You can lower high blood pressure through a combination of dietary changes, regular exercise, weight loss, and, when necessary, medication. Most people with mildly elevated readings (120–139 systolic) can make real progress with lifestyle changes alone. Under the 2025 guidelines from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology, normal blood pressure is below 120/80, elevated is 120–129 systolic, Stage 1 hypertension is 130–139/80–89, and Stage 2 is 140/90 or higher.
Change How You Eat
Diet is one of the most powerful tools you have. The DASH eating plan, developed specifically to lower blood pressure, emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein while sharply limiting sodium and added sugars. For a standard 2,000-calorie day, the plan calls for 4–5 servings each of fruits and vegetables, 6–8 servings of grains, 2–3 servings of low-fat dairy, and no more than 6 servings of meat, poultry, or fish. Nuts, seeds, and legumes come in at 4–5 servings per week, and sweets are capped at 5 or fewer per week.
Sodium is the single most impactful nutrient to cut. The standard target is 2,300 milligrams per day, roughly one teaspoon of table salt. Dropping further to 1,500 mg per day lowers blood pressure even more. Most excess sodium comes not from the salt shaker but from packaged foods, restaurant meals, bread, deli meats, and canned soups. Reading labels and cooking at home more often are the fastest ways to get sodium under control.
Potassium works as a natural counterbalance to sodium. When you eat more potassium, your kidneys excrete more sodium in your urine. The modern American diet provides roughly 2,500 mg of potassium per day, far below ancestral intake levels estimated at around 10,500 mg. You don’t need supplements to improve the ratio. Bananas, potatoes, spinach, beans, avocados, and yogurt are all rich sources. Simply eating more produce and fewer processed foods shifts the sodium-to-potassium balance in the right direction.
Get Moving Regularly
Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity. That’s about 30 minutes of brisk walking five days a week, or shorter sessions of running, cycling, or swimming. A combination of aerobic exercise and resistance training (like bodyweight exercises or lifting weights) provides the most benefit for heart health. You don’t have to do it all at once. Three 10-minute walks spread through the day count.
The blood pressure drop from regular exercise can be significant, often comparable to what a single medication achieves. The effect builds over weeks, so consistency matters more than intensity. If you’ve been sedentary, start with whatever you can manage and add time gradually.
Lose Even a Small Amount of Weight
If you’re carrying extra weight, losing it is one of the most effective things you can do. A large meta-analysis of randomized trials found that for every kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) of weight lost, systolic blood pressure drops by roughly 1 mmHg and diastolic by about 0.9 mmHg. That may sound modest per kilogram, but a 10-kilogram (22-pound) loss translates to a roughly 10-point drop in the top number. For many people, that’s the difference between needing medication and not.
The mechanism isn’t just about the number on the scale. Losing weight reduces the total volume of blood your heart needs to pump, decreases stiffness in your arteries, and improves how your body handles insulin, all of which affect blood pressure independently.
Limit Alcohol
Alcohol raises blood pressure in a dose-dependent way, meaning the more you drink, the higher the effect. Current guidelines recommend limiting intake to no more than one drink per day for women and two for men, though recent evidence suggests even lower amounts are better for cardiovascular health. If you drink regularly and have high blood pressure, cutting back is one of the simpler changes that can produce a measurable difference within weeks.
Address Sleep Problems
Poor sleep, particularly obstructive sleep apnea, is the most common secondary contributor to blood pressure that won’t respond to standard treatment. During apnea episodes, your airway collapses repeatedly overnight, triggering surges in stress hormones that raise blood pressure both during sleep and throughout the next day. Over time, this creates a cycle: high blood pressure promotes fluid shifts that narrow the airway further, worsening the apnea and pushing blood pressure higher still.
Treatment with a CPAP machine, which keeps the airway open during sleep, produces a modest but consistent blood pressure reduction, typically around 2–4 mmHg on average. In people with additional conditions like diabetes, the effect can be larger, with one study showing drops of 9 mmHg systolic and 7 mmHg diastolic. If you snore heavily, wake up gasping, or feel exhausted despite a full night’s sleep, getting evaluated for sleep apnea is worth it.
Try Slow Breathing Exercises
Slow, paced breathing is a low-cost tool that can complement other strategies. A 12-week study of healthy adults found that regular slow breathing exercises produced a significant reduction in blood pressure. The practice works by shifting your nervous system away from “fight or flight” mode and toward a calmer state that relaxes blood vessels. Five to ten minutes of slow, deep breathing daily is a reasonable starting point, and several guided apps exist specifically for this purpose.
Monitor Your Blood Pressure at Home
Home monitoring gives you a clearer picture than occasional office visits, where readings can be artificially high from anxiety or artificially low from a rushed measurement. The American Heart Association recommends sitting quietly for at least five minutes before measuring, with your arm supported at heart level on a flat surface. Place the cuff on bare skin just above the bend of your elbow. Take two readings one minute apart, at the same time each day. Don’t smoke, drink caffeine, or exercise within 30 minutes beforehand, and empty your bladder first.
Tracking your numbers over time helps you see which changes are actually working. It also provides your doctor with far better data than a single reading taken in a clinical setting.
When Medication Becomes Necessary
Lifestyle changes are the foundation, but some people need medication in addition to, or sometimes instead of, those changes. This is especially true at Stage 2 (140/90 or higher), or at Stage 1 if you have other risk factors like diabetes, kidney disease, or a history of heart attack or stroke. Several classes of blood pressure medication work in different ways: some relax blood vessels, some reduce the volume of fluid in your bloodstream, and others slow your heart rate or block hormones that raise blood pressure. Most are taken once daily and are well tolerated.
If you’re prescribed medication, it doesn’t mean lifestyle efforts failed. The two approaches work together, and many people who adopt the dietary and exercise changes described above are eventually able to reduce their medication dose over time, with their doctor’s guidance.