How to get high blood pressure down quickly?

It's possible to get an artificially high blood pressure reading at home. Making sure you correctly measure your blood pressure is key and can lower your results immediately.

In this article, learn more about how to lower your blood pressure and take an accurate measurement.

There is no real way to quickly get your blood pressure down at home. If you have high blood pressure, it's important to make long-term lifestyle and behavioral changes and even consider medication if a healthcare provider recommends it.

If you're taking your blood pressure at home, it's important to ensure you take it correctly.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the following factors might cause an unusually high blood pressure reading:

To take your blood pressure accurately, be sure to follow the guidance below:

If you get a high blood pressure reading at home, try the steps above again and retake your blood pressure before worrying or calling for medical help. You may find that your blood pressure is significantly lower by using the correct positioning.

Unlike alcohol, which can raise your blood pressure long-term, caffeine increases your blood pressure temporarily. According to research, your blood pressure can be elevated for up to three hours after drinking coffee.

In order to get the most accurate blood pressure reading, avoid drinking coffee (or any caffeinated beverages) three hours before measurement. The good news is you don't have to cut out coffee entirely.

A stressful situation can raise your blood pressure temporarily, and chronic stress can raise your blood pressure long term. This is why stress management is one of the best ways to naturally lower blood pressure. However, "stressing less" is easier said than done.

The following stress-reduction techniques may help you lower your blood pressure:

If you have persistent high blood pressure, your healthcare provider may recommend a medication to lower your blood pressure.

The five types of medication used to lower blood pressure include:

It is essential to follow your healthcare provider's instructions with any medication. Often, you have to take blood pressure medication at the same time each day for the best results.

Getting poor-quality sleep can increase your risk of high blood pressure. The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends six to eight hours of sleep per night to avoid cardiovascular (heart) issues.

If you have trouble getting enough quality sleep, consider talking to your healthcare provider. They may recommend a sleep study to see if there are other underlying causes, like sleep apnea, or lifestyle changes to encourage better sleep habits.

Smoking increases your risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke. Quitting smoking could make a big difference in your blood pressure.

Even switching to a less harmful alternative, like e-cigarettes, could benefit blood pressure. One study found that smokers that reduced or quit smoking by switching to e-cigarettes effectively lowered their blood pressure long-term.

Alcohol can raise your blood pressure. Try to reduce your alcohol consumption, especially if you're already at risk or have high blood pressure. The CDC recommends men drink no more than two alcoholic drinks daily, and women no more than one.

There is strong evidence to support regular exercise and physical activity as a way to lower blood pressure.

The AHA recommends adults get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic physical activity weekly. Two days of muscle-strengthening exercises per week is also recommended.

Some ways to get this exercise in include:

People with high blood pressure are often told to eat less salt. Reducing the sodium in your diet can be difficult because many foods that you don't think of as salty actually contain a lot of sodium. You'll have to adjust your diet and monitor food labels; a dietitian can help with this.

According to one systematic review, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet is the most effective dietary approach to lowering blood pressure. This diet was created and funded by the National Institute of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and involves limiting sodium to 2,300 milligrams a day; limiting fried, sugary, fatty, and processed foods; and eating more foods that are rich in magnesium, calcium, and potassium.

If you are overweight and have high blood pressure, losing weight could help normalize your blood pressure. According to the CDC, this is because, with less body fat, your heart will undergo less stress pumping blood throughout the body.

Drinking enough water provides us with the optimal amount of fluids for our heart to pump without stressing it. Too little water can cause your blood pressure to lower or rise.

Being dehydrated can cause low blood pressure or orthostatic hypotension (a drop in blood pressure when changing position) due to low blood volume. Chronic dehydration, on the other hand, can lead to high blood pressure because your body reacts by constricting vessels.

Drinking a glass of water likely isn't going to immediately affect your blood pressure. However, maintaining optimal hydration can help manage your blood pressure in the long term.

If you have high blood pressure, your healthcare provider has probably asked you to monitor your blood pressure at home. Don't worry, you don't have to learn how to use a manual sphygmomanometer. Nowadays, there are plenty of automatic blood pressure monitors that you can use in the comfort of your own home that just require some positioning and the click of a button.

However, the downside is these devices can be less accurate than manual measurement. Be sure to follow the positioning and environmental instructions for accurate results.

You also want to be sure you take your blood pressure at the same time each day and that it is correctly positioned on your arm. Each device is different, so follow the instructions on yours, or ask your healthcare provider to show you how at your next office or home visit.

Normal blood pressure is considered to be less than 120/80 mm Hg. The AHA's blood pressure guidelines do not specify any changes in normal blood pressure recommendations depending on age.

There are many ways to lower blood pressure, but none is quick. Changes in diet, weight loss, exercise, medication, stress reduction, quitting smoking and alcohol, and improving sleep quality can all lower your blood pressure long term.

In the short term, be sure you are measuring your blood pressure correctly. Incorrect positioning, a full bladder, or physical activity immediately before a measurement can give an artificially high reading.

Having a high blood pressure reading can be frightening, and it's only natural to look for a quick fix to bring that reading down. Apart from medical intervention in an emergency setting, there is no way to bring blood pressure down quickly. If you want to lower your blood pressure, it's worth putting in the work long term with lifestyle and behavioral changes and any recommended medication.

• Take a warm bath or shower. Stay in your shower or bath for at least 15 minutes and enjoy the warm water.
• Do a breathing exercise. Take a deep breath from your core, hold your breath for about two seconds, then slowly exhale.
• Relax!

A meta-analysis of 65 studies suggests that aerobic and resistance exercise can significantly lower blood pressure, especially for men (4).

In a 2013 study, sedentary older adults who participated in aerobic exercise training lowered their blood pressure by an average of 3.9 percent systolic and 4.5 percent diastolic (5). These results are as good as some blood pressure medications.

As you regularly increase your heart and breathing rates, over time your heart gets stronger and pumps with less effort. This puts less pressure on your arteries and lowers your blood pressure.

How much activity should you strive for?

A 2019 report by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association advises moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity for 40-minute sessions, three to four times per week (6).

If finding 40 minutes at a time is a challenge, there may still be benefits when the time is divided into three or four 10- to 15-minute segments throughout the day (7).

The American College of Sports Medicine makes similar recommendations (8).

But you don’t have to run marathons. Increasing your activity level can be as simple as:

Just do it regularly and work up to at least half an hour per day of moderate activity.

One example of moderate activity that can have big results is tai chi. A 2017 review on the effects of tai chi and high blood pressure shows an overall average of a 15.6 mm Hg drop in systolic blood pressure and a 10.7 mm Hg drop in diastolic blood pressure compared with no exercise at all (9).

A 2014 review on exercise and lowering blood pressure found that there are many combinations of exercise that can lower blood pressure (10).

These exercises include:

Ongoing studies continue to suggest that there are still benefits to even light physical activity, especially for older adults (11).