blood pressure

Restoring the Temple – Blood Pressure

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Question:

I have been told that I have high blood pressure. What is high blood pressure, and what is normal blood pressure? —jb, washington

Answer:

You may have noticed that if you force the same amount of water through hoses of different diameters, the water comes out with different forces. Water flowing ten gallons per minute through a 5/8-inch hose will eject with greater force than the same amount of water flowing through a 1-inch hose. It is the same in your body. Many complex factors determine the level of blood pressure, but essentially it is dependent upon the diameter of the vessel (artery or vein) and the volume and force of the fluid (blood) flowing through it.

Since we always have blood in our vessels while we are living, we always have blood pressure. Blood pressure needs to be at a certain level to keep us alive and healthy. With too little pressure, the life-bearing components of blood cannot cross or perfuse through the blood vessel walls. Too much pressure causes damage to blood vessels in the entire body and affects many organs, which can lead to problems such as kidney disease, eye disease, or stroke. Ellen White experienced the effects of high blood pressure, which made her incapable of writing for several days. This episode is recorded in Testimonies, vol. 1, 577.

Scholars credit Galen, a Greek physician born in 130 a.d., as the one who first proposed the existence of blood. However, the first mention of blood in the Bible is in Genesis 4:10 when Cain killed Abel. Galen believed that the heart actually made blood. It was not understood until about 1616 that the heart was a pump that circulated blood. In 1733, Stephen Hales, a British veterinarian, was the first to measure blood pressure by inserting a tube into the artery of a horse and noting the level of the blood in the glass. Fortunately, blood pressure measurement has become a lot easier and less painful. Samuel von Bosch invented the first sphygmomanometer, or blood pressure-measuring device, in 1881. It was improved by the early 1900s to what we know today as the blood pressure cuff.

When getting your blood pressure checked, you will have noted that there are two numbers. The measurement of 120/80 (mm Hg) is considered to be normal blood pressure. The first or top number is a measurement of systolic blood pressure. This is the maximum pressure in your arteries, which occurs when your heart contracts. The second or bottom number is a measurement of diastolic blood pressure. This reflects the lowest pressure in your arteries, which occurs when your heart is at rest between beats.

High blood pressure, called hypertension, is generally thought to begin at 140/90. Primary hypertension means that no obvious cause can be found. Secondary hypertension is caused by another health problem, such as kidney or hormonal disease. There are several risk factors for hypertension. “Risk factor” is a term that means that certain groups of people have the problem more than others. Medical studies have shown that one risk factor is age. Newborns can have levels as low as 50/40, but the systolic can increase to over 200 in some elderly people. Race is another risk factor, with high blood pressure occurring more often in some races than others. Weight is a third factor; the more overweight a person is, the more likely he or she is to have high blood pressure.

Risk factors, however, can relate to lifestyle as much as, if not more than, hereditary. Just because we get old does not mean that we are doomed to hypertension. Certain populations may have more of certain diseases because they “inherit” the lifestyle of their parents. In other words, if they grew up eating diets high in meat, dairy products, and refined foods, for example, they usually continue to eat the same way as adults and teach the same diets to their children. What we truly inherit from our parents is a potential weakness in certain areas. This does not predict your future, but what it says is that if you lead an unhealthy lifestyle, you will feel the consequences, and the area that fails may be the weak one that you inherited. In some families, this is the heart; in others, it is gastrointestinal tract, and so forth.

Many people ask, “What are the symptoms of high blood pressure?” The truth is that there may not be any. This is why hypertension is called “the silent killer.” You may never realize that you have high blood pressure, but what is going on behind the scenes can be very harmful. High blood pressure makes the heart work harder, which makes the heart muscle become larger. This increases the heart’s demand for oxygen, but when the demand exceeds the supply, the heart may fail. The other problem relating to high blood pressure relates to the damage of the blood vessels. Sustained high blood pressure causes damage in the blood vessel walls, which is called atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries. These changes lead to damage in the organs that the vessels supply, such as the kidneys and the retinas of the eyes. When a person notices symptoms relating to any of these damages, it generally means that the blood pressure has been high for a long time.

Medical treatment usually entails two things: lifestyle modification and medication. Lifestyle modification is often suggested, but has not been fully examined by the field of medicine as a potential remedy of the hypertension. Lifestyle changes include reducing weight, eliminating alcohol ingestion, and modifying sodium and fat intake. Changing one’s lifestyle to fit the one given to us by the Lord in the Bible is the best effort in not only treating the symptoms of disease but in removing the cause.

Sheryle Beaudry, a certified teletriage nurse, writes from Estacada, Oregon where she lives with her husband and twin daughters. She may be contacted by e-mail at: sbeaudryrn@hotmail.com. If there is a health-related question you would like answered in LandMarks, please e-mail your question to: landmarks@stepstolife.org, or mail it to: LandMarks, Steps to Life, P. O. Box 782828, Wichita, KS 67278.

Food for Life – Lowering your Blood Pressure

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This month we will review lifestyle changes or treatment remedies that will be helpful in lowering your blood pressure:

  1. Low salt diet: Be aware that salt added to prepared food is only a part of the problem. The greater problem is foods that are high in sodium, especially processed foods.
  2. Decrease your weight to that recommended for your height by eliminating all snacks, drinking only water between meals, eating a good breakfast and a moderate lunch, and eliminating the evening meal or only having whole fruit. Eliminate or greatly reduce refined sugar and free fats or fatty foods in the diet. Eliminate all animal products from your diet. Increase foods high in fiber.
  3. Abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine. All three of these raise blood pressure and should be totally avoided.
  4. Beginning moderate, daily, aerobic exercise—exercise that calls into play the heart and lungs—can significantly lower blood pressure. Healthful exercise usually occurs when you are exercising such that you can talk and exercise at the same time. If you are over 35 years of age and have not been exercising, be sure to consult your physician before beginning an exercise program.
  5. Life stresses can raise blood pressure. External pressures that confront us and our internal reactions to those stresses are both important. Good stress coping mechanisms should be adopted for improved blood pressure.
  6. Diet is also important in lowering blood pressure. When our food intake is high in natural foods as grown from the earth and prepared with as few additives as possible, blood pressure can be lowered. A diet high in fiber is also very helpful in binding the absorption of cholesterol and calories.

Treatments other than lifestyle changes and drugs that have been associated with lowering blood pressure include:

  1. Consumption of foods that are high in calcium: leafy green vegetables, grains such as oatmeal, quinoa, and amaranth, lentils, dried figs, sesame seeds, and filberts.
  2. Consumption of a bowl of oatmeal each day.
  3. Consumption of garlic. A clove of garlic or two may be taken one to four times daily. To help reduce “garlic breath,” the garlic can be marinated in olive oil for a week and then taken out of the oil and consumed. Onions, because of the chemical similarities, may also help with these conditions.
  4. Consumption of grapes.
  5. Consumption of plant foods high in Omega-3 fats: flax seed, walnuts, wheat germ, green soybeans, spinach, and almonds.
  6. Consumption of lecithin: one tablespoon of lecithin granules one to three times daily.
  7. Gradual daily exposure to bright daylight sun, making sure not to get a sunburn. This “sunbath” can last up to 30 minutes on each side of your body with as much skin exposed as possible.
  8. Daily consumption of foods high in L-arginine, such as black walnuts, lima beans, red kidney beans, garbanzo beans, lentils, soybeans, and roasted pumpkin kernels.

It is our prayer that through lifestyle modification and natural treatments you will be able to lower your blood pressure and not only extend your life but improve your health and ability to work for the Lord.

Food for Life – Heart Disease and Blood Pressure, part 2

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We are continuing from last month to list lifestyle changes that can help the heart and blood pressure. First we will list food sources which are high in magnesium: nuts, dried beans (especially soy beans and peas), and whole grains. Nuts have the additional advantage of being the best sources of trace minerals, with second place going to whole grains. Although there are rare exceptions, both nuts and whole grains should be part of your diet every day.

4. Last month we mentioned the advisability of a low-fat diet. The easiest way to decrease the quantity of the fat that you eat is to become aware of those foods which are mostly fat, and decrease your intake of these foods. These foods include butter, margarine, oils, shortening, and most types of cheese—anything that feels oily or greasy. The easiest way to increase the quality of the fat that you eat is to get your fat from natural vegetable sources. Vegetable fats in general do not have the harmful effects of animal fats (two exceptions are fat derived from cocoa or chocolate and coconut). Valuable vegetable sources of fat include all types of nuts but especially walnuts, sunflower seeds and flax seeds if you are seeking unsaturated fats; almonds if you are seeking calcium and vitamin E and sesame seeds if you are seeking a high source of calcium. Avocados and especially ripe olives (not “pickled”) in addition to providing a high quality of fat are soothing to the digestive and blood purifying organs.

5. As much as possible avoid chemicals—over-the-counter drugs and medications. Many of these have adverse effects on the heart and circulatory system.

6. Drink water—at least six to eight glasses per day. “If anything is needed to quench thirst, pure water, drank some little time before or after the meal, is all that nature requires. Never take tea, coffee, beer, wine, or any spirituous liquors. Water is the best liquid possible to cleanse the tissues.” Review and Herald, July 29, 1884.

7. At least four times per week you should obtain aerobic exercise . Walking is best. Of course, if you spend a lot of time with a shovel, or hoe, or other type of physical work activity which is continuous for at least 30 minutes you are getting moderate physical activity. Notice how important this is: “The chief if not the only reason why many become invalids is that the blood does not circulate freely, and the changes in the vital fluid, which are necessary to life and health, do not take place. They have not given their bodies exercise nor their lungs food, which is pure, fresh air; therefore it is impossible for the blood to be vitalized, and it pursues its course sluggishly through the system. The more we exercise , the better will be the circulation of the blood. More people die for want of exercise than through over fatigue; very many more rust out than wear out. Those who accustom themselves to proper exercise in the open air will generally have a good and vigorous circulation. We are more dependent upon the air we breathe than upon the food we eat. Men and women, young and old, who desire health, and who would enjoy active life, should remember that they cannot have these without a good circulation. Whatever their business and inclinations, they should make up their minds to exercise in the open air as much as they can. They should feel it a religious duty to overcome the conditions of health which have kept them confined indoors, deprived of exercise in the open air.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 525, 526.

April Recipe:

Tofu Cheese Cake

16 Oz. Tofu

1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice

1 Tbsp. Vanilla

20 Oz. Can Crushed Pineapple

1 Tbsp. Agar Powder

1 Large Banana

1 1/2 Cups Date Rolls or Pieces

Blend thoroughly in your blender and pour in cashew pie crust. Bake a 300 degrees until crust is lightly browned on the sides. May be served with a topping of any seasonal fruit or your choice of berries.

The End

Food for Life – Heart Disease and Blood Pressure, part 1

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This month’s subject is heart and blood pressure. Alternative medicine has always been in the minds of many as a perfect solution to “drugging,” and its “baleful effects.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 311; Selected Messages, vol. 2, 280. The ideal agent for lowering blood pressure would be one that causes no undesirable side effects, is affordable and is easily tolerated, and actually reduces risk for serious disease of the circulatory system. At the present time no drugs are known that meet all of these criteria. Some of the side-effects of drugs for controlling blood pressure are fatigue, daytime drowsiness, dry cough, constipation, loss of sexual desire, impotence, and light-headedness, a general feeling of malaise, and sometimes depression. Some recommended lifestyle changes that often result in a lowering of blood pressure are:

1. Reduce salt intake to between 2 and 3 grams per day (about 1 teaspoon). Be cautious when buying processed foods, read the labels before you buy. Beware of food additives, preservatives, tenderizers, and food enhancers, particularly monosodium glutamate (MSG). Common processed foods that contain a high amount of sodium include: salted nuts, chips, canned vegetables, powdered and canned soups, diet soft drinks (including tonic or sparkling water), soy sauce, pickled foods, and animal products (especially cheese and processed meats).

2. Adopt a high-fiber, low-fat diet. If possible eat at least five servings of fresh fruit and vegetables each day. Such a diet will increase your levels of vitamin C, magnesium, calcium and potassium. An increased intake of calcium-rich foods such as kale or other dark greens, white navy or other dried beans, raisins, figs, sesame seeds, and almonds are advisable for many. A high potassium intake is associated with a lowered blood pressure and reduced risk of stroke as well as cardiac arrythmia, especially if you are on diuretics. Fruits, vegetables, and most grains are good sources of potassium. The concentrated vegetarian sources of potassium include: bananas, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, avocados, almonds, pecans, walnuts, peanuts, lima beans, peas, dates, greens such as cress and spinach, and whole wheat flour.

3. Many people with high blood pressure have been advised to take 200 to 400 milligrams of supplemental magnesium each day. In the future we will list common food sources high in magnesium and talk about fat and high blood pressure.

March Recipes:

Lo-Calorie Dressing (Italian)

Place in Blender:

2 cups Distilled Water

1 tsp. Sea Salt

1 1/2 cups Tomato Puree

1 Tbsp. Onion Powder

1-2 tsps. Garlic Powder

1/2 cup Lemon Juice

3 tbsps. Apple Concentrate

1 tsp. Ground Dill

3/4 tsp. Sweet Basil

3/4 tsp. Italian Seasoning

3/4 tsp. Salad Herbs

Whiz in blender on high speed until thoroughly blended.

Sun-Nut Burgers

Bring to a Boil:

1/3 cup Braggs Aminos (or substitute a beef style flavoring)

2 1/2 cups Water

Mix together:

1 Onion, Chopped

1 Clove Garlic, Minced

1/2 tsp. Italian Seasoning

1/2 cup Ground Raw Walnuts

1/2 cup Raw Sunflower Seeds

3 cups Quick Oats

Pour water and Braggs over dry mixture. Stir and let sit for about 15 minutes. Bake a 350 degrees for 20 minutes on each side.

The End