Hawthorn berries
High blood pressure is a common condition that doesn't always have symptoms. Due to this, many people have high blood pressure for years without being diagnosed. Even if you don't experience symptoms though, high blood pressure still affects your health. It is a major factor in heart attacks, heart failure, kidney failure and strokes. Often the cause of high blood pressure is unknown, but changes to diet and lifestyle are almost always successful in bringing blood pressure down. There are a few herbs that also can help lower blood pressure.
Hawthorn
One of the most effective herbs in lowering blood pressure is hawthorn. Extract from the berries of the hawthorn plant can help lower blood pressure by breaking up cholesterol deposits that may line the walls of arteries. It also causes the arteries to dilate, which allows blood to flow more freely through them, resulting in a decrease in blood pressure. Hawthorn has been used for hundreds of years in the treatment of high blood pressure and generally is consumed in a tea. If you drink one or two cups of hawthorn tea per day, you can expect it to take at least two months to have an effect on your blood pressure.
Garlic
If you are looking for a fast-acting herb that can bring down blood pressure, garlic has one of the most immediate results when it comes to lowering blood pressure. Raw, uncooked garlic is beneficial for overall cardio health and can bring blood pressure down within two to three hours after it is eaten. While cooked garlic also has some positive effects on cardio health, cooking garlic eliminates many of this herb's most beneficial properties. So try to find a way to incorporate raw garlic into your diet. If you can't handle eating garlic raw, a garlic supplement can offer the same benefits.
Other Herbs
Though hawthorn and garlic are two of the best things that you can add to your diet for heart health, lime blossom, saffron and ginkgo biloba also are useful in lowering blood pressure. Lime blossom and saffron both can be made into tea, which, consumed daily, will help bring high blood pressure down within a week or two. These herbs also can be added to recipes, but both have strong flavors that will change the flavor of foods, and so you should be judicious when adding these herbs to recipes. The final herb, ginkgo biloba, is usually taken in the form of supplements.
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