Conversation: The conversation between human and AI assistant.
[|Human|] I am a 57-year-old Asian woman. I am 156 cm tall and underweight at 84 lbs. I dont smoke nor drink alcohol. I dont eat food that contains much salt, sugar or fat. I walk in total about 1 hr. 10 mins. daily. My mother, 80, has hypertension, diabetes and osteoporosis.  My diastolic blood pressure is OK, most times in the 60s and sometimes 50s and 70s. However, I just noticed in November 2011 that my systolic blood pressure has gone up a lot. In the previous months April to October 2011, monthly readings were 120s and twice 130 (last reading before Nov was 127 on 10/10). Since 1 Nov I have been taking readings daily and they were mostly 140s and 130s, and low 150s a few times, and even 161 once.  I suspect that my high systolic blood pressure is due to hardening of my arteries from old age and/or heredity. It seems that my lifestyle is OK. Is there any way to lower my systolic blood pressure apart from taking medication ?
[|AI|]  Hi, welcome to Chat Doctor. Thanks for writing to us.First, i would like to say that, please don't be obsessive about the blood pressure. At your age if you measure the BP once in a week, that is enough.  Now, coming to the point of lowering the blood pressure by non-pharmacological methods, you may follow the following:1. Go for some daily workout, preferably some brisk walk in the morning.2. Have salt restricted diet and avoid raw salt intake.3. Have fat restricted diet.4. If there is any associated health problems like diabetes, thyroid problem or insomnia, seek the help of your doctor. Hope I have answered your queries. Stay fit and good luck.