What are the alternatives to blood pressure medication?

Helpful measures can include reducing salty processed foods, choosing a balanced eating pattern, moving regularly, reaching a healthier weight where appropriate, moderating alcohol, avoiding tobacco and improving sleep. The suitable plan depends on your health, medicines and daily routine. These changes may improve blood pressure, but they do not make prescribed treatment unnecessary for everyone.

Repeated measurements help distinguish a persistent pattern from a temporary rise caused by pain, stress or an illness. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring can show readings during normal activities and sleep. If high blood pressure is left untreated, it can contribute to problems affecting the heart, brain and blood vessels, including angina, stroke or a transient ischaemic attack.

Do not stop, reduce or replace prescribed medicine without a plan. Keep a home-reading log, take medicines as directed, and bring the list to reviews. Ask about sleep, kidney health, other medicines and substances that might raise readings. Set one practical change at a time, such as a regular walking routine or lower-salt meal choices, and review the effect rather than judging it from one reading.

Get emergency help for chest pain, severe breathlessness, fainting, new weakness or numbness on one side, trouble speaking, confusion, or a sudden severe headache. These may indicate a medical emergency. Contact your clinician promptly if readings remain high, treatment causes troublesome effects, or you are unsure whether a dose should be changed.

Could lifestyle changes be enough for my current readings? What target and monitoring schedule apply to me? Could another medicine or condition be affecting my pressure? How should I adjust care if readings change?