How to Reduce Blood Pressure With Bay Leaf

Whether family history, salt or another factor has caused your high blood pressure issues, there’s no disputing the fact that you’re in good company. Around 1 in 3 U.S. adults suffer from hypertension, a life-threatening condition. You may already take pharmaceuticals, but if you’re still not 100 percent when the pressure cuff wraps around your arm, you may wish to consider herbs. A few dollars worth of bay leaves can do more than just flavor a pot roast, so there’s no reason not to try this out—particularly if you use bay leaves in concert with other medicines and healthy practices.

Things You'll Need

• Whole bay leaf
• Ground bay leaf
• Bay oil
• Herb guide
• Diuretics (optional)
• Pharmaceuticals (optional)

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Instructions

• 1

  Use ground bay leaf as a substitute for salt, so you’re replacing one of the main blood pressure-causing culprits with an herbal alternative that--in addition to other spices like nutmeg, pepper, basil, curry powder, garlic, ginger, oregano and rosemary--has been touted as a great natural way to reduce high blood pressure.

• 2

  Add whole or ground bay leaves to your diet even if you’re already on one of the popular blood pressure meds--calcium and alpha blocker or ACE-inhibitors--to launch a direct assault on numbers that could stand to come down a bit more than even these drugs have managed. Add bay leaf to all of your lean meat recipes and experiment with this pungent herb when preparing veggie dishes.

• 3

  Combine your bay leaf consumption with diuretics to help flush the system of sodium, particularly if pharmaceuticals prescribed for your high blood pressure problems are financially out of reach. Ask your pharmacist to recommend a good over-the-counter diuretic and begin adding bay leaf to dishes you prepare to see if this one-two punch won’t bring your numbers down.

• 4

  Find ways to increase the amount of bay leaf you add to meals by locating a spice and herb cookbook that calls for healthy amounts of this evergreen to be used as a prime ingredient in recipes. Get creative on your own. Try adding ground bay leaf to your popcorn after spraying it with a butter substitute and you may come to the conclusion that keeping a shaker of ground bay leaf where your salt used to reside is enough to positively affect your blood pressure.

• 5

  Learn about other benefits you’ll enjoy as a result of lavishing your foods with bay leaf. Consider studies on herbals that suggest bay leaves act as soothing agents that promote better sleep while sending blood pressure levels down to respectable numeric ranges. Try all forms of bay: whole leaf, ground leaves and bay oil.