Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a silent killer, rarely producing obvious symptoms but shortening the lives of millions. Disconcerting statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate a massive epidemic: About one-third of Americans are unknowingly walking around right now with blood pressure high enough to shorten their lives. Blood pressure complications sent millions of Americans to the doctor last year. Also, more than half of all nursing home residents suffer from blood pressure that’s too high.
Lethal Force
When blood pressure climbs, it exerts an undue force against artery walls, compelling the heart to pump more strenuously than usual to circulate blood throughout the body. Undiagnosed and untreated high blood pressure, therefore, puts you at risk of heart attack, heart disease, stroke, and kidney failure, as well as other potentially life-threatening conditions.
The scariest thing about hypertension is that it often kills before its specific signs are recognized. While its symptoms may include headache, blurry vision, and dizziness, these are ambiguous enough to be discounted as blood pressure related. This is why hypertension has been labeled “the silent killer.”
Without specific symptoms, hypertension is frequently detected too late, often only after your blood pressure has skyrocketed to a potentially lethal height. When blood pressure climbs this high, it can bring debilitating headaches, fatigue, confusion, chest pain, difficulty breathing, irregular heartbeat, blood in the urine, and pounding in your chest, neck, or ears.
If you experience any of these symptoms, see your physician immediately. You may be suffering a “hypertensive crisis.” This crisis can quickly lead to stroke or heart attack and damage your brain and kidneys as well as your heart.
Taking The Measurement
Hypertension is difficult to diagnose without actually measuring your blood pressure regularly. What’s more, it can strike just about anyone. Getting a handle on early warning signs by knowing your risk factors can help you head off hypertension before it threatens your life.
Risk factors to be aware of include:
- Genetics: High blood pressure can be inherited. If your parents, siblings, or close relatives have (or have had) hypertension, you are at increased risk.
- Ethnicity: African Americans and Native Americans are more likely to develop hypertension than are Americans and Mexican Americans. They also often develop it earlier in life.
- Gender: Men are more likely to develop hypertension at an earlier age than women. But beginning at age 65, women are at higher risk than men because their blood vessels stiffen.
Make The Right Choices
Lifestyle choices play a significant role in the development of hypertension throughout your life. So you have the ability, through actions and preferences, to reverse and prevent this potentially life-threatening condition.
Lifestyle risk factors include:
- Kidney dysfunction: Hypertension is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality globally. When your kidneys don’t work effectively, they can cause further increases in blood pressure by releasing certain hormones or by causing retention of salt and water in your body. Hypertension and chronic kidney disease are closely intertwined conditions, as hypertension can lead to deteriorating renal function, and progressive chronic kidney disease can contribute to worsening hypertension.
- Overweight: If you are overweight or obese, you are at a very high risk of hypertension. It has repeatedly been shown that losing weight can lower your systolic blood pressure (the top number) by about five points per 10 pounds of weight loss. If your body mass index, or BMI, is 25 or greater, you are more likely to have high blood pressure.
- Insulin Resistance: Diabetes due to insulin resistance causes damage by scarring the kidneys, leading to salt and water retention, which raises blood pressure. Over time, diabetes damages the small blood vessels, causing the walls of the blood vessels to stiffen and malfunction. These changes contribute to high blood pressure.
- Alcohol Consumption: Studies show that having more than three alcoholic beverages per day dramatically raises your blood pressure. Cut back, and blood pressure lowers.
- Smoking: You increase your hypertension risk every time you inhale tobacco smoke. Smoking temporarily elevates systolic blood pressure by five to 10 points for about 30 minutes. If you smoke a pack a day and already have high blood pressure, you exponentially increase your risk of death.
- Poor Diet: A diet high in calories, fat, and sugar can cause weight gain and bring on hypertension. Moreover, vitamin D deficiency in women and high consumption of fructose and high fructose corn syrup have also been associated with an elevated risk of hypertension.
- Exercise: A sedentary lifestyle and a general lack of daily exercise increase not only your risk of hypertension but also of developing obesity and heart disease. Regular exercise helps to control blood pressure, thus making it one of the best options for preventing this disease.
- Stress: Studies show that people with heightened anxiety, intense anger, and suppressed expression of anger run a higher risk of high blood pressure.
A doctor can quickly diagnose hypertension by measuring your pressure with a blood pressure cuff and stethoscope. Also, many pharmacies’ automatic blood pressure machines can give you a general idea of your blood pressure. Happily, the lifestyle measures for reversing hypertension or keeping it from ever happening are pretty straightforward. Start today to understand its causes, identify your risk factors, and adopt the necessary and straightforward, broad-stroke lifestyle changes to control your blood pressure.
Supplements To Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a serious health condition when your blood pressure reading is persistently over 130/80 mm/Hg (milligrams of mercury). While medications are available to lower blood pressure, many natural supplements are often effective and may convey a much lower risk of side effects. If you want to start taking supplements to lower your blood pressure, consider the following:
Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Omega-3 fatty acids from marine sources have been studied in numerous high-quality clinical trials for their role in supporting healthy blood pressure. Omega-3s from marine sources (called EPA and DHA), as opposed to plant sources, are particularly important because these are the omega-3 fats that actually have biological activity. Improvements in blood pressure are associated with elevated omega-3 biomarkers. A simple blood test means you can track the nutrient sufficiency of EPA and DHA to determine whether you’re consuming enough marine sources to support healthy blood pressure.
Vascular Support: Vascular Support BP is a unique combination of vitamins, minerals, and herbs designed to support blood pressure within normal ranges. Vascular Support BP targets multiple pathways and essential metabolic functions, including the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), the enzyme that produces nitric oxide, which aids in the elasticity of your blood vessels and allows them to dilate. When your blood vessels are dilated, your blood pressure goes down.
CoQ10 with DMG: CoQ10, also called coenzyme Q10, is a critical nutrient essential for heart health, energy production, and neurological function. CoQ10 works in the mitochondria of our cells to make energy. The human body has over 100 trillion cells, and CoQ10 helps energize all of them. DMG promotes healthy methylation to support energy production, neurotransmitter release, and immune system function. DMG also helps to support optimal cellular oxygen utilization, allowing you to breathe more easily.
Magnesium: Magnesium is a mineral needed by every cell. It activates at least 350 different enzymes in the body, more than any other mineral, so it is crucial for many of the metabolic functions in the body. Low magnesium levels can cause metabolic functions to decrease, resulting in stress and reducing the body’s ability to absorb and retain magnesium. Magnesium is well known for its ability to help maintain normal muscle and nerve function, heart rhythm, energy production and storage, and strong bones and teeth. Always include magnesium in your supplement regimen if you have high blood pressure.
Amino-Flo: Amino-Flo represents the gold standard in Nitric Oxide (NO) nutritional support. It contains targeted, precise ingredients aimed at blood vessel support. Citrulline and arginine play a role in nitric oxide production. Proline and Lysine directly support the integrity of the blood vessel wall, making it more elastic.
To learn more about reducing the risk for high blood pressure, get a FREE Consultation with one of our doctors (D.C) here.
