Blood Pressure: A Different Perspective
It’s estimated that over 75 million Americans have elevated blood pressure. We’re seeing nearly epidemic proportions and we want to talk about why. Of course we have our usual suspects of poor diet and sedentary lifestyle, but there are MANY contributors to high blood pressure that we might not be seeing.
On this episode we want to empower you to take control of your blood pressure. We’ll talk about why your readings may not be accurate, what healthy numbers of BP were in the past, lifestyle changes that may help lower your BP, and of course a list of supplements that could be beneficial. Join as we navigate health together!
Some Topics We Discussed:
What is high blood pressure and why do so many people have it? (1:01)
What are the true causes of high blood pressure? (6:50)
Do caffeine and excess sodium increase your blood pressure? (10:38)
What are the new guidelines for blood pressure? (15:00)
At what levels should we really be concerned about high blood pressure? (19:15)
What are things people can do to help lower their blood pressure and be more healthy overall? (20:53)
Key Takeaways From This Episode:
There are some simple things you can do prior to getting your blood pressure checked to have a more accurate reading. (5:36)
Insulin resistance is the number one reason for high blood pressure. (7:20)
Chronic inflammation is at the root of almost every disease we don’t want to get. (10:05)
If a person in my opinion, myself included is overall, very healthy, that means no diseases going on, and feel pretty decent most of the time. I'm happy with 140 over 90. (19:24)
Drink lots of water! (22:58)
Products + Resources:
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Brian Strickland 00:43 Hello, everyone, you're listening to The Holistic Navigator Podcast where we believe in the body's ability to heal itself, if given the proper care and nutrients. My name is Brian Strickland. I'm the producer of the show. And here with me in the studio, as always, is a host of this show Ed Jones. And I'm guessing that there are many listeners who will be interested in what we're talking about today and that is blood pressure. Around 75 million Americans have high blood pressure. And it's to the point where it's commonplace for people to have elevated levels. So we want to address why this is occurring? And what can be done about it. So to begin at, let's start with the basics. And can you give us just a brief explanation of exactly what blood pressure is? And why so many individuals have high blood pressure?
Ed Jones 01:34 Yes, thank you so much, Brian. And I'm excited to hopefully enlighten people from a different perspective on this conversation of blood pressure. We all assume that there's certain numbers we don't live within that we're basically going to be doomed and I have a certainly a different opinion on that. Before I get into fully the information. And I've got a ton of machine gun information that I want to spit out today. So please hang in there with me. I did read last time this disclaimer from Peter Egoscue, who wrote a fabulous book on Pain Free was the name of it. And he says at the first of his book, it is become obligatory for health books to carry legal disclaimers, you've read them. The following material is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician and they go on to recommend that you consult a doctor before embarking on whatever program is being offered. I legally have to say you need to consult a doctor before doing anything that you hear me say but I'm doing it because it's the legal need. But as Egoscue says, as I did in my first book, I will again urge readers who filled the need for this disclaimers protection and counsel to close the covers of the book immediately or turn the podcast off. My working principle as an exercise therapist is that the most important consultation is the one a person has with himself or herself. Healthcare starts with personal responsibility. Any Disclaimer that suggests otherwise does a great disservice. Thank you, Mr. Pete Egoscue. Yes, the question is blood pressure. What is it? I think we all know semi what it means. But it's really the required force to maintain blood flow throughout the body or force against an artery wall. And statistics say that one in three people have elevated blood pressure. We all probably do remember from school, the heart is the size of a fist and it sits a little bit to the left of your center. And of course, it never quits beating thankfully, until the very, very end. But as it gets higher and higher pressure within it, a lot of things can happen to the body, including the valves of the heart, the eyes, the kidneys, increase in stroke levels, and many other things that damage the capillaries and create more damage to the body. The question is, what truly is high blood pressure? And what are some of the options? And is drugs the only option which of course I am saying they are not. Now the obvious thing, in most people's mind is what would cause elevated numbers and I'm going to talk about what is truly elevated numbers in a few minutes. Please tune in for that because I think that's the game changer. But the obvious changes that cause blood pressure elevations poor diet, obesity, smoking, no exercise, having diabetes is a big, big concern. Excess alcohol, stress in relationships. I don't know anything about that, but I'm sure some of my listeners do. Insomnia, excessive salt and certain medications is the big picture of instead of having 130 over 85 it might be higher levels can be caused by all of those factors. Now, most people listening should get their blood pressure checked, of course, on a regular basis. And most of the time we're doing it at a doctor's office. I'm sorry to say that I have very little faith in conventional medicine. But I have a lot of respect for the people in the system. They are caring, intelligent, loving people in most cases, but they're in a broken system. It's not a health care system. It's a sick care system people. And what's happening is a lot of people are on medication that really they shouldn't be because the person doing the readings did not do it based on facts. Here's the facts. If you are getting your blood pressure taken at any professional office, and you have urine in your bladder, you're going to have approximately five points higher. If you haven't been seated for five to 10 minutes in a quiet state, five to eight points higher. If your arm is not at the level of the heart, that means that it's drooping down another three to five points elevation. Forth if the cuff size is too small. Now most healthcare offices have the bigger cuffs but not all of them. And lastly, the white coat syndrome, which we all know, nervousness will elevate 10 points. So saying this, there's a whole lot of people in this country, Brian that are on medication, because they had to pee, they didn't sit long enough and the arm wasn't at the proper height. We are sometimes killing ourselves with these side effects of medications and to be on one that you don't need, what a crime. So always remember those things. And I do highly recommend that you get the readings at home, not in a medical office consistently. Do it at home with a good unit, not the cheapest one and keep records.
Brian Strickland 06:49 Let's talk about really In your opinion, what are the true causes of high blood pressure?
Ed Jones 06:56 Here's the true causes. If you are like, oh, I'm diagnosed with blood pressure, I know I have elevated numbers. And someone tells you well it's just your age, it happens because you're getting older, there's nothing you can do about it or it's genes walk away from that person. Because I bet you you know someone exactly your age who does not have those issues. So what's the deal? Why don't we look into why you did and they didn't. Because here's the reasons insulin resistance, that is number one. And that has to do with a whole factor of glucose and all these things that create more inflammation down the road. I can't get into big time. Here's one you've probably most people never heard of uric acid elevation will increase blood pressure. Guess what causes that people? High fructose corn syrup. But one of the things that helps is apple cider vinegar twice a day about a tablespoon. I love Braggs that is the brand. Here's number three, lead exposure and toxicity. But you hadn't been asked that when you go in and get blood pressure readings at your doctor's office. No, they would never check that but lead absolutely raises blood pressure. Four air pollution, believe it or not, air pollution inside and outside the home is going to contribute to some of your high blood pressure. Fifth is the sugar connection that does play into insulin resistance but the excessive fast acting sugars, even those from fruit can aggravate some people. Six and I'm gonna get into nutrients later but the lack of magnesium is one of the keys to keeping the body relaxed, whether it be lungs, arteries, muscles, and most people are not taking it. Secondly, if they are they're taking the wrong kind. We certainly have helped to educate people on that topic. Also, seven cortisol. What is it? The stress hormone from the adrenal gland comes from many factors. But you all know about just the overwhelming daily gut punches that we sometimes get. And it's going to elevate it because that's what has prepared us for living in the jungle all those years is when you have stress you pump out these hormones so that you can fight the battle better. The problem is in the jungle we didn't have but very seldom these occurrences so they were not harming our system today. We have them several times a day. Number eight huge factor lack of quality sleep. Yes people lack of quality sleep and you are going to lower your hormones within one day and you're going to elevate your blood pressure in some cases. Number nine chronic inflammation. I just never quit talking about this because it is boiled down to the bottom level the number one reason for aging fast, feeling terrible being 60 but feeling like your 80 or even being at 40 and feeling like you're 70. Chronic inflammation is at the root of every single disease that we don't want to get. How do we figure that out? So certain blood tests like C reactive protein, the sed rate, looking at omega three levels with omega six, these are very important to analyze, where is your levels at? now finding a functional medicine health professional, or a good really solid, local health food store that has experienced people can help you immensely.
Brian Strickland 10:38 So two things. The two big ones that I always hear are caffeine and excess sodium, what are what's your take on those?
Ed Jones 10:46 Well, the excess caffeine can but the reason is doing it is because it's elevating cortisol. If you have a balanced body, in regard to again, the omega threes and all the nutrients and the magnesium, it should not be an issue, Brian, if you're doing reasonable amounts of caffeine, which is about 150 milligrams. That's one good sized cup of coffee. I would have no worries with someone drinking coffee, even if they have some levels, unless it was a track record. And you knew it was just triggering. But then what was your other question?
Brian Strickland 11:22 Excess sodium.
Ed Jones 11:23 We've been fed a little bit of mis communication on this sodium issue is like, oh, everybody who has too much sodium is going to have high blood pressure is simply not true. There's about 25% of the people who are sodium sensitive, and the other 75% are not. In fact, sodium in a healthy state is so important to your health. It is one of the electrolytes. It is been demonized, far more than it should be. Again, it's about a balanced diet. And I do actually take salt capsules at times, Brian, because I'm a huge believer that it has a health benefit. Again, following your own numbers and following up is very important. But number 10 is plaque in your arteries. If we've all remember when we were kids, and we would have the water hose out in the backyard and we would squeeze it at the end, you know, and you'd say the pressure build up in it, then you would squirt it out. Well, if that water hose was really caked with mud or something else, you could say almost at the pressure within that water hose would elevate. Well, that's plaque. We talked about plaque just a couple podcasts ago on the cholesterol issue. Cholesterol is not the demon in plaque. Chronic inflammation is. But here's the last two. Number 11 improper breathing. Certainly I'm a huge fan of something called Buteyko Breathing. And what it entails is very quickly is when you breathe too fast, too deep in an improper method or you breathe through your mouth at night. You're redistributing carbon dioxide with oxygen. We've all been again fed a little basket of misinformation. More oxygen is not healthy because what happens is it decreases carbon dioxide. Guess what that does? Carbon dioxide relaxes things. Well when you don't have enough of the relaxing nutrient, which is magnesium and carbon dioxide. Things constrict when things constrict, pressures go up. Bingo. How many times is your doctor ever asked you, how's your breathing? Zero, zilch. And the last one chronic and acute pain. I had a close friend of mine that had a terrible attack of a back pain. Blood pressure went from average about 140 to 200 within two days because she had such acute pain. So what's the answer to this? Pile on a bunch of drugs that have a tremendous amount of side effect or let's treat the underlying reason maybe? Does that not make sense? Yes. So let's lower the pain.
Brian Strickland 14:04 We wanted to tell you about our new partnership with Thorne. If you're looking for answers about a particular health issue, and want to skip the clinic, Thorne's home test kits are a convenient way to not only get the answers that you need, but guidance towards better health as well. So their test kits ranged from vitamin D, heart health, testosterone, fertility tests, and there are even more, the process couldn't be simpler. All you have to do is order one of the kits it gets sent straight to your door. Then you just collect the appropriate samples and drop the return envelope in your mailbox. And about eight to 10 days you can view your results on any mobile device or desktop. So if you're interested in it if you want to see all the home kits that are available, visit theholisticnavigator.com/products. Ed, as new research and new guidelines have appeared, how do those compare to the old ones? And what are some of the new guidelines that you've seen?
Ed Jones 15:09 Well, the new guidelines, Brian amazes me number one, because they were at 140. Over 90 is where everyone would start having the conversation with their health professional that maybe we need to do something. Now it has gone to 120 over 80. Well, guess what? The wider they cast the net, the more prescriptions are written. And I truly, truly question these new guidelines, unless a person is already had some significant events in their life health wise, or some terrible health in many other areas. You go into a doctor's office, you're a diabetic, you've got neuropathy, you've got a couple other conditions and diseases that changes the game. You go on as a relatively healthy person, and you are 40 to 50 years old, you almost have to use drugs to get to 120 over 80. In fact, a friend of mine that I met about 20 years ago, Dr. Graveline, he was a physician to the NASA astronauts. And he spent his last 20 years educating the consumer on the dangers of statin drugs, because he took one after prescribing 10,000 prescriptions, and it decimated his life forever. But secondly, he wrote about blood pressure. And he had this great little article that said about 20 years ago, a few really busy guys, but not much to do took the blood pressures of 350,000 adult males and plotted the frequency distribution of the systolic and diastolic. And what they found was that, as we age, everyone almost without exception, will start to show an elevation of blood pressure. And in the old days, the numbers were 100 over your age. I'm 62 right now. So in the old days, if I was 160, on numbers, they would have said, Well, we don't want it any higher. Well, it is a little bit too high, those kind of guidelines, but trying to get people to 120 over 80 is a prescription for more profits in my mind. Let me ask you something, Brian, what do you think would happen if we had a system that was quite as set up like the medical world, which is one hand feeds the other and the other hand protects the other and is really a worrisome system? Because no one can seem to change the course of it. What if automobile manufacturers and oil producers said to all of us who own cars, instead of changing your oil at 4000, we want you to change it at 1000 miles now?Imagine the amount of profits that would go but see they can't, because they don't have enough power to control all entities of that. But the medical system does. And guess what? The mainstream media is, is truly owned by Big Pharma. In fact, the New York Times has on his board, Eli Lilly and Sharon Plough affiliates. Huntington Post Johnson and Johnson, even PBS and NPR have people from drug companies on their board. And the military, the VA. It is ridiculous. This is why we have so many prescriptions written and so little common sense that is educating the patient. Dr. Mercola, who of course, I've interviewed on this podcast, and I still believe he's one of the bravest and most well spoken, wise people on health today. He has a wonderful book, e-book that you can go on and download if you google high blood pressure conspiracy Mercola. I read it yesterday because I actually didn't know he had it. Wonderful talking about how we are being misled. And the other book he has a book is called Ghost in the Machine is how we're being manipulated. And the problem is the people in the medical system don't know they're being manipulated. The fact is, we can't really trust a whole lot of these new guidelines. You need to trust your education, you need to trust your intuition and find someone who is actually has a toolbox big enough with experience to help you to journey into optimal health.
Brian Strickland 19:15 So just generally speaking, I mean, at what levels would you start, you know, beginning to get concerned about a high level of blood pressure?
Ed Jones 19:24 Well, for me personally, and again, I'm not giving medical advice to anyone listening, but I'm talking about myself. If a person in my opinion, myself included is overall, very healthy, that means no diseases going on, and feel pretty decent most of the time. I'm happy with 140 over 90. In fact, Dr. Brownstein, who I had met at a medical clinic of several years ago and I really love Dr. Brown stain. He talks very openly about the truth about health, the conspiracies behind all of this that's going on. He said yesterday I was reading his one of his posts on blood pressure. He said, I do not think a healthy 80 year old with a BP of 160 over 90 ever needs medication unless they have significant other diseases. The unless it's a big number. So if a person is healthy, I would please encourage you to study and learn and question that quick prescription as you walk out the office because they are not harmless people. Beta blockers will weaken your heart in the long run. ACE inhibitors, you get that cough from an ACE inhibitor and it doesn't go away. You just got a new partner in life for the rest of your days. I know a lady who can't even laugh because every time she does, she coughs uncontrollably because she was on ACE inhibitors too long. These are not M&Ms people, they all have significant side effects.
Brian Strickland 20:53 So now that we know the new guidelines, some of the causes of high blood pressure and some things to look for, let's talk about and shift gears just a little bit and let's talk about what can be done what are some changes that people can make in their own life to a help lower their blood pressure and be just be more healthy overall.
Ed Jones 21:15 Establishing a balanced human chemistry with blood work and other chemistry factors is the key is the key is not treating a symptom is not patching the tire is is alleviating the true underlying cause. I have 10 of those. One is I'm a huge believer in the keto diet by leaning toward it. I don't mean you have to be in ketosis. Listen to my podcast on keto. Why does it work? Reducing inflammation. Number two, eat real food, real food that means something with color and is fixed properly and is not out of a can is not boiled to death. And make sure that you do foods such as beet, radish, and celery every day. Why? That makes nitric oxide. Nitric oxide relaxes the arteries. Three, eliminate grains and sugar. And a lot of people don't know what grains are bread pasta, then we can throw in corn, potatoes and rice. Sorry all the Americans who love their bread, pasta, corn, potatoes and rice. That step alone will do significant for everything including weight loss, energy, inflammation. And then number four exercise. Exercise, of course you've got 10,000 different opinions on what to do. The main thing to me is you elevate your pulse rate to 120 beats a minute if you're healthy. And you do that for four times a week for about 25 minutes. That is the key number. Don't be doing this 90 beats per minute and expect results. Five, lower uric acid again by doing apple cider vinegar, blueberries and throw in flax seeds every day. Four tablespoons people I'm telling you is magic with flax seeds and apple cider vinegar can do. Six you cannot walk around dehydrated, drink about 64 ounces of clean water a day. Again, I do recommend the pro pure carafe for the least expensive way to get the purest water. Don't fall for the gimmicks of Britta and all these other ones. Seven manage stress. Wow, we could do a four hour on that one alone, Brian, as you know. But I'm a huge fan of again, exercising for stress, learning to meditate doing things like EFT. EFT Emotional Freedom Technique, which is not a quacky thing is actually tapping on the acupuncture points. You can learn that through any website for free. Eight sunshine, and vitamin D. Nine Sleep, sleep and sleep. We have to address that if you're doing poorly. And 10. We're getting into the supplements now, Brian.
Brian Strickland 23:50 Yeah, so let's talk supplements for just a moment. I know you mentioned magnesium earlier and I know that you have a ton a ton of supplements that you take on a daily basis. But beyond like the blood pressure specific formulas, and we maybe talk about those as well. What are some of the key supplements that people you know, must have or the things that they should really focus on in order to lower blood pressure?
Ed Jones 24:16 Well, first off, Brian, I always speak about something that's called the core four plus one. In my 41 years experience I know that we have to set the system up to be balanced and nourished. These are not things that treat blood pressure. These are things that treat imbalanced chemistry. One omega three in modest to huge amounts somewhere around 2000 milligrams of EPA DHA. Do not recommend krill. If you don't believe that then listen to my podcast with Dr. Smith from Life Extension. Magnesium, anything other than oxide will probably work very well. And that will be between 400 to 800 milligrams. Thirdly is a multivitamin. Not a Centrum. Something of real quality origin that you take twice a day. Fourth, I'm a massive believer in doing the green drinks. Why is that? It is not because they have vitamins is because it opens your liver to get rid of toxins. One of those is what I already spoke of the heavy metal lead, but also the glyphosate and the chemicals and the pesticides and the things that we eat that have to be processed. They get stuck people in the liver, the only way to rid yourself is dry heat saunas, and green drinks and nutrition. And then, of course, vitamin D. I'm a huge believer in blood testing, because if you get your vitamin D above 50 nanograms, miracles can happen. And many times like I have to take 14,000 units a day. And you know, if you've listened to my podcast, I do 72 pills a day in supplements, the list is on the podcast that I did on my personal protocol. And you can scroll down and click on that I actually did that yesterday to review, make sure it's still accurate and it almost is.
Brian Strickland 26:02 And thankfully vitamin D is one of the least expensive stuff.
Ed Jones 26:05 For $5.67 you can buy a bottle of 100. So those are the things you have to do to create at least to healthy soil. Now the next list would be what I choose when I want to make sure that I have an herb or supplement that is more directly addressing blood pressure. Again, I'm not telling you to take this in place of medicine. I'm telling you to consider and learn. So olive leaf is my number one which I do take because I want to maintain optimal levels and I do garlic but I only do one particular brand called Kyolic. The blood pressure formula. Taking it as prescribed on the label is amazing. Now note people don't have to do all of these you can pick and choose. You can experiment do what you want. Again, check with their health professional if you're on medication. I don't know if they'll know but still I have to tell you to check with them. But celery seed in capsules and eating celery, but it needs to have a word which is impossible to pronounce. It has to have about 85% of this word called Phthalides. Don't buy one unless it has that word. Next, Hawthorne in Germany and other countries you went to your doctor with this issue you will be prescribed Hawthorne berry morning and night. Get of course a great brand Grapeseed extract, love grape seed for the capillaries to help the eyes, prevent bruising. It does tremendous things for your attention deficit and helps to maintain optimal blood pressure. And then beet capsules I do a little beets but they're high in sugar. So I don't eat but a bite or two I take the capsules people. It also can be a natural Viagra for men. And it raises nitric oxide, which is what viagara does somewhat also. And then CoQ10. Have to do it because he's going to maintain a whole lot of health of the cardiac system, because we do get deficient with age.
Brian Strickland 28:07 Just real quick. Any thoughts on CoQ10 versus ubiquinol?
Ed Jones 28:11 I believe I feel ubiquinol is the best choice for most people at first. Occasionally, we have to switch people to CoQ10 is that ubiquinol is it working, but do ubiquinol. Intermittent fasting people do not eat after 5:30 in the evening until I eat the next day. It makes a huge, huge difference. I actually take five of these supplements because I want to maintain my own healthy BP numbers. And lastly, how do we know they're going to interact with drugs? I'm sorry, people, no one knows absolutely everything. You are going to have to be partnering on this journey but one of the websites called rxlist.com. I have been moderately pleased with that. So you can go on that yourself and do a little research. Again, finding a really skilled health professional is so so important. Well, that does it for this day, Brian. I know I have been a bad fast motor mouth. I hope that people can absorb and digest what needs to be with this information. That's the great thing about podcasts, we can play it again. I want to thank everyone for tuning in listening, subscribing, recommending this, because we are growing and I'm always excited to share more and more of this information and wait till you see what's coming up in the future. We've got some wonderful interviews with some very very knowledgeable, special people. So look forward to that. And when you subscribe, of course you get notification of that. I want to leave you with the quote that Hippocrates, the father of medicine said in 460 BC by some time ago. Everyone has a doctor in him or her. We just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each of us. is the greatest force and getting well. Our food should be our medicine and our medicine, our food. Wow. I don't know if it's ever been said any better. Thank you everyone. This is Edward with The Holistic Navigator.
Brian Strickland 30:17 The information on this podcast and the topics discussed have not been evaluated by the FDA or anyone of the medical profession and is not aimed to replace any advice you may receive from your medical practitioner. The holistic navigator assumes no responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of any purchaser or reader of these materials. The holistic navigator is not a doctor, nor does he claim to be, please consult your physician before beginning any health regimen.