Lowering diastolic blood pressure, the bottom number in your reading, relies on the same core strategies that lower blood pressure overall: adjusting your diet, moving more, losing excess weight, managing stress, and sleeping consistently. A normal diastolic reading is below 80 mmHg. Stage 1 hypertension begins at 80 to 89 mmHg, and stage 2 starts at 90 or higher.
Because diastolic pressure reflects how much force your blood exerts on artery walls between heartbeats, anything that keeps your arteries flexible and reduces the volume of fluid your heart has to push will bring that number down. Here’s what works and by how much.
Change Your Eating Pattern
The single most studied dietary approach for blood pressure is the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). It emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and low-fat dairy while cutting back on saturated fat, red meat, and added sugars. In clinical trials, people following the DASH diet saw their diastolic pressure drop by about 3.5 mmHg on average, and the difference compared to a typical American diet was roughly 4.5 mmHg. That may sound modest, but even a 2 to 3 point drop in diastolic pressure meaningfully reduces cardiovascular risk over time.
Two specific nutrients matter most. Sodium pushes your body to retain fluid, which increases the pressure inside your blood vessels. Cutting sodium to around 1,500 mg per day, about two-thirds of a teaspoon of table salt, is one of the most reliable ways to lower both numbers. Most of the sodium people eat doesn’t come from a salt shaker; it comes from processed foods, restaurant meals, bread, deli meat, canned soups, and condiments. Reading labels and cooking at home more often are the most practical steps.
Potassium works in the opposite direction, helping your kidneys flush out sodium and relaxing blood vessel walls. Bananas get all the credit, but potatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach, beans, yogurt, and avocados are all rich sources. Magnesium also supports healthy blood vessel function. The recommended daily intake is 310 to 320 mg for women and 400 to 420 mg for men, and you can get there through nuts, seeds, leafy greens, and whole grains. Supplements are an option, though a recent meta-analysis of randomized trials found no clear dose-response relationship between magnesium supplements and blood pressure changes, so food sources are a better bet.
Lose Weight If You Carry Extra
Excess body weight forces your heart to work harder with every beat, which raises pressure on your artery walls even at rest. A meta-analysis of 25 studies found that each kilogram of weight lost (about 2.2 pounds) is associated with roughly a 1 mmHg drop in blood pressure. Some studies in men with hypertension found a steeper response, closer to 3 mmHg per kilogram lost. That means losing 10 pounds could lower your diastolic reading by 2 to 6 points depending on your starting weight and individual response.
You don’t need to hit an ideal body weight to see benefits. Even a 5 to 10 percent reduction in body weight often produces a noticeable improvement. The method of weight loss matters less than the consistency. Combining the DASH-style eating pattern with a modest calorie reduction tends to produce both weight loss and direct blood pressure lowering, so the effects stack.
Exercise Regularly
Aerobic exercise, the kind that raises your heart rate for a sustained period, lowers resting blood pressure by improving how well your arteries expand and contract. Brisk walking, cycling, swimming, and jogging all count. Aim for at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity activity, which works out to about 30 minutes on most days. The blood pressure benefits typically show up within a few weeks and disappear within a few weeks of stopping, so consistency matters more than intensity.
Resistance training (weight lifting, resistance bands, bodyweight exercises) also helps, though the effect on diastolic pressure is smaller than with aerobic exercise. The combination of both types gives you the best overall cardiovascular benefit. One important note: heavy lifting can temporarily spike blood pressure during the exercise itself. If your diastolic pressure is already in the stage 2 range (90 or higher), start with lighter weights and higher repetitions until your baseline comes down.
Manage Stress and Practice Relaxation
When you’re stressed, your body constricts blood vessels and increases inflammation, both of which raise diastolic pressure. Chronic stress keeps these mechanisms activated for hours or days at a time, contributing to a persistently elevated baseline. Techniques that trigger the body’s relaxation response can reverse this process. Research from Harvard Medical School found that people who practiced relaxation response training were able to lower their blood pressure enough that some reduced or eliminated their medications entirely.
The relaxation response works by widening blood vessels and dialing down the inflammatory signals that stiffen artery walls. Meditation, deep breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, and yoga can all trigger it. The key is regular practice, ideally 10 to 20 minutes daily, rather than occasional use during moments of acute stress.
Sleep Consistently
Your blood pressure naturally dips by 10 to 20 percent during sleep, a pattern called “nocturnal dipping” that gives your heart and blood vessels time to recover. When your sleep is irregular, this dipping effect weakens. Research published in the AHA journal Hypertension found that for every one-hour increase in variability of sleep duration from night to night, nighttime blood pressure dipping decreased by about 1.4 percent. Losing that nightly dip has been linked to increased organ damage and higher cardiovascular risk.
This means it’s not just about sleeping enough hours. Going to bed and waking up at roughly the same time each day matters for blood pressure specifically. Most adults need seven to eight hours. If you snore loudly or wake up feeling exhausted despite adequate sleep time, sleep apnea could be driving your diastolic pressure up. Treating sleep apnea often produces a measurable drop in both blood pressure numbers.
Limit Alcohol
Alcohol raises blood pressure through several pathways: it activates stress hormones, increases fluid retention, and over time stiffens artery walls. The effect is dose-dependent, meaning the more you drink, the higher your blood pressure climbs. Cutting back to one drink per day or less reliably lowers diastolic pressure within weeks. If you currently drink more than two drinks per day, reducing alcohol may be one of the most impactful single changes you can make.
Caffeine, by contrast, is less of a concern for most people. It can cause a temporary spike of 5 to 10 mmHg in people who don’t drink it regularly, but habitual coffee drinkers develop tolerance. If you already drink coffee daily, it likely isn’t contributing meaningfully to your diastolic reading.
When Lifestyle Changes Aren’t Enough
If your diastolic pressure stays at 80 mmHg or above despite consistent lifestyle changes over several months, medication may be appropriate. The 2025 AHA/ACC guidelines identify four classes of first-line blood pressure medications, and your doctor will choose based on your other health conditions, age, and risk factors. For stage 2 hypertension (diastolic 90 or above), guidelines recommend starting with two medications from different classes rather than one, because combination therapy controls blood pressure faster and more reliably.
Lifestyle changes remain important even if you take medication. They can allow you to use lower doses, reduce side effects, and in some cases eventually come off medication altogether. The strategies above work additively: combining the DASH diet, sodium reduction, regular exercise, weight loss, and stress management can produce a combined diastolic drop that rivals or exceeds what a single medication achieves on its own.