Blood pressure is necessary to supply the cells of your body with oxygen and nutrients. Hypertension (high blood pressure) is an all-too-common (and reversible) chronic disease in which the force of blood against your artery walls is too high. The pressure is determined by the pumping force of your heart and the amount of resistance to flow in your blood vessels. Here is a breakdown of the newest blood pressure definitions and official guidelines:
- Hypotension (low blood pressure): A reading of 90/60 or less.
- Healthy (optimal) blood pressure: A reading of 91/61 to 119/79. For optimal health and longevity, your blood pressure should be consistently in this range.
- Pre-hypertension: A reading of 120/80 to 129/80. Notice that 120/80 is no longer considered “healthy.”
- Hypertension: A reading of 130/80 and above.
There are two sides to blood circulation: The higher-pressure arterial (artery) side which circulates oxygenated blood and nutrients to the cells and the lower-pressure venous (vein) side which brings deoxygenated blood to the heart and lungs to discharge the waste and carbon dioxide. Blood vessels on the arterial side begin with the mighty aorta coming from the heart and end with a network of 60,000 miles of microscopic arterioles and capillaries (microcirculation) throughout the body.
Blood pressure is measured in the medium-sized arteries (typically the brachial artery in the arm). All the “magic” of blood flow happens at the level of the arteriole and capillary, as that is where oxygen and nutrients are released into the cells. Your large and medium arteries basically serve as conduits (pipes) to perfuse (pump) blood from the heart to the extensive network of arterioles and capillaries.
Hypertension has been called the Silent Killer and for good reason! It often has few, if any, symptoms, and can be fatal. It turns out that hypertension, as well as pre-hypertension, is a much greater threat to your health and well-being than previously thought. When it comes to cardiovascular disease, hypertension is a more significant risk factor than smoking, hyperlipidemia (elevated cholesterol and/or triglycerides), or physical inactivity. Hypertension (again, a reading of 130/80 and above) has been found to increase your risk of the following life-altering or life-threatening conditions:
- Memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease
- Aneurysms and stroke
- Aortic dissection (severe damage to your body’s main artery)
- Macular degeneration and subsequent blindness
- Cancer (yes, cancer!)
- Chest pain and heart attacks
- Congestive heart failure
- Diabetes
- Insomnia (due to sleep apnea)
- Kidney failure
- Mood disorders: Irritability, trouble concentrating, and personality changes
- Obesity
- Osteopenia, osteoporosis, and bone fractures
- Sexual dysfunction (both men & women)
Medication (drug therapy) is used to “manage” hypertension. The word manage is put in quotes because drugs do not target the root cause of hypertension, therefore they do not cure hypertension. Furthermore, drugs often fail to consistently maintain blood pressure in the optimal range of 91/61 to 119/79, even when taking multiple antihypertensive drugs! In fact, when medication does happen to adequately control your blood pressure, beyond the common side effects, by taking the medication, you may be inadvertently harming your tissues and organs by depriving them of adequate oxygen and nutrients.
Side effects of antihypertensive drugs vary with the individual drugs. If you take multiple antihypertensive drugs, you face an increased risk of side effects. Common side effects can include the following:
- Diarrhea
- Difficulty urinating
- Dizziness
- Dry mouth
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Impotence
- Joint pain
- Low potassium
- Nausea
- Weakness
NOTE: If you are taking medication for hypertension, do not stop unless directed to do so by your physician.
The ideal way to treat hypertension, or any disease for that matter, is not to “manage” it with medication but rather, to cure (reverse) the problem by identifying and targeting the root causes. So, what are the root causes of hypertension? Growing evidence points to microcirculatory dysfunction, high blood viscosity, red blood cell aggregation, and diminished red blood cell flexibility.
Red blood cells (RBCs) contain a protein called hemoglobin. This iron-containing molecule is what binds to oxygen when oxygen enters the lungs. Human RBCs have a natural lifespan of approximately 120 days. One of the most remarkable characteristics of RBCs is their ability to contort and squeeze their way through blood vessels tinier than they are (i.e., the microcirculation) to deliver oxygen to every nook and cranny of the body. The produces considerable “wear and tear” on an RBC during its life. An older RBC (aged 90-120 days) has approximately 30% less flexibility and oxygen-carrying capacity than that of a younger RBC (aged 1-30 days).
Adequate perfusion of the microcirculation is essential for the integrity of your tissues and the health of your organs. If blood flow in the microcirculation gets compromised in any way, in order to maintain the delivery of oxygen and nutrients, your body has no choice but to increase the pumping force (also known as “perfusion pressure”) of the heart so that adequate blood flow can be maintained in the microcirculation. Unfortunately, this results in increased blood pressure (hypertension).
Anything that impedes the flow of blood through the arterioles and capillaries can compromise the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the cells necessary to sustain life. To prevent this from happening, the body will increase the blood pressure to “force” the blood through the arterioles and capillaries. So, what can impede the flow of blood through the arterioles and capillaries that subsequently leads to hypertension? Here are the chief underlying causes:
- Microcirculatory dysfunction due to narrowing of the blood vessels from fatty deposits (atherosclerosis), stiffening from calcium deposits (arteriosclerosis), and loss of vasomotion (the ability of the blood vessels to dilate or increase in diameter when needed) due to vascular inflammation and impaired insulin signaling.
- High blood viscosity (thickness) due to elevated fibrinogen and/or hematocrit. Thicker blood has greater resistance to flow and needs more pressure to pump it than thinner blood.
- Red blood cell aggregation. When red blood cells behave like glue and clump together (aggregate), their resistance to flow is increased.
- Diminished red blood cell flexibility: Older RBCs have a decreased ability to flow through the microcirculation. The body can compensate by increasing the blood pressure.
- Toxic-metal accumulation: High levels of lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, and aluminum have been linked to hypertension.
Once the above conditions are reversed, the resistance to blood flow has been eliminated. Full microcirculatory perfusion is restored and will be maintained without the “need” for the heart to increase its pumping force (i.e., without the “need” for hypertension) in order to deliver oxygen and nutrients to the cells. As a result, the integrity of your tissues and the health of your organs is no longer compromised, your blood pressure is normalized, and the dangerous conditions associated with hypertension are avoided.
Ironically, antihypertensive medications can decrease your blood pressure but, as a result, they can also decrease microcirculatory perfusion. So, on the one hand, these drugs can lower your risk of the conditions associated with hypertension but, at the same time, they can compromise the integrity of your tissues and the health of your organs by decreasing the delivery of oxygen and nutrients. The only way to avoid this precarious situation is to achieve and maintain a healthy blood pressure (91/61 to 119/79) without the use of medication. That way, you have the best of both worlds!
Now that we know what leads to hypertension, how do we treat it? Drawing upon our extensive experience using metabolic and nutritional medicine to restore youthful vascular function, we take a comprehensive approach to hypertension that targets and eliminates the root causes as follows:
- Diet and meal timing: Low-carbohydrate, plant-based diet coupled with intermittent fasting (time-restricted eating) to eliminate vascular insulin resistance and restore normal vasomotor control of the microvasculature.
- Nutritional supplements: To enhance the effect diet and meal timing, reduce elevated fibrinogen, and reduce vascular inflammation by modulating TNF-alpha signaling, we use berberine, black seed (nigella sativa), cinnamon, curcumin, genistein, lipoic acid, luteolin, magnesium, nattokinase, olive leaf extract, potassium, quercetin, and spirulina.
- Exercise (click here): Strength training will further enhance the effect of diet and meal timing. It will also increase muscle capillary recruitment which will increase overall microcirculatory blood flow.
- Therapeutic blood donation: To reduce elevated hematocrit and eliminate old and rigid RBCs and replaced with young and flexible RBCs produced by your bone marrow. After ten bimonthly blood donations, nearly half of your circulating RBCs with be young ones that are better able to deliver oxygen to your cells.
- Photobiomodulation (click here): This is a painless and non-invasive treatment that decreases aggregation of red blood cells.
- Intravenous Plaquex (click here): This treatment will increase the lumen size (inside diameter) of the arterioles and capillaries by dissolving decades of accumulated fatty plaques (atherosclerosis) that can impair normal blood flow.
- Chelation therapy (click here): This treatment removes years of accumulated calcium that adheres to the fatty plaques and contributes to hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis). It also removes heavy metals, such as lead, mercury, and cadmium, that can contribute to hypertension.
COMMENTS: More and more, people are wanting doctors with the ability to address the root causes of disease instead of using a “band-aid” approach that relies on drugs. The above treatment can not only be used to reverse hypertension and restore youthful vascular function, the same exact treatment can also be used to reverse obesity, hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), and type II diabetes, as well as reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. That is because all of these diseases are associated with microcirculatory dysfunction.
The above approach to treating hypertension (targeting the root causes) is an example of how medicine should be practiced in America. Despite all the advertised “miracles” of modern medicine, we are still a nation of overweight, cancer-prone, and chronically-ill people. We need a bold new approach to healthcare. People are supposed to look good, feel good, and function correctly for a lifetime. Americans have gotten so used to seeing unhealthy people, they think it’s normal. We need to understand that the “normal” state of humans is not being sick, not taking countless medications, and not visiting the doctor’s office on a frequent basis. The normal human condition is to be lean and fit, energetic, and active!
