You don’t get high blood pressure JUST because your genetics say so! Your lifestyle can control your blood pressure just as much as your genetics. An integrative approach to treating your blood pressure shouldn’t start and finish with a pharmaceutical drug. In some cases, pharmaceutical drugs can be avoided altogether if you are making the right lifestyle decisions. A comprehensive approach is essential to having optimal blood pressure. Here are my top 5 tips to address your high blood pressure.

1. Maximize your relationship with plants!
Humans and plants were created to complement one another. The vitamins, minerals antioxidants and other nutrients found in plants are your bodies first line of defense against hypertension. Healthy blood pressure requires these plant chemicals, and if you aren’t eating them, your blood pressure will eventually begin to rise. Specifically, a healthy balance of potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, zinc help to regulate your blood pressure so the more plants you’re eating, the lower your pressure will be.

2. Walk it down
The more you move, the more significant the impact will be on your pressures. The good news is that you don’t need to spend hours in the gym to see an effect. Regular moderate intensity exercise can effectively lower your pressure. Try brisk walking for 30-45 minutes per day for 4-6x per week. Walk at a pace where you could not hold a conversation without pausing every 2-3 words.

3. Relax, Relate, Release
Your blood pressure does not like it when you are upset! If you are quick-tempered, easily angered or allow others to determine your mood, your blood pressure knows it, and it will respond by rising every time your emotions do. But the real danger is what happens to your blood pressure when you are chronically upset and bothered. Unresolved life traumas, resentment, hatred, jealousy, fear and other stressors that you’ve never addressed can and will cause your blood pressure to go up and stay up. Finding ways to manage your stress will also help you manage your pressure. Some of my favorite stress reducing strategies include
§ Therapy
§ Yoga/Meditation
§ Journaling

4. Supplement your pressure
Several high-quality supplements support blood pressure. Depending on the patient, I may elect to use supplements before going straight to pharmaceuticals because you get fewer side effects and often times extra health benefits. Supplements are not a substitution for a high-quality diet; however, they can fill some gaps in your nutrition, and many can be therapeutic. Seeing a doctor with knowledge of botanicals and having labs that can determine your deficiencies can help personalize your supplement choices but in general, my favorite supplements for blood pressure include
§ High-quality multivitamin/multimineral
§ Mixed omega 3
§ Aged Garlic
§ Co-enzyme Q10
§ Alpha-lipoic acid

5. Work with a functional medicine doctor
Hypertension can be a tricky thing to treat for many people, and when blood pressure has been left untreated, complications will arise. It is vital that you are being followed by a doctor who can assess your health risk and determine how aggressive your therapy should be. For some people with very high blood pressure or who are exhibiting complications of prolonged high blood pressure such as heart or kidney disease, may need to start their treatment with a pharmaceutical drug while working on other lifestyle factors. Functional medicine doctors also incorporate various advanced testing and strategies to help you identify possible root causes of your high blood pressure. High blood pressure is usually not a single disease, but a response to other imbalances in your body, so identifying the root cause is vital to attaining optimal health.

The most important thing to remember is to not let your blood pressure go untreated. Each person is different, and a personalized, integrated approach is the best. To get more information about Peoples Functional Medicine, go to drnicolepeoples.com and schedule your free discovery call to see if The Peoples Life is right for you!