ABSTRACT
Lifestyle modifications, in particular dietary and non-pharmacological measures, are commonly recommended by experts and clinical guidelines both for the prevention as well as therapy of hypertension (1-7). Such approaches clearly are of great potential importance in a disease with a very high prevalence [27% of the US population has blood pressure (BP) 140/90 mmHg] (Lichtenstein 20). Accordingly, this chapter discusses the most commonly advocated measures and evaluates the data upon which these recommendations rely, both with respect to the prevention of hypertension, as well as their potential for reducing BP in patients with hypertension.
