Lower heart attack risk by 60%

When it’s warm out, your heart has to pump three times more blood each minute to keep body heat flowing away from your organs and out through your skin— and if your blood pressure is high, that can be hard. Thankfully, trimming as little as 15 points off your blood pressure can cut your summer heart attack risk by 60%. And it’s easy! Dip into guacamole

A medium avocado packs 1,000 mg. of potassium— a mineral that relaxes and opens arteries, so your heart can pump blood more easily to your organs and your skin, says Michael Greger, M.D., author of How Not to Diet. According to UCLA researchers, the healthy fats in avocados also prod your kidneys to flush out artery-tightening sodium— all told, trimming up to 13 points off your blood pressure if you enjoy five avocados weekly.

Sip this earthy juice

Drinking half a cup of beet juice twice daily could lower your blood pressure by 10 points in 24 hours—better results than prescription meds! That’s the word from researchers at Colorado State University, who say this drink’s rich stores of plant compounds (betalains) tame artery-tightening inflammation inside blood vessel walls.

Enjoy the outdoors

Four studies suggest that spending 30 minutes outside each day could trim 12 points off your summer blood-pressure readings! Explains biologist Martin Feelisch, PH.D., when skin is exposed to natural light, it releases an artery-relaxing compound (nitric oxide) into your bloodstream.

Try magnesium

Magnesium acts like natural calcium-channel blockers, meds that relax arteries and increase blood flow. No wonder scientists at Baylor College of Medicine say taking 400 mg. daily could trim eight points off your blood pressure, and it costs as little as $2 per month! Note: Check with your doctor before supplementing. —Brenda Kearns