10 Surprising Ways to Lower Your Blood Pressure Without Medication

Try these tactics to help fight hypertension and bring your numbers down

Beth Howard and Lauren Evoy Davis,

Updated April 09, 2025

AARP

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Published November 03, 2022

/ Updated April 09, 2025

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High Blood Pressure Treatments

Before David Hampshere started taking medication for high blood pressure, his numbers soared to an unhealthy 150/100 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). For comparison, a normal blood pressure should clock in below 120/80 mm Hg, according to the American Heart Association.

But when Hampshere, a Florida-based real estate investor, lost 80 pounds over a period of nine months, his blood pressure dipped down to normal. With the extra weight gone — and a daily game of pickleball to keep it off — Hampshere’s doctor let him experiment with going off his blood pressure medication. And by Hampshere’s next exam, his doctor agreed the medicine wasn't needed anymore.

More than 100 million Americans — or nearly half of U.S. adults — have high blood pressure (also called hypertension), which is a leading risk factor for heart disease. Although many are on medication to lower their blood pressure, some 30 million Americans out of that grand total have what’s known as stage 1 hypertension, for which blood pressure–lowering medication is not always recommended. (Stage 1 is when the systolic, or upper, number on a blood pressure reading is between 130 and 139 mm Hg and the diastolic, or bottom, number is between 80 and 89 mm Hg.)

If left untreated, hypertension can lead to heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and kidney disease, particularly among men and people of color, says Kendra Sims, an epidemiologist at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine.

Lifestyle tweaks such as losing weight, reducing salt intake, exercising, limiting alcohol and lowering stress are all effective ways to wrangle hypertension, research shows.

Here are a few more unexpected strategies, though it’s important to note that if you’re on blood pressure medication, you should never stop taking it without consulting your doctor.

1. Train your breathing muscles

High-intensity breathing using a device that creates resistance when you inhale led to lower blood pressure readings over time, according to a 2022 study from the University of Colorado in Boulder.

“We found that 30 resisted inhales per day, five to seven days a week for six weeks, lowered systolic blood pressure by 9 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure by 4 mm Hg,” explained study coauthor Daniel Craighead, an assistant research professor in the university’s Integrative Physiology of Aging Laboratory.

The effect is comparable to that of aerobic exercise, such as walking or running — though you’ll want to continue your regular workouts for other health benefits. And this breath training can lower blood pressure as effectively as hypertension medications, researchers have noted.

“If that’s maintained over the long term, that’s enough to decrease the risk for cardiovascular disease by 25 percent,” Craighead says.

High-intensity breathing seems to work by promoting the production of nitric oxide, a heart-helpful compound in the cells that line blood vessel walls, Craighead says. Regular breathing workouts help to expand blood vessels, improving blood flow.

Participants in the study used a device called PowerBreathe. There are similar devices on the market to get your diaphragm and other breathing muscles in better shape — and to possibly lower your blood pressure.

[Read: 6 Science-Backed Breathing Exercises That May Lower Blood Pressure]

2. Take up tai chi

Recent Chinese research suggests this gentle exercise, which involves slow, flowing motions and deep breathing, can improve hypertension. The study of 208 people with somewhat elevated blood pressure found that those who practiced tai chi for three months significantly decreased their blood pressure, compared with those who didn’t.

Another study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, suggests that tai chi may even have a leg up on aerobic exercise for people at risk for hypertension. The 173 adult participants with prehypertension who were randomly assigned to the tai chi group saw greater reductions in their blood pressure than the 169 adults who engaged in aerobic exercise, according to the 2024 study.

Mohanakrishnan Sathyamoorthy, M.D., a board-certified cardiologist and chair of internal medicine at Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University, says there’s “a great bit of evidence” on the blood-pressure benefits of exercise routines that incorporate mindfulness, such as tai chi. Which brings us to our third tip …

3. Try mindfulness

Researchers have found that mindfulness might be an effective strategy for lowering blood pressure.

A study published in 2023 in the journal Hypertension found that adults who participated in a customized mindfulness program that promoted self-awareness, attention control and emotional regulation had significantly lower systolic blood pressure numbers six months later, compared with adults who did not complete the mindfulness program.

The randomized controlled trial included more than 200 adults with elevated blood pressure from the Providence, Rhode Island, area. The average age of the participants was 59.

After an eight-week program that taught participants how to apply mindfulness skills to their eating habits, exercise habits, alcohol use and stress-coping skills, the researchers found that participants in the mindfulness program slashed their systolic blood pressure by 5.9 mm Hg, on average, compared with a 1.4 mm Hg reduction among participants in the control group.

The researchers found that participants in the mindfulness group also reduced their sedentary time by an average of 351 minutes weekly.

4. Just stretch

When researchers at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada studied the effect of walking on older adults with hypertension, they found that a control group of people assigned to do simple stretching exercises actually had lower blood pressure readings than those who walked.

“We stumbled into this by accident,” says study author Philip Chilibeck, professor of kinesiology at the University of Saskatchewan. That finding led to a formal study comparing the two activities. The result: Five days a week of stretching for 30 minutes led to greater improvements in blood pressure than five days of 30-minute walks.

Stretching seems to literally stretch a person’s blood vessels, which reduces arterial stiffness, lowering blood pressure, Chilibeck says. He recommends gently stretching the big muscles in the lower body as follows:

To stretch your hamstring muscles (back of the legs), place your foot on a low stool or step and lean forward until you feel the stretch in the back of your leg.

To stretch your quadriceps (front of the thighs), lie on your side with your knee bent behind you. Grab your foot and pull it back toward your butt, feeling the stretch in your front thigh.

Stretch the calves by placing your foot against a wall and leaning forward until you feel the stretch in the back of the lower leg.

Hold each stretch for 30 seconds, then take a break, Chilibeck advises. Repeat the stretch three or four times with both legs. “This is especially useful for people who tend not to be very active,” Chilibeck says. “And it will improve the flexibility of your joints to boot.”

5. Work wall sits into your workout

A review of 270 studies, published in 2023 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM), found that isometric exercises — and wall sits in particular — are effective in lowering blood pressure. In fact, researchers found that these types of exercises — where you hold your body in one position, like a wall sit or a plank — are almost twice as effective at lowering blood pressure compared with just doing cardio-intensive activities, like running and biking.

“It’s the most effective form of exercise if your goal is to lower blood pressure,” says Victoria Maizes, M.D., a professor of medicine, family medicine and public health at the University of Arizona.

Personal trainer April Hattori says wall sits are better for your joints than squats, and she demonstrates how to do them in this AARP video.

Ready to give it a try? Experts recommend holding the position for 20 or 30 seconds when starting out, though you should talk to your doctor before starting any new exercise program. You can build up to more time as your body gets used to the exercise. Aim for three sessions of isometric exercises each week.

6. Listen to some calming tunes

What you listen to can affect your blood pressure, and if you’re looking to lower your numbers, research suggests that something with a slow tempo is key.

A 2022 article published in the journal Cureus found that music with a slower tempo helped slow the heart rate of study participants; fast music sped it up. The slow music also helped lower participants’ blood pressure, whereas the fast music caused it to rise.

Janish Kothari, M.D., a cardiologist in Jersey City, New Jersey, explains that music helps “by countering the mechanisms of the sympathetic nervous system, slowing your heart rate, releasing endorphins, [and] creating a stimulation of the vagus nerve, which causes dilation of those blood vessels — and all that will lower the blood pressure.”

7. Cut down on plastic packaging

Ready-to-eat meals are convenient when you’re in a hurry, but research suggests their packaging may not be the best for your blood pressure.

Bisphenol A (BPA) or BPA replacements that make plastic bendable can leach into food when heated in the microwave, and a 2024 study in the journal Nutrients found an association between increased BPA concentrations in the urine of people who ate ready-to-eat meals and an increase in blood pressure.

BPA can also be found in the lining of soda cans, though some manufacturers are phasing the chemical out. An older study published in the journal Hypertension compared the blood pressure of people who drank out of cans to those who drank out of glass bottles and found that people who drank from cans had higher levels of BPA in their urine and also higher blood pressure readings than those who drank from glass bottles. The authors note that their findings add to previous research that reached similar conclusions.

“It's sort of one of these invisible things that we don't necessarily pay that much attention to,” the University of Arizona’s Maizes says.

8. Go ahead and eat that piece of dark chocolate

Candy doesn’t typically make lists for its health benefits, but dark chocolate can be an exception. One reason is that it has heart-protective properties and can lower your blood pressure, according to 2024 research published in the journal Nutrients. Dark chocolate activates nitric oxide, which relaxes and widens the blood vessels and improves blood flow.

“It (the nitric oxide) reduces inflammation, and it helps lower blood pressure because it reduces arterial stiffness,” Maizes says. This stiffness, which occurs with age, hampers the heart to expand and contract as it should, according to a 2023 article in the journal Clinical Hypertension.

9. Take at least 8,200 steps a day

You may have heard that you need to get in 10,000 steps a day for good health, but it looks like 8,200 may be the magic number if you’re hoping to keep your blood pressure in check, according to a 2022 study from researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, published in the journal Nature. The study, which included more than 6,000 people with a median age of 57, used electronic health records and data from their Fitbit devices to reach this conclusion.

Study participants who achieved 8,200 daily steps had lower rates of high blood pressure and other health conditions, including obesity and diabetes.

Can’t get 8,200 steps in? Though it may not make a significant dent in your blood pressure numbers, taking just 2,337 steps can lower your odds of dying from cardiovascular disease, according to research published in 2023 in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

10. Adopt the “blood pressure diet”

Looking for a reliable way to lower high blood pressure? Try the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, which ranks at the top of the American Heart Association’s list of best heart-healthy diets.

Researchers from UCSF analyzed the effects of various lifestyle approaches to lowering hypertension, and they estimated that widespread adoption of the DASH diet — which emphasizes fruits and vegetables, lean protein and low sodium — could prevent 26,000 heart-related events and nearly 3,000 deaths.

The researchers only focused on people with stage 1 hypertension, notes Sims, the UCSF epidemiologist and a coauthor on the study, published in the journal Hypertension. “The benefits are probably bigger because if we all followed the diet, we would stop people from even being in the higher-risk groups,” she adds.

Similar to the Mediterranean diet, the DASH eating plan calls for:

6 to 8 servings of grains a day
4 to 5 servings of fruit a day
4 to 5 servings of vegetables a day
6 or fewer 1-ounce servings of lean meat, poultry or fish a day
2 to 3 servings of low-fat dairy a day
4 to 5 weekly servings of nuts, beans or seeds
Sparing amounts of salt, sugar and fat

And while it may take time to get used to all the extra fiber, the results speak for themselves.

Editor's note: This story, originally published Nov. 3, 2022, has been updated to reflect new information.

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Beth Howard is a North Carolina–based health and lifestyle writer. She has written for dozens of publications, including U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Prevention, Better Homes & Gardens and Reader’s Digest.

Lauren Evoy Davis is a contributing writer who has covered health and wellness for some of the nation’s top consumer publications. Her work has appeared in the National Council on Aging, Everyday Health, HealthCentral, Patient Power, WebMD and Verywell Health.