High blood pressure is problematic. Effecting about one third of the U.S. (72 million people), it is a source of great concern. If your blood pressure is high, it means it is putting too much pressure on your artery walls, each time your heart beats. That can be a lot of strain.
Have you ever had an old garden hose or radiator hose blow? An old one could swell and burst, spewing water everywhere. Sometimes it’s cracked, or maybe got too hot in the engine of your car or lawn mower nicked it when it ran over it. Over time, the pressure stresses that area until one day it blows. This is akin to excess pressure in a blood vessel. If the vessel was weakened for any reason, it could potentially blow with excess pressure (if around the heart, you have a heart attack, the brain, a stroke).
The most important thing is WHY is the blood pressure high in the first place? Answer that, resolve that issue, and you don’t need to artificially force it down with meds. Please, don’t stop taking your medications. To do that without first resolving the issue is unwise.
There are multiple reasons why your blood pressure is up. It doesn’t just go up for no reason – something is causing it.
The main reasons given for justifying medication use is kidney disease or “we just don’t know why” or because cholesterol is too high. Cholesterol may be high, indeed, but why is cholesterol high? Cholesterol has a very important role in healing vascular damage. Remember the hose? If it is high, the body is using the cholesterol to try to heal something. Smart body. The problem comes when not only is cholesterol high, but triglycerides and glucose as well. These three can create thick blood. It takes a lot of pressure to move thick blood, sludge, through tiny vessels. If the 3 are high, why is that?
Triglycerides and glucose are high generally due to excess intake of sugar and carbs – something very much within our control. Another area within our charge is dietary fats. The wrong fats can contribute to arterial damage, the right fats help heal them. Vitamins A, B, C, D and E deficiencies also can create some damage.
Smoking, stress, loss of elasticity, garbage salt intake, and so much more, results in insult to vascular walls. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Sorting through the reasons for high blood pressure is the single most important first step in alleviating this potentially life-threatening symptom. You need a Health Detective to sort through the array of things that can deteriorate your health. Education is power.
©2017 Holly A. Carling, O.M.D., L.Ac., Ph.D
