Blood pressure is the force that moves the blood through your circulatory system. Through this force, the essential nutrients and oxygen are pushed all-around your circulatory system.
11 Best Home Remedies for Low BP
#1. Drink More Water
Drinking water prevents dehydration and increases blood volume. Increase in the blood volume results in pumping adequate blood in your circulatory system and helps to treat low blood pressure.
A study conducted by the Vanderbilt University shows that on an average, 16 ounces of water increases the blood pressure by 40 mmHg and your blood pressure raise within two to three minutes.
Drinking water at every one hour of interval helps you to maintain steady blood pressure. Thus, it is recommended to drink at least 2 to 3 liters of water every day.
#2. Consume Adequate Salt
Salt works as an instant blood pressure booster. Including adequate salt in your diet puts a strain on the insides of the arteries.
To deal with the added strain, the tiny muscles in your artery walls become stronger and thicker. This process creates some space inside your artery walls and raises your blood pressure.
Note – you should not consume more than one teaspoon of salt. Excess salt intake raises your blood pressure higher than required and leads to problems like water retention.
#3. Eat Low Carbohydrate Meals Frequently
The carbohydrates in your food lower the blood pressure, and hence you may experience a sudden drop in your blood pressure after consuming a heavy meal. This problem can be eliminated if you incorporate smalls meals frequently throughout the day.
Eat small portions of meals several times a day and try avoiding or limiting high carbohydrate foods such as potatoes, rice and bread.
Caffeine causes a slight increase and improvement in the blood flow. Caffeine blocks certain hormones which help to keep your arteries widened.
Caffeine also causes your adrenal glands to release more adrenaline which causes more blood flow. All these phenomena boost your blood pressure temporarily.
When the blood pressure drops suddenly, consume a cup of coffee and you can feel your blood circulation getting back to a normal state.
Caution – Do not drink caffeinated beverages regularly as you may develop a tolerance to caffeine and you may not have any effect on your blood pressure.
#5. Tulsi (Holy Basil)
The high amount of potassium, magnesium and vitamin C present in the tulsi leaves helps to raise your blood pressure level.
The antioxidant Eugenol present in the tulsi leaves keeps your blood pressure under control. Tulsi leaves also helps to reduce blood cholesterol levels.
Your heart tissue inflammation can lower your blood pressure and can result in myocardial infarction. Myocardial infarction is a mini version of a heart attack.
The alcohol extract of tulsi leaves reduces your heart tissue inflammation and prevents you from myocardial infarction.
#6. Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 helps to produce red blood cells. If you do not add vitamin B12 in your diet, your blood pressure might drop to below normal level. Thus, it is recommended to consume vitamin B12 to check low BP.
Additionally, deficiency in vitamin B12 leads to muscle weakness, blurry vision, memory loss and fatigue, all of which are the symptoms of low blood pressure.
You can boost your vitamin B12 levels by incorporating the following foods in your diet.
#7. Rosemary Oil
Camphor is the essential oil present in rosemary oil. Camphor acts as a stimulant to your circulatory system and promotes blood circulation.
The antihypotensive nature of rosemary oil helps to increase the flow of blood in your circulatory system and raises blood pressure.
How to use rosemary oil
Caution – Rosemary, if used for a prolonged period of time, can have a toxic effect. Hence, it is not recommended for pregnant women and nursing mothers.
#8. Cross Legs at the Knee Level While Sitting
Crossing legs at the knee level result in a higher cardiac output. This mechanism is responsible for an increase in your blood pressure.
Sitting with crossed legs at the knee level also increases your stroke volume which is the amount of blood pumped by the left ventricle of the heart in one contraction.
This phenomenon helps to push sufficient blood to your circulatory system and in turn, helps to increase the blood pressure to an adequate level.
Make sure that you sit with legs crossed at the knee level and not just passing the ankles. Crossing the ankles in the sitting position has no effect on the blood pressure.
#9. Wear Compression Stockings
Compression stockings relieve the pain and swelling on your legs and help to reduce the accumulation of blood in different parts of your venous system. This phenomenon helps to stimulate the movement of blood and increases blood pressure.
Compression stockings also allow the superficial constriction over your legs which in turn helps to maintain more blood in the upper body. This lowers the dizziness you feel especially when you stand up after sitting continuously for a longer period of time.
#10. Avoid Over-consumption of Alcoholic Beverages
Alcohol lowers your blood pressure by 2 to 4 mmHg which is not a threat for a healthy person. However, blood pressure reduces drastically when you over consume alcohol beverages.
Alcohol contains calories that contribute to unwanted weight gains. If you are on a medication, the weight gain interferes with the effectiveness of medication causing adverse side effects.
#11. Lifestyle Changes
Along with the home remedies and diet changes, you should also make specific lifestyle changes in order to treat low blood pressure.
Few lifestyle changes include
Moderate exercises are a great way to increase low blood pressure to normal levels. A gentle warm-up, followed by a resistance training helps to pump more blood to your circulatory system and stimulates blood pressure.
Yoga sessions are a great way to stimulate your blood circulations. Some of the helpful poses are as follows
Rest is the most overlooked but effective ways to increase your blood pressure and to stabilize it at a normal level.
Sleep helps to rest and repair your body from various symptoms of low blood pressure like inflammation and fatigue. Ideally, you have to rest at least 7 to 9 hours a day to stabilize your lower blood pressure.
The Bottom Line
If the home remedies do not work and you still face a sudden drop in the blood pressure, or you are on any other medication, then it is better to visit a doctor.