By Kavita Sabharwal
High blood pressure can cause several major health problems, including heart disease and stroke. According to the August 2014 issue of the Harvard Health Letter, controlling your blood pressure is as easy as consuming three key minerals that are often neglected in the typical western diet: calcium, magnesium and potassium.
Calcium helps blood vessels in the body tighten and relax as needed. Calcium can be found in milk and dairy products, fish with bones and dark, leafy greens.
Magnesium also helps moderate blood vessels while helping produce energy and moving calcium and potassium around the body. Magnesium can be found in dark, leafy greens, unrefined grains and legumes.
Potassium lowers blood pressure and helps ward off muscle cramping and irregular heartbeats. Sweet potatoes, prunes, apricots and lima beans are all great sources of this mineral.
“People eating a healthy diet probably have nothing to worry about. But people eating a diet of processed and canned foods might need to be concerned that they aren’t getting enough of these key minerals,” says Dr. Randall Zusman, director of the Division of Hypertension at the Massachusetts General Hospital Heart Center, to the Harvard Health Letter.
* To help include more magnesium in your balanced diet, try Natural Calm’s Magnesium Nitrate Powder
