Lowering blood pressure naturally: the levers in your hands.

At the chemist you try the blood pressure machine out of curiosity. The reading is high. Before leaving you've searched how to lower blood pressure naturally, yet you feel fine.

Feeling fine counts for little: cardiologists call it the silent killer because it rarely has symptoms. Here's how to check it at home, its causes and what you can change.

How to check your blood pressure at home

One reading tells you little. Some people shoot up in front of a white coat; others are perfect at the surgery and high elsewhere. That's 'masked' high blood pressure, the sneakiest kind. You need your own monitor.

• Upper arm. Cuff on your bare arm, level with your heart, arm resting on a table. Wrist monitors are often wrong.
• Five minutes' rest first. Back supported, feet flat on the floor, no coffee in the half hour before. Don't talk while it measures.
• Two readings a minute apart, morning and evening. Write both down: the first is often higher.
• A week, then the average. Seven days, three at the very least: the average is the number for your GP.

What causes high blood pressure

Your arteries are elastic tubes: with age, sitting still and salt they tend to stiffen, and your heart pushes harder. If it runs in the family, check sooner.

The damage adds up. A pipe at sky-high pressure bursts within a month; just above where it should be, it wears out anyway, over ten or twenty years. So do your heart and kidneys.

Age doesn't raise the limit. The old '100 plus your age' rule is outdated: the target stays the same at seventy.

Stress keeps a foot on the accelerator. With meetings and deadlines the system that speeds up your heart stays on: it can rise even in lean people who train.

At night it should drop. While you sleep it falls and your brain clears itself out; sleep badly and it falls less, which can weigh on heart and memory.

High blood pressure: what should you eat and do?

Four levers: less hidden salt, fruit and veg, movement, sleep. They work alongside treatment too.

Hidden salt. Most people eat 9 to 12 grams a day; the eating plan designed for high blood pressure goes below four, including what's already in food. More than half comes from bread, bacon, ham, mature cheese, stock cubes, sauces and meals out. The usual mistake: cutting the pinch in the pasta water and leaving the rest. Check labels and season with herbs, lemon and spices.

Fruit and veg at every meal. They bring potassium, magnesium and calcium, which help your arteries relax: spinach, oranges, bananas, pulses, nuts. The Mediterranean way.

Aerobic exercise, most days. Brisk walking, cycling, swimming: half an hour to an hour, three to seven times a week, judged after eight weeks at the earliest. Finish by easing off for ten minutes. Weights only with your doctor's go-ahead: moderate loads, never holding your breath.

Sleep and recovery. Seven or eight hours at regular times: as sleep improves, blood pressure and heart rate often settle too. After a tough meeting, try the long out-breaths from the article on calming down fast.

The chemist's reading is a wake-up call: start measuring tonight and take it all to your GP.