Blog 100 Keeping Blood Pressure Healthy
Blood pressure is composed of two measurements - one, the systolic pressure is due to the force exerted by the lower two chambers of the heart’s forceful contraction, which pushes blood out to the various arteries, arterioles and capillaries in the body. The second part of blood pressure is the diastolic, is the resting pressure within the blood vessels, between the heart contractions. During this resting phase between beats, the coronary artery supplies blood to the heart.
Normal blood pressure ranges from a low of about 90/60 to a high of about 140/90. Anything outside of this range can be problematic for health if it is long-standing. Occasional blood pressure outside of this range occurs for just about everyone. It’s much more common to have high blood pressure (hypertension), and almost 50% of adults in the U.S. have at least mild or borderline hypertension. Some risk factors for high blood pressure include increasing age, especially over 65 years, increasing weight, especially obesity or morbid obesity, high consumption of processed foods, high intake of processed table salt, consumption of foods that produce an inflammatory effect in the body, including deep fried foods and those foods to which a particular individual is allergic, excessive mental and emotional stress, poor sleep quality and quantity, predominately sedentary lifestyle, exposure to environmental toxins, such as plastics, pesticides and cleansers, tobacco and alcohol consumption, and shallow chest breathing, especially when due to spinal subluxations, stress and poor posture.
Many answers to managing hypertension are included in the preceding paragraph - just remedy the particular behavior or environmental circumstance - i.e. exercise regularly, eat whole, organic, non-processed foods, learn to breathe abdominally, and eliminate table salt from the diet are some examples of potentially helpful changes. Consulting a chiropractor for spinal adjusting and nutritional guidance can also be highly effective in managing hypertension. Some other changes, such as getting a restful night’s sleep, losing weight , consulting a chiropractor for spinal adjusting and nutritional guidance, and learning to manage mental and emotional stress effectively may be challenging for many people.
Low blood pressure, or hypotension is much less common but is an equally severe problem when present on an ongoing basis. Some factors that can lead to low blood pressure are dehydration, taking too high a dosage of diuretics or anti-hypertensive medications, thyroid imbalance, pregnancy, congestive heart failure, diabetes, and adrenal exhaustion, to name just a few factors.
Once again, remedies for some of these problems are fairly straightforward: check your dosages of medication with your health care provider and adjust as appropriate. Do lab work to determine the presence of conditions such as diabetes and thyroid imbalance, then discover and follow approaches that help balance these problems as naturally as possible, using lifestyle changes as part of the remedies. Drink more water. Use the proper nutritional supplements, including vitamins, minerals, herbs, plus use stress management and appropriate exercise to help alleviate adrenal exhaustion and congestive heart failure. Consult your health care provider to help manage imbalances when needed. Chiropractic adjusting, acupuncture therapy, and professional nutritional guidance can often be effective in addressing hypotension.
One suggestion is to get a reliable blood pressure monitor and check your blood pressure regularly. Learn what tends to raise and lower your blood pressure, and what you can do to have an effect. If you already have a tendency toward hypertension, you will likely find that certain herbs, such as licorice root, will probably push blood pressure higher. Fried foods or foods high in oils will likely do the same. Sometimes prescription medication is necessary, at least in the short run to manage blood pressure, since uncontrolled blood pressure imbalances can lead to a variety of problems, such as stroke, heart attack, organ failure, cognitive decline, sexual dysfunction, and depression.
This blog’s offer: call or email to schedule a complimentary consultation regarding your blood pressure. There may be nutritional supplements, nutritional changes, and other approaches that can help balance your blood pressure.