Is Blood Pressure Medication Still Necessary If I Lose Weight?

Blood pressure medication may still be necessary if you lose weight. However, the dose may be reduced if you slim down.

Why Blood Pressure Medication May Still Be Needed After Weight Loss? 

Losing 5 pounds or 2.3 kilograms of weight can help in lowering or regulating your blood pressure. That’s why doctors recommend to their patients to lose weight in addition to taking blood pressure medication.

Just because you have lost a significant amount of weight, it doesn’t mean that you can stop taking BP medication abruptly without consulting with your physician.

How Weight Loss Can Help Take Charge of Your Blood Pressure? 

As your body weight increases, so does your blood pressure. Thus, your doctor will highly recommend losing weight to improve your numbers.

A pound of weight loss can already lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The more weight you lose, the lower your risk of suffering from the consequences of high blood pressure. In that case, you can benefit from dropping 20 pounds of weight.

Then again, just because you have lost a significant amount of weight, it doesn’t mean that you can stop taking blood pressure medication. You still need to consult your prescribing physician.

You may continue to take blood pressure medication but at a lower dose for a certain period.

What’s the Best Way to Lose Weight to Regulate Your Blood Pressure? 

Follow the DASH Diet 

It’s the most highly recommended diet to regulate blood pressure and lose weight. Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) isn’t too strict. However, you need to eat foods that are high in potassium, magnesium, and calcium.

Read: Meal Plan for Blood Pressure and Weight Loss

However, you should not stop taking sodium. Instead, you need to limit your sodium intake. When you’re on a DASH diet, you should only eat up to 2,300 mg of sodium.

Wondering what it looks like? It’s a teaspoon of table salt.

• On the Dash diet, you need up to 8 services of grains a day, 5 servings of vegetables per day, and 5 servings of fruits each day.
• For low-fat dairy products, you can only take up to 3 servings a day.
• You can eat lean meat, fish, and poultry. But limit it to an ounce per serving.
• For Nuts, you can have up to 5 servings a week.
• Don’t ignore fats and oil. But limit them to 3 servings each day.
• For sweets or added sugars, you can have 5 servings a week.

Regular Exercise 

When lowering your blood pressure, you need to get at least 30 minutes of physical activity.

• 10 minutes of brisk walking three times a day can prevent blood pressure spikes.
• Hiking can be good for your blood pressure and it can lower it up to 10 points
• 30 minutes of biking will also help
• Weight training can also reduce blood pressure

Avoid Alcohol 

Drinking too much alcohol can significantly raise your blood pressure.

That’s why it’s important that you cut back or limit your alcohol intake to lower your numbers. If you can’t avoid drinking alcohol, you can limit it to one drink a day.

It’s also important to note that alcohol contains a huge amount of calories that can contribute to unwanted weight gain. Keep in mind that weight gain can increase your blood pressure.

Furthermore, alcohol can interfere with some blood pressure medication.

For that reason, try as hard as you can to avoid drinking alcohol.

Stop Smoking 

You already know that smoking is bad for your overall health. It increases your blood pressure and puts you at high risk of heart disease.

There are no benefits of smoking only disadvantages.

For your own health, you should stop smoking.

Can Meditation Help in Lowering Your Blood Pressure? 

The goal is to actually regulate your blood pressure. And meditation is a perfect way to help you achieve that goal.

Some people who are taking blood pressure medications still can’t control their blood pressure. But after pairing them with meditation, their blood pressure dropped and their doctors also order them to stop some of their medications to treat their hypertension.

When you’re meditating, you’re relaxing your body. And when you’re in a relaxed state, it increases nitric oxide formation. It’s a compound that opens up blood vessels. As a result, it lowers blood pressure.

But to obtain the benefits of meditation for your blood pressure, you need to do it every day. It’s the hardest part — the commitment. When your life gets too busy, it’s hard to find the time to meditate.

However, if you just commit to at least 10 minutes each day to meditation, it can make a difference to your blood pressure.

Your heart will thank you for it.

Conclusion 

Is blood pressure medication still necessary if I lose weight? You may continue to take your blood pressure medication even if you have lost a significant amount of weight. However, the dosage may be reduced. But you need to consult your prescribing physician about the dose that you need.

To know more about how to regulate your blood pressure, please check out these natural remedies to lower your BP.