Beyond Diet & Exercise
Author: Dr. Vrolijk | Updated: August 23, 2025 | Disclaimer | Review Process | References
You’re already working on diet, exercise, and salt. Your doctor says your blood pressure is still too high. You’ve heard about supplements and other approaches, but you’re not sure what actually works or what’s safe for you.
This page explains how cutting back on alcohol and potassium can help. It also covers the pros, cons, and who needs to be cautious for supplements like magnesium.
On This Page:
More Options with Good Evidence
Already working on diet, exercise, and salt? Here are additional evidence-based approaches that can help lower your blood pressure further.
→ Read about the 3 most important lifestyle changes for better blood pressure
Cutting Back on Alcohol
Drinking too much alcohol can raise your blood pressure. If you drink alcohol, less is better for your blood pressure and overall health.
🚨 Who Should Be Careful: If you feel shaky or sick between drinking (signs of alcohol withdrawal), get help from a healthcare provider. Alcohol withdrawal can be dangerous if untreated.
- Keep non-alcoholic drinks at home
- Find other ways to relax
- Get support:
- Talk to your doctor
- Ask for help from your friends
- Join a support group
- Make a plan and track your progress:
- Set limits
- Choose specific days to not drink
- You feel shaky or sick when drinking less
- Cutting back is very hard
- You’re worried about your drinking
- You want support making changes
Potassium
Eating more potassium might help lower blood pressure. Research suggests potassium may help people who eat a lot of salt and have low potassium.
🚨 Who Should Be Careful: Everyone should be careful about taking potassium pills or eating a lot of salt substitutes. (Salt substitutes use potassium and not of salt). Too much potassium is bad for your heart.
If you have kidney problems or are on some medicines, you should be careful about how much you eat. Talk to your doctor before using a salt substitute or changing your diet.
- Ask your doctor to check your potassium level and ways to safely increase your potassium if it’s low
- Eat foods like leafy greens, bananas, legumes (chickpeas, beans, peas)
- Talk to your doctor before taking potassium pills
Too much potassium usually doesn’t cause symptoms. When it gets too high, it can cause:
- heart problems that can be life threatening
- feeling weak
- not being able to move
- feeling burning or prickling sensations in your hands and feet
Options with Less Evidence
You may have heard about other ways to lower blood pressure that aren’t on our main list. It’s important to know that:
- Less research: These methods don’t have as much scientific proof behind them
- Might help, might not: Some people say these methods work for them, but we can’t be sure they’ll work for everyone
- Possible risks: Some of these methods might be harmful or interact with medicines you’re taking
- Talk to your doctor: If you’re thinking about trying any of these, always talk to your doctor first
Magnesium
Magnesium might help lower blood pressure in some people. Several small studies show mixed results.
🚨 Who Should Be Careful: People with kidney problems or taking certain medicines. You can talk to your doctor or pharmacist. Magnesium can make other medications not work as well. Kidney problems make it hard for your body to get rid of extra magnesium.
- Eat foods rich in magnesium like bananas, beans, avocados, whole grains, and leafy greens
- These foods also have fiber and other things that may help lower blood pressure
- Ask your doctor or pharmacist about taking magnesium pills if you take other medicines. Ask your doctor if you have kidney problems.
- Upset stomach
- Diarrhea
Calcium
Taking calcium supplements does not help lower blood pressure enough to matter. Getting calcium from food is safer and better for your health than taking supplements.
🚨 Who Should Be Careful: People with kidney problems or taking certain medicines. You can talk to your doctor or pharmacist. Calcium can make other medications not work as well. Kidney problems make it hard for your body to get rid of extra calcium.
- Eat foods rich in calcium like low-fat milk, cheese, leafy greens like kale
- Ask your doctor or pharmacist about taking calcium pills if you take other medicines. Ask your doctor if you have kidney problems.
- Upset stomach
- Constipation
- Might increase risk of kidney stones
Fish Oil
Fish oil supplements may lower blood pressure a small amount. Eating fish is a better option if possible.
🚨 Who Should Be Careful: People taking blood-thinning medications or having surgery soon. Talk to your doctor before taking fish oil pills. They can make it so you bleed easier.
- Look for fish oil with omega-3
- If you can, choose one tested by USP or NSF
- Tell your doctor if you start taking fish oil
- Upset stomach
- Feeling like you’re going to throw up
Fiber
Eating more fiber might lower blood pressure a little. Fiber is good for your digestion and overall health.
Slowly add more high-fiber foods to your diet. These include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans.
If you want to take a supplement, note that some fiber supplements might be bad for you. The best ones are ‘soluble non-fermenting, gel-forming’ fibers, like psyllium.
- Upset stomach
- Gas
- Diarrhea
Folate (Folic Acid or B9)
Foods high in folate and folic acid pills might lower the top number (systolic) of your blood pressure.
🚨 Who Should Be Careful: People taking certain medicines or have an allergy to folic acid pills. Folic acid can change how your medicines work.
- Add one or two foods with folate to your diet, like spinach, black-eyed peas, rice, or asparagus.
- Talk to your doctor or pharmacist before taking folic acid pills.
Some people can be allergic to folic acid supplements. Get help right away if you have signs of an allergic reaction:
Rash, hives, itching, red, swollen, blistered, or peeling skin
Wheezing; tightness in the chest or throat
Trouble breathing, swallowing, or talking
Unusual hoarseness
Swelling of the mouth, face, lips, tongue, or throat
Relaxation
Meditation might lower blood pressure. But, the studies looking at meditation and blood pressure have been small. This means we don’t know if it would help lots of different kinds of people. They haven’t lasted long, so we don’t know if meditation helps over years.
There’s some evidence that breathing exercises and yoga might help. But we need more studies to see if this helps different kinds of people in different situations. These studies were small and short too.
What to Read Next
All of Our Pages on Blood Pressure
Resources We Used
Acin MT, Rueda JR, Saiz LC, et al. Alcohol intake reduction for controlling hypertension. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020;(9).
Dickinson HO, Beyer FR, Ford GA, et al. Relaxation therapies for the management of primary hypertension in adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2008;(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD004935.pub2.
Federico SD, Filippini T, Whelton PK, et al. Alcohol intake and blood pressure levels: a dose-response meta-analysis of nonexperimental cohort studies. Hypertension. 2023;80(10):1961. https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.123.21224.
Houston M. The Role of Magnesium in Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease. J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2011;13(11):843-847. doi:10.1111/j.1751-7176.2011.00538.x
Tangney C. Cardiovascular benefits and risks of moderate alcohol consumption. UpToDate. February 28, 2024. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/cardiovascular-benefits-and-risks-of-moderate-alcohol-consumption?sectionName=Hypertension&topicRef=3852&anchor=H8&source=see_link#H8.
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