessels). This effect of vasoconstriction further increases blood pressure.
Cut down on salt (sodium) intake: Consuming too much salt makes it harder for your kidneys to remove fluid from throughout your body. This causes fluid to build up and increases your blood pressure. Moreover, as you get older, your body becomes more sensitive to sodium and is unable to process it as efficiently.
Reduce alcohol intake: Like smoking, alcohol consumption can temporarily raise blood pressure. However, if you are consistently drinking a lot of alcohol, your blood pressure becomes chronically elevated. Generally, heavy drinking is considered as consuming more than three drinks a day for women and four for men.
In addition to these lifestyle changes, sustaining a proper balanced diet paired with supplements that help maintain great overall health are vital in managing high blood pressure. There are some foods and supplements you can take to help manage hypertension in the long term.
What Are Supplements?
Supplements can be any kind of vitamin, minerals, herbs, botanicals, and amino acids that you can eat or drink. They come in various forms such as:
Pills
Powders
Tablets
Capsules
Liquids
The main function of supplements is to supplement one’s existing nutrition. While vitamins and tablets can help one’s health, they are not meant to take the place of a healthy and nutritious diet and lifestyle.
That being said, taking the right supplements with a nutritious and well balanced diet can provide a host of health benefits.
5 Foods and Supplements to Manage High Blood Pressure
1. Citrus Fruits and Berries
Berries contain a high amount of antioxidants that can help to reduce the production of molecules that restrict blood vessels, which can in turn reduce your blood pressure level. A regular intake of citrus fruits is also associated with a reduction in systolic blood pressure. This study showed that daily lemon juice ingestion, when combined with some mild exercise, had a significant correlation with lowered SBP. However, some citrus fruits like grapefruit may interact with some hypertension medications, so you should always consult your physician first before incorporating these changes to your diet.
2. Celery
Celery contains phthalides, a phytochemical compound that can help to relax the tissues of your blood vessels and in turn reduce blood pressure and increase blood flow. Celery also contains magnesium and potassium, which are beneficial compounds that may help to regulate your blood pressure. The recommended daily intake of celery is around one cup of chopped celery.
3. Turmeric
This spice is known for its medicinal properties and has long been used as a traditional treatment for inflammation and infections, but it also has cardiovascular-protective effects. Turmeric’s active compound, curcumin, is a potent antioxidant with many therapeutic properties. It helps to regulate blood pressure in the body and can also reduce the damage caused by hypertension by reducing the cholesterol plaque that builds up in the walls of your arteries.
Apart from reducing LDL cholesterol levels, turmeric’s anti-inflammatory properties can help to mitigate hypertension by reducing inflammation that might stiffen your arteries and increase blood pressure. Moreover, turmeric has been shown to inhibit a specific enzyme (the angiotensin-converting enzyme) that narrows your blood vessels. Turmeric, then, can potentially help to address hypertension issues when consumed regularly—indeed, one study found that long-term consumption of curcumin improved systolic blood pressure. Because of this, turmeric is one of the best natural supplements you can take to manage your hypertension.
4. Omega-3 Fatty Acids
According to a recent analysis published in the American Journal of Hypertension, omega-3 fatty acids can be as effective at reducing blood pressure levels as lifestyle changes like exercising more. These beneficial omega-3 fats are found in fatty fish like salmon and swordfish (or fish oil supplements) and they help to decrease inflammation in the body. Not only do they reduce blood pressure levels, they also more generally enhance your cardiovascular health and reduce your risk of heart disease.
On the other hand, you should cut down on saturated fats, also known as “bad” fats. These are found in butter, processes oils, and fatty meat like bacon. Consuming too much saturated fat can lead to you becoming overweight, which in turn raises your blood pressure. More directly, too much saturated fat in your diet can raise the amount of LDL cholesterol (LDL cholesterol is considered “bad” cholesterol) in your blood. This leads to cholesterol plaque building up in your blood vessels, which causes your arteries to harden and become narrower and stiffer, thus increasing your blood pressure.
5. Black Pepper or Piperine
Black pepper contains a key bioactive compound called “piperine” that has been linked to better heart health and better management of cholesterol levels - which is commonly attributed to hypertension. Its cholesterol-lowering effects have been examined in a number of studies—one study found that the ingestion of a black pepper extract over 42 days was linked to a substantial decrease in blood cholesterol levels, including LDL cholesterol.
It’s obviously going to be tricky and rather impractical to consume sufficient quantities of black pepper every single day, and to keep track of how much you are consuming so that you know you are consuming enough piperine for it to have a significant effect on your Acardiovascular health. Instead of dousing your food with black pepper, your best option is to look for a highly-concentrated piperine extract. One of the most established piperine extracts is BioPerine, which offers the benefits of piperine in a more bioavailable and highly concentrated formulation (bioavailability being the proportion of the compound that is able to enter circulation and have an active effect on your body).
Top 3 Hypertension Management Supplements
We here at Superfood Reviews have done the research to find out what the best option for hypertension management supplements in the market is. We have graded each choice through a stringent grading based on the following criteria:
The Superfood Reviews team suggests that turmeric is the best superfood for managing high blood pressure. This superfood is known to benefit one’s cardiovascular health as well as maintaining a stable blood pressure. Turmeric is also known for its positive effects on regulating blood pressure and reducing detrimental damage in the arteries caused by cholesterol buildup.
In our search for the best ingredients and supplements, we have researched and tested supplements in various form factors. After extensive testing, we have narrowed down the selection to the top 3 supplements with the best hypertension management properties and ingredients.
The overall comprehensive hypertension management supplement, in our view, is The Purest Co's Ginseng Turmeric Superjuice, given the high quality clinically-tested ingredients used, and also its superior bio-absorption liquid delivery form.
1. Ginseng Turmeric Superjuice by The Purest Co
Grade
A+
PROS ✅ Contains the top ashwagandha formulation - KSM-66 ✅ Includes effective complimentary ingredients like turmeric extract that increases bioavailability ✅ No unnecessary ingredients or additives ✅ FDA-Registered & HACCP-Certified Facility | CONS ❌ Only available online ❌ Regularly out of stock due to high demand |
Bottom Line
During the testing period, the Ginseng Turmeric Superjuice impressed our team with its pleasant taste. Looking into its ingredients, we discovered that its made with real passionfruit juice.
Reading more into its ingredient list, we were pleased to find that this product by The Purest Co is formulated with Turmeric Curcumin. This ingredient is well researched and proven to help maintain good cardiovascular health. However, the issue with consuming cooking-grade turmeric is that the absorption rate into our bodies is extremely low due to the fact that the spice is not water-soluble, but fat-soluble. Using the rather expensive and patented Curcugen™ Turmeric ingredient, which is manufactured by Dolcas Biotech, this formula is 39-times more effective compared to other turmeric supplements out there.
Among its top competitors, Ginseng Turmeric Superjuice was unrivaled in effectiveness, quality, safety, and value which makes it our top choice.
2. Turmeric Curcumin Extra Strength by GNC
Grade
B+
PROS ✅ Contains 500mg of industry standard turmeric extract ✅ No unnecessary additives and fillers ✅ Widely available both online and offline ✅ Vegetarian, gluten and yeast free | CONS ❌ Does not use premium turmeric extract ❌ Pills have less bioavailability than liquids ❌ Divisive feedback from some consumers |
Bottom Line
Standardized Turmeric Curcumin by GNC is a good option from a brand that is well known in the country for affordable options.
Each pill contains 500mg of industry standard turmeric extract, and while not as potent as our first choice, this still provides a good option for consumers.
This vegetarian-friendly formula has no unnecessary additives, but also omits certain complementary ingredients such as BioPerine®, which would help enhance the benefits of the product.
We feel that overall, the Standardized Turmeric Curcumin by GNC is a good no-frills choice for a consumer who wants an industry standard turmeric extract in pill form.
3. Turmeric Curcumin by Raffles Health
Grade
B-
PROS ✅ House brand of a reputable medical provider ✅ Affordable option ✅ Widely available online ✅ No added starch ✅ Manufactured in USA | CONS ❌ Low amount of turmeric extract - 50mg ❌ Pills have less bioavailability than liquids |
Bottom Line
Raffles Health is affiliated with Raffles Medical, a well-known healthcare provider in the country. Their house brand turmeric extract is manufactured in the USA and is widely available online to purchase.Their product contains 450mg of turmeric root, but only 50mg of turmeric extract, which is low. As turmeric extract is the focal point of these supplements, this option will not be as beneficial as other choices with higher quantities of turmeric extract.
Diving into customer experience, it seems that Raffles Health may not take the customer experience too seriously, and there may be some negative feedback on that front.That being said, this option is an affordable one and may be for customers who are looking to try a turmeric extract before moving onto higher quality options.
Outlook
4.9/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is among the most common health risks that comes with age. It is important to look after its symptoms, causes, and effects and find ways to relieve oneself from them and maintain blood pressure that’s within healthy range. Keeping a healthy blood pressure is imperative to staying in optimum overall health. The Purest Co’s Ginseng Turmeric Superjuice has a high concentration of turmeric and contains nutrients that are effective in managing healthy blood pressure.
Medical Disclaimer: The contents of this site, its articles within, and the information provided on the website are explicitly based on publicly available research papers and articles, and does not substitute for professional medical advice. We strongly advise our readers to consult a medical professional or healthcare provider for seeking medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment.
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