A common natural remedy to lower blood pressure is reducing sodium in your diet. Maybe you are doing this already, maybe you still aren’t seeing your numbers going as low as they should be. Complementing your sodium reduction efforts with a healthy diet and regular exercise may do the trick.
There is another natural solution to your blood pressure woes, and it’s so simple you can get started right after you finish reading this!
Heading outdoors naturally lowers blood pressure
A new study has found spending time out in nature can help reduce blood pressure and improve depressive symptoms. In the study involving 1,500 Australians, the researchers found that seven percent of depression cases and nine percent of blood pressure cases could be prevented simply by heading out into nature at least once a week for 30 minutes or more.
And if you want to maximize the benefits, add some exercise into the mix. Lead researcher Dr. Danielle Shanahan explained, “You go into the doctor and you could get a prescription for going to a park. If you go to that park and do exercise while you’re there, you get benefits of the two.”
Shanahan also stressed the importance of green space in larger cities. “If we can design cities in a way that we can see and access nature in our immediate surroundings, we could be seeing quite impressive gains in the population,” she said.
It’s imperative that cities still maintain greenery and natural spaces for their residents as a means to improve overall health and well-being.
Heading out to nature has been shown to boost health and improve stress, and the latter is a well-known risk factor for high blood pressure. So if you’re looking for a simple way to take control of your numbers, look no further than outside of your front door. And even if you are unable to head out, other studies have shown having indoor plants and greenery can offer some benefits, too.