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Normalize Your Weight
If you are over weight, have diabetes, already have high blood pressure or are at risk for developing hypertension, it’s crucial to your health and longevity that you normalize your weight.
Long-established studies show that even a modest weight loss, when maintained, can reduce blood pressure long-term. The key is to keep the weight off because your blood pressure will likely go back up right along with any weight you regain.
The best way to optimize your weight and regain or improve your health is to first understand the profound influence the foods you eat have on your physiology.
Three very important things to keep in mind:
• Food is fuel. Water is clean fuel catalyst.
• You are unique in terms of the type of fuel your body needs for optimal health
• You absolutely must address insulin and leptin resistance to successfully normalize your weight
If you’re overweight or obese and want to lose some weight, you may be wondering where to start, and that’s where insulin and leptin resistance come in. Most overweight Americans have some degree of insulin and leptin resistance.
Generally, this is a metabolic dysfunction that develops as a result of consuming too many net carbohydrates (total carbs minus fiber) and/or protein. Sugars found in processed foods and grains are the primary culprits. So, to reverse this process, you need to eliminate net carbs and sugars from your diet and eat a high-quality fat, low-carbohydrate and low- to moderate-protein diet.
This can help you achieve “nutritional ketosis,” a metabolic state in which your body burns fat, rather than glucose, as its primary fuel. The key to success with a ketogenic diet high-fat diet is to eat high-quality healthy fats, not the fats most commonly found in the American diet (processed fats and vegetable oils).
To implement a ketogenic diet, the first step is to eliminate packaged, processed foods and replace them with real wholefood, plenty of fats and as few grains as possible. Healthy fats include olives and olive oil, coconut and coconut oil, animal-based omega-3 fat such as krill oil and small fatty fish like sardines and anchovies, butter from raw grass-fed milk, raw nuts such as macadamia and pecans,seeds, avocados, grass-fed meats, ghee (clarified butter) and organic pastured egg yolks.
You can learn more about a ketogenic diet and its health benefits by reading my articles here and here. Remember: One of the most important dietary recommendations is to limit net carbs (total carbohydrates minus fiber) and protein, replacing them instead with higher amounts of high-quality healthy fats.
Also helpful is intermittent fasting, which can increase your insulin and leptin sensitivity and improve ghrelin levels, which help control hunger and reduce the urge to over eat. This is NOT a form of extreme calorie restriction; rather, it’s a practice with typical fast time ranging from 14 to 18 hours.
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Learn to Manage Your Emotional Stress
The link between stress and hypertension has been well-documented for decades. Stress can even induce sodium and fluid retention, which ultimately can manifest as hypertension. Doctors and healthcare professionals committed to treating the whole person rather than a list of physical symptoms are well aware of these crucial mind-body connections.
Especially important is the link between stress and behaviors that stress can initiate or exacerbate, such as smoking, physical activity and overeating or drinking too much—all of which can lead to metabolic syndrome and heart disease.
When you are stressed—whether from an emergency situation, suppressed negative emotions such as fear, anger and sadness, an ongoing chronic stress issue or even work stress —your adrenaline levels rise and,combined with chronic bad health habits, your blood pressure can rise exponentially.
The good news is that it’s not the stressful events that are harmful, but your lack of ability to cope. Drinking water every 90 minutes is a way to relax the body and to release cellular stress. Technology does exist to quickly and effectively transform your negative emotions and relieve stress and tension.
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Managing Stress With Your Breath, Mindfulness and EFT
Clearly, stress is an inescapable part of life—but it’s important to understand that it is how you deal with. it that will determine whether it translates into hypertension or other health problems later on. The trick is to develop resilience by learning how to deal with stress.
There are many breathing techniques that can help you slow your heart rate and ultimately your blood pressure. Learning to breathe correctly can improve your over all feeling of calmness, as well as balance your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous symptoms.
Mindfulness training—which focuses on being present in the moment — is another strategy that can be very helpful. In fact, one study showed that people who participated in 10 mindfulness sessions over the course of one month experienced “significantly decreased” levels of stress, anxiety and depression.
Another study showed that blood pressure levels were effectively lowered by mindfulness-based stress reduction. Mindfulness meditation, in which you consciously focus your attention on specific thoughts or sensations, and then observe them in a non-judgmental way, is also helpful.
Last but not least, energy psychology techniques such as the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) can be very effective for targeted stress relief by helping you to reprogram your body’s reactions to the unavoidable stressos in everyday life.
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