Reduce Blood Pressure with Alternative Medicine

High blood pressure is a health problem that affects more than 72 million Americans who are more than 20 years old. That's an alarming statistic. What causes high blood pressure or hypertension?

The American Heart Association says that there's no one identifiable cause of high blood pressure, but that the contribution factors are:

• Being significantly overweight
  
• Not getting a sufficient amount of physical exercise
• Smoking
• Eating too much salt
• Not getting enough potassium
• Stress can raise blood pressure
• Excessive alcohol consumption
  
• Aging
• Family history

There's not much we can do about getting older or the gene pool that created us, but most of the other behaviors that contribute to high blood pressure can be altered.

Medical doctors have a variety of prescription drugs that they can prescribe for high blood pressure, and if you have high blood pressure, you should certainly be under the care of a medical doctor.

But by controlling high blood pressure behaviors and by adding the dietary supplement CoQ10, you may lower your blood pressure. Hawthorn berry is another herbal supplement that can help lower blood pressure as well. Hawthorn berry is available in capsule form.

Garlic has been used to reduce high blood pressure for the last 5,000 years. Adding garlic to your diet can help, but there are also garlic supplements on the market.

Omega-3, which is present in fish liver oil, will also lower blood pressure. Omega-3 supplements are available at health food stores. Folic acid is a supplement that those who smoke and have high blood pressure should use on a daily basis. The results won't be dramatic, but folic acid can help to lower the blood pressure of smokers somewhat.