Blood Pressure

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Calcium

137.   People who get very little calcium in their diet, often have high BP. This bone-building mineral keeps your muscles, including your heart, strong and working efficiently. It also works to keep your BP normal. Salt-sensitive people retain water when they eat too much sodium. Calcium, like potassium, acts as a natural diuretic to help kidneys release sodium and water in the urine, thus helping to reduce BP.

138.   To absorb calcium, you must have a sufficient amount of vitamin D in your body, which you can get by exposing your body daily to the sun for 10-15 minutes or an half hour walk in the sunlight.

139.   Good sources of calcium include citrus fruits, spinach, turnip greens, broccoli, methi leaves, mustard leaves, green leafy vegetables, wholegrains, almonds, soya, tofu, skimmed and lowfat milk and yoghurt, cottage cheese, salmon, mackerel and perch.

Other Beneficial Nutrients that Lower Blood Pressure

Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine)

140.   This influences the nervous system in a manner that leads to reduction in high BP. Foods rich in vitamin B6 include wholewheat, wholegrain cereals, peanuts, green cabbage, potatoes, peas, bananas, lean meat, liver and fish.

Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)

141.   The antioxidant vitamin C is essential for capillary fragility and for strengthening the connective tissue of collagen that supports the blood vessel walls. Hence the liberal use of vitamin C in diet has a protective effect on blood vessels and is a powerful preventive medicine against hypertension. A study found that low blood level of vitamin C raised systolic pressure about 16% and diastolic by about 9%.

142.   Another beneficial effect of vitamin C on BP is put forward by some that it helps to excrete lead in our body which is associated with high BP.