Dietary and lifestyle modifications for effective management of hypertension: A comprehensive review

Abstract

Hypertension (HTN) remains the major and modifiable risk factor of various cardiovascular complications and target organ damage. HTN is often asymptomatic until it reaches a severe stage, making it a “silent killer”. Despite the ongoing advancements in pharmacological treatment, the escalating prevalence of HTN (≈25 %) around the globe has urged the need to implement non-pharmacological interventions to manage HTN and its related complications. Managing hypertension at earlier stages is the first and foremost step to prevent its risk and progression to later stages. Incorporating dietary and lifestyle modifications may be an effective approach owing to their synergistic action with the antihypertensive drugs to mitigate HTN. Hence, non-pharmacological approaches can be used as an adjunctive management strategy to control HTN, minimize dose of antihypertensive drugs and its related side effects. Hereby, this review explores various risk factors of HTN and discusses the crucial roles of macro/micronutrients, dietary supplements and healthy eating patterns in preventing and managing HTN. Furthermore, this review also mentions the effects of anti-nutritional factors and nutrigenomics on HTN. The impacts of healthy lifestyle modifications including smoking cessation, regular sleeping patterns, stress management, exercise, reducing alcohol consumption and limiting exposure to particulate matter on HTN are also discussed in this review. This information may be helpful in designing a holistic management and treatment approach to reduce the burden of HTN and address the challenges associated with pharmacological treatment. However, more studies are required to investigate the long-term efficacy and side effects of non-pharmacological interventions in primary care settings and assess their risk-to-benefit ratio.