Weight a Primary Factor For High Blood Pressure

"A person’s weight has more bearing on his predisposition to developing high blood pressure than his current fitness level, Texas study says."

Weight a Primary Factor For High Blood Pressure, Experts Say

In a new study from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, researchers established a concrete link between a person’s weight and the incidence of high blood pressure.

It appears that exercising is not enough to keep blood pressure down, because according to Susan Lakoski, MD, obese or overweight individuals are still at high risk for hypertension if they do not get their weight down, despite of their continued efforts at being physically fit.

What does this mean? According to the researchers, the main target when you want to lower your blood pressure is to get your weight down with your best efforts.

It’s not enough that you get some minutes of exercise per week, though this has not been discredit. What the researchers are saying is that you have exert every healthy effort to keep your weight down and keep it from going up.

Weight, according to the Texas study, takes precedence to physical activity when it comes to determining the risk for developing high blood pressure. According to the CDCP, nearly 1/3 of all adult Americans suffer from high blood pressure.

Half of those who suffer from high blood pressure are within the 55+ years range, which means more and more of our seniors are at greater risk of suffering from stroke, coronary heart disease and other dangerous medical conditions.

According to the study’s data, it appears that only the people within the normal weight range experience palpable blood pressure benefits when they exercised.

The bottom line? People should focus on getting their weight within the normal range and start moving. Because obesity and a sedentary lifestyle can increase mortality and risk for many negative health conditions, including heart problems.

Natural ways to keep your blood pressure down

If you have high blood pressure, follow these guidelines to naturally keep your blood pressure down:

1. It would do your heart a world of good if you quit smoking today – because cigarettes have been proven to contribute to the development of hypertension in both men and women.

2. If you are presently overweight, cut down on fatty foods and start exercising to lose the extra pounds.

3. Exercise 30 to 40 minutes everyday. Experts recommend 150 minutes of exercise for both men and women for general wellness. Regular exercise is also a general preventive for many diseases and negative health conditions.

4. Cut down on your coffee intake, as caffeine has been shown to increase blood pressure. Limit your intake of regular coffee to 1 to 2 cups per day to reduce your caffeine load. Substitutes to coffee like green tea are a good idea, because green tea only has half of the caffeine content of regular coffee.

5. Reduce your salt intake, because sodium directly increases a person’s blood pressure. More than 2,300 milligrams of the stuff per day can cause your blood pressure to spike.

6. Control your stress level, because stress can cause hypertension and can also affect your mental health in the long term. Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, yoga, stretching, meditation and aromatherapy are options that you can explore when it comes to de-stressing.

7. Natural supplements like fish oil, garlic, hawthorn and folic acid have been known to reduce oxidative stress of the heart and the other organs in the body, which may help in your overall effort to reduce your blood pressure. Coenzyme Q10 or Co-Q10 has also shown great promise when it comes to protecting the heart and reducing a person’s blood pressure.

Technorati Tags: high blood pressure, excess weight, weight and high blood pressure, exercise, hawthorn, coenzyme Q10, fish oil, folic acid

Is This the Biggest Medical Breakthrough Since the Discovery of Antibiotics?

Imagine, grapes being our best friend. Harvarde researchers are saying that resveratrol which helps keep your blood pressure in the normal range, helps your heart health and better controls the aging process. Read on....

Purple Defense | Resveratrol, Antioxidant Source

Some Harvard-educated researchers believe they’ve discovered a proverbial ‘fountain of youth’.*

They’re talking about resveratrol, calling it a miracle ingredient, and the greatest discovery since antibiotics.*

Resveratrol is a compound found in the skin and seeds of grapes.

Researchers have been mystified for years about how the French can smoke cigarettes and eat high-fat foods, yet still have extremely low rates of cancer and heart disease. They call it the French paradox.

Harvard researchers Dr. Christoph Westphal and David Sinclair conducted genetic research to investigate the French paradox.

Until now, scientists believed drinking red wine had health benefits*… but couldn’t put their finger on exactly why.

Now they believe the resveratrol in wine activates cells into behaving more youth-like in a number of ways.*

The biggest hurdle with resveratrol is finding a way to consume the large concentrations required to provide you with a benefit. You’d need several bottles of wine per day to get the anticipated benefit from resveratrol. Drinking large amounts of wine or other alcoholic beverages will increase your insulin levels, which will eventually have a negative impact on your health in a number of ways.

I’ll tell you in a minute how you can get your highly-concentrated resveratrol without the alcohol, sugars and calories of red wine.

But first, let’s discuss how to control your free radical levels…
Neutralizing the Free Radical Threat

Every day of your life you face exposure to dangerous free radicals. No matter how healthy a lifestyle you lead or how healthy your diet is, this is simply a fact of life.

Fortunately this is not all bad – as your normal bodily functions (breathing, metabolism, and physical activity) naturally generate free radicals. Your immune system also generates free radicals to help neutralize viruses and bacteria.

But some free radicals are the result of environmental factors such as pollution, radiation, pesticides, and cigarette smoking.

The problem starts when these free radicals attack your healthy cells and cause them to weaken and become more susceptible to health disorders. Plus, this can also have a profound effect on how you age.

Read more here.

Technorati Tags: resveratrol, grapes, heart health, blood pressure, aging, free radicals, antioxidants, polyphenols, quercetin

New Warning About Excessive "Agent Orange" Toxin in Baby Formula and Breast Milk

How sad! Our biggest source of exposure to dioxin is through meat, dairy products and seafood. Dr. Mercola recommends cutting out virtually all seafood unless you can verify that is very low in contaminants! Yikes! What have we done to our earth!! For one thing, don't use chemical cleaners in your house, especially bleach. I will blog on this soon.

New Warning About Excessive “Agent Orange” Toxin in Baby Formula and Breast Milk…

The Environmental Protection Agency has held public hearings to review a proposed safe exposure limit for dioxin, a known carcinogen and endocrine disruptor.

Dioxin is nearly impossible to avoid, as women exposed to it pass it on to fetuses in the womb, and both breast milk and formula have been shown to contain it.

Research done has shown that a nursing infant ingests an amount 77 times higher than what the EPA has proposed as safe exposure. Adults are exposed to 1,200 times more dioxin than the EPA suggests is safe.

According to Inhabitots:

"Because dioxin is such a common pollutant -- it's a waste product of incineration, smelting, chlorine bleaching and pesticides manufacturing -- its health effects are well documented ...

Studies have shown that ongoing low-level exposure can result in heart disease, diabetes, cancer, endometriosis, early menopause and reduced testosterone and thyroid hormones."

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Dioxin, which was a toxic component of the Agent Orange used to defoliate jungles during the Vietnam War, is easily one of the most dangerous chemicals known to man.

In the United States, chlorinated dioxins form as a byproduct of industry, particularly smelting, chlorine paper bleaching and pesticide manufacturing, as well as through waste incineration. The chemical is pretty much everywhere in the environment, and because it breaks down very slowly it easily accumulates in the food chain, where it’s especially prominent in animal fat.

Meat, dairy products, fish and shellfish are all common routes of exposure for adults, and even unborn babies are exposed to the chemical while still in the womb. Dioxin also exists in breast milk and formula, which means infants are not only born with dioxin in their bodies, but continue to receive a steady supply of it after birth.

Infants, Adults Ingesting Far More Dioxin than Safe

Ingesting any dioxin at all is far from “safe,” but the amounts infants are being exposed to daily is even higher than the level the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set for endocrine and immune system safety -- 77 times higher at that, according to Environmental Working Group (EWG) research.

Since food is currently the primary route of exposure to dioxin for most, and children eat more food, pound-per-pound, compared to adults, experts say children aged 1-10 get the highest dietary exposures.

Further, the general public is exposed to up to 1,200 times more dioxin than the EPA says is safe on a daily basis, according to EWG. In an EWG letter to the EPA Science Advisory Board, it was even noted that “a 130-pound adult who eats a cheeseburger and drinks a glass of milk can consume a third of EPA’s proposed safe daily dose of dioxin and dioxin-like compounds… ”

EPA safety limits for dioxin, meanwhile, have been in the works for nearly 30 years but have been pushed back time and time again due to chemical and defense industry pressure. It’s been so long since the EPA’s initial safety limit proposal that EWG believes the levels need to be tightened even more, given the increasing evidence that dioxin is more dangerous than scientists initially thought.

In July, the EPA finally met to discuss issues related to dioxin toxicity, and public comments on the EPA’s proposal are being accepted until September 20.

Read more here.