There are several drug-free strategies like this that can help lower your blood pressure, including dietary changes, exercise, optimizing your vitamin D and omega-3 status and eating certain foods such as beets and garlic. This is good news since approximately 70 million Americans, and 1 billion people worldwide, have high blood pressure.

Recent research highlights the importance of animal-based omega-3 fats for healthy blood pressure — especially in young adults. The findings showed that those with the highest serum levels of omega-3 also had the lowest blood pressure readings. Other studies show that regular consumption of fish and other omega-3– rich foods may lower your risk of a fatal heart attack (myocardial infarction) by about 10 percent.

Omega-3 fats benefit your cardiovascular health in several ways. In addition to lowering your blood pressure and triglyceride concentrations and improving endothelial function (a major factor in promoting the growth of new blood vessels), they also help counteract and prevent cardiac arrhythmia, help prevent thrombosis (blood clots within blood vessels), and aid in preventing fatty deposits and fibrosis of the inner layer of your arteries from forming, in addition to counteracting inflammation.