Concerned About Fluctuating Blood Pressure?

There are many reasons for fluctuating blood pressure, from the foods we eat to serious health conditions. Understanding your fluctuating blood pressure can help you protect your heart and lower your risk of any cardiovascular events.

There is an ongoing debate on what is considered healthy or normal blood pressure, but the general consensus is a reading of less than 120/80 mmHg. Blood pressure can fluctuate in a second, so if you’re concerned about yours, you should check it frequently and chart the results for your doctor to review.

Below we will outline the many different causes of fluctuating blood pressure along with tips to help manage your blood pressure.

Common causes for fluctuating blood pressure

Food sensitivities: Consuming foods that don’t agree with us can cause a spike in blood pressure. This is commonly seen in salt sensitivities or after consuming high amounts of salt. Although this issue will resolve on its own a few hours after consuming the trigger food, you may want to make diet changes in order to prevent future fluctuations.

The researchers found that blood pressure variability was associated with worse performance on all cognitive tests, and the results remained the same even after taking into consideration cardiovascular disease risk factors.

Higher visit-to-visit blood pressure variability was associated with the lower cognitive function, as well as higher stroke risk.

Researcher Simon Mooijaart explained, “We showed that high visit-to-visit systolic and diastolic blood pressure variability associated with worse performance in different domains of cognitive function, including selection attention, processing speed, immediate verbal memory, and delayed verbal memory.”

Whether higher blood pressure variability is a cause or a result of cognitive impairment is still unclear.

The researchers concluded, “Higher visit-to-visit blood pressure variability independent of average blood pressure might be a potential risk factor with worse cognitive performance in older subjects at high risk of cardiovascular disease.”

Tips to manage blood pressure fluctuations naturally

In order to manage your blood pressure fluctuations, it’s important to understand their cause. For example, avoiding trigger foods, staying well hydrated, reducing your LDL cholesterol, preventing illness and fever, watching your caffeine intake, and reducing stress naturally can all help better manage your blood pressure fluctuations.

Generally, to maintain healthy blood pressure, it’s important to quit smoking, reduce alcohol intake, eat healthy meals, exercise regularly, reduce stress, sleep well, and maintain a healthy weight. By making these healthy lifestyle adjustments you can achieve healthier blood pressure readings.

Reprinted with permission from Bel Marra Health.

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