Does a cold shower lower blood pressure

I like swimming in cold water. I often swim in the bracing ocean and lake waters near my summer home in British Columbia, and I frequently end showers with a cold rinse, which is stimulating to the nervous system and can wake you up. It also helps retain heat in the body by constricting surface blood vessels. There’s not much scientific information on this subject – in a search of the medical literature, I could find only nine studies that mention cold showers (also know as cold plunges), and none of the investigations was recent. However, the smattering of research that has been done suggests that regular exposure to cold water (via showers, baths or swims) may have some health benefits, including:

• Boosting the immune system: a study from England found that taking daily cold showers increased the numbers of disease-fighting white blood cells (compared to people who took hot showers). The investigators at Britain’s Thrombosis Research Institute suggested that as the body tries to warm itself during and after a cold shower, metabolic rate speeds up and activates the immune system, which leads to the release of more white blood cells. And, according to a German study, an occasional winter swim in cold water causes oxidative stress, but, done regularly, such swimming leads to an adaptive antioxidant response; in other words, the body is better able to combat oxidative stress in general once it’s accustomed to cold-water swims.
• Preventing injury: Soaking in a cold bath (also known as an "ice bath" or "cold therapy") is said to help reduce swelling and tissue breakdown in runners after distance runs. However, the few studies actually completed and published have been inconclusive or contradictory, so until we get more definitive findings, these claimed benefits can’t be confirmed.
• Enhancing male fertility: Here, the main argument for cold showers assisting conception is that they’re not hot showers. Higher scrotal temperatures depress sperm production, so much so that long-standing belief holds that hot baths might be an effective method of male contraception. According to a study published in 1992, the "wet heat" method of contraception has been known since the 4th century B.C. and involves placing the testes in hot water (116 degrees Fahrenheit) for 45 minutes every night for three weeks. This is supposed to provide protection for six months, but it isn’t a very practical method. And there’s no proof that taking cold showers will have the opposite effect.

Cold water may do all that and more, but the science behind the claims for health benefits is very thin. Showering or swimming in cold water is a matter of personal preference – there is no compelling health reason to switch to cold showers or dive into frigid water. In fact, I advise against it for anyone who has high blood pressure. Low temperatures (including cold weather) constrict blood vessels. As a result, blood pressure rises because more pressure is needed to force blood though narrowed blood vessels.

Andrew Weil, M.D.

If you are suffering from hypertension and searching for home remedies for high blood pressure you have come to the right place.

We will guide you through the common causes of high blood pressure and how you can lower high blood pressure naturally. Read on to explore the long history of herbal remedies for high blood pressure and how you can use our 8 home remedies for high blood pressure.

High blood pressure is often referred to as “the silent killer”

Traditional German herbal medicine and monastic medicine use the term “choleric” to describe hypertension. Hildegard of Bingen described the condition in the following terms:

“The different juices are aroused in these people as a result of gluttony in food and drink. They experience improper pleasure, sadness, anger and unbridled passions, these emotions bubble-up like water placed on a fire…Those who possess this disposition, often rage in anger, and quickly forget, because of their love of good nature. Their disposition tends to anger easily, but with light laughter and cheerfulness.” – Hildegard of Bingen

People with High Blood Pressure

Common symptoms such as headaches, heart palpitations, and general malaise often only occur when blood pressure rises significantly, or for protracted periods of time. Among the many dangers of high blood pressure is that it may arise without any noticeable symptoms. Which is why hypertension is often referred to as “the silent killer”.

If you are here because you were looking for home remedies for high blood pressure or even just how to lower blood pressure quickly, you are already aware of your condition.

“emotions bubble-up like water placed on a fire…” Hildegard of Bingen

Many people, however, do not know they have high blood pressure or are at-risk of developing high blood pressure in the future. The herbs for high blood pressure and other home remedies for hypertension included here are useful for both treatment and prevention. But first, some background on high blood pressure.

The Causes of High Blood Pressure

The causes of hypertension are varied, but are grouped into two general conditions. Often, a clear cause is never determined, with the condition developing gradually over time, even many years. This condition is referred to as ‘essential hypertension’ or ‘primary hypertension’. Our list of home remedies for high blood pressure can help treat both causes.

Secondary hypertension

For others, high blood pressure is caused by an underlying condition such as sleep apnea, kidney disorders, adrenal disorders, thyroid problems, congenital vascular disorders, chronic alcohol abuse, and medications.

This type of high blood pressure, called secondary hypertension, tends to appear suddenly. Secondary hypertension tends to result in higher blood pressure than does primary hypertension, but can also be managed easier by resolving the underlying condition or lifestyle changes.

High blood pressure is generally associated with inelastic blood vessels (arteriosclerosis), persistent stress in one’s lifestyle, and obesity. Other risk factors of high blood pressure include: age, race, family history, inactivity, tobacco use, and diet.

Lifestyle Choices Influence Blood Pressure

The risk of high blood pressure increases with age. In men, high blood pressure develops most often around age 45. Women are more likely to develop high blood pressure after age 65.

High blood pressure is also more common among African-Americans, often developing at an earlier age than it does in whites. High blood pressure also tends to run in families, so it is important to consider your parents’ health history when considering your risk.

Sedentary people tend to have higher resting heart rates. Higher heart rates mean the heart must work harder with each contraction, resulting in more force in the arteries.

Specific choices that affect cardiovascular health

None of the home remedies for high blood pressure will be as effective as eliminating your choices that affect your blood pressure. For example, smoking or chewing tobacco immediately raises your blood pressure. While the increase is often temporary, it can still permanently damage the lining of your artery walls. The damage can result in more narrow arteries, which increases blood pressure.

Too much salt should be avoided

Other lifestyle choices like diet can cause both temporary and long-term affects that increase blood pressure. Too much salt (sodium) in your diet can cause your body to retain fluid, which increases blood pressure. Conversely, too little potassium in your diet can result in retention of sodium in your bloodstream.

Drinking too much alcohol can, over time, damage your heart. One of the affects of this damage is high blood pressure. High blood pressure contributes to cardiovascular disease, a very serious condition.

Home Remedies for High Blood Pressure in Pre-Modern Medicine

Hildegard of Bingen medicine emphasized discipline and moderation for preventive measures. If you already have high blood pressure, combining the techniques of Hildegard medicine with modern medicine is a great holistic approach to your health.

If you do not yet have high blood pressure, but are wondering about herbs for blood pressure or other home remedies for high blood pressure, you can start using the traditional, holistic techniques outlined here right away.

The first home remedy for high blood pressure is self-knowledge. This means you need to reflect on your lifestyle choices and adopt basic lifestyle changes accordingly. If you are aware of your risks, you can use diet and medicinal herbs for blood pressure to prevent the need for pharmaceutical intervention. In fact, one of the principles of pre-modern medicine is food as medicine.

Regular physical activity reduces high blood pressure

Hildegard’s belief in balance among spirit-mind-body helps to identify and reduce the high-pressure situations we face in our daily routine. Taking the time to explore our psychological circumstances and environmental stressors is an important part of managing the risk factors for high blood pressure. It is also how we maintain overall wellness according to the doctrine of holistic healing.

How to lower blood pressure naturally and quickly

If you have a moderate case of hypertension, you can often normalize your blood pressure by consciously supporting healthy, holistic lifestyle choices. Building awareness of your diet, activity levels, and stress levels is essential. Once you know what triggers high blood pressure, you can incorporate pre-modern techniques to prevent blood pressure from reaching the point where it requires drug intervention.

See our list of home remedies for high blood pressure below for details.

If you have a severe case of high blood pressure, don’t worry, you can still use natural blood pressure treatments utilizing pre-modern holistic techniques in tandem with conventional medications.

Meditation can help to reduce stress

As always, it is essential that you discuss any regimen with your medical practitioner. Many herbs for high blood pressure have powerful effects and other side effects that you should discuss with your doctor. The good news is that some holistic techniques may also ease some of the side effects of modern medical treatments.

Home remedies for high blood pressure prevention

In cases of advanced hypertension, herbal treatments for high blood pressure often fall short of offering proven, reliable results. There are, however, many natural home remedies for high blood pressure that can serve a secondary role in advancing relief, and in the prevention of high blood pressure.

Adopting a healthy lifestyle, including relaxation techniques and long-term stress avoidance can significantly reduce the risk of developing high blood pressure. Diet also plays an important role. In simplistic terms, limiting salt intake can make an immediate and lasting positive impact.

Food is the first medicine

Reducing sodium intake

Familiarize yourself with salt content in processed and prepared foods. You may be surprised just how much sodium you ingest through even small amounts of processed foods. Some examples of processed foods that are high in sodium incude:

• Prepared soups
• Cured or smoked meats
• Sausage
• Salad dressings
• Canned meat (tuna)
• Frozen meals
• Bread

All of these foods can contribute a significant amount of sodium to your diet. And that is before you even reach for the table salt.

Tasty, but high in sodium

Try incorporating fresh or preserved dried herbs, or consider Hildegard’s healing spices as away to cut back on added salt in your cooking. As always, cutting back on restaurant food and processed food in general will go a long way in improving your overall dietary health. And what better way to share your home remedy for high blood pressure than with a healthy, home-cooked meal?

Warm baths to lower blood pressure quickly

In modern medicine, vasodilator and kidney stimulates are administered to reduce high blood pressure and mitigate the risk of stroke.

In monastic medicine, bloodletting was originally prescribed, along with full baths, which were considered to have comparable effects. While we don’t recommend bloodletting we do recommend you take warm baths.

Warm baths remain to be one of the more effective home remedies for high blood pressure. In fact, if you are looking for how to lower blood pressure instantly, take a hot bath.

Warm bath is an effective home remedy to lower high blood pressure fast

How do hot baths lower blood pressure? Three main ways. First, relaxation. Your muscles relax when warm. Relaxed muscles require less blood and less blood pressure. Warm baths also relax you mentally. Mental relaxation signals your heart and circulatory system to also relax.

Second, vasodilation. Warm baths cause your blood vessels to dilate (become wider.) Wider blood vessels means less pressure is needed.

Finally, temperature regulation. Your heart and blood function to regulate body temperature. Warm baths mean that your body doesn’t need to work as hard to keep you warm.

Hildegard’s Home Remedies for High Blood Pressure

One of the most effective home remedies for high blood pressure is physical activity. Hildegard recommends physical activity as an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. Whether it’s walking after dinner, enjoying the ART of nature, or finding a nice moderate exercise routine, regular physical activity helps control hypertension.

Find a physical activity which you are enjoying

Hildegard’s ideal exercise involves some form of moderate exercise, with repetitive motion, such as jogging, walking, cycling, or swimming. These low impact activities can all be performed frequently.

The most important predictor of success is finding something you enjoy doing. If you enjoy it, you are more likely to make it a regular part of your life. In fact, the effectiveness of most home remedies for hypertension largely depends regularity.

Relaxation therapies such as meditation yoga, autogenic training, and muscle relaxation training can be very useful in reducing stress-induced hypertension. Regular activity and relaxation techniques are a also a great way to make herbal remedies for high blood pressure even more effective.

Eight Herbal High Blood Pressure Home Remedies

(1) Mistletoe herb (Viskum album)

A natural remedy for high blood pressure, mistletoe

Mistletoe has a mild blood pressure-lowering effect. The neurotransmitter, acetylcholine stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, resulting in vascular dilation which relieves the heart and lowers blood pressure. See #6 of our home remedies for high blood pressure, for how to make mistletoe tea.

(2) Olive tree (Olea europea)

Olive oil for heart health

Although Hildegard was not a huge fan of olive oil, we certainly are. You should regularly consume moderate amounts of olive oil to reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis. The healthy fats in olive oil also naturally lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels. The well documented benefits of healthy fats is why olive oil makes our list of home remedies for high blood pressure. In folk medicine, the leaves of the olive tree are also used for supportive therapy.

(3) Garlic (Allium sativum)

One of the best of the home remedies for hypertension

Garlic works to protect blood vessels, prevent atherosclerosis, and lower blood pressure. As far as herbs for high blood pressure go, garlic is one of the best. The distinctive, warm and slightly bitter flavor of garlic is a wonderful addition to your foods. It is an essential healing herb you can keep right in your cupboard or refrigerator. You can consume garlic in relatively high doses without any danger. It is also available in odor-free caplet form as a dietary supplement.

(4) Hawthorn (Crataegus)

Hawthorne herb for high blood pressure

Hawthorne affects blood pressure through peripheral arterial vasodilation. This means that hawthorn dilates your blood vessels by blocking an enzyme called angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE). When you blood vessels are dilated, circulation is easier and blood pressure lowers. Hawthorn is also a mild diuretic. Less water in your blood lowers blood volume, therefore blood pressure is lower. You should only consider using hawthorne for one of your home remedies for high blood pressure under close medical supervision.

(5) Soothing Herbs

Valerian

In addition to antihypertensive drugs, common soothing (sedative) plants play in active role in Traditional German Herbal Medicine. Common herbs to lower blood pressure include: Melissa (Lemon Balm), Valerian, Lavender and Passionflower are often found in home remedies for high blood pressure.

(6) Mistletoe tea

Mistletoe is on the list of home remedies for high blood pressure because it lowers blood pressure. It works best for symptoms attributable to mild elevations in blood pressure, such as headaches, circulatory problems, dizziness, irritability, and anxiety. Prepare mistletoe tea cold. Mix 1 cup of water per 1 teaspoon of dried mistletoe. Allow the mixture to sit for 8-10 hours (overnight) and drink 1-2 cups per day.

(7) Monastic Medicine Tea Mixture

Hildegard of Bingen medicine often uses herbal teas as the primary means to deliver herbal remedies. Home remedies for high blood pressure is no exception. You can prepare a soothing and heart-strengthening formula derived from monastic medicine.

Monastic medicine tea mixture to lower high blood pressure

Directions as follows:

• 4 teaspoons (20 grams) St. John’s Wort;
• 4 teaspoons (20 grams) Yarrow;
• 4 teaspoons (20 grams) Hawthorn flower;
• 4 teaspoons (20 grams) Shepherd’s Purse;
• 4 teaspoons (20 grams) Centaurium

You can combine these herbs yourself, have them prepared at an herbal pharmacy, or simply purchase a prepackaged Hildegard product. Bear in mind, mistletoe should be added, which is prepared through a cold extract process. So add 1 teaspoon of mistletoe to 1 cup cold water, allow it to steep for 8 to 10 hours (overnight), then strain.

This monastic tea mixture works best by combining about 1 tablespoon of the mixture with a cup of hot water then allow it to steep for 10 minutes. Then strain before drinking. Use the mistletoe extract to blend with your cups of tea, consuming the mixture several times per day.

(8) Full warm baths (preventive)

Full baths serve a useful role as one of the easiest home remedies for high blood pressure. Warm water helps increase blood flow among peripheral blood vessels, thus reducing heart’s workload.

Warm baths to lower blood pressure

Ideally, warm baths are not prepared at scorching hot temperatures. Consider a 30 minute bath in less than 100 degree bath water. Immediately following the bath, shower your legs only with cold water. Depending on your preference, use calming essential oils or bath salts, such as lemon balm and lavender.

Relaxing baths are among the best home remedies for high blood pressure because you don’t need to do anything special.

Just relax!

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