Helping your elderly loved one control his or her blood pressure lowers his or her risk of serious illnesses, like heart disease and stroke. Though high blood pressure, or hypertension, can be controlled with medications, lifestyle changes can also have a big impact on your elderly loved one’s blood pressure. Oakville home care specialists encourage their clients to try basic diet fixes and exercise routines in order to regulate blood pressure. Here are 6 of their tips for helping seniors make small lifestyle changes that can help control blood pressure naturally.
1. Eat Greens & Beans
Studies show that leafy greens, including spinach and arugula, and legumes, like soy, kidney, navy, garbanzo, and pinto beans, are rich in potassium, magnesium, folate, and fiber, can help control high blood pressure. Having an hourly caregiver Oakville incorporate a small spinach and garbanzo bean salad into dinner plans will satisfy your loved one’s palate and help control his or her blood pressure.
2. Increase Potassium
Encourage your loved one to include a banana in his or her morning breakfast. Similar to greens and beans, bananas have high amounts of blood-pressure-reducing potassium and can serve as an easy and delicious way to decrease blood pressure.
3. Encourage Light Cardio
Light cardio exercises are important for maintaining heart health. Low-impact exercises, like walking and swimming, can help raise your loved one’s heart rate and, as a result, lower high blood pressure.
4. Reduce Salt & Increase Use of Herbs for Flavor
Excessive use of salt is one of the main culprits in chronic high blood pressure. While salt adds flavor, using fresh herbs like parsley, basil, thyme, marjoram, oregano, or rosemary is an easy way to keep your loved one’s food flavorful and heart healthy.
5. Try Relaxation Breathing or Meditation
Deep breathing and meditation can help relax your elderly relative’s body and mind, decreasing stress. Practicing meditation and breathing exercises regularly is known to reduce chronic high blood pressure and improve overall heart health.
6. Give up Smoking & Cut Back on Alcohol or Caffeine
Beyond blood pressure concerns, giving up smoking has numerous, documented health benefits, while reducing alcohol and caffeine intake can also lower blood pressure. Although an occasional glass of red wine has some heart benefits, many other alcohols are high in sodium, a nutrient that, in high quantities, aggravates high blood pressure.
Making lifestyle changes is one of the safest ways for your aging loved one to address concerns about his or her blood pressure. If you want to learn more about how an expertly trained hourly or live-in caregiver in Oakville can help your relative adjust to a new, healthy diet or exercise routine, reach out to Home Care Assistance. Give a Care Manager a call at (905) 337-1200 to schedule a free, in-home consultation.