What Occurs to Your Blood Stress When You Drink Water

Hypertension, or hypertension, happens when the power that your blood exerts on the partitions of your arteries and veins is greater than regular. Together with medicines and way of life adjustments, ingesting sufficient water might assist handle blood stress.

Consuming water might assist decrease blood stress in some instances—primarily, if you happen to’re dehydrated. And people with hypertension are usually much less hydrated, in keeping with analysis revealed in 2022.

Specialists consider that ingesting water helps management blood stress by stopping dehydration. When your physique is dehydrated, your blood—which is made principally of water—loses quantity, which can result in electrolyte imbalances, together with concentrated ranges of sodium (salt) and different minerals in your blood.

Elevated sodium concentrations could cause your physique to launch a hormone referred to as vasopressin, which regulates water retention and narrows your blood vessels. In flip, this will increase the power—or stress—in your blood vessel partitions.

Consuming water might assist cut back these results of dehydration in your physique.

A typical advice for each day water consumption is about six to eight glasses of water a day, or 64 fluid ounces. Researchers discovered this quantity efficient in a number of research.

However how a lot water you want can rely on many components. These embody:

Your ageYour sexHow a lot you weighThe local weather you are inHow a lot bodily exercise you getWhether you are pregnant or breastfeeding

For example, you want extra water on a scorching day or if you happen to sweat throughout a exercise.

For blood stress, it is also essential to discover a steadiness and get the water you want with out overdoing it. You may finest assist your cardiovascular well being by avoiding each dehydration and overhydration, which can result in fluid overload.

Fluid Overload and Excessive Blood Stress

In some instances, blood stress will increase attributable to an excessive amount of water or fluid in your physique. Hypervolemia happens when your physique retains an excessive amount of fluid and might’t take away sufficient of it. Rising general blood quantity will increase stress in your blood vessel partitions, resulting in hypertension.

Well being circumstances like cirrhosis (liver scarring), kidney illness, and coronary heart failure are widespread causes of hypervolemia. One other is consuming an excessive amount of salt in your food regimen.

Along with water, different drink choices might assist management blood stress. Take into account these choices to assist meet your each day wants for fluid consumption:

Beet juice: Analysis revealed in 2024 means that ingesting beet juice every single day may also help decrease systolic blood stress in these with hypertension. Nitrates within the beets widen blood vessels, reducing blood stress.
Tomato juice: A examine of adults with hypertension and excessive low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or “unhealthy”) ldl cholesterol discovered that one yr of ingesting unsalted tomato juice every single day improved each measures, lowering the danger of cardiovascular ailments.
Pomegranate juice: As a result of it has many polyphenols—compounds wealthy in antioxidants—pomegranate juice might assist decrease blood stress, in keeping with a 2017 examine that evaluated information from eight randomized management trials.
Cranberry juice: In a examine of adults with extra body weight and hypertension, consuming about 16 ounces of cranberry juice a day for eight weeks helped lower blood stress.
Inexperienced or black tea: Inexperienced tea could also be simpler than black tea, however ingesting both sort may also help decrease blood stress. You’ll have higher outcomes if you happen to drink it each day over a number of months.
Electrolyte water: In a single examine, those that drank water with magnesium and calcium (electrolytes that affect how your blood vessels widen or contract) had a decrease threat of hypertension than individuals who drank plain water. Potassium is one other electrolyte present in some drinks that may be helpful for reducing blood stress. Be aware of drinks that comprise sodium, which may enhance blood stress.

Hydration is only one of many components might affect blood stress. Consuming water may also help as a part of a broader plan for cardiovascular well being that features different heart-healthy way of life approaches. The following tips might assist:

Modify your food regimen: Enhance how a lot potassium you eat, and cut back salt (sodium). Following a dietary plan just like the DASH food regimen may also help you emphasize recent fruit, greens, entire grains, and lean proteins.  
Keep away from smoking: Smoking raises blood stress, however avoiding this behavior helps cut back the danger of cardiovascular ailments.
Get lively: Purpose to get not less than 150 minutes of average depth train and 75 minutes of vigorous train per week.
Sleep nicely: Purpose for seven to 9 hours of uninterrupted relaxation every evening, sustaining constant sleep and wake-up instances.
Restrict ingesting: Extra alcohol use can even influence blood stress, however reducing again may also help.
Handle your weight: Attain or keep a weight that is wholesome for you thru food regimen, train, or different strategies your physician might suggest.
Handle stress: Meditation, mindfulness workout routines, bodily train, and enjoyable actions, like listening to music, might assist.

Consuming sufficient water—about eight cups per day—might assist assist wholesome blood stress by defending in opposition to dehydration, which may trigger spikes in blood stress. Alone, ingesting extra fluids might not deal with hypertension, although it will probably play a job in managing this situation together with different way of life approaches and medicine as wanted.