Latest / The BP Triangle / Your Blood Pressure Isn't a Heart Problem

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Your Blood Pressure Isn't a Heart Problem · The BP Triangle

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So you're rushing to work, you've already had two coffees,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: you're stressed about something at home, you barely slept last night,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: then someone takes your blood pressure and it's incredibly high.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: And suddenly you're thinking, oh my gosh, is something actually
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: wrong with my heart? But what if that number is
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: only one piece of the story? Today we're breaking down
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: what can affect your blood pressure, what your numbers actually mean,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: which warning signs you should never ignore, and what you
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: can start doing to protect your health. So welcome back
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: to the show, everyone. Today, we're solving a problem that
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: millions of people have. My blood pressure is high. What
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: do I do? So Joel Pauly is here. He's a
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: registered nurse, a naturopath, and the creator of bpquiz.com. And
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: he brings decades of healthcare experience, including years working in ICU,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: and emergency nursing. And today he helps people better understand
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the factors that may be affecting their health. So today
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: we're going beyond the number on the blood pressure cuff,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: and we're going to be talking about stress, sleep, nutrition, movement, hormones, lifestyle,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: and the everyday habits that can influence your cardiovascular health.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: And most importantly, Joel is going to help us understand
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: when it's time to make changes and when it's time
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: to seek medical care. So, Joel, it's really great to
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: see you again. You just were telling me that you've
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: been really busy merging a business with your wife. You're
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: always up to something, but it's all good things. It's
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: helping a lot of people.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. It's good to be here. It's good to see
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: you again.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Um, this is a topic like I was telling
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: you before that we haven't really or I haven't covered
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: on the show with anyone. And it's important. I know
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: that every time I go to the doctor for like,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I've only had one nosebleed in my life and I
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: was in the doctor's office. And I didn't realize that
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: when I sat down, I immediately felt anxious there.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: But people panic when they see that their blood pressure
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: is high. What do you want people to understand about
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: blood pressure?
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: What is it? Yeah, yeah, that is a great question.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: There's a couple of things that really affect people when
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: it comes to their blood pressure. But a lot of
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: what they're experiencing is fear about things that they don't
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: believe correctly about blood pressure. And one of those things
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: is that it's a heart problem. Your blood pressure is
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: not a heart problem. Your blood pressure is a mechanism
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: that kicks into gear when you're stressed. depending on what
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: you are thinking about, depending on what you ate that morning,
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: what you drank. You mentioned the coffee. Caffeine is a really,
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: really big stimulant of high blood pressure.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: And so it is.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: Not a heart problem directly. Your heart is doing the pumping,
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: but the pressure that's registering on the cuff or on
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: the monitor is actually related to the external factors that
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: I just mentioned. So that's number one. Number two is
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: that when people have high blood pressure, they often feel
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: like this is my genetics kicking in. I'm going to
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: be on high blood pressure medications the rest of my life.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: And that, too, is not necessarily true. So genetic preparedness.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Intensities to high blood pressure are a thing, but the externals,
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: the lifestyle, the things you eat, the things you drink,
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: the things you think about are really what affect your
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: high blood pressure. And it's not something that has to
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: be a lifetime sentence either, because as you modify those externals,
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: your blood pressure will respond. And you also mentioned sleep.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: That's another really big trigger for high blood pressure, not
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: getting good sleep, not getting adequate sleep, and allowing your
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: body to do its nocturnal blood pressure reset. So there's
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: a period of time in the night that your blood
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: pressure actually resets back to normal. But oftentimes we are
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: still awake. We like our late night shows. We like
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: to be up with our friends and things on our phones,
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: and we miss that reset. So those are three big
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: things that I think a lot of people don't understand
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: about blood pressure and causes them to be afraid when
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: they see that high number.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Right.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: I would like to just simply ask you what those
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: numbers mean. Because to be honest with you, I don't
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: really understand it either. I just see it and they're like, oh,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: you're good.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, great. Yeah, absolutely.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: So there's two numbers involved with the blood pressure, okay?
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: There's the top number, which is called the systolic number.
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  Speaker 3: And that is just a fancy word for saying the
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: pressure is measured as your heart squeezes or pumps, okay?
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: So your heart is pumping every... second or two. And
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: as it's pumping, there's a pressure that's registered throughout your
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: body at the height of the pump.
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  Speaker 2: Okay.
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  Speaker 3: And so that top number is the measurement of the
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: height of that pump. When your heart relaxes before the
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: next pump, there's another number. That's the bottom number, the
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: diastolic number. That's the number when your heart is relaxed.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Okay.
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  Speaker 3: And so it's just measuring both of those numbers at
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: a specific instance. And that's the issue with blood pressure
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: that really indicates that that's not a full picture because
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: it's just that particular beat when it pumped and that
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: particular beat when it was relaxed. And it measures that number.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: And that number is constantly changing. Like literally whatever's on
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: your mind, what you just ate, how you're sitting. That's
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: why there's a specific way to take your blood pressure.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: And it involves relaxing and sitting properly. So that's the
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: number in a nutshell.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Thank you for explaining that. That makes sense. And like,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: I know... bunch of people who have what they call
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: white coat syndrome where as soon as they go to
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the doctor they get anxiety and then their blood pressure
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: is high my dad actually takes his blood pressure before
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: he goes and then he shows him takes a photo
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: of it and shows the doctor the number because they
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: just Every time he goes into the doctor's office, he
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: just gets anxiety and there's nothing that really arouses it.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: It's just a thing. So then what is the proper way?
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: How does blood pressure fluctuate during the day and what
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: is considered normal?
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes. So.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: Normal, first of all, is generally considered 120 over 80.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: Now that changes depending on American Heart Association, but that's
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: an easy number to remember. And it generally is a
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: healthy blood pressure number. And how to take it properly
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: is you have to be in a relaxed state. So
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: the position that you're in really is about relaxing your
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: body relaxing your mind being in a chair that's low
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: to the ground so your feet are flat on the
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: floor your arms are relaxed at your side and ideally
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: what you do is you wait about five minutes just
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: no talking relax your mind go to your happy place
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: i like to tell people And just really let everything
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: go for those five minutes and then take your number.
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: Because like your dad has experienced, you go to these
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: doctor's offices and unfortunately, it's not really that we're afraid
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: of the doctor or the nurse. We're afraid of the
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: information they're going to give us. And so that's something
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: we have absolutely no control over. And so our brains
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: and our blood pressure react accordingly. And so what he does,
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: take that picture before he gets to the doctor is
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: a really great practice. Some doctors are more prone to
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: take that number than others, but really that white coat
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: syndrome is a very, very real thing. And it's just
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: a matter of practicing in your brain that I don't
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: have control over what they're going to say to me.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: I need to learn to just stay in that relaxed
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: at rest feeling that I had at home when I
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: was sitting in my chair five minutes. And so in
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: the waiting room, even practice that sit in the waiting
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: room in the chair, be still don't talk to a
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: bunch of people around you don't think about what the
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: doctor is going to say or not.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: I think what you said about going to a place
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  Speaker 1: of relaxation is so incredibly important because so often we're
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: like running around and we're doing a million things at
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: once and we have this appointment. And then when we
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: get our blood pressure taken and it's really, really high,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: we feel like we're doomed, like something is incredibly wrong.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think people are misdiagnosed with having high blood
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: pressure when they actually don't and they're given medication and
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: they don't really need it?
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  Speaker 2: Ooh, hot, hot questions today.
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  Speaker 3: So it really is something that I struggle with when
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: it comes between my naturopathic knowledge and my healthcare knowledge.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: I've been a nurse for a long time, but I'm
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: also a naturopath. And so there's always this, not necessarily
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: a disconnect, but this just struggle sometimes. internally when I
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: have subjects like this, because honestly, yes, I do feel
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: that way. I feel like when it comes to people,
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: especially suffering with white coat syndrome, it's not a full
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: picture of their life. It's not a full picture of
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: what's going on inside of them. It's not a full
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  Speaker 3: picture even of just their physical structure as a whole.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: So when they have these micro pictures of anxiety in
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: the doctor's office and they're being placed on medications with
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: those numbers in mind, it's not showing what happens at home.
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  Speaker 2: It's not showing. And even if.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: their blood pressure is high consistently. It's still not exploring why.
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  Speaker 3: And that's my biggest problem with the way people are
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: put on blood pressure medications. Because when you start asking
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: just a few questions, oftentimes the cause is can be
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: fixed in a few days. And if you're just really
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: exploring that maybe it's something I'm eating or drinking, maybe
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: it's some internal distress I'm currently in, maybe my husband
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: or wife just passed away. And that's really the the
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: strain and stress that's inside of me and learning how
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: to deal with these things, how to fix the causes
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: is really the best way to approach things like high
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: blood pressure.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: So you mentioned food and drinks. So what are some
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: examples of different foods and drinks? We talked about caffeine
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: that can affect your blood pressure.
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  Speaker 2: Yes. Caffeine is the big one.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, that's usually where I go to first because
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  Speaker 3: it's such a daily habit for so many people.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: It's like the first thing people do in the morning.
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  Speaker 2: Right, right.
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  Speaker 3: And a lot of people just don't connect the two,
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: but that's really what the product is advertising.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: How it works.
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  Speaker 3: Like the energy that you receive from the caffeine is
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: actually because it elevates your blood pressure, it elevates your
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: heart rate, and it elevates your cortisol. And so that
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: is how the substance actually works. And so if you're
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: trying to get your blood pressure under control, then you
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: definitely need to start addressing cutting back on some of
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: that stimulant that's actually fighting against you, right? And so
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: there are other foods that do the same thing. There
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: are foods that are acid forming in the body and
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: are stimulants in themselves.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: And one of the big ones.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: I won't go into a whole slew of them, but
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: the main one, the main food that is a stimulant
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: to the body is meat products, especially red meats. Red
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: meats and eating foods that still have the blood in them.
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  Speaker 3: And that's one of the major stimulants.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: In the system. So I.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: point to as an example a lot of like the
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: really testosterone driven warriors and like bodybuilders and like they're
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: they're always promoting like eat liver and eat red meats
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: and like because it gives them this extra boost and
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: the stimulation that you can't find in other foods. And
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: that's why that it's promoted as one of these like,
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: and you can kind of feel that after you go
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: eat a big steak at a restaurant or whatever, you
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: kind of feel this like almost euphoria feeling. And that
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: stimulation is one of the pathways that causes high blood
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: pressure from red meat.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: So I really encourage people cut back.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: And I'm not saying you have to be vegan and
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: eat salad for the rest of your life.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: But I am saying like just.
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: Being aware of caffeine and the meat products and some
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: of these other things that do cause high blood pressure
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: and then cut back, start cutting back if that's your
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: goal is to get your blood pressure under control.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: So a question coming to mind just because I love supplements.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: I love trying different supplementation. And I've recently gotten into
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: ceremonial cacao. So like 100%.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Cacao.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: And I didn't realize that it had something called theobromine
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: in it, which acts as a stimulant. And so that
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: is something that I took a large amount of it
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: in a ceremony and I felt incredibly activated from it.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: But I wouldn't have ever connected the two. And another
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: thing is that I have a lot of supplements that
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: say natural caffeine and it won't cause you jitters. So
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: what's the difference? Like, are they equally stimulating? Or why
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: do they say like natural green bean extract or like teas?
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Are there different forms of caffeine?
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: So not really.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: Now there are different amounts, different concentrations, and different ways
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: that the body processes them. But the ultimate stimulant goal
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: of all these products is the same. And it's just
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: to really increase the level of alertness, to increase the
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: blood flow. And to do that, they have to raise
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: your blood pressure. So the mechanism that it delivers the
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: mechanism it uses to deliver that effect may differ, may
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: be more natural, may be more plant sourced, but even
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: coffee itself is a plant. And so, yes, there are
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: better forms, better delivery systems, yerba mate, green teas, things
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: like that.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: I would use those over coffee.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: However, the ultimate result is still that your pressure has
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: to increase in order for that result to be delivered. So, again,
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: it depends on where you're at on the continuum of
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: I have high blood pressure every once in a while.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: I'm not on any medications. It doesn't really bother me
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: to I'm on five medications and it's ruining my life.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: It's ruining my health. My organs are damaged. having all
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: sorts of dysfunction because of my high blood pressure, my
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: doctor's warning me. There's that end of the spectrum where
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: stroke and heart attacks are a high risk for you.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: And maybe some of these things you need to cut
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: back on because, yes, they're still causing the same result.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: So if someone's super anxious, they should just stay away
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: from all of that. I've seen products advertised as like,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, not overtly, but they apparently claim to help
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: with anxiety, but they still have caffeine in them. So
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: I'm always like, really? Like, I don't know how that
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: would work. But what about age? What role can age
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: play in blood pressure?
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: So. So not as big a factor as some people think, honestly,
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: because age really is just a culmination of your lifestyle habits.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: Like it's the things that you've been practicing for 20
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: years that have started to build up and are starting
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: to produce results. So it doesn't necessarily have to do
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: with your chronological age. It has more to do with
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: the way that your habits are starting to stack up
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: and starting to deliver the results that they were meant
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: to deliver. And some of those are not beneficial to you.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: And so if you're able to look at it from
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: that perspective, that gives you control over the outcome because
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: now it's not a chronological problem that I have no
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: control over.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: Now it's okay.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: Yes, I'm 75. Yes, I have high blood pressure, but
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: there's some things that I'm doing every day that are
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: causing it. So if I stop these, it doesn't matter
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: how old I am. My blood pressure will be like
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: when I was 12.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Right, right.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense. I mean, as we get older,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: we take on more responsibilities. And I feel like life
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: starts creeping in more than when we're younger for most people,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: not always. But what role does genetics play in this?
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: And this one's interesting for me because my family is
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: notorious for having lower blood pressure than the normal. So
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: like my resting heart rate is incredibly low. And so
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: I've been turned away from sex. specific treatments in the
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: past because of my low blood pressure. And so mine's
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: incredibly low.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Interesting. Yes, yes.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: Genetics does play a role, but again, not the way
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: people think. So oftentimes we go into the doctor's office
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: and we're put on these prescriptions. And the conversation that's had,
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: the teaching that occurs, as a nurse, I've done this
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: thousands of times, taught people that a lot of what
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: they're dealing with is genetic. And so it gives them
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: a momentary sense of relief. Well, there's nothing I can
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: do about this. It's in my genes. My parents had it.
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: My grandparents had it. So therefore, I have it now.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: And here's some pills that are going to help me. Well,
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: that's only partially true. Like the genetic propensity has more
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: to do with the fact that your lifestyle mimics your
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: parents' lifestyle. Your eating habits mimic your parents' eating habits.
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: Your daily coffee mimics the fact that your parents had
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: daily coffee. And so there's a lot of things that
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: are nature versus nurture, right? The nurture aspect of genetically
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: passed on high blood pressure is huge. It's a huge factor.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: And that's really what we're talking about when we say
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: it's genetic. It's a passed down gene. habitual package that
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: equals to high blood pressure. Not so much the fact
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: that your internal genetics are going to give you high
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: blood pressure, because if that were the case, then at
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: the age of five or 12, you would have had
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: high blood pressure if it was.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: Internal only, right?
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: So yes, there are genetic propensities, but most of that
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: And there are some internal propensities as well, but those
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: can be switched on and off with lifestyle, the external
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: factors that we're talking about. So I hope that's good
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: news to some people that really have connected blood pressure
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: and genetics. that there's more to it and there are
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: more things that you can control than just, it's hardwired
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: inside me and there's nothing I can do.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: The person that's like, oh my God, I'm destined. I'm
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: going to have high blood pressure forever. This is in
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: my family. Yeah, it makes sense. Like the families who
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: wake up and they have morning mimosas.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Definitely going to affect your health.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: So this is an interesting one. What about people who
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: are not very active, physical inactivity? How does that affect
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: blood pressure?
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Ooh, great question. Great question.
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: So when it comes to activity, the main purpose of
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: movement or exercise is circulation.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: And people oftentimes... overcomplicate that. You've got the bodybuilders, you've
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: got the marathon runners and all these other reasons for exercising.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: But the only purpose that you should ever focus on
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: for movement is circulation, right? Because there's parts of your
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: body that do not get the benefit of your heart pumping.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: Your lower extremities, for instance, your legs, your feet.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: If you do not move them, the blood down there
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: doesn't get pumped back up to your heart. It's the
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: movement that pumps that blood back. And so circulation is
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: the only reason for movement, for exercise that you need
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: to focus on. And it's to keep your lower extremities,
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: your hands, your feet, especially the micro vessels in your
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: body circulated because the more that blood pools in those areas,
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: the more you're prone to blood clots, DVTs, things like that,
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: because the blood thickens and doesn't get pumped. You get
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: the varicose veins because the valves have popped and burst
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: because there's no longer something moving the blood out of
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: them and the pressure just builds up builds up builds
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: up and so all of these things are what you
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: are looking to prevent when you move and so it's
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: not a direct effect on blood pressure the way You
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: might think, but it is creating this circulation that is smooth,
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: that is not impeded, that is not blocked by these
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: clots and these other issues. And then the other thing
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: that movement helps is actually strengthening your heart specifically. So
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: as your heart is strengthened, as your circulation is smooth
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: and easy throughout all of your body, your blood pressure
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: starts to return to normal.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: So something as simple as just going for a walk
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: or getting up and walking around your office is helpful.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: I think you're right about the overcomplication because people are
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: like all or nothing. It's like, I didn't wake up
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: early today, so I'm not going to get a walk
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: or jog in. But you literally just walk around your house.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Absolutely.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: And there's a couple other things that walking actually does.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: It helps with the secretion of things like endorphins. And
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: you don't have to be doing a marathon to get
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: the runner's high, what they call it, that endorphin release.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: A simple walk in the morning, in the sunshine, stimulates
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: the endorphins, lowers your cortisol, increases your breathing pattern. Deep
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: breathing is another big anti-high blood pressure thing. And so
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: there's so many other things that walking, simple walking, like
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: you said, stimulates in the body to get your stress
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: level and your blood pressure lower.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: Can specific medications affect blood pressure and keep it at
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: a higher level?
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: Yes, there are medications that do that. A lot of
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: decongestants have stimulants in them. Cold season is a big
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: time for people to have high blood pressure. The other
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: ones is pain relievers, NSAIDs like ibuprofen and naproxen. those
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: also have been shown to cause a lot of people
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: high blood pressure.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: Women, for instance, take it a lot for period pain.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: And so that's a period where they will see their
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: blood pressure rise both from pain and from the medications
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: that they're taking from pain.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: So, yeah.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Interesting. So how does chronic stress fit into this picture?
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: What happens when we're stressed constantly and we have high
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: blood pressure often?
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: Yes. Great question.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: This is really the number one cause for high blood pressure.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: So I'm glad you asked that. There's a research article
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: that I read that they did studies on.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: The effects of stress. Okay.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: So they basically took a bunch of people that were
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: sitting in traffic and experienced road rage, and they monitored
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: their body's system while they were experiencing road rage on
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: the highway, LA traffic.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: It happens a lot. Let's put it that way.
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: So they were monitoring these effects, and what they found
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: is that The body's response during 10 minutes of road
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: rage was equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's crazy.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: Insane. The effects of stress on the body.
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: So primarily what stress does is it puts you in
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: a state of fight or flight, okay? It's a perfectly
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: designed system to save your life. If a tiger is
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: chasing you, it's what gets you to run faster, think clearer,
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: and move to save your life.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: Fight or flight, right? Or fight.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: And so what stress does is it triggers that same
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: cascade of events in your body. It increases your cortisol.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: It increases your high blood pressure. It shunts blood to
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: major organs of the body. And in that state, it's
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: only supposed to be a temporary relief to get you
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: out of trouble. But when stress is chronic, like you
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: asked about, that state is maintained. Your cortisol stays high.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: Your blood pressure stays high. Your heart rate stays high.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: And the effects on the system are very, very damaging.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: I tell people it's like cortisol is like throwing gasoline
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: on a forest fire. It is incredibly damaging to your hormones,
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: your blood pressure, and so many other organ systems in
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: the body.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know a tremendous amount of people who wake
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: up at like four in the morning with that like anxiety,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: like cortisol just spiked. And They can't settle. Do you
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: think that is a stress response?
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Absolutely.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: And so it's one of those situations where it's chicken
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: or the egg. You don't know whether it's the cortisol
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: that caused the hormone dysfunction or the hormone dysfunction in
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: a lot of women causing the high cortisol. Either way,
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: that whole system is very, very intimately connected. And so
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: 3 and 4 o'clock a.m. wake-up times, is a cardinal
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: sign that your cortisol is high and you really need
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: to find what the cause is.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Interesting. Can calming the nervous system and constant practice of
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: mindfulness and meditation and quiet start turning this around? Or
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: is there an alternate way?
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Yes, great question.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: Another one of those things that yes, but not in
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: the way that you think.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: So here's the issue.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: Oftentimes we go to yoga, we go to these retreats
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: and we do the mindfulness every morning and these types
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: of things. And yes, they do help in the moment.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: But if the underlying reason for the cortisol being high
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: is not addressed, that moment will pass and your cortisol
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: will go back up. Your blood pressure will go back up.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: And so you have to keep doing it two and
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: three times in the day just to maintain. And you're
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: really chasing your tail until you discover what the cause is.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: So it's like those moments help in the moment, but
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: there's still going to be the underlying issue that needs
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: to be addressed. And I mean, I was talking to
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: a doctor the other day and he was talking about
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: how like symptoms don't just come up like when something
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: is wrong immediately. Like a symptom is a sign that
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: something's been kind of shutting down for a long time.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: And so that tells me that solution to this isn't
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: going to be like a quick, easy fix. What is
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: your take on that?
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: So my dad used to tell me when I was
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: young and I got my first car, he said, when
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: you are driving your car and you hear something suddenly happen,
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: usually it's.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: A pretty easy fix. But if you've heard a tick that's.
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: Gotten louder and louder for a long period of time,
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: it's usually going to be a very expensive process to
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: get that thing fixed. And oftentimes it's the same in
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: the body. Like if you've been dealing with something that's
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: bothering you for a long period of time, that means
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: that there's something that has been going wrong deep inside
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: you for a long period of time. And yes, it
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: is an expensive fix, quote unquote, but the path to
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: that fix is not as long or as drawn out
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: as you might think. So I tell people all the
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: time when it comes to stress, it's not just about
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: my job is stressful. Traffic is stressful. My kids are
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: stressing me out today. Oftentimes, stress comes in so many
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: different forms that we don't attribute to stress. For instance,
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: things in your past. You may have lost a loved
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: one a few years ago. That grief is a stress
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: unless you know how to unravel that grief and move
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: on from it. Trauma in your childhood. Perhaps you experienced
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: abuse or neglect. The grief, the anger, the pain from
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: that experience is still there eating away at the back
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: of your mind unless you face it and know how
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: to address it. Even simple things like you got fired
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: from a job last year. That is a loss. That
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: is a grief that will start to build up. And see,
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: what happens is all of these things snowball. They add
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: on top of each other and they get bigger and
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: bigger and bigger. And so the older you get, the
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: bigger that snowball is. And you have to figure out
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: a way to acknowledge it, face it, and undo it.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: So you could be like... the quote unquote healthiest person
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: in the world and be eating right and exercising and
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: going to yoga, doing the meditation, but still have high
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: blood pressure.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: And some of the healthiest clients that I have are
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: often the most stressed. Sometimes it's actually stress about their health.
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: They're like, I'm doing everything. I have to do this
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: rhythm every single day. I've got to take these medications
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: and supplements and I've got to do this exercise regime.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: And if I miss it one time, I'm going to die.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: And I often tell people a lot of what's driving
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: you into this health mindset is fear. And unless you
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: undo the fear behind it, your attempts at being healthy
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: are only going to, again, be chasing your tail. And
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: so you have to really acknowledge that I'm afraid that
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: my health is going to be like my father's health.
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: And I personally have had to deal with that. My
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: father died of colon cancer. And so every so often
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: I have to check myself because I'm like examining my stomach. Like,
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: do I have colon cancer? Like, what have I eaten
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: today that might give me colon cancer? And And I
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: have to let that go. I have to not allow
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: my health journey to be driven by fear because that
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: fear is going to be far more damaging to me
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: than just going and eating a cheeseburger. The fear, the cortisol,
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: the stress, those are way, like we said, smoking a
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: pack of cigarettes for 10 minutes of stress. So imagine
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: what that fear is doing to you internally and learn
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: to let that go.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I went through that. phase I went through a
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: chronic health issue and I was on like a very
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: strict diet but then I became like obsessed with that
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: like I couldn't eat anything but like clean and I
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: never could have sugar and It was like I was
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: constantly thinking about how I was going to get through
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: the next day if I had like meetings or plans
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: outside of my regular schedule, like having to figure that out.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: And then I wouldn't partake in like a birthday party
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: or I wouldn't stay out super late and I would
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: miss out on things because I was like, no, I
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: have to be perfect and follow this perfect schedule so
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: that I can feel my best because I felt, and
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: then I would tell myself if I had that, that
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: it would make me feel sick. And so it is,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: it's this like cycle of, Like, it's not good. I
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: didn't feel anything good. I mean, I felt good, but,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: you know, you miss out on life. That's not what
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: life's about.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: Right, right. Absolutely.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: And that's what I try to get people to envision
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: when they start this health journey. Where do you want
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: to end up? Like, what do you want your life
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: to look like? You want to be there for your kids.
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: You want to be there for the parties. You want
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: to have the energy. You want to be living life
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: to the ultimate of your ability. And health is a
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: journey to that. But sometimes there's these pieces that we
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: think aren't health related when they really are. That shame,
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: the guilt, the stress, those are all parts of this
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: picture that you have to figure out how to get
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: those all in alignment. And it's not always as straightforward
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: as you might think. Yeah, definitely.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: So what are some ways to know if your blood
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: pressure is high? What are symptoms of it? Or is
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: there Like a way to tell.
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there are definitely symptoms. Usually it's dangerously high that
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: symptoms show themselves. So things like splitting headaches, vision changes,
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: dizziness and passing out can be symptoms of low and
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: high blood pressure. And so usually when those things occur,
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: it's a medical emergency and it's something you really need
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: to get checked out.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: So we're talking usually 180 and above, 200s.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: Some people live there, but a lot of people, if
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: it just spikes to that, they'll have these symptoms and
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: they really need to get checked out as to why.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Right. Okay. And what about anxiety? Is that a symptom?
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: So anxiety can be a symptom of high or low
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: blood pressure. And what happens with anxiety is the brain
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: is telling you that something is wrong.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: Period. That's it.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: But you don't know whether it's something wrong with your body,
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: something wrong in your thoughts, or something wrong in your
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: external environment. And so that's the first thing that you
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: need to analyze is.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: Okay, is my body okay?
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: Like, is there something really happening inside my body that
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: is off? And this anxiety is a result of that.
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: You can check your blood pressure. Usually anxiety occurs when
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: your blood pressure is starting to get really low.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: Not high. Sometimes it does when it's high, but usually
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: when it's low.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: But the next thing is really just examining, is it
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: just my thoughts? Like, is there some fear? That's trying
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: to come to the forefront of my mind that I'm
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: pushing back. And that's usually where I find people's anxiety
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: is I'm trying not to think about my future. I'm
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: trying not to think about my past and it's causing anxiety.
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: And so just face it. Think about the thing. Figure
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: out what's behind the thing that's really giving you that fear.
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: Sometimes just speaking it out loud really helps to make
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: the make the fear a reality instead of this huge
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: imagined monster like it's really just this but it feels
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: like this what i'm saying so.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah absolutely um it's like thinking about i mean a
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: lot of people worry about money issues and what's gonna
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: happen in the next five years yeah it's learning to
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: sit with it instead of run from it. And it
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: is true thinking about anxiety. If I'm anxious and I
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: get up and walk around or move or tell someone,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: it definitely dissipates it.
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And So the external factor is also there.
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: Am I watching the news? Because news oftentimes is a
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: huge source of anxiety for people that they're not registering
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: because there's so much negative information about things you have
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: no control over. And that's what causes anxiety. When you
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: feel out of control is often a big source of anxiety.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. I want to just quickly touch back on food.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: So what are eating patterns that support a healthy blood pressure?
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: I've been on multiple different shows with different people and
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: we've been talking about fasting and some people are for it,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: some people aren't. What are your thoughts on the food
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: habits that are going to support our bodies?
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I have an incredible diet for you that incorporates
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: all of the things you just talked about in a
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: way that's very, very simple and not disruptive. So a
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: lot of what people fear when it comes to health
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: changes is the disruption. Like it's going to change my
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: whole life. I'm not going to be able to do this.
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to be able to eat that. And
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: here's a very, very simple way to look at it.
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: The way that we eat is backwards. As Americans, generally,
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: we eat a very small, hurried breakfast of coffee and
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: donuts and we rush out the door and we go
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: to work and then we have an 11 a.m.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: Crash.
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: So we have to eat some more sugar and caffeine
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: to get through to lunch period where we have a
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: nice organized meal.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: And then we have another.
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: Crash around three o'clock and we drink some more caffeine.
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: And then finally we get home, we're relaxed.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: We're like, okay, let's eat.
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: Sit down to this huge, delicious dinner. Maybe our family's around.
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: Maybe we're sitting around the television. It's this this whole
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: nostalgic tradition, right? And then we go to bed. We
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: stay up later, we go to bed. Sometimes you have
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: a nightcap or whatever, then you go to bed. Well,
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: what happens when you go to bed is that you
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: don't sleep well. You've got this stomach full of food
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: and desserts and all this extra calories and your body's
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: trying to digest it. So you toss and turn till
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: the wee hours of the morning. You finally get a
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: couple hours sleep. Then you're awake at 3 a.m. because
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: your cortisol is really high and you're trying to fight
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: back to sleep. And finally, you crash right before your
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: alarm goes off and you start the whole system again.
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: You drink the coffee just to get yourself out of bed.
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: You get the sugar and it's all start over. That's backwards.
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: So reverse that, flip it.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: So first thing in the morning, you eat that dinner meal.
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: It doesn't have to be dinner food. I prefer breakfast
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: food at breakfast, but you make that meal your largest
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: meal because that is fuel for your day. You don't
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: have the 11 a.m. crash because your stomach has the
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: food that it needs to drive your day. Lunch is
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: A little smaller, but also organized, well-fueled with whole plant food.
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: Then your afternoon is still high energy. You're doing great.
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: You get home.
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: You relax.
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: And supper is hardly anything at all. I don't eat
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: supper at all. Just skip it. You can have popcorn,
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: you can have a piece of fruit, something really, really
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: light that when you go to bed, your body almost
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: doesn't register it. You're gonna sleep like a baby. And
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: try to go to bed earlier too. That's another big one.
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: Try to go to bed before nine, eight or nine.
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: That gives you about three or four hours before midnight
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: where that reset occurs I talked about earlier. That blood
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: pressure reset occurs between 10 and midnight. And so if
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: you get those good solid hours of sleep, Then if
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: you wake up at three or four, just get up,
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: start your day. You have all this energy. Now you're awake.
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: You've slept incredibly well and you can start your day early.
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: And then by breakfast, man, you are hungry.
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: So again, you eat.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: That big meal and it does your day the opposite direction.
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: And just that move, you're going to lose weight. You're
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: going to sleep like a baby and your blood pressure
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: is going to return to normal.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Most people get those like food cravings at night
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: when they're watching TV. They want to munch on something
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: and they don't even realize how much food they're eating
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: before they're going to bed.
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And you feel it.
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: That that gird that all that stuff trying to come
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: back up when you're trying to lay there and sleep.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: So, yeah.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Is salt actually bad for us? I know a
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: lot of people who are terrified of sodium.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: And again, it's nurses' fault. It's nurses and doctors. It's
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: our fault. We don't explain it fully. We just say
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: cut back on sodium, cut back on your salt. Your
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: blood pressure is really high. Salt's killing you, right? But
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: we don't spend the time to really explain how it works.
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: And so yes, but not the way you think. That's
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: a common theme.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: I love that. That's been your answer to everything. Yes,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: but not the way you think.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: Salt.
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: So salt, the way it works is when it's in
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: high concentrations, water follows it. You've learned that in biology
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: or chemistry, osmotic pressures and things. Water is just there
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: to dilute the system to make it balanced, okay? So
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: if inside your vessels, there's a high salt concentration, The
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: body pushes fluid into that space to dilute out the salt.
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: When you add extra fluid into a closed space, what happens?
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: The pressure goes up.
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: So that's how, in a nutshell, salt causes your pressure
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: to be high. Now, here's the part we don't talk about,
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: is the type of salt. White table salt has two
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: minerals in it, sodium and chloride. Those two minerals cause
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: a very acidic environment in the body and drive that
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: water system problem even crazier. But when you eat natural
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: salts like Himalayan salt, Celtic salt, sea salt... They have
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: 42 minerals in them that help to combat that problem
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: in your body.
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: So yes, you want to be moderate in salt.
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: American Heart Association recommends about 1,500 milligrams. So start reading
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: labels because that's the other piece is that the salt.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: How much is that in terms of teaspoons?
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: That's a good question. I'm not sure about that math.
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: We could Google that, though, real quick. And as I
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: do that, I want to tell you that it's really
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: not so much the salt shaker. It's about the hidden salt.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: It's the hidden salt.
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: So it's the labels that you don't read. So things
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: like canned foods, any packaged foods.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like soups have like an insane amount of sodium
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: in them.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Absolutely.
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: These things have a lot of hidden sodium in them.
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: And it's because they're trying to preserve the food. So
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: any package you open has salt in it as a preservative.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: So just start reading labels. 1500 milligrams is a third
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: of a teaspoon. So it's not much. It's not a
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: lot of salt.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: But when you're.
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: Looking at foods like fast foods or these soups you
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: talked about, you'll look and the serving size will have
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: like 3000 milligrams of sodium in it. And that's like
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: twice the amount of recommended sodium per day.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: And so it adds up quickly. But start reading labels.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: That's what I tell people.
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: Start reading labels, get natural salt, and then don't really
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: sweat that too much. Start doing all the other things
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: we talk about. Drink more water, do more movement. When
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: you do this holistic moves to really change your entire lifestyle,
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: things like salt become a very minor problem.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: For sure. There's so many more places we could go
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: with this, but we're running short on time here. So
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: I'd love for you to talk about your quiz. You
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: created bpquiz.com. Can you tell us your thinking behind it?
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: And what are you trying to help people understand by
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: their individual situations?
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: So the bpquiz.com, it's a short quiz and it just
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: really helps you identify which of the top three causes
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: of high blood pressure you're struggling with the most. So
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: we talked about sodium and we talked about stress. The
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: third one is sugar. So if you're diabetic, pre-diabetic, there's
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: a connection to high blood pressure there as well. And
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: so it just helps you identify which of those three.
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: And we've also put together a challenge and it's there
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: on that website as well. where for seven days, we
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: are helping you walk through some of these causes and
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: simple things to reverse them. So Change My Life Challenge
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: is what that is called. Amazing.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: And where can people take this quiz and learn about
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: the assessment?
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, bpquiz.com, bpquiz.com. And you can always see it on
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: my social media as well. BraveWorksRN, I'm on Facebook, TikTok,
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: and YouTube.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: It's amazing. So someone just finished this episode and they
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: feel like their blood pressure is starting to creep up
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: and they're concerned. Can you give them some simple tips
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: on what they can start doing today and how to
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: slowly start changing their habits?
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely. We talked about walking.
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: If you do a morning walk every day, your blood
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: pressure is going to thank you. If you do the
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: big breakfast instead of the big supper, your blood pressure
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: is going to thank you again. So if you just
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: do those two things, you're going to see a big
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: shift in a matter of days.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: Amazing. I love that. Well, thank you so much for
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: showing up today and for giving us all this amazing information.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: Do you have any last minute thoughts you want to
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: share with the audience?
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I really want to help you understand that health
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: is simple. Health is easy to implement. If it's complicated,
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: if it's expensive, you need to avoid it because those
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: are things that are not really getting to the root cause.
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: And so Learn to view health, this health journey in
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: a very simple and easy to implement manner.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: That's great advice. Yeah, there's no such thing as quick
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: fixes out there, which is a lot of people or
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: a lot of companies are trying to sell that concept
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: to people. And that can be incredibly deceptive in a
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: lot of ways because it does take a while to
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: get things back on track. But when you feel good,
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: it's great. Yeah.
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. Well, thanks again, Joel. This has been
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: so much fun. And I want to thank our audience
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: also for tuning in. Remember that blood pressure isn't something
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: to be afraid of. It is literally just information. So
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: today's conversation is a reminder that you don't have to
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: wait until something goes wrong to start paying attention to
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: your cardiovascular health. So know your numbers, know the risk factors,
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: and pay attention to the patterns and the lifestyle that
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: you are living. So if you'd like to learn more
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: about Joel's approach, please visit bpquiz.com and take his blood
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: pressure assessment. And if you've enjoyed this episode and you
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: feel like it could benefit someone else, please send it
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: to them and help them get a hold of their
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: health as well. Stay tuned for the next episode, everyone.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: Bye for now.
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: Bye-bye.