90% of high blood pressure is the ones with unknown etiologies and they believe that various unhealthy lifestyle habits could be the triggers.  Smoking, stress and cold weather which make blood vessels constrict are the main factors to be blamed.  When blood vessels are constricted tightly, the blood flow will slow down considerably.  To try to let the blood flow smoothly, your heart needs to work even harder to push blood away which makes your blood pressure higher. 

Nicotine in cigarettes makes your blood vessels constrict temporarily. 

Stress stimulates sympathetic part of autonomic nervous system and encourages noradrenalin activation, which constrict your blood vessels strongly. 

When you step out to the cold weather from warm indoor environment, it makes your blood vessels constrict suddenly and it can cause cardiac infarction or stroke in the worst scenario.  

In 1998, three American pharmacologists who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine found that nitric monoxide dilates constricted blood vessels effectively and stimulate the blood flow of the whole body which leads to lowering the blood pressure. 

Nitric monoxide is produced in your endothelial cells of the wall of blood vessels.  When nitric monoxide is released into the blood, it makes vascular smooth muscles relaxed and dilated.  As a result, the blood flow increases and the blood pressure lowered. 

However, when blood vessels are forced to constrict repeatedly by smoking, stress and cold weather, the blood has to force its way through narrow blood vessels.  It could damage wall of blood vessels with red blood cells and platelets, which could slow the nitric monoxide production process and there will be not enough nitric monoxide in your blood vessels.  As a matter of fact, higher the blood pressure he/she has, lower the amount of nitric monoxide in his/her blood. 

Now, how can we increase the number of nitric monoxide in our blood, so that we can lower the blood pressure?  There are four suggestions;    

1. Aerobic exercise
2. Bathing
3. One nostril breathing
4. Bitter melon

1.      Aerobic Exercise  to Lower Blood Pressure

Aerobic exercise here means light exercises such as fast walking, which keeps your heart rate between 110 and 120 beats per minute.   Something you can do without shortness of breath.  It is more effective to do fast walking on regular basis.  After 15 minutes of aerobic exercise, more bradykinin which increases the amount of nitric monoxide is produced.  As bradykinin stays in your body for three days and keeps working, it is recommended to do the fast walking at least every three days for minimum 15 minutes.  It will not only help produce nitric monoxide but also suppress the rise in the level of neutral fat as well as cholesterol. 

2.      Bathing for Lowering High Blood Pressure   

The warmer the body is, the more nitric monoxide is produced.  Nice relaxed bath is ideal to warm your body.  The temperature of the water should be 38-41 degrees C which encourage your blood flow to increase nicely.  It is recommended to take bath for 15-20 minutes at a time. 

3.      One Nostril Breathing to Lower High Blood Pressure

The studies found that nitric monoxide is also produced within mucous membranes of the nose and you can take them in by breathing through nose with your mouth closed.  To make it more effective, it is recommended to breathe in and out through only one nostril at a time.  As nitric monoxide is temporarily stored inside of your nasal cavity by breathing through one nostril, you can take more of nitric monoxide in your body.  Just block one nostril and breathe slowly in and out ten times and change the nostril to the other one. 

To keep producing nitric monoxide, it is also important not to smoke, not to drink too much alcohol, to sleep well and eat healthy food. 

Unfortunately, nitric monoxide is very fragile and easily changed into nitrogen dioxide when it meets active oxygen.  Well, nitrogen dioxide does not have the same effect as nitric monoxide.  So, we need to focus on how we can keep nitric monoxide within our blood vessels long enough to lower the high blood pressure effectively. 

4.      Bitter Melon for High Blood Pressure Treatment

Bitter melon is rich in special amino acid called citrulline which can increase the number of nitric monoxide, and vitamin C (76mg/100g) which can eliminate active oxygen quickly to keep nitric monoxide longer in the blood vessels.  Bitter melon is also known for its effect to lower the level of blood sugar, therefore it is said to be good for diabetics.  

Once citrulline is taken into our body, it goes to the liver and then when citrulline is accumulated enough in our liver they change into the amino acid called arginine.  After that arginine is changed back to citrulline within the liver by the enzyme called PADI4 (Peptidyl Arginine Deiminase, TypeIV).  This process is repeated again and again within the liver, and nitric monoxide is produced as by-product of this process. 

As it is very hard to synthesize citrulline within the body, we need to take them from our food, such as bitter melons, nuts and water melons. 

Bitter melon is also rich in kalium which is known for lowering blood pressure as it encourages sodium emission.  Kalium is found in most of fruits and vegetables however kalium in bitter melons (260mg/100g) is more than double amount of the one in apples (110mg/100g).  

Information on How we can eat/cook Bitter Melons!

Blood Pressure Demographics