Adherence
Lifestyle interventions including improved diet, aerobic exercise, alcohol restriction, and sodium restriction significantly reduce systolic blood pressure in adults with hypertension, with combined interventions showing the largest effect.
If you have high blood pressure, focus on four key lifestyle changes: eat a diet that helps you lose weight or is rich in fruits and vegetables, engage in regular aerobic exercise (like brisk walking) for 30-60 minutes several times a week, limit your alcohol intake, and reduce your salt consumption. These changes, especially when combined, can lower your systolic blood pressure by an average of 5.5 mmHg. Do not rely on calcium, magnesium, or potassium supplements, as they have not been shown to be effective for this purpose.
Robust statistically significant effects were found for improved diet, aerobic exercise, alcohol and sodium restriction, and fish oil supplements: mean reductions in systolic blood pressure of 5.0 mmHg... 4.6 mmHg... 3.8 mmHg... 3.6 mmHg... and 2.3 mmHg... respectively... combinations of these interventions, 5.5 mmHg
Why this rating
Based on a systematic review of 105 randomized controlled trials involving 6805 participants, using random effects meta-analysis.
Source
Lifestyle interventions to reduce raised blood pressure: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials
Heather O Dickinson et al. · Journal of Hypertension · 2006
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