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Christa Elza: [00:00:00] also important to understand what is normal for you. And if all of a sudden I'm running 120 over 80, I know for me, that's high, what has shifted, what has changed. And I think, you know, going over at least a starting point of these four buckets, how has my sleep been?
What's my stress level right now? What's my chronic caffeine intake daily. And where do I stand in terms of glucose regulation and insulin resistance, which can be looked at in your blood work. This is a great place to start when you've noticed a shift in your own regular blood pressure, right, or anything over 120, 80,
Welcome to the wild and well, a collective podcast where we believe empowered health is your superpower. We have combined our expertise in medicine and nutrition to bring you the latest research expert insights and success stories of people on a mission to live a big life. So buckle up and get ready to learn how to live wildly [00:01:00] well.
Christa Elza: All right, welcome back to another episode of the wild and well collective and today. Let's talk that's something that affects a lot of people and a wide variety of ages and that
is high blood pressure or
Christa Elza: hypertension. And I wanted to have this conversation because, it can be something that we need to pay attention to younger than maybe you think you need to be paying attention to it.
So I would definitely recommend. Frequently checking your blood pressure, starting even in your 30s, making sure that you have touch points along the way to ensure that your blood pressure is still within a normal range. normal healthy range would be 120 over 80. So anything above that you want to address with your provider today, we're going to talk about 4 main topics for me, but that's where we can have some control how we can reduce our hypertension and risk.
Throughout our [00:02:00] lives, and it's important to start to look at these things long before it becomes an issue, right? It's much easier to prevent problems and to cure problems or to go backwards. So, sure, let's I know that you have some points to
make around sleep. So
Christa Elza: let's start with that 1st topic.
Which is sleep and, how does that affect the blood pressure?
Sheree Beaumont: Yeah, this is a really interesting perspective to look at because some of the data really shows we're not just, I think a lot of people think more sleep is better. Right. And when we understand that something like blood pressure, the hypertension, it's commonly termed the silent killer.
And if we think about that from a sleep perspective, that's something that quite often gets swept under the rug is not being a priority. And a lot of us know the detriment of having. Not enough sleep. And the research has really supported that. Yes, insufficient sleep, getting less than five hours a night is going to negatively impact your blood pressure and drive up that hypertensive state.
[00:03:00] However, we've also seen in the research and the literature that Excessive sleep. So upwards of nine hours is going to drive up that hypertensive state. And so what this is telling us is that we really want to be sitting in that ideal optimal range, which you probably heard and feel like it's done to dip that seven to nine hours, right?
Because otherwise we're going to have that increased risk of higher blood pressure levels. So it's the adequate sleep, the sleep that your body is getting used to, the circadian rhythm set up, that's really going to support your blood pressure and being at that stable level. And then when we look at sleep from I sleep apnea side of things as well.
So we're not just looking at the quantity of sleep here. We're looking at the quality of sleep. And just as a caveat, none of this is replacing medical advice. I just feel like I should put that out there. But if you ask someone who has. Diagnosed with sleep apnea. It's something you want to get on top of straight away because the quality of sleep is really going to be driving up whether or not your body can regulate your blood pressure effectively.[00:04:00]
If we are snoring, if we are having have, if we have been diagnosed with that condition, you are more likely to be in a hypertensive state. So when it comes to sleep, you're looking at that seven to nine hours.
Christa Elza: yeah, I do find that interesting that too much sleep can contribute to health problems as well.
And really our body is kind of Goldilocks in terms of a little, too much or too little isn't ideal, including hours of sleep. I agree because research says that, but I've seen even younger people have high blood pressure and then come to find out, yeah, they've been snoring or their partner says they, they stopped breathing.
So it's really important if you suspect that to get asleep. Study done. Another thing, the second kind of bucket that I want to address is what can affect sleep as well, but it's stress. So chronic stress, emotional stress, physical stress, whatever, has been a significant factor in studies regarding blood pressure.
Because if you think about any kind of stress, whether it's traffic whether it's a deadline, [00:05:00] whether it's relationship issues, it. Puts our mind in that primal state that fight or flight and part of the fight or flight is to service in an emergency and in those emergencies, whether they're real or not, the, pupils dilate and we construct our blood vessels.
So, if you're constantly. Dealing with inner turmoil, the stress, your body is responding to that and that can lead to hypertension. So, it's important to understand that. It's also important to understand that sometimes stress. Leads to unhealthy coping mechanisms, so yes, there's a physical response, but then sometimes when we're feeling stressed out about things, what do we do?
We drink more alcohol. We eat higher process, salty foods, sugary foods. Maybe we're drinking. More caffeine because we're not sleeping well. Maybe we're picking up smoking vaping again. There's all sorts of things that we do in response to not feeling comfortable. And so those can also [00:06:00] exacerbate blood pressure issues.
So, getting to the root of that would be man's distress. And so bringing in, and we talk about this a ton. Because it is so pivotal is getting into that rest and digest more often during your day, using some meditation, even if it's 10 minutes, doing some of the deeper breaths, those belly breaths when you're feeling stressed while you're driving, really tapping into that deep relaxation, sometimes just moving your body exercise can be really helpful to to relieve stress.
So whatever works for you. Studies have shown that people who have high blood pressure. Part of the reason can be surrounded by perceived stress. So, it's a big bucket that I think a lot of us need to dive into and explore and you want to address this early in life because these habits follow you, right?
So stress is definitely a big one.
Sheree Beaumont: And on the topic of stress, many people will know that I refer to a cup of coffee as a cup of cortisol, right? And so the next point we want to bring in is really around caffeine [00:07:00] consumption. Now, again, much like the sleep, the literature around this was quite interesting.
It's not the typical understanding of what we might think when we think about the fact that yes, but caffeine can pop us into that stressed state or that move us out of that rest and digest. What the studies have shown is that it's more. Prominent for it to cause a higher risk of hypertension if you are in a regular caffeine consumer.
So if you're actually someone that has your cup of coffee cup of joe first thing in the morning, Hopefully not first thing in the morning once a day And your body is used to it. You're not overly sensitive or hypersensitive to caffeine You're actually at far less risk of having that hypertension develop as a result of caffeine consumption versus someone who will just take it ad lib and or maybe you're really oversensitive or overstimulated by it.
So when we've seen the regular consumption, it's actually a short term rise of that blood pressure because your body does pop into that fight or flight state, but it's not sustained. It's not increasing that risk [00:08:00] over time. It's not this cumulative effect. And I think that that's really empowering to know.
Because we want to make sure we're doing the things to reduce the risk and sometimes we can stay away from things even, and I'm curious, Krista, just to throw one out there, but the idea around salt and how that can, like, people are a little bit worried or concerned about blood pressure. Too much salt.
Yet there's been a lot of research for and against that. So we can touch on that a little bit, but just bringing this awareness to yourself. If you're not a regular caffeine consumer, being mindful that when you do noticing, do you get the shakes? Do you get overwhelmed? Do you feel more sensitive?
Do you feel, cause you will in your body, your blood pressure rise. You will feel a little bit more. On edge versus someone who maybe consumes it or isn't overly sensitive or is a fast metabolizer of caffeine and doesn't really notice those shaky effects.
Christa Elza: I think it's caffeine is a good point to make to for again, like you said, it's going to have a higher effect on someone who doesn't drink it often.
So younger people, maybe teenagers who don't [00:09:00] typically they're not drinking coffee yet. But then 1 day, they're slamming these monsters. Drink with 200 milligrams of caffeine out of nowhere, you might experience more of that sounds like that more of that blood pressure intense, more of that constriction than somebody who drinks a cup of coffee every single day.
Right? So it is. Yeah, it's something to keep in mind. If you don't regularly do it, you're probably going to be. More sensitive to it. You mentioned sodium and it's an interesting thing. So basically our kidneys are one of our organs that help regulate blood pressure. And our kidneys are amazing.
They basically dump everything and then they just bring back in the nutrients that we need highly regulated by. Electrolyte balancing, so yes, sodium pyrosodium can play a role in those who are sensitive to that. It can cause more of that basic constriction. It can cause the kidney to regulate blood pressure in that way.
[00:10:00] But 1 element that's really left out is Potassium so. Potassium is often not talked about, and we will talk about like , reduce sodium, but what can balance sodium is potassium.
So interestingly, if you add more potassium rich foods, even to a potassium supplement, obviously you need to talk to your provider about that, but a smaller amount of potassium, you don't need a prescription level of that, presumably, but increasing potassium overall can help balance out that potassium sodium.
Pump and that can help to regulate your blood pressure as well. So that's kind of an interesting side note in terms of electrolyte balance The last bucket that I wanted to touch on which is a big one and we could do an entire talk just on this But you know, I love insulin resistance and metabolic health.
So insulin resistance For those of you who don't know what that is, briefly do a high level of that. So when we eat foods, when our blood sugar rises, we release insulin from the [00:11:00] pancreas from the cells of the pancreas and insulin is kind of the lock and key to cells to open up the cell and allow glucose to enter the cell for energy production.
Glucose itself can be really damaging to cells if there's too much of it. And so it's a natural, Effect that when we have chronically high blood sugars, because we're eating, you know, carbohydrates, exercising, there's many reasons that we develop higher blood sugars, the insulin increases to kind of compensate for that and the cells don't, they kind of change the lock.
They don't allow the insulin to unlock it and allow glucose in. and so, You know, the body just keeps producing more and more insulin. And so eventually we develop something called diabetes type two, and that's where the cells of the pancreas just really kind of shut down production of that insulin.
But before that happens, we have insulin resistance, and that can be linked to blood pressure. It's often. precursor to this whole trifecta of this ease. So, the other thing about insulin, [00:12:00] when we have a high amount of it, it starts to impede nitric oxide and nitric oxide is natural in our body. nitric oxide expands our blood vessels.
So now we've got a couple of problems. We've got this insulin. Resistance developing that's creating all sorts of issues in our blood vessels, and now we've got lower nitrous nitric oxide, and so we don't have good expansion in the cardiovascular system. So that's another way that poor blood sugar regulation can lead to higher blood pressure.
the key to this one is, you know, and typically people who have higher blood sugars. are not eating appropriate. So they're eating a higher sodium diet, which can be contributing. But then also, you know, higher carbohydrates, simple carbs, breads, pastas, cookies, cakes, sodas, all of those things for keeping the blood sugar regulated.
So then the, you know, managing it would be addressing what am I doing in my lifestyle? That's keeping my blood sugars [00:13:00] high. Am I eating whole foods? Am I moving my body and my muscles? If not, let's start there because those things are contributing. in multiple avenues to increase blood pressure part of the broader spectrum of what we call metabolic syndrome is going to be high blood pressure.
It's going to be truncal obesity. So weight gain in the midsection, you're going to have higher triglycerides on your labs and lower HDL, which is good cholesterol. So blood pressure plays a piece in kind of that trifecta. And so it's important to be monitoring not only your blood work, But also your blood pressure, I would say going and having a blood pressure check, if especially as you hit mid thirties and beyond, because naturally our blood pressure tends to rise as we age due to less flexibility in our blood vessels.
Changes, sex hormone changes, all of that can contribute. So it's really important. Like you said, you mentioned earlier, the silent killer. A lot of times it's because if people aren't going for their yearly checkup [00:14:00] or if they're not going to the dentist regularly, typically they'll check it there too.
And the reason they check that is in part because it's a good practice to kind of have a check in and make sure. Where's my blood pressure at? Because you don't always feel that there's been a change. So, you want to know, make sure that you're staying around 120 over 80, in addition to checking other labs.
So when you understand that and how, you know, interacting with comprehensive blood pressure as well as blood labs together can give you a full picture on a yearly basis to make, you know, just to keep track of your overall health.
Sheree Beaumont: I think it's so interesting. And what I'm loving about this is that now there is research like, yes, there's this silent killer idea, but now we are seeing that there are labs that are associated with it and we are being a little bit more onto it.
And part of this is taking personal responsibility for your health and going and getting your labs tested and getting your blood pressure taken regularly. Like you say, it only has to be probably once a year, at least for someone who's on medication for it already. One of the things I did want to bring in [00:15:00] is I know we talked a little bit about the sodium and I think there's a lot of fear around the sodium but if you're someone who's highly active and we start to reduce your sodium too much, you're also going to throw things out of balance with your blood pressure too.
And on the flip side of hypertension, I'm someone who has really low blood pressure, like mine 60. like, I actually have to have extra sodium in my life. I actually, the amount that I train, I need to be putting that sort of thing into my diet. That's why I have electrolytes every single morning.
Understanding your body, I think, is one of the key messages here. Just like when we looked at the caffeine. Are we someone that drinks it regularly and then we're probably not going to get those negative, associations with it? Or is it sporadic and you've got to be a little bit more mindful? Are you someone that is sleeping, Way more on some days and way less on other days trying to catch up, but understanding now that that's probably driving up your risk. are you someone going for having a lot more stress? Like Chris has mentioned, there are so many factors to this that that needs to be considered. it does come to come back to taking [00:16:00] personal ownership and personal understanding that if you are too high, too low, somewhere in between, are you maintaining that really good balance?
Christa Elza: Yeah, I'm the same way. I tend to be in the nineties over sixties. it's also important to understand what is normal for you. And if all of a sudden I'm running 120 over 80, I know for me, that's high, what has shifted, what has changed. And I think, you know, going over at least a starting point of these four buckets, how has my sleep been?
What's my stress level right now? What's my chronic caffeine intake daily. And where do I stand in terms of glucose regulation and insulin resistance, which can be looked at in your blood work. This is a great place to start when you've noticed a shift in your own regular blood pressure, right, or anything over 120, 80, if, if that becomes the year norm.
So I think it's just important to understand that each of these factors. has a unique control point, right? So these are four different levers that you can be pulling [00:17:00] actively to help maintain a healthy blood pressure because, you know, once you hit a hypertensive state, and sometimes this can be genetic too, so don't beat yourself up if there's a genetic factor going on here, there's multiple reasons.
Which is why it's important to have a practitioner that can really help guide kind of maybe what's driving this. But regardless, you still have some control over looking at these lifestyle factors and just being aware and empowered in this information. And again, just being, just being aware of what your normal is, any shift in normal needs to be addressed.
And the sooner we do this, the better, right? So if we're starting to address this in our 30s. Then we're gonna, we're far less likely to have, , cardiovascular problems in our fifties and sixties if we're monitoring blood work and blood pressure regularly throughout those decades.
Sheree Beaumont: I love that. Great little takeaways there.
Hopefully people have got some insight into if anything, they're just going to go and get their blood pressure tested. So they know what their normal is. and now like you said, you've got those levers to [00:18:00] pull. hopefully you found that helpful and we look forward to seeing you again in the next episode.
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