6 Ways to Lower Your Blood Pressure Without Medication

Try these tactics to help fight hypertension and bring your numbers down

Beth Howard,

AARP

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En español

Published November 03, 2022

/ Updated April 26, 2024

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High Blood Pressure Treatments

Before David Hampshere started taking medication for high blood pressure, his numbers soared to an unhealthy 150/100 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). For comparison, a normal blood pressure should clock in below 120/80 mm Hg, according to the American Heart Association.

But when Hampshere, a Florida-based real estate investor, lost 80 pounds over a period of nine months, his blood pressure dipped down to normal. With the extra weight gone — and a daily game of pickleball to keep it off — Hampshere’s doctor let him experiment with going off his blood pressure medication. And by Hampshere’s next exam, his doctor agreed the medicine wasn't needed anymore.

More than 100 million Americans — or nearly half of U.S. adults — have high blood pressure (also called hypertension), which is a leading risk factor for heart disease. Although many are on medication to lower their blood pressure, some 30 million Americans out of that grand total have what’s known as stage 1 hypertension, for which blood pressure–lowering medication is not always recommended. (Stage 1 is when the systolic, or upper, number on a blood pressure reading is between 130 and 139 mm Hg and the diastolic, or bottom, number is between 80 and 89 mm Hg.)

If left untreated, hypertension can lead to heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and kidney disease, particularly among men and people of color, says Kendra Sims, an epidemiologist at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine.

Lifestyle tweaks such as losing weight, reducing salt intake, exercising, limiting alcohol and lowering stress are all effective ways to wrangle hypertension, research shows.

Here are a few more unexpected strategies, though it’s important to note that if you’re on blood pressure medication, you should never stop taking it without consulting your doctor.

1. Train your breathing muscles

High-intensity breathing using a device that creates resistance when you inhale led to lower blood pressure readings over time, according to a 2022 study from the University of Colorado in Boulder.

“We found that 30 resisted inhales per day, five to seven days a week for six weeks, lowered systolic blood pressure by 9 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure by 4 mm Hg,” explained study coauthor Daniel Craighead, an assistant research professor in the university’s Integrative Physiology of Aging Laboratory.

The effect is comparable to that of aerobic exercise, such as walking or running — though you’ll want to continue your regular workouts for other health benefits. And this breath training can lower blood pressure as effectively as hypertension medications, researchers have noted.

“If that’s maintained over the long term, that’s enough to decrease the risk for cardiovascular disease by 25 percent,” Craighead says.

High-intensity breathing seems to work by promoting the production of nitric oxide, a heart-helpful compound in the cells that line blood vessel walls, Craighead says. Regular breathing workouts help to expand blood vessels, improving blood flow.

Participants in the study used a device called PowerBreathe. There are similar devices on the market to get your diaphragm and other breathing muscles in better shape — and to possibly lower your blood pressure.

2. Take 8,200 steps a day

You may have heard that you need to get in 10,000 steps a day for good health, but it looks like 8,200 may be the magic number, according to recent research from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The study, which included more than 6,000 people with a median age of 57, used electronic health records as well as data from their Fitbit devices to reach this conclusion.

This step count was not only key to lowering blood pressure, but it also helped keep weight under control. People who were categorized as overweight were able to lower their risk of obesity by 64 percent by stepping it up and increasing their daily step count to 11,000.

Can’t get 8,200 steps in? Though it may not make a significant dent in your blood pressure numbers, taking just 2,337 steps can lower your odds of dying from cardiovascular disease, according to research published in 2023 in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

3. Adopt the “blood pressure diet”

Looking for a reliable way to lower high blood pressure? Try the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, ranks at the top of the American Heart Association’ 's list of best heart-healthy diets.

Researchers from UCSF analyzed the effects of various lifestyle approaches to lowering hypertension and estimated that widespread adoption of the diet — which emphasizes fruits and vegetables, lean protein and low sodium — could prevent 26,000 heart-related events and close to 3,000 deaths.

The researchers only focused on people with stage 1 hypertension, notes Sims, a coauthor on the study, published in the journal Hypertension. “The benefits are probably bigger because if we all followed the diet, we would stop people from even being in the higher risk groups,” she adds.

Similar to the Mediterranean diet, the DASH eating plan calls for:

6 to 8 servings of grains a day
4 to 5 servings of fruit a day
4 to 5 servings of vegetables a day
6 or fewer 1-ounce servings of lean meat, poultry or fish a day
2 to 3 servings of low-fat dairy a day
4 to 5 weekly servings of nuts, beans or seeds
Sparing amounts of salt, sugar and fat

And while it may take time to get used to all the extra fiber, the results speak for themselves.

4. Take up tai chi

Recent Chinese research suggests this gentle exercise, which involves slow, flowing motions and deep breathing, can improve hypertension. The study of 208 people with somewhat elevated blood pressure found that those who practiced tai chi for three months significantly decreased their blood pressure, compared with those who didn’t.

How does it work? Like any form of aerobic exercise, tai chi is intrinsically healthy for your heart and blood vessels. Plus, it’s an excellent form of stress relief and may even pack some brain-boosting benefits.

5. Just stretch

When researchers at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada studied the effect of walking on older adults with hypertension, they found that a control group of people assigned to do simple stretching exercises actually had lower blood pressure readings than those who walked.

“We stumbled into this by accident,” says study author Philip Chilibeck, professor of kinesiology at the University of Saskatchewan. That finding led to a formal study comparing the two activities. The result: Five days a week of stretching for 30 minutes led to greater improvements in blood pressure than five days of 30-minute walks.

Stretching seems to literally stretch a person’s blood vessels, which reduces arterial stiffness, lowering blood pressure, Chilibeck says. He recommends gently stretching the big muscles in the lower body as follows:

To stretch your hamstring muscles (back of the legs), place your foot on a low stool or step and lean forward until you feel the stretch in the back of your leg.

To stretch your quadriceps (front of the thighs), lie on your side with your knee bent behind you. Grab your foot and pull it back toward your butt, feeling the stretch in your front thigh.

Stretch the calves by placing your foot against a wall and leaning forward until you feel the stretch in the back of the lower leg.

Hold each stretch for 30 seconds, then take a break, Chilibeck advises. Repeat the stretch three or four times with both legs. “This is especially useful for people who tend not to be very active,” Chilibeck says. “And it will improve the flexibility of your joints to boot.”

6. Work wall sits into your workout

A review of 270 studies, published in 2023 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM), found that isometric exercises — and wall sits in particular — are effective in lowering blood pressure. In fact, researchers found that these types of exercises — where you hold your body in one position, like a wall sit or a plank — are almost twice as effective at lowering blood pressure compared with just doing cardio-intensive activities, like running and biking.

Ready to give it a try? Experts recommend holding the position for 20 or 30 seconds when starting out, though you should talk to your doctor before starting any new exercise program. You can build up to more time as your body gets used to the exercise. Aim for three sessions of isometric exercises each week.

What About Mindfulness?

Researchers have found that mindfulness might be an effective strategy for lowering blood pressure.

A study published in 2023 in the journal Hypertension found that adults who participated in a customized mindfulness program that promoted self-awareness, attention control and emotional regulation had significantly lower systolic blood pressure numbers six months later, compared with adults who did not complete the mindfulness program.

The randomized controlled trial included more than 200 adults from the Providence, Rhode Island, area who had elevated blood pressure. The average age of the participants was 59.

After an eight-week program that taught participants how to apply mindfulness skills to their eating habits, exercise habits, alcohol use and stress, the researchers found that participants in the mindfulness program slashed their systolic blood pressure by 5.9 mm Hg, on average, compared with a 1.4 mm Hg reduction among participants in the control group.

Participants in the mindfulness group also reduced their sedentary time by an average of 351 minutes each week, the researchers found.

Editor's note: This story, originally published Nov. 3, 2022, has been updated to reflect new information.

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Beth Howard is a North Carolina–based health and lifestyle writer. She has written for dozens of publications, including U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Prevention, Better Homes & Gardens and Reader’s Digest.