If you have high blood pressure or doctor diagnosed hypertension you may be put on a water to help lower your blood pressure. Water pills also known as diuretics, function to remove sodium from the body. This occurs through urination.
For some people this quite frequent and very inconvenient. Another drawback to this medication is that it also removes other vital nutrients like vitamin C that you need for daily function.
Water pills are also used in combination with other medication to lower pressure within the blood vessels. Most commonly it is combined with an ACE Inhibitor. This makes this drug quite powerful and can lead to many harmful side effects.
Here are a few things you can do and eat to avoid taking a water pill. Obviously the first thing you want to do is reduce your salt intake. It is important that you take a good look at food labels and eat only foods that have less than 200mg of salt per serving. Ideally you want less than 2400mg of salt a day. Less than 1500mg a day would be ideal.
Next you want to find foods that are natural diuretics.
Here are just a few natural diuretics:
o Raspberries
o Strawberries
o Turnip zucchini
The following natural diuretics have high water content:
o Brussel Sprouts -stimulates the kidneys and pancreas. Helps the cleansing of the cells
o Cabbage – breaks down fatty deposits, especially around the belly region -helpful if you a big gut.
o Carrots
It is great that these foods are natural diuretics; however it is important that you drink lots of water as well to maintain fluid balance.
The good thing about these foods is that you can get them all at a grocery store and it is something you can implement into your lifestyle if choose to.
The only challenge may be your taste buds. Remember you need to like what you eat to be successful in lowering blood pressure.
No comments:
Post a Comment