What to Drink to Lower Blood Pressure Quickly: These 9 Drinks May Help
Key takeaways:
Researchers have looked into how different drinks can help lower blood pressure. And some drinks — like beet juice — seem to lower blood pressure quickly.
Grapefruit juice may help lower blood pressure. But it can also cause a dangerous interaction with certain blood pressure medications.
There are also some drinks to avoid if you have high blood pressure — like alcohol and energy drinks.
Table of contents
If you have high blood pressure, you may be curious about lifestyle changes that can help lower your blood pressure. A nutritious diet and regular exercise can have a big impact on your heart health. Research suggests that certain drinks may also help lower the risk for cardiovascular disease by decreasing your blood pressure. Many of the studies below only looked at a small number of people, so it’s hard to know if the findings apply to everyone just yet. But we thought we’d share what we learned in case you’re looking to make some changes to your drink routine.
1. Skim milk
Skim milk contains potassium, calcium, and magnesium — minerals that are known to help lower blood pressure. Some studies have shown that drinking milk — skim milk in particular — every day can help decrease blood pressure over time. This is especially the case in people who are 55 years or older. And the change can happen in as little as 4 weeks.
2. Tomato juice
Tomatoes contain antioxidants like lycopene, which have been shown to have several different health benefits. One scientific review found that tomato juice lowered systolic blood pressure (the top number). Researchers found that when people 55 years and older drank 200 mL a day (a little less than 1 cup), they saw an improvement in systolic blood pressure over the course of a year.
3. Beet juice
Beet juice contains nitrate, which can improve blood flow in the body. And a clinical trial showed that when someone drank a little more than 2 cups of beet juice once a day, their blood pressure decreased.
Beet juice can help lower blood pressure almost immediately: The drop can happen as soon as 30 minutes after drinking. And this effect can last almost 24 hours. Daily consumption may have an even longer-lasting effect on lowering blood pressure, but these results aren’t conclusive.
4. Hibiscus tea
Hibiscus tea contains the antioxidant anthocyanin. A small amount of research shows that drinking 2 cups of hibiscus tea every day for at least 2 weeks can help lower blood pressure.
Does coffee raise your blood pressure? Coffee has a lot of health benefits. But depending on the caffeine content, it can have a negative effect on your blood pressure.
Alcohol and blood pressure: Alcohol can raise your blood pressure, but do you need to avoid it altogether? Our experts explain.
What foods can lower your blood pressure? We went through the research and put together a list of foods that can help lower your blood pressure.
Most studies examine the effects after 4 weeks. So, it’s difficult to say how quickly hibiscus tea can work. Some research suggests it can take effect in as little as 1.5 hours. Meanwhile, other studies saw no effect up to 4 hours after drinking it. This might be due to the variation in the amount of anthocyanins in each cup.
5. Pomegranate juice
Like hibiscus, pomegranate juice also contains anthocyanins. And it may also interact with an enzyme that plays an important role in regulating blood pressure.
Small studies showed that people who drank pomegranate juice daily for at least 2 weeks lowered their blood pressure. It’s unclear exactly how much juice is needed for this effect. But some research was based on at least 8 oz. Even though the data is mixed, many researchers agree that pomegranate juice can help decrease blood pressure.
6. Grapefruit juice
Does grapefruit lower blood pressure? Yes, it can. Grapefruit juice can be a great after-meal or morning drink for some people with high blood pressure. Grapefruit contains potassium, lycopene, fiber, and other natural plant nutrients that help lower blood pressure. But grapefruit juice has mostly been studied in combination with other juice or medications that lower blood pressure.
If you take medication, talk with your primary care provider before drinking grapefruit juice. It can interact with certain medications — including those that treat high blood pressure. We can go into a little more detail on this below.
7. Green tea
People have been drinking green tea for centuries — for both enjoyment and medicinal purposes. A 2023 research review found that drinking green tea daily lowered both systolic and diastolic blood pressure (the top and bottom numbers). This study only looked at healthy people, though, who didn’t have high blood pressure. So more research is needed to figure out just how helpful drinking green tea can be in people with high blood pressure.
8. Black tea
Teas are the second most common drink, after water, for humans. Black tea differs from green tea in that the tea leaves have been fermented. Green tea uses fresh, dried leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant.
Black tea, like green tea, has been shown to reduce blood pressure. It’s unclear why tea might lower blood pressure. But the active chemicals in tea might:
Relax muscles in the blood vessels
Reduce hormones that raise blood pressure
Increase nitric oxide (which opens blood vessels)
9. Cardamom tea
Cardamom is derived from a fruit, and it’s usually used as a spice. But cardamom is also used to make tea in many cultures. And one small study found that cardamom tea can help to reduce blood pressure overall. Researchers also found it may help lower the risk of blood clots in the body.
Does drinking water lower blood pressure?
The effect of drinking water on blood pressure is complicated. Water has been shown to increase sympathetic nervous system activity (think “fight or flight” response) in older adults and people with certain neurological conditions. This means that drinking water could cause an increase in blood pressure in these groups.
But a study in Japan of people with no underlying conditions found very different results. Researchers asked people to drink a glass of water when they got up in the morning and before bed. They found people who drank this extra water every day had lower blood pressures than before the study started.
Another study looked at how hydration status affects your blood pressure. It found that people with low body water levels had a harder time regulating their blood pressure than people with normal body water levels.
The effect of water on your blood pressure is tied to other health conditions. And for some people, drinking too much water can cause problems. This is especially true if you’re someone with:
Kidney disease
Liver disease
Cardiovascular disease or heart failure
Advanced age
If you are not sure how much water you should be drinking every day, reach out to a healthcare professional who is familiar with your medical history.
Is it OK to drink grapefruit juice if you take blood pressure medication?
If you take certain blood pressure medication, you may need to avoid drinking grapefruit juice. This is because grapefruit juice causes the body to absorb too much of the medication.
This can cause your blood pressure to drop lower than it should. And low blood pressure can be just as dangerous as high blood pressure. When this happens, blood might not reach vital organs like your brain or your heart. And this can lead to problems like a heart attack and stroke.
Grapefruit juice affects certain blood pressure medications, like calcium channel blockers. The calcium channel blockers that grapefruit juice is most likely to affect include:
Nicardipine (Cardene)
Felodipine (Plendil)
Nimodipine (Nymalize)
The general recommendation is to wait 2 to 3 days after drinking grapefruit juice before starting one of these medications.
Other calcium channel blockers may interact with grapefruit juice but lead to a less serious reaction. Examples include:
Nifedipine (Procardia)
Verapamil (Calan)
Amlodipine (Norvasc)
If you’re taking medication of any kind, it’s a good idea to talk with someone on your healthcare team before you change your diet. They can help you avoid any interactions or unwanted complications.
Which drinks should you avoid with high blood pressure?
There are also some drinks that can raise blood pressure. If you have high blood pressure, it’s best to avoid or limit your consumption of:
Other lifestyle recommendations to help lower blood pressure
Paying attention to what you drink isn’t the only way to help lower blood pressure. Other lifestyle and dietary changes can make a difference, too. You can try the following:
Follow the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension).
Follow the Mediterranean diet.
Decrease your salt intake.
Lower your sugar intake.
Cut back on red meat.
Look for foods that are low in total and saturated fat.
Build daily routines that help lower your daily stress.
Avoid or quit smoking.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, for most people blood pressure tends to peak in the early morning hours. This is sometimes referred to as the “morning surge.” This starts when you wake up and lasts for 2 to 4 hours. This period of time is also associated with increased risk of heart attack and stroke. But not everyone’s blood pressure follows this pattern. Some people’s blood pressure is higher in the nighttime.
A handful of studies have looked into whether cinnamon can lower blood pressure — with mixed results. Some have found it helps, while others have seen no effect. So the current research is inconclusive. But if cinnamon does help lower blood pressure, it’s only by a small amount.
Above, we explained how drinking water can both increase or decrease your blood pressure, depending on your medical conditions and health status. The same is true for dehydration. In some cases, dehydration can lead to low blood pressure. For example, this might happen after several hours of vomiting and diarrhea from food poisoning. But in other cases — like if an older adult isn’t drinking much water for days on end — dehydration can increase blood pressure. This is because dehydration can trigger the release of a hormone that tells the body to increase its blood pressure as a protective mechanism.
The bottom line
Your daily habits can have a big impact on your blood pressure — and that includes what you drink. Beverages like skim milk, tomato juice, and beet juice may help decrease blood pressure. But it’s always important to talk with a healthcare professional first.
Don’t feel discouraged if you need medication to help keep your blood pressure in a healthy range. Your primary care provider can help you develop the best treatment plan for you to keep your blood pressure in check.
Why trust our experts?
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