Lifestyle changes are the first recommendations doctors make to people with high blood pressure. There is much evidence supporting the benefits of losing weight, increasing exercise, reducing the use of salt and other practices. However, there has not been much information on the relative effectiveness of such changes.

Now a new study has found that postmenopausal women can lower their blood pressure more effectively by reducing their salt intake than by walking daily. Although both exercise and salt restriction decreased the women’s systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure, the reductions produced by cutting back on salt were three to four times greater than those produced by exercising.

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