The holidays are hardly the time anyone likes to think seriously about their health, and miss out on all the fun and food. But after the holidays come New Year’s, the time the resolutions are rolled out; caring for your health is one of the top resolutions people think to make around this time. Did you ever read the statistic that one of the worst times in the year for coronary health is the day after Christmas when the festivities end and the bills arrive? Incidences of heart attacks are known to spike up around that time. High blood pressure, once you get it, tends to stay with you for life. And of course the effects of high blood pressure don’t just stop with your coronary health; they can and go on to affect every one of your internal organs. If you ever wanted to either take the smallest dose possible, or none at all, here are a few natural ways to lower your blood pressure, other than to go low-salt and stay calm during the holidays.

For some people, a few simple drinks can really get the heart pumping and raise blood pressure. Your doctor will probably see if you have one of those physiologies that are sensitive to alcohol. If so, keeping your daily beer down to one or two will help. The importance of exercise in lowering brought blood pressure can hardly be exaggerated. People think that they are too busy, that it’s raining and it’s winter, and they can hardly go run everyday like they were preparing for a marathon. It so happens that the tortoise’s slow and steady is all you need. It doesn’t even have to be going out and running; a half hour’s brisk and gardening work, cleaning out the attic, anything that gets your heart pumping, is one of the best natural ways to lower blood pressure. Of course if your heart has a few problems to begin with, you would need your doctor’s permission to embark on this plan.

They call it DASH: the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. It doesn’t sound very appetizing, but if you could fill your plate with whole grains, produce, and only a little meat, that would be helping your heart out a lot. It’s not that the DASH approach is unkind to your taste buds though; when you do have the craving to indulge, a little dark chocolate is recommended and can be particularly healthy. Different kinds of dark chocolate are always healthy and natural ways to lower your blood pressure. Of course you can’t overindulge, as chocolate can pack in the calories. It might be tempting for you to extend the chocolate theory to coffee, so closely related are they in taste. No one is actually sure how exactly caffeine affects you, but at least in the short term, coffee does raise blood pressure. A couple of cups are always okay, but no more. Remember that admonition always to cut down on sodium in salt? The water softener in your home could sometimes be a problem in this area. One of the ways that water softeners do their job is to add sodium to the water supplied. Look up the manual for your machine; if it does this, there is your excuse to buy a snazzy new machine.