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 over 40 million Americans to the doctor last year. In addition, more than half of all nursing home residents suffer from blood pressure that’s too high.
What Happens When Blood Pressure Climbs?
When blood pressure climbs, it exerts undue force against artery walls, compelling the heart to pump more strenuously than normal to circulate blood throughout the body. Undiagnosed or 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.
Symptoms of Severe Hypertension
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 on debilitating headaches, fatigue, confusion, chest pain, difficulty breathing, irregular heartbeat, blood in the urine, and pounding in your chest, neck, or ears.
The scariest thing about hypertension is that it often kills before its specific signs are recognized. This is why hypertension is labeled “The Silent Killer.”
Diagnosing and Preventing Hypertension
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. 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.
How to Measure 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, straightforward, broad-stroke lifestyle changes to control your blood pressure.
Risk Factors for Hypertension
Genetic and Demographic Risk Factors
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 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.
Lifestyle Choices That Impact Hypertension
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.
Overweight
If you are overweight or obese, you are at a very high risk of hypertension. Most people who are overweight are insulin-resistant. It has repeatedly been shown that controlling your blood sugar helps with blood pressure. 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.
High Salt Consumption
A high-salt diet puts you at high risk for hypertension. Your kidneys can’t process huge amounts of excessive salt. However, reduce your salt intake by avoiding processed foods, and your blood pressure will also be reduced.
Alcohol Consumption
Studies show that having more than three alcoholic beverages per day raises your blood pressure. Cut back on excessive alcohol consumption, and it will lower your blood pressure.
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, trans fats, and sugar can cause weight gain and bring on hypertension. Moreover, vitamin D deficiency in women, along with consumption of fructose and high fructose corn syrup, is 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 and curing this disease.
Stress
Studies show that people with heightened anxiety, intense anger, and suppressed expression of anger have elevated homocysteine, which leads to high blood pressure.
Natural Supplements to Lower Blood Pressure
The Best Natural Nutritional Supplements
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 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 BP
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, 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 nutritional support. Nitric oxide is a potent vasodilator with endothelial anti-inflammatory effects. Amino-Flo contains targeted, precise ingredients aimed at blood vessel support. Citrulline and Arginine play a role in Nitric Oxide production, and Proline and Lysine directly support the integrity of the blood vessel wall. In this formula, L-Proline acts like Teflon in the blood vessels, inhibiting the stickiness of lipoproteins and fatty globules and thus preventing plaque buildup. L-Proline may help release already deposited fatty globules from the vessel walls into the bloodstream.
Polyphenols
Resveratrol, quercetin, flavonoids, red wine (6 oz. twice weekly), dealcoholized red wine, dark chocolate, and other plant-derived polyphenols have been shown to safely reduce endothelial inflammation, increase nitric oxide (a vasodilator), and thereby lower both blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
Take Action Today
If you have been diagnosed with hypertension and would like to discover your natural alternatives to treating this condition, get a FREE Consultation with one of our doctors (D.C) here.
