I started my program focused on gut health & overall better function in the body – and the weight just took care of itself!!
Approaching Weight from a Functional Perspective
Healthy Weight: (adj. + n.) a body’s relative mass or the quantity of matter contained by it, that does not negatively impact but rather regulates optimal bodily functions; can be comfortably maintained with lifestyle and does not consume one’s thoughts.
You take up space. A measurement of space is weight. The weight of your body is a compilation of purpose! Down to every one of your 724+/- trillion cells.
One of the beautiful things about how we are designed is that we have the ability to guide the purpose of our cells by what we do and how we live.
An Integrative Approach to Healthy Weight
The etiology of unhealthy weight in today’s world is multi-factorial including genetic, psychosocial, emotional, behavioral and environmental factors. Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight may require attention to deeper issues in all aspects of lifestyle including:
Nutrition
Mindfulness
Physical activity
Lifestyle imbalances
Stress management
Quality sleep
Spiritual connection
Addressing Root Issues
When journeying on the path to a healthy weight, it is necessary to address not the symptom of unhealthy weight but rather the root issues that is causing it. With functional medicine, providers often do in-depth testing to uncover what is going on or not going on internally such irregular thyroid activity, insulin resistance, hormonal imbalances, toxic overload, nutrient deficiencies or imbalances, etc.
Evidence suggests the following therapies may be helpful for weight management:
Body therapies such as chiropractic, message therapy, and acupuncture
Mind-body techniques such as meditation, breathing exercises, and artistic expression
Talk therapy including counseling, support groups and motivational interviewing
“We used to eat to fill our stomachs but now we eat to fill our hearts.” – Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
If we stop to look at the real reasons people eat certain foods, it’s not a lack of self-control like the stigma suggests- it is a lack of other things in life.
Don’t Weight! A Better Approach to Healthy Weight
Here are five key elements that can help us tune into our hunger cues, emotional needs, and physical responses to food in a way that makes us feel better overall, with weight loss as an added benefit. Stopping to ask yourself what, when, why, where, and how, every time you eat, creates a sense of awareness and sustainable results that are often missing from diet culture.
When we regulate the body’s biological systems, we automatically regulate the brain chemistry, hormones, and other factors that can lead to an unhealthy weight when left unchecked. And, when we begin to understand that the food industry knows how to hijack those systems at the highest level, we can stop blaming ourselves and start making positive changes!
If the body still can’t seem to find its healthy weight, seek assistance! There may be deeper issues going on.
You probably know it is a root cause of countless health problems and is the only factor common to all chronic diseases – including Alzheimer’s & dementia due to an antimicrobial response to pathogens or other inflammatory causes. The word inflammation comes from the Latin word inflammatio; inflammare which means to set on fire. The best way to describe inflammation is to say the tissues of the body are “on fire.” Your body is creating this fire in response to damaged cells in your body.
What Causes Inflammation?
In functional medicine, we are very interested in the subject of #inflammation because until it is brought under control we simply cannot help people’s bodies restore function and therefore health. When your cells are damaged by anything, your body starts a fire. The purpose of this fire is to contain/limit the damage so it does not spread, break down damaged cells for removal and permit the development of new, healthy cells — just like controlled burns in nature!
So, while your body is not technically on fire, inflammation is like a fire in your body. But, what causes this body-fire? A lot of natural chemicals your body creates in a response to damaged cells.
Below are some of the chemicals your body makes to create this fire:
“Body-Fire Chemicals”
Histamine
Bradykinin
Serotonin
Prostaglandins
Complement system (a group of about 20 different proteins)
Cytokines including lymphokines and monokines
Etc.
As you can see from the list above, the process of inflammation is not caused by a single chemical; it is a complicated process, involving many different chemicals. This is why so few people understand what inflammation actually is… there is not a single cause. You just need to know that inflammation is like a fire in your body.
What Triggers an Inflammatory Response?
Inflammation is an immune response. Innate immune response is how your body recognizes and defends itself against bacteria, viruses, and substances that appear foreign and harmful. The inflammatory response (inflammation) occurs when tissues are injured by bacteria, trauma, toxins, heat, or any other cause that damages cells including microorganisms, physical agents, chemicals, inappropriate immunological responses, and tissue death.
Infectious agents such as viruses and bacteria are some of the most common stimuli of inflammation. Viruses give rise to inflammation by entering and destroying cells of the body; bacteria release substances called endotoxins that can initiate inflammation.
Physical trauma, burns, radiation injury, and frostbite can damage tissues and also bring about inflammation, as can corrosive chemicals such as acids, alkalis, and oxidizing agents. As mentioned above, malfunctioning immunological responses can incite an inappropriate and damaging inflammatory response. Inflammation can also result when tissues die from a lack of oxygen or nutrients, a situation that often is caused by loss of blood flow to the area.
The damaged cells release chemicals including histamine, bradykinin, and prostaglandins. These chemicals cause blood vessels to leak fluid into the tissues, causing swelling. This helps isolate the foreign substance from further contact with body tissues.
The chemicals also attract white blood cells called phagocytes that “eat” germs and dead or damaged cells. This process is called phagocytosis. Phagocytes eventually die. Pus is formed from a collection of dead tissue, dead bacteria, and live and dead phagocytes.
Most Common Causes of Inflammation That We See
Chronic Infections – such as infections of the gut, Lyme’s Disease, Epstein–Barr virus, etc
When inflammation is short-term and controlled, it is a very good thing because it is a necessary part of the healing process. The “fire” of inflammation cleans out the useless and damaged cells and lets new healthy ones take their place. This is what we call “healthy inflammation.” Every time we eat, we also consume a significant quantity of bacteria. The body is faced with the challenge of simultaneously distributing the ingested glucose and fighting these bacteria. This triggers an inflammatory response that activates the immune systems of healthy individuals and has a protective effect In healthy individuals, short-term inflammatory responses play an important role in sugar uptake and the activation of the immune system.
Supporting a balanced intestinal microbial community is essential for the integrity of the immune system, for the prevention and response to infections (inflammation), and for recovery from illness. The microbes and their metabolites influence physiological function (particularly metabolism), local mucosal homeostasis, inflammation, and interactions between multiple body systems. Therefore, an imbalanced intestinal microbiota may have system-wide effects and contribute to blunted immune reactivity. Gut microbiota alterations due to unhealthy lifestyle factors and dietary triggers may contribute to inflammation, intestinal permeability, immune system dysfunction, and the pathogenesis of a broad spectrum of chronic diseases. Healthy lifestyle factors, including a diversified diet, limited consumption of processed and refined foods, and consumption of adequate dietary fiber, may all promote a healthy microbiome and therefore a healthy immune response!
CHRONIC inflammation is BAD
Just like how fire is a cleansing process in forests; this process in nature is beneficial when it occurs periodically. It would be harmful if the forest was constantly burning or if it burned down every year. This is what happens in your body with chronic inflammation…the fire never dies out. The cells of your body cannot repair themselves and new, healthy cells can’t form. Your “forest” can’t rebuild and thrive and function as nature intended.
If the agent causing an inflammation cannot be eliminated, or if there is some interference with the healing process, an acute inflammatory response may progress to the chronic stage. Repeated episodes of acute inflammation also can give rise to chronic inflammation. The physical extent, duration, and effects of chronic inflammation vary with the cause of the injury and the body’s ability to ameliorate the damage.
Some of the most common and disabling human diseases, such as tuberculosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and chronic lung disease, are characterized by this type of inflammation. Chronic inflammation can be brought about by infectious organisms that are able to resist host defenses and persist in tissues for an extended period. These organisms include Mycobacterium tuberculosis (the causative agent of tuberculosis), fungi, protozoa, and metazoal parasites. Other inflammatory agents are materials foreign to the body that cannot be removed by phagocytosis or enzymatic breakdown. These include substances that can be inhaled, such as silica dust, and materials that can gain entry to wounds, such as metal or wood splinters.
In autoimmune reactions the stimulus to chronic inflammation is a normal component of the body to which the immune system has become sensitized. Autoimmune reactions give rise to chronic inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.
We could keep going, but we think you get the idea, chronic inflammation causes many problems for your body. Functional medicine providers specialize in connecting symptoms + health history to pinpoint the type of inflammatory response and finding the root cause/s of unhealthy inflammation by asking questions such as what is damaging the cells? what microorganisms, physical agents, or chemicals are prevalent? are the intestinal microbial communities balanced?
Now you have a more in-depth understanding of what inflammation is…the body on fire and this fire is your body’s response to damaged cells. Discover what is causing the damage to cells and you can reduce inflammation.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Inflammation”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Nov. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/science/inflammation.
Cammarota G, Ianiro G. Gut microbiota and cancer patients: a broad-ranging relationship. Mayo Clin Proc. 2017;92(11):1605-1607. doi:1016/j.mayocp.2017.09.009
https://medlineplus.gov/ency/imagepages/9071.htm
Shanahan F, van Sinderen D, O’Toole PW, Stanton C. Feeding the microbiota: transducer of nutrient signals for the host. Gut. 2017;66(9):1709-1717. doi:1136/gutjnl-2017-313872
Worldwide, 50 million people are living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
This illness affects a third of people over the age of 85 in the U.S. By 2050, there could be as many as 7 million people age 85 and older with Alzheimer’s disease, accounting for half (51%) of all people 65 and older with Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative brain disease and the most common form of dementia. Dementia is not a specific disease. It’s an overall term that describes a group of symptoms.
This Brain Dis-ease can rob people of the ability to think clearly, perform everyday tasks and ultimately, remember their family or who they even are. Because the disease is so devastating, and since previous treatments failed to come up with a cure, we’re always on the lookout for Alzheimer’s natural treatment options and Alzheimer’s news, scouring the medical journals for Alzheimer’s breakthroughs.
It is claimed that “no one survives a diagnosis of dementia,” a disease with “no effective treatment.” As practitioners, we have struggled over the years with patients with cognitive decline, since there has been so little to offer… There is still much that we do not know about the brain, but there are several theories for dementia root causes including free radical damage, an inability to use glucose properly, vitamin deficiencies or environmental toxinsthat can be used to improve cognitive function and, perhaps, prevent dementia and its related diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Understanding the Brain
Your brain is your most powerful organ, yet weighs only about three pounds. It has a texture similar to firm jelly. It is comprised of 3 main parts: the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and the brain stem.
The cerebrum fills up most of your skull. It is involved in remembering, problem solving, thinking, and feeling. It also controls movement.
The cerebellum sits at the back of your head, under the cerebrum. It controls coordination and balance.
The brain stem sits beneath your cerebrum in front of your cerebellum. It connects the brain to the spinal cord and controls automatic functions such as breathing, digestion, heart rate and blood pressure.
Your brain is nourished by one of your body’s richest networks of blood vessels. When you are thinking hard, your brain may use up to 50 percent of the fuel and oxygen. With each heartbeat, arteries carry about 20 to 25 percent of your blood to your brain, where billions of cells use about 20 percent of the oxygen and fuel your blood carries. The whole vessel network includes veins and capillaries in addition to arteries.
Your brain’s wrinkled surface is a specialized outer layer of the cerebrum called the cortex. Scientists have “mapped” the cortex by identifying areas strongly linked to certain functions. Your brain is divided into right and left halves. The right side is responsible for controlling the left side of your body and the left side is responsible for controlling the right side of your body.
Your brain is a NEURON FOREST. Neurons are information messengers. They use electrical impulses and chemical signals to transmit information between different areas of the brain, and between the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Neurons are the chief type of cell destroyed by Alzheimer’s disease.
An adult brain contains about 100 billion nerve cells.
Branches connect the nerve cells at more than 100 trillion points. Scientists call this dense, branching network a “neuron forest.”
Signals traveling through the neuron forest form the basis of memories, thoughts, and feelings.
Cell Signaling & Signal Coding
The real work of your brain goes on in individual cells. The neurotransmitters travel across the synapse, carrying signals to other cells. Scientists have identified dozens of neurotransmitters. Alzheimer’s disease disrupts both the way electrical charges travel within cells and the activity of neurotransmitters.
100 billion nerve cells. 100 trillion synapses. Dozens of neurotransmitters. This “strength in numbers” provides your brain’s raw material. Over time, our experiences create patterns in signal type and strength. These patterns of activity explain how, at the cellular level, our brains code our thoughts, memories, skills and sense of who we are.
Understanding How Alzheimer’s and Dementia Affects the Brain
Alzheimer’s disease leads to nerve cell death and tissue loss throughout the brain. Over time, the brain shrinks dramatically, affecting nearly all its functions.
Scientists can also see the terrible effects of Alzheimer’s disease when they look at brain tissue under the microscope. Scientists are not absolutely sure what causes cell death and tissue loss in the Alzheimer’s brain, but the plaques and tangles in the figures below are prime suspects.
Alzheimer’s tissue has many fewer nerve cells and synapses than a healthy brain.
Plaques, abnormal clusters of protein fragments, build up between nerve cells.
Dead and dying nerve cells contain tangles, which are made up of twisted strands of another protein.
More About Plaques…
Plaques form when protein pieces called beta-amyloid (BAY-tuh AM-uh-loyd) clump together. Beta-amyloid comes from a larger protein found in the fatty membrane surrounding nerve cells.
Beta-amyloid is chemically “sticky” and gradually builds up into plaques.
The most damaging form of beta-amyloid may be groups of a few pieces rather than the plaques themselves. The small clumps may block cell-to-cell signaling at synapses. They may also activate immune system cells that trigger inflammation and devour disabled cells.
More About Tangles…
Tangles destroy a vital cell transport system made of proteins. This electron microscope picture shows a cell with some healthy areas and other areas where tangles are forming.
In healthy areas:
Orderly, parallel strands for delivering key materials to the cells
A protein called tau helps keep the strands straight
In areas where tangles are forming:
Nutrients and other essential supplies can no longer move through the cells, which eventually die.
Tau collapses into twisted strands called tangles
The strands can no longer stay straight and disintegrate
Progression Through the Brain
Plaques and tangles tend to spread through the cortex in a predictable pattern as Alzheimer’s disease progresses. The rate of progression varies greatly. On average, a person with Alzheimer’s lives four to eight years after diagnosis, but can live as long as 20 years, depending on other factors. The course of the disease depends in part on age at diagnosis and whether a person has other health conditions.
In the earliest stages, before symptoms can be detected with current tests, plaques and tangles begin to form in brain areas involved in.
In mild to moderate stages, brain regions important in memory and thinking and planning develop more plaques and tangles than were present in early stages. As a result, individuals develop problems with memory or thinking serious enough to interfere with work or social life. They may also get confused and have trouble handling money, expressing themselves and organizing their thoughts. Many people with Alzheimer’s are first diagnosed in these stages.
As Alzheimer’s progresses, individuals may experience changes in personality and behavior and have trouble recognizing friends and family members.
In advanced Alzheimer’s disease, most of the cortex is seriously damaged. The brain shrinks dramatically due to widespread cell death. Individuals lose their ability to communicate, to recognize family and loved ones and to care for themselves.
Using Functional Medicine To Treat Alzheimer’s And Cognitive Decline
With functional medicine, the goal is to treat the root cause of the issue instead of only alleviating the resulting symptoms. For instance, the leading hypothesis from conventional medicine asserts that amyloid plaques in the brain cause Alzheimer’s and aims to remove the plaques to cure Alzheimer’s. Thus, billions of dollars have been invested in trials to clear amyloid-beta with no success to date. In fact, there is some evidence that several have worsened cognitive decline.
Functional medicine goes deeper. Rather than solely focusing on the removal of amyloid plaques, functional medicine asks why plaques arise and seeks to prevent their development in the first place.
The whole-body systems approach of functional medicine has proven optimal for treating the chronic illnesses that lead to Alzheimer’s disease, including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and more. Consequently, these efforts have led to unprecedented success for treating Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s Is a Multifactor Pathological Condition
Dr. Dale Bredesen, a renowned AD researcher, goes against popular opinion and states that AD is a multifactor pathological condition. Amyloid-beta is not the main problem, but rather the brain’s response to one (or more than one) insult (3). By removing the insults and optimizing health, this method has reversed AD in many cases. Through years of work, Dr. Bredesen has identified several types of AD, each with unique causes (4, 5):
Type 1 (“inflammatory”) is due to an antimicrobial response to pathogens or other inflammatory causes.
Type 2 (“atrophic”) is associated with reductions in factors that support brain health, like estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, insulin, and vitamin D.
Type 1.5 (“glycotoxic”) is a composite of types 1 and 2. Inflammation from high blood glucose levels combines with a trophic loss of insulin sensitivity.
Type 3 (“toxic” or “cortical”) is associated with exposure to toxins or toxicants (a toxicant is any toxic substance; toxicants can be poisonous and they may be man-made or naturally occurring) such as heavy metals, insecticides/pesticides, antimicrobials, and commercial/industrial toxins.
Type 4 (“vascular”) is associated with reduced vascular support.
Type 5 (“traumatic”) is associated with previous head trauma.
Your Lifestyle & Environment Play Key Roles
Since lifestyle and environmental factors play a major role in the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease, a functional medicine approach is the ideal strategy for addressing Alzheimer’s at its roots. To accomplish this goal the Functional Medicine operating system consists of the Functional Medicine Timeline, Advanced Testing, and the Therapeutic Lifestyle Factors (Sleep & Relaxation, Movement & Exercise, Nutrition, Stress, and Relationships). Advanced Testing allows the practitioner to evaluate imbalances at the cellular level. This helps sort out why the disease has occurred in the first place. By understanding each of these imbalances, the patient is empowered & supported to make changes to correct them!
Ready to talk with a provider about getting to the root of you or your loved ones cognitive decline and discover pathways to healing? Our staff and practitioners are eager to help you!
[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]What if we told you that a health condition affects about 72 million — or 1 out of every 3 — American adults under old guidelines? And, what if we told you that under new guidelines that number will rise to about 103 million Americans?
We’re talking about a highly common, yet preventable, condition called high blood pressure, also known as hypertension — which is why you need to pay attention if you have high blood pressure symptoms.
High blood pressure (HBP) isn’t just a problem in and of itself, but it also leads to other dangerous health conditions, including stroke, heart attack, chronic heart failure and kidney disease.
Did you know that most people with high blood pressure or hypertension have no symptoms, even when their blood pressure readings reach dangerously high levels? In fact, about many U.S. adults with high blood pressure still doesn’t know they have it. Scary, we know.
The good news is that even mainstream medicine will agree with us when we say that lifestyle factors such as stress management, diet, and exercise are the most important tools for preventing and treating high blood pressure naturally and successfully.
functional blood pressure categories
Under the guidelines, formulated by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, the number of men under age 45 with a diagnosis of high blood pressure will triple, and the prevalence among women under age 45 will double.
What is High Blood Pressure?
Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps blood. High blood pressure happens when this force is too high. Scary, but true: Most people who have this condition display zero signs or high blood pressure symptoms, even when their blood pressure readings are at dangerously high levels.
Elevated: Systolic between 120–129 and diastolic less than 80;
Stage 1: Systolic between 130–139 or diastolic between 80–89;
Stage 2: Systolic at least 140 or diastolic at least 90 mm Hg;
Hypertensive crisis: Systolic over 180 and/or diastolic over 120, with patients needing prompt changes in medication if there are no other indications of problems, or immediate hospitalization if there are signs of organ damage.
The top number is systolic pressure, the blood pressure when the heart beats while pumping blood. The second or bottom number is diastolic pressure, the blood pressure when the heart is at rest between beats.
Frequently, there are no high blood pressure symptoms as blood pressure increases, but some warning signs for very high blood pressure can include chest pains, confusion, headaches, ear noise or buzzing, irregular heartbeat, nosebleeds, tiredness or vision changes.
What Causes High Blood Pressure?
Knowing what triggers high blood pressure can help you prevent or reverse it. Like with most other chronic diseases, the reason someone develops HBP has to do with several factors.
HBP seems to be highly dependent upon the type of lifestyle someone leads – which can develop based on family patterns. Women are at an increased risk when taking birth control pills, during pregnancy, or if taking hormone therapy medications to control menopause symptoms. Obesity or being overweight increases the odds because this puts more pressure on the heart and arteries.
High blood pressure has a real laundry list of risk factors. The good news is that the majority of these hypertension risk factors are well within your control. They include:
Age — High blood pressure risk increases as age increases. It’s more common in men through the age of 45. Women are more likely to develop high blood pressure after age 65.
Family “history” — High blood pressure tends to run in families based on lifestyle factors.
Race — High blood pressure is especially common among African-Americans and often develops at an earlier age than it does in Caucasians. Serious complications, such as stroke, heart attack and kidney failure, are more common among African-Americans suffering from high blood pressure.
Being overweight — The higher your body weight, the more blood you need to supply oxygen and nutrients to your tissues. As the volume of blood circulated through your blood vessels increases, so does the pressure on your artery walls and your blood pressure.
Not being physically active — People who are inactive tend to have higher heart rates. The higher your heart rate, the harder your heart must work with each contraction and the stronger the force on your arteries. Lack of physical activity and exercise also increases the risk of being overweight, which are some of the reasons a sedentary lifestyle is dangerous.
Tobacco use — Whether it’s smoking or chewing tobacco, both immediately raise your blood pressure temporarily. Additionally, the chemicals in tobacco damage the lining of your artery walls, which causes your arteries to narrow, increasing your blood pressure. Secondhand smoke can also raise your blood pressure.
Too much alcohol — Over time, heavy drinking can damage your heart. Having more than two drinks a day for men and more than one drink a day for women may affect blood pressure negatively.
Too much unnatural sodium in your diet — Too much salt or sodium in your diet causes your body to retain more fluid, which increases blood pressure.
Too little potassium in your diet — Potassium is a mineral that helps balance the sodium content of your body’s cells. If you don’t consume enough potassium or retain enough potassium, you can accumulate too much sodium in your blood stream. That’s one reason why you want to avoid low potassium.
Stress — High levels of stress can lead to a temporary increase in blood pressure.
Certain chronic conditions — Certain chronic conditions also may increase your risk of high blood pressure, such as kidney disease, diabetes and sleep apnea.
Pregnancy — Sometimes pregnancy can contribute to high blood pressure.
High blood pressure is most prevalent in the adult population, but children are also at risk. Sometimes children can experience high blood pressure symptoms that are caused by problems with the heart or kidneys.
However, more and more children who experience high blood pressure are dealing with this chronic issue at a way too young age because of poor lifestyle habits. When we say poor lifestyle habits, we’re referring to an unhealthy diet and a lack of exercise, which both directly relate to the increase in childhood obesity and childhood hypertension.
Take Action: What You Can Do to Reverse High Blood Pressure Symptoms
Eat Well!
High-potassium foods — According to the American Heart Association, a diet rich in potassium is an important part of controlling blood pressure because it lessens any negative effects of sodium on the body. Potassium balances the effect of sodium and helps lower blood pressure. Potassium-rich foods include things like coconut water, melons, avocados and bananas.
High-fiber foods — Unprocessed foods high in fiber, such as vegetables, fruits, seeds and beans, should be the basis of any healthy diet, especially one looking to lower blood pressure readings.
Omega-3 rich foods – Consume omega-3 foods like grass-fed beef, wild-caught salmon, chia seeds and flaxseeds to reduce inflammation.
Apple cider vinegar — Apple cider vinegar is naturally very high in potassium. It also helps to keep the body alkaline, which can help naturally lower your blood pressure. Make your own “shot” or use apple cider vinegar in your salad dressings!
Tea — White tea in particular can actually thin the blood and drastically improve artery function. Drinking white tea several times a day on a consistent basis can actually lower the pressure of your blood and protect the body against one of its common health enemies, stroke. This only works when you drink the tea every day, a couple of times a day.
Dark chocolate — Look for a dark chocolate that contains at least 200 milligrams of cocoa phenols, which can reduce blood pressure, is low in processed sugars & fats.
Supplement When Needed!
1. Magnesium
The mineral magnesium is great because it helps relax your blood vessels and can have an immediate impact on naturally lowering blood pressure (and many people have a magnesium deficiency, which plays in to high blood pressure). To start, talk with a provider to address the type & amount of magnesium for your blood pressure issues.
2. Fish Oil
One of the main causes of high blood pressure is inflammation in the arteries over time. Study after study has shown consuming fish oil, which is high in EPA and DHA forms of omega-3 fatty acids, reduces inflammation of the body, which is why fish oil benefits heart health. Taking a high-quality, fish oil dose every single day with your meals is one of the best natural ways to lower blood pressure.
3. Coenzyme Q10
Coenzyme Q10 or CoQ10 is an antioxidant critical for supporting heart health, and it’s crucial if you’ve ever been on blood pressure or cholesterol-lowering medication. Talk to a provider to determine the amount of CoQ10 per day you need for a great, natural remedy for high blood pressure.
4. Cocoa
Available in powder form, consumption of cocoa increases your intake of flavanols, which help lower blood pressure and improve blood flow to the brain and heart. Cocoa is also a natural vasodilator, which means it increases nitric oxide in the blood and widen blood vessels.
5. Garlic
Garlic is another natural vasodilator, and if you can’t get enough of it in your diet, then it’s readily available as a whole food supplement in liquid or pill form. A 2016 study showed that aged garlic reduces peripheral and central blood pressure in patients with uncontrolled hypertension. It also has the potential to improve arterial stiffness, inflammation and other cardiovascular markers in patients with elevated levels.
Natural Lifestyle Remedies
1. Increase Physical Activity and Exercise
Physical activity can help you maintain a healthy weight and lower your blood pressure. Ideally, you should engage in some form of physical activity and/or exercise for at least 20 minutes per day to unlock the benefits of exercise. Children and adolescents should aim to get one hour of physical activity every day. Walking, gardening, swimming, playing, hiking, etc. are all great, fun ways to get in physical exercise & improve your heart health!
2. Reduce Stress
Yet another reason to reduce stress is its ability to raise blood pressure. But don’t relax by relying on physical substances such as eating more or using tobacco or alcohol. These activities only increase the problem.
For high blood pressure symptoms and good health in general, it’s a great idea to practice daily relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, healing prayer and/or meditation, painting/coloring, etc. These natural stress relievers help you relax and reduce your blood pressure.
3. Essential Oils
Essential oils can lower blood pressure by dilating arteries, acting as antioxidants to reduce oxidative stress and by decreasing emotional stress. The best choices when it comes to lowering high blood pressure include neroli, lavender, ylang ylang, sweet marjoram, clary sage and frankincense. You can use these oils in a diffuser. You can also include a few drops in a neutral carrier oil or lotion and massage the mixture on your body – talk with a provider or an Apothecarist to ensure no medical implications apply to you.
4. Keep Up with Chiropractor Visits
Blood pressure levels tend to go up with age of life & stress levels, which is why prevention, early detection and management through a healthy lifestyle are so crucial for lowering blood pressure. Remember that you likely won’t have any noticeable signs or symptom of high blood pressure, so you can’t just assume that everything is normal and okay because you don’t feel any differently.
If you’re at a high risk for various forms of heart disease, make sure to have your pressure checked professionally at least once every month. If your blood pressure is normal, great — you can work on keeping it that way as you get older! But if it’s high, you’ll need to make some changes and work with your doctor to manage the condition, possibly by changing your diet and helping you lose weight. Keep in mind that HBP is a chronic disease and ultimately needs lifelong treatment, so support is helpful to make it easier to stick to a healthy lifestyle plan!
5. Eat a Nutrient-Dense Diet to Maintain a Healthy Weight
Want to know how to control your blood pressure without the need for medications? The first step is looking at your diet. Your diet is one of, if not the most, important piece of the puzzle when it comes to controlling your blood pressure naturally. People with high blood pressure tend to eat an unhealthy diet that’s low in nutrients, electrolytes (especially low levels of potassium), antioxidants and fiber.
Sodium, alcohol, refined grains, sugar and trans-fats can all raise inflammation that makes it more likely you’ll develop HBP. Center your diet around unprocessed, whole foods as much as possible− especially fresh, local, organic veggies, fruit, healthy fats and “clean” protein. Your doctor might recommend you follow The DASH Diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) which includes the high fiber foods above and limits alcohol and unnatural sodium (table salt). It’s rich in essential nutrients, protein, and fiber but encourages you to choose unprocessed, low-sodium and no-added-salt foods.
7. Quit Smoking
Smoking damages your blood vessels and raises the risk for various heart problems. It will also worsen complications and make it harder to reverse the problem. The U.S National Library of Medicine offers resources to help you quit, such as links to join online or in-person support groups offered in many hospitals, workplaces, and community centers for free.
Further Actions May Be Needed:
One out of 5 U.S. adults with high blood pressure still doesn’t know he or she has it, as people can experience no high blood pressure symptoms despite having even dangerously high levels. If you know you have high blood pressure, immediate action may be necessary. It is important to be reactive as well as proactive while pursuing natural ways to lower blood pressure and improve heart health.
In-depth testing
In-depth testing with functional ranges may be necessary to get to the root of your abnormal blood pressure. If you are still dealing with high blood pressure after trying to modify your lifestyle, try in-depth testing to uncover what else could be going on.
Get a support system
Change can be difficult and uncomfortable. You are 99% more likely to succeed if you have a support system to guide you, accompany you, and encourage you throughout your healing journey.
Whether you are in Cape Girardeau or need to schedule a telehealth appointment, our providers have the tools, experience, and compassion necessary to guide you to the correct healing pathways!
Don’t Weight! A Better Approach to Healthy Weight
