Grandma was right about your blood pressure

Watch your salt and take a Vitamin C tablet.

This was always my mom's advice concerning blood pressure. (Here she is in the 1940s, as an aspiring Hollywood starlet, before my dad ruined her and she had me. She now has 7 grandkids aged 10-20.)

Mom is 85 now, with her own blood pressure issues, but she's still with us, and if you take her advice you can stay with us, too.

The difference between her "old wive's tale" and what I'm telling you is that there is now growing scientific proof this works, offered at the American Heart Association's Conference of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research here in Atlanta.

The latest Vitamin C work comes from Italy, where patients with hypertension were injected with it and had their blood pressure drop by 7-9%.

This is a follow-on to a British study showing those with a high level of Vitamin C in their blood cut their risk of stroke.

As to the salt, a University of Alabama study shows a high salt diet can actually overwhelm the effects of drugs used to control high blood pressure.

The research concluded that lowering salt levels reduces fluid retention and improves the function of veins and arteries.

We're not saying get rid of salt entirely. Just reduce your use of it. Use just enough so you don't taste anything but the food. If you can taste the salt you've used too much.

This is news you can really use, right now, today. My mom says 85-year olds don't want presents, but maybe y'all can suggest something nice in the comments.