Hypertension, another word for high blood pressure, can lead to grave physical problems such as heart attack and stroke. Some people have high blood pressure for a very long time without being aware of it, because there are no symptoms. But lack of symptoms doesn’t mean that damage isn’t being done.

Blood pressure concerns the amount of blood in your arteries and the effort the heart must put out to pump it. The more blood pumped and the more resistance to blood flow because of narrow arteries, the higher the blood pressure.

Fortunately, high blood pressure can be easily detected. And once you know you have high blood pressure, you can work with your doctor to control it.

The conventional approach to high blood pressure has been to put the patient on certain anti-hypertensive drugs. Hypertension is another name for high blood pressure. Commonly beta-blockers, diuretics and calcium channel blockers are the types of drugs used. Often high blood pressure gets controlled but unwanted side effects occur. For the side effects more drugs are given and more side effects occur. So the cycle goes on. Eventually patients end up on several anti-hypertensive drugs at least.

A leading cardiologist has recommended a group of three natural supplements to be used to control blood pressure - coenzyme Q-10, L carnitine and D-ribose. Studies have recently found that other herbal supplements help to lower blood pressure, too, but the above three are the main nutritional supplements given to naturally lower blood pressure without side effects.

Most people can benefit from a change in diet, or at least moderation. One need not go to extremes, but a healthy diet also assists with weight management, and having a normal weight will help bring about normal blood pressure.

Just a walk around the block will make blood pressure go down. So is that a result of less stress or exercise? Both. A regular exercise program is necessary for a natural therapy for lowering blood pressure.

There’s no need to resort to drugs and their side effects for a normal blood pressure. You can work with a nutritionist and doctor and use a combination of diet, supplements and exercise and get a better result.