New research presented at the American Society for Nutrition’s annual meeting in Boston last month found that changing up lifestyle factors, including walking daily, eating a vegan diet, getting plenty of sleep, and being mindful of water intake, lowered study participants’ blood pressure levels by 19 points over a two-week period, proving equally as effective as blood pressure medications.
Adapting these healthier lifestyle habits was effective at lowering blood pressure in all types of individuals, including people with diabetes, the morbidly obese, and those with high cholesterol.
“By adapting selected lifestyle health principles, half of the people in our study achieved normal blood pressure within two weeks while avoiding the side effects and costs associated with blood pressure medications,” said research team leader M. Alfredo Mejia, associate professor at Andrews University.
In addition, 93 percent of the study participants were able to either reduce the dose of their blood pressure medications (24 percent) or eliminate them entirely (69 percent). For more information, go to www.healthline.com/health-news/lower-blood-pressure-without-medication#2.