To ask if you can help me lower my blood pressure.

[wonderfulwelshwench]

My BP is high. I've been given 3 months to lower it, or I need to go on meds.
I occasionally have a cigarette. That stops now.
I definitely drink more alcohol than I should, so that will be cut down.
I'm not inactive, I ride my bike most days, and am doing C2K running. But I'm going to up my exercise levels.
I'm not officially overweight, but I have put weight on recently and I eat too much sugar. So I need to sort out my diet.
Salt - my GP said a a low / no salt diet. I'm not a "salty" person, but think there is lots of hidden salt that I just eat without realising. How do I best avoid it?
Stress - I'm hoping to reduce my work hours, but this won't happen straight away.

So, AIBU to ask for you help and words of wisdom? Please

I think you know all the right things, so that’s a good starting point. With the salt thing the best thing is to prepare as much food as you can from scratch so you know what’s going into it and can therefore control the salt.

I think you’ll find if you follow the rules you’ve set yourself it should come down.

Salty food - balances out with potassium rich food. Potassium rich foods include citrus fruits, bananas and potatoes. Cheese, bread, processed meat, other highly processed food, tinned food are things to watch the salt content in.

Low carb- reduces insulin in body. High insulin can raise cortisol and blood pressure IIRC

My mother managed to lower her blood pressure by going up and down her stairs, 10 times, several times a day.

I'm not a "salty" person, but think there is lots of hidden salt that I just eat without realising. How do I best avoid it?

Cook everything from scratch.

Learn to meditate.

Diet, exercise and also go to the dentist & hygienist if you haven't been recently. Gum disease and oral inflammation can be a little-known factor in high blood pressure: www.perio.org/consumer/hypertension-oral-hygiene
www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/news/20171114/can-treating-gum-disease-help-with-blood-pressure

Intermittent fasting, such as the 5:2 diet is supposed to help lower BP, and it will help with losing a bit of weight too.

Have a look at the DASH diet (dietary approach to stop hypertension).

Also regular walking is proven to lower bp

Good luck

I was a bit OTT about ensuring by baby didn’t go over the 1g of salt per day. I’m now a bit of an expert in hidden salt. Cheese, bread and canned foods are often pretty high. Some own brands are better than brands but you have to look at labels as it varies a lot. Emmental is the lowest salt cheese I found.

Have you had a 24he monitor on or got your own machine to check your BP. I only ask because mine is only high when a health professional is looking at it. Apparently i have whitecoatitis even though I never actually feel nervous or anxious.

Eat lots of garlic. Cut out crisps and snacks. Don't bother with salt substitute as it still has sodium chloride in it.
Look for sodium and salt in the ingedients list. If it says "Sodium x g", multiply that by 2.5 to get the approx. salt value.

How is your sleep? Poor sleep/ apnea can also raise your BP.

Beetroot

I second sleep. I am reading the amazing book www.amazon.co.uk/Why-We-Sleep-Science-Dreams-ebook/dp/B06Y649387/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Why+we+sleep&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1528480581&sr=8-1

And a little more sleep has amazing health benefits

Thanks guys. Katecurios yes I've had the monitor. It was lower than in the GP's room, but still high :(

Does anyone have any tips for what to use in place of stock cubes? Or of good low salt cubes? I'm not bad at cooking from scratch, but think stock cubes are a culprit re increasing my salt intake.

Kallo or marigold swiss boullion do lower salt versions. Also beware of misleading information on packaging. Soups are notoriously high in salt. I think Yorkshire Provinder soups give their information per 100g & there is 600g in the carton so it ends up being 0.53g x 6 so 3.9g overall which is over-half of recommended daily allowance.