High blood pressure and longevity.

0:00 Speaker 1 Well, it’s Sunday. What’s every Sunday. We have doctor Peter me hellos and live long and prosper and we’re trying to live long and prosper by following some good advice. Well, doctor Peter, what’s your advice for this week?

0:17 Speaker 2 Well, good morning, John, and good morning to the Cat’s around Table audience today. It’s a very important topic and what many people call the silent killer, and that’s high blood pressure. And we need blood pressure because we need to circulate our blood around the body. And we talk about with our doctors the two readings. One is called

0:36 the systolic blood pressure, and that’s when your heart is actually contracting and pumping, because it’s really a big pump. And at that point when it’s contracting, that’s the systolic, or the top number. When the blood is being pushed out of the heart. The resting pressure that’s maintained inside your blood system is called the diastolic, and that’s the

0:56 resting pressure. The problem is that pressure can either be too high or too low. If your blood pressure goes too high there can be issues with that, or too low you can actually think because you don’t have enough perfusion to the brain, because we know that the brain uses for the size, It uses the most oxygen of

1:16 any organ other than the heart for its size. Now, what happens with high blood pressure is when it goes too high, the tiny vessels in our system they can’t take it anymore and say, I can’t take it anymore, and they start narrowing and they appear narrow, and when they’re narrow, they don’t deliver as much blood supply nutrition,

1:37 and that happens to the brain, and that’s why it’s now well documented that people who have high chronic high blood pressure have a much higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Other organs are also very sensitive to blood pressure in One of the organs particularly involved in blood pressure regulation is the kidney, and when the kidney experiences very high

1:59 blood pressure, the tiny little filtering systems go nephrons. They can’t take it anymore, and they start getting scarring and damage. The blood pressure can also knock out our kidneys if it’s not controlled. The other thing is the heart. When it’s pumping against such great resistance with high blood pressure, it gets tired and overburden and it actually starts enlarging.

2:21 That’s called hypertrophy of the heart muscle. So that’s why when people do an X ray and they see someone’s heart is enlarged, they say, oh, this person might have high blood pressure because their heart is working too hard. Now, some of the things that before you end up having to take blood pressure medicine. Some of the things that

2:40 help lower blood pressure are, of course we know, losing weight, and of course moderate exercise, because think about your blood vessels. If you’re sedentary and they don’t move, they’re like leaving if you leave an oily dish or dirt inside your sink.

2:56 What happens the oil hardens on the plate if you don’t wash it right away. Happens in our arteries. That hardening up the artery, your vessels get stiff, so your blood pressure is higher. Blood vessels actually have muscle in the wall and they can open and close. So when you even do a little bit of exercise, take a

3:12 little brisk walk, walk on a treadmill, try swimming a little bit, it causes your blood vessels to dilate and contract and move. So when we keep our blood vessels moving, even with some moderate exercise, even if it’s ten minutes a day, that helps control blood pressure because it keeps those blood vessels moving. Some of the natural things that

3:31 can help lower blood pressure are things like basic magnesium, Like for example, I take magnesium glyconate sometimes at night because it actually helps you sleep, but it also lowers blood pressure. Another thing that can lower blood pressure is beats and beat root. There’s actually some supplements that have beat root and they are also natural vasodilators because when

3:55 the blood vessel dilates, it also brings down blood pressure. Thing else that people take, of course, always consult with your physician before you’re doing it. There’s a natural plant like substance root called ashwaganda and it helps you to relax, and people take it at night. It helps them sleep at night and helps them relax and their blood pressure

4:15 goes down. Then, of course you have medications that also affect high blood pressure, and some of them are called ACE inhibitors. They through the kidney help to bring down blood pressure. Then there’s something called beta blockers, which have a few more side effects. They slow the heart rate down, so when you slow the pump down, that also lowers

4:36 blood pressure. If you have too much salt in your body, guess what you have to draw more fluid inside your blood vessel, so that raises the pressure. That’s why too much salt can also you.

4:49 Speaker 1 Eat the Chinese food with all that salt and whatever else they put in it, that you end up bloating a little bit.

4:57 Speaker 2 Yeah, and the MSG preservatives and you feel right away because we’re not designed to have that high concentration. Because now with the highly processed foods, which is going to be something that we’re going to be hearing a lot about the next couple of years. With the processed foods, they contain a lot of salt. Because salt sometimes makes

5:16 things more appetizing, whether it’s potato chips or pouring salt on French fries. You go to a fast food restaurant. At the end, you see that little shaker they pour that little salt on and sometimes a little hint of sugar, and that’s what makes those fast food French fries so delicious.

5:31 But those over time raise blood pressure, so blood pressure we should be checking in our own The blood pressure machines are relatively inexpensive. Now. The machines that are best are the ones that they intel a sense on them and they can actually do it automatically, so you can get a blood pressure eating and you write it down

5:52 and keep a log and show your doctor. You can even write down what you’re eating and you can see a pattern that after I ate this salty meal or salty fish, or I went out to eat because restaurants tend to put more salt. You can see the pattern of your blood pressure and you can learn to better

6:07 control it, and you can discuss some of these natural things that we talked about, and also checking your blood work because we now know that keeping your potassium levels normal potassium is also an important thing for controlling blood pressure.

6:21 Keeping normal potassium levels.

6:23 Speaker 1 And potassium is very important. Magnesium is very important.

6:30 Speaker 2 Yeah, beat beat, beats are very important.

6:34 Speaker 1 Beats are very important for blood pressure.

6:37 Speaker 2 Yeap very important. And of course the Mediterranean diet in the pure form farm to table doesn’t have all the extra added extra salt and a lot of artificial sweeteners too. When you get your blood sugar rising, you also draw more fluid into your bloodstream and your blood and your blood pressure tends to go up. That’s why we’re going

6:59 to hear a lot about high brook those corn syrup and the problems associated with that. Since that was introduced into the American diet and how they don’t allow it in some countries and they limit it severely in other countries where they have a better lifespan and health span.

7:16 So the bottom line is that for longevity, you want to be aware of your blood pressure and you should start checking it when you get into your thirties because sometimes it’s familiar, it runs in families, and you want to be careful. And you also the men who do hormones and steroids and testosterone in their lives, those things

7:34 and the bodybuilders to do anabolic steroids. Guess what, those things also raise blood pressure. So controlling blood pressure is very important for longevity to live long and prosper And keep listening to WABC for more health tips on longevity.

7:50 Speaker 1 Well, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, Dr Mihllos, And next time I heard a lot of our friends have high autionic rates because of this certain foods you’re eating. Maybe we’ll talk about it sometime in the future.

8:05 Speaker 2 Yes, we will talk about the various foods and I’ll just give a little teaser. One of them happens to be rice. So we have to be careful in moderation and our food chain is very important that’s been infiltrated with heavy metals, plastics, hormones, antibiotics, and all these things need to be addressed so we can have a healthier America,

8:26 stronger America, and we can have health span not only like span.

8:32 Speaker 1 God bless you, God bless America. Thank you so much, doctor Meflows, live.

8:36 Speaker 2 Long and prosper Thanks for always getting the truth out on the CATS round Table.