How to Lower Blood Pressure [Causes, Signs & Symptoms, What is it?]

This is Dr. Tom Biernacki today I'm going over the absolute best and most practical tips to lower your blood pressure. This is the silent killer. It's growing and we've got to take care of it. We're starting now with high blood pressure. You have a higher risk of stroke, heart attack and death and mortality. This is such a big problem in the United States. For example, obesity rates are going up, diabetes are going up. Heart related issues are going up. We're barely moving. We're sitting here working from home right now. We're watching Netflix, all this streaming. It is so good, but it's so bad at the same time. The bottom line is lowering blood pressure by even a small amount can significantly reduce the risk of stroke and heart disease. So this is one of the most important things you could do for your health. First, let's start with the top ten causes. Number one, genetics. Your family history plays a significant role in the development of hypertension. Does your mom have it? Does your dad have it? That means you're more likely to have it. For example, study published in the Journal of Hypertension 2009 found that certain genetic variations are associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure. If you have family members, let me know in the comments. Do you have high blood pressure? Do you struggle with it? Number two, diet consuming a diet high in salt or sodium saturated fats. Processed foods. Hey, that's what we all eat now. Chip bags, the snacks that are stored. This food is now so cheap and studies show it's only rising. We're eating a higher percentage of this stuff every day, every year. In 1997, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study called The Dash Diet The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension Study Obesity. Being overweight or obese is well established as a high risk factor for high blood pressure. Multiple studies have demonstrated a strong association between excess body weight. One such study was published in the Journal of Hypertension Research in 2016. This is one of the most controllable factors. Next is physical inactivity. We work from home. We sit in chairs on computers. Now we're hardly moving. As a result, blood pressure is an epidemic. It's going sky high. Regular physical activity has been shown to help reduce blood pressure. The Framingham Heart Study and the Nurses Health Study are examples of long term research that have explored the link between physical activity and blood pressure. Stress, chronic stress and high levels of mental tension can contribute to elevated blood pressure. The mechanisms underlying this relationship are very complex, but studies like the one in the Journal of the American Heart Association in 2017 have explored the link between stress and hypertension. This means a lot of different things to different people, sometimes working too much. But a lot of the times to me that means you're not sleeping enough. And that is one of the big risk factors as well. Alcohol consumption, Excessive alcohol intake can raise blood pressure. Not just that excessive alcohol stops you from sleeping as good, which then raises your blood pressure. Studies such as the one published in the Journal of Alcohol Research and Health in 2000 have highlighted the relationship between alcohol consumption and high blood pressure. Smoking. Smoking damages blood vessels and can lead to increased blood pressure. Research, such as a study published in the American Journal of Hypertension in 2014, has invested stated the effects of smoking on blood pressure. Chronic kidney disease. This is something I see a lot. This leads to a lot of foot problems, a lot of swelling in the feet. Kidney problems can disrupt the body's balance and regulation of blood pressure. If your kidneys are not working properly, they can excrete enough fluid in your blood pressure rises. Sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a condition characterized by interrupted breathing during sleep and has been linked to high blood pressure. Numerous studies have examined the relationship between sleep apnea and hypertension, including research published in the Journal of American Medical Association in 2013. Medication and certain health conditions when you're on a lot of medications, especially like is common. Now, some medications can lead to hormone disorders, and this can lead to high blood pressure as a side effect. I always see the problem when people come into the hospital and there are so many medications, interactions just start bumping into each other and that's when it really gets dangerous. I know on YouTube it's popular to bash medications and big pharma, but for heart related issues, you might not want to take a chance. A lot of these medications can work immediately. But tell me your experiences. I love hearing in the comments Easy tip is there's a lot of great monitoring, blood pressure devices at home. People have less trust than ever in doctors. That's why you're probably watching a YouTube video. But it's very important to potentially get a blood pressure monitoring device. These are very cost effective. They're very easy to use and they can give you a lot of information. A lot of patients make this mistake, but don't drink coffee, don't smoke, don't exercise at least 30 minutes before once had a patient drink, a Mountain Dew and his blood pressure was sky high and he panicked. But that's a fake reading. Or if you're scared by a doctor, then you sit there with your arm cuffed on a flat surface, like a table. Sit back, relax. Don't talk. And guidelines recommend taking three readings. Just be cautious. You could be nervous. You could have white coat syndrome. That's when you're scared of the doctor. You might have drank some coffee. You might be having anxiety. Just compare. You will see two numbers. One is called your systolic. That's when your heart is beating and your diastolic. That's when your heart is relaxed. Normal levels are below 130 and below 85. You can see, though, when you start to get into high levels, when it gets over 130 and over 85 and then once you get into the one sixties, over 100 or 180 over 110, that's when you really need to reach out to your doctor immediately. If you do one thing from this video and find out that you have a very high blood pressure, then I think I've done my job. Go to your primary care doctor. Go to your cardiologist and let them know your blood pressure is high and you can start rolling on the basics. The Dash diet stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension or Dash. The Dash diet is widely recognized as one of the best dietary approaches to lower and manage high blood pressure. The DASH diet emphasizes a balance of heart healthy eating and has been supported by a lot of studies. So there's a lot of studies, including the New England Journal of Medicine, which is probably the most difficult journal to get into. It does show that lowering salt intake, which is also known as sodium, can help. Now, it's not just sodium and salt, but basically the sugars, the salt, the salt like flavorings that we put on our food. And what it does emphasizes a high consumption of fruits and vegetables. In these videos, especially my diabetes videos, when I talk about fruits, I get a lot of heat. But yes, there is sugar, there is fruit toasts in fruits. But the reality is there's high fiber, high nutrients, and no one seemed to eat like 20 apples. But on the glycemic index, most fruits do not shoot your blood sugar levels up very high. And the thing is, there's fiber in the skin. They're difficult to eat. You can't go crazy like eating candy at a rapper's fruit or just natural. And they have so many beneficial vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, flavonoids, all of those help. All of those are very important and individually documented to lower your blood pressure. And I go over video specifically talking about the top 15 minerals, vitamins and nutrients to lower your blood pressure. If you have time, check out that video. Whole grains, whole grains over refined grains. So that's wheat bread, brown rice, quinoa, oats. These are very important. But the thing is, don't go out of your way to start eating these, because overall they have a high sugar level. What you're really trying to do is increase the fiber intake and the good nutrients. Lean protein. Lean protein such as poultry, chicken, fish, beans, lentils, tofu. These are all very effective. So this is for my carnivore friends as well. There is a lot of benefits. Meats are actually loaded with vitamins, but the number one food, I think the most practical one is low fat dairy. Low fat dairy products like yogurt, milk, cheese. They provide calcium, potassium and protein without the crazy saturated fats. All these things, especially potassium, are very effective in lowering blood pressure. I put this as one of my number ones because my kids drink a lot of milk, especially at nighttime. I have four kids. This is something that we go through a lot. But I do have a video that talks about all the negatives of dairy, all the positives of dairy. Check out the new research on that below. I'm not telling people which way to go one or another. Just the studies. I took a look at the studies and potassium in the diet at proper amounts was significant across numerous studies in reducing blood pressure. So 3 to 4 points were improved with a daily intake and proper intake of potassium and dairy can provide that. Nuts, seeds and legumes. I love nuts, seeds and legumes. I personally cut them out of my diet though, because I can't stop eating them. If you get some pistachios or some mixed nuts while watching TV, at the end of the day, I am in trouble. That's what's done me in in the past. All of these are so heart healthy. If you can limit your intake, you're going to do extremely well. They have potassium, magnesium, everything you need. These are the top supplements for your heart, for your blood pressure limits, saturated and trans fats eat leaner foods. This is specifically referring to fried foods, fried chicken, fried meats. That's really what you should limit, not just the lean meats and reduce your sodium intake. Aim for no more than 2000 milligrams per day. Even lower than that could be beneficial. Cut out your alcohol, monitor your portion sizes. So the bottom line is, while all this stuff's good, you still want a negative calorie intake so you can be losing weight and limit added sugars. The biggest thing you can cut out is foods like soda sugars. You know, the crazy thing is food stamps in America. I read a crazy stat like something like 15% of all the money in food stamps goes to sugary drinks. It's probably even more than that. Man, that is such a high amount of calories in the United States. If we could just cut that out, people would be doing so much better. I took a look at the updates on the DASH diet that we just talked about, and there's actually 30 randomized controlled trials, which are pretty high level studies and meta analysis. Took a look back at these and there was five and a half thousand patients roughly that were on the Dash diet for multiple months. The results showed a signifier lowering of the blood pressure. The average blood pressure drop was 4.2 millimeters of mercury across the systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The biggest drop was seen with younger age, so people under 50 had a bigger blood pressure drop than people over 50. That's probably because there is less health issues that were compromising like potentially chronic kidney disease. And people who started with a higher salt intake had a better improvement of their blood pressure. And the real key is it's not just the specific foods, but your overall body weight. Half the country is obese now. It's not just America either. It's the world that's rising. You have to get that under control. at the obesity rates around the world. It's not just North America and the United States, which is a myth. Europe is actually a little bit higher. South America's getting up there. The world overall, Asia, Oceania and even Africa is getting up there. So everyone is getting more and more obese. So look at these statistics. Since just 2000, it's gone up from 30% to 42.4%. And even the severe obesity rate has doubled. So it's going up. And what about COVID? When COVID started, the rates shot up even more rapidly. So this problem is already horrible and it's only getting worse. People are getting higher rates of diabetes. Everything I'm going to talk about here is more relevant than ever. To me, these rates are crazy. Pakistan, Egypt, Qatar, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, Mexico. Extremely high diabetes rate. The U.S. is actually number 55 in terms of population. Right around there is China. And believe it or not, China actually has the most overall diabetics in the world now. And after COVID, the prediabetes rate is rising. So China and India make up the vast majority of diabetics worldwide. And it's increasing rapidly. And sleep is so big. People who sleep 7 to 8 hours a night have such a lower blood pressure rate. And I can tell you, my mom, for example, she used to work nights. Her blood pressure is extremely high. It's hard to say whether that was the cause or not. Something to think about. Statistically, not getting enough sleep or erratic sleep is really high blood pressure, and there actually is good studies showing supplements like melatonin, lower your blood pressure because they help you sleep better. We go over this more in the supplement Guide for Blood Pressure Melatonin. In a meta analysis of seven studies and over 200 patients, melatonin at a dose of five milligrams lowered the blood pressure an average of 6.1 millimeters of mercury for the systolic blood pressure. That's pretty impressive, actually. But what it really comes down to In-A-Row, this is my top five solutions, the number one strength training. If you can work out your muscles, that is the single most important thing you can do. Studies show this. Now, most people that watch this are older. They're like, I'm too unhealthy to lift. I would say the most unhealthy thing you would do is not lift. I had a lady who could barely walk. She had a cane and she started doing air squats while push ups lifting a book in front of her. We gave her a specific program. She stopped using her cane. She's doing extremely well. Anybody at any age can go over that and number to cardio. I go over my walking guide how to start walking, how to get healthy. And then number three, we go over a sleep guide, how to fall asleep, how to set your room, what supplements help, what diet helps. And then number four, diet. And then number five, supplements. I actually have a video of the top 15 supplements for your blood pressure. Check that out below and check out our 30 day course to turn your health around.