How To Lower Your Blood Pressure (Cardiologist Explains)

do you have high blood pressure we're going to talk about how to lower your blood pressure and why it matters welcome to talking with docs I'm Dr Bradman and I'm Dr Paul zzza and I'm Dr Mike Hein off the top Mike I'm loving the scrubs thank you I I had to my game there we go old school gone a little Mash little Hawkeye y yeah little goatee yeah this member member Dr heon is a cardiologist has been on here before a lot of our viewers um have appreciated his content in the past and today we're going to revisit some blood pressure conversations that we've kind of had before and add a few other things mostly about how what you can do at home to lower your blood pressure to reduce your risk of its many many potentially silent consequences yeah we made a video about blood pressure you guys left some great comments uh which kind of inspired us to have a good cardiologist back on the show to discuss lifestyle things you can change in order to lower your blood pressure great because you know the last time we talked it was more kind of what's high blood pressure the medic that we use commonly to reduce the blood pressure um but we can spend a little bit more time talking about the lifestyle things that we can all do at home right to lower our just to remind everybody um why is high blood pressure bad for you so high blood pressure is bad because it increases the risk of heart attack stroke and death and so you can't generally feel your high blood pressure that's called the silent killer for a reason um and then and we like to have a number for most individuals of about 120 over 80 okay and so and people get confused about those numbers so what's the 120 so the 120 is the driving force of blood pressure it's like if you've got your garden hose at home and you just open up the faucet that's the force that just kind of flies out um and and goes in our body to provide blood to all our organs and the second number the 80 number is kind of what's the kind of the resting pressure that just kind of sits in the system all the time and so 120 over 80 and so is said are magic to that number and and the answer is not really um we've had large population studies uh that were done primarily in the United States so uh the Framingham study is from a small little town outside Boston they've been studying these people for 50 years plus and they found that patients that had blood pressures of around 120 over 80 tended to do better less heart attack less stroke um in the women's health study and the nurses study um patients that had blood pressures around 120 over 80 better um and then so those are population studies but then we like research studies to say okay well what if we get people whose blood pressures are higher than 120 and we lower it um you know does that provide a benefit and and the answer was yes and there was a big study called the Sprint study in patients that were you know relatively high risk a high Framingham score or maybe they had some kidney disease or maybe they had some heart disease and we lowered their pressure really tried to get it to 120 over 80 and those people did better they lived longer okay yeah so 120 your systolic blood pressure measured in millimeters of mercury then the 80 is your diastolic blood pressure which is also measuring M millimeters of mercury and that's just your blood pressure wave and those are the two numbers that we focus on generally speaking can we say that lower short of uh passing out having a single episode lower is always better so lower is better and I know I think we talked in the last last article the last video session that there is a J curve and so so lower is better but if you get too low you know bad outcomes start to increase but those tend to be hospitalized patients in the ICU as you would you would imagine sure lower is better unless you're a giraffe lower is better unless you're a giraffe um but and it and actually meaningful reductions in events happen with relatively modest reductions in blood pressure and so good rules of thumb that we use in the office is if we can lower your systolic blood pressure the top number by five even if you were like at 140 and we lower it to 135 um we reduce your risk of of Stroke by 15% we reduce your risk of heart disease by another 10% so those are not small numbers when you're treating a lot of people and some people think oh what the what's the point I can't I can't get it to that 120 I'm not going to bother so you're saying it definitely is worth it every millimeter kind of counts every every millimeter counts okay so big bang for the buck lowering your blood pressure that's why this video is going to be so important so let's get into it okay how can I lower my blood pressure yeah so let's do uh let's do all the lifestyle stuff all right um so exercise so the current Canadian guidelines and the guidelines for most centers around the world and I know you have international viewers is 150 minutes of vigorous exercise a week right and Rome wasn't one in a day you know you might not be able to start that you know immediately but if you can achieve 150 minutes of vigorous exercise a week you will lower your blood pressure and I think this is something that you like you said it doesn't happen quickly so if you're someone who's sedentary and does not not have any Exercise capacity start small even if it's 2 minutes or 5 minutes or 10 minutes you can build up there's so some amazing Stories on social media about people that have gone from being you know totally sedentary and maybe excessively overweight to super fit and running marathons and things like that so just take that first step and do something yeah absolutely okay awesome um exercise exercise let's do salt okay because salt tends to be a little bit controversial right it is controversial and so I don't have high blood pressure fortunately right now I think I can tell you that 80% of individuals at some point in their lifetime if they live long enough will wow um so it's almost inevitable for a lot of people so with that being the case um salt intake for me doesn't change my blood pressure very much it might change at 2 millimeters or Mercury or so okay um but if you actually have high blood pressure excessive salt intake will definitely uh increase your blood pressure and this is where again on social media people say oh salt doesn't matter or salt doesn't afflect your blood pressure right Dr he is saying there's a very small percentage of people who don't have high blood pressure where it doesn't matter and those people you see them with the Shakers and they have salty stuff and nothing happens but if you already have high blood pressure if you're prone to it this can make a big difference and it's a relatively easy thing to reduce for you it is a easy thing and it takes a little while because especially if you're used to a a salty diet some people have misinterpreted an old study and where that comes from is there was an old analysis called in the Cochran database and it was advice to lower salt wasn't effective but I can remember when my daughter was young if I advised her to make her bed it might not have worked right but if you actually make the bed the bed's made the made and so the subsequent analyses where people actually didn't just they actually acted on the advice and they lowered their blood pressure it was effective it makes sense okay so if I'm at McDonald's I get my Big Mac and Fries I just say hold the salt yeah that's what you do my do not do that but what we would say there's two main ways right so get rid of the salt shaker if you can so that's the easy one to added salt but other thing is if you're buying processed foods so the best way is don't eat processed food but if you are buying processed foods look at the salt content because it is very sneaky and Sun as you can see your entire day worth of salt in a serving of certain processed foods and we've talked about this before restaurants when you order meal at a restaurant there's a ton of salt usually added to that meal no question and and so if just be careful on how much you eat at restaurants you know what I mean that's going to increase your salt to take if you're one of those individuals that is susceptible to the high blood pressure if you take ins Sal so we're talking food and so that's a nice segue into into the DASH diet and so of all the you know we don't recommend diets per but in terms of a way of eating or a style of eating eating habits change your eating habit the DASH diet is a kind of a Western Mediterranean diet it tends to be the most effective um for lowering blood pressure right and the the meat and potatoes of that diet are what not right so reducing the amount of meat that you have um increasing your foods and vegetables yeah legumes yeah rice I've talked about this before I like the grizzly bear diet have you heard of the grizzly bear diet I have no idea grizzly bear in its natural habitat eats about 80% fruits vegetables seeds 20% fish meet the odd camper but most of it is that fruit vegetable seeds berries that kind of stuff and then just a little bit of meat and um fish I read that on a plaque at a grizzly bear sanctuary and they don't have hypertension is that your point last I check they don't like to have the cuff on for too long so it's hard to get the measurement but yeah no okay but they live a long time there you go that's that's number three what's number four uh alcohol consumption so you know the current guidelines now in the World Health Organization has stated for some time there's no safe amount of alcohol consumption um the Canadian guidelines changed within the last year it said two beverages per week it used to be for man two beverages per day here um so that was a big drop um based on uh the World Health organiz ization criteria and the data that's come out over the last years mostly for cancer right like mostly for cancer but but it has other effects to be sure uh liver and heart often get forgotten um so a modest amount of alcohol consumption or a minimal amount will lower your blood pressure okay and calories too right yeah we should probably release this video after the holidays then yeah with American Thanksgiving Chris tomorrow all the holidays in December and uh we just lost probably 90% of our viewers when we said we should kept alcohol for the end okay so so alcohol and empty calories and alcohol lend itself nicely to our number five and that would be maintaining a healthy weight maintaining a healthy weight which yeah and it fits into you know your diet exercising regularly um and and it's just and it is a healthy weight and trying you can go on a on a on a calculator you can kind of Google a BMI you'd like your BMI or your body mass index uh it's not the greatest you know tool but it gives you a good guide and so if your BMI is less than 20 um you're probably in a good range if it's more than 25 or 26 um then you've got you've got some work to do okay and and we do realize that the majority of the population right now is over 25 26 you know that there are different classification but right now the majority of the American population Canadian population I think is over 25 26 and there is a kind of uh a real epidemic going on with high bmis so that is definitely something that as a whole population we need to work on yeah to be sure okay number six thankfully was a bigger problem in the 70s 80s becoming less of a problem what are your thoughts on smoking and high blood pressure M uh well yeah you know I think 177% of Canadians right now smoke so then it's still that up shocked hear that it's still it's still that high but it's going down you know the numbers are definitely going down and um how does it affect high blood pressure why why does it matter to blood pressure uh probably the inflammation so uh so smoking gives rise to a whole host of different things um But it includes inrees the inflammatory response in our body anything that increases inflammation can increase kind of vascular tone and squeeze the vessels so independent of the nicotine independent of the ni okay I got a question and we may not have the answer to this um there's going to be viewers out there going oh good I'm so glad I switched from smoking to vaping any data on blood pressure and vaping yet or is that sort of still in the work not that I'm aware of no specifically for blood pressure no okay okay so that's number six number seven for me is going to be reducing stress and we've talked a lot about this in the last I'd say 10 years of medicine we're starting to recognize having a high level stress at a constant level is not good for so many measures of our health including our blood pressure like your job yeah like yes like our job job for sure um so yeah and it's hard for us to prescribe you know yoga meditation mindfulness right uh right we're really good at prescribing medications but those are words 20 years ago as a doctor we wouldn't have mentioned nope mindfulness what are you talking about no I agree so um so see we've come a long way yeah uh have we um so yeah and actually so if you want numbers you know uh it's about five millimeters of mercury okay um for uh for things like meditation uh mindfulness that um will will help you lower your blood pressure and as I mentioned 5 millimeters of mercury is a huge benefit in terms of stroke reduction my cartil fuction yeah and this looks very different for everyone so you have to find something that that you're willing to do that you feel comfortable doing like people get sometimes embarrassed or confused about it so there's lots of options to teach you ways to get into a happy kind of safe calm space often you have to do it alone in a in a protected environment where you can work on lowering your blood pressure yeah that's a good point it's different for everybody what your definition of mindfulness and meditation is so don't poo poo it right off the bat there may be a form of it that really uh fits into your sort of frame of mind yeah M might be building an ice rink on the weekend all by myself I feel and that's good exercise yeah you're outside yeah how'd that go it's looking fantastic you just need some cold weather now now I need cold weather yes sorry Canadian viewers Dr heon is asking for Colder Weather okay so number nine on my list would be would be sleep and this just like stress has really come to the Forefront of good sleep and the adequate amount of sleep is critical to Good Health what do you tell your patients about sleep for blood pressure um so it's not something they can control easily right um and and as people get older sleep becomes a big problem for them um and so you would like to have about 8 hours of sleep that that's a sweet spot um in terms of just good for your health um being able to achieve eight hours of sleep for a lot of people is a real challenge sometimes people need sleep studies they may have unrecognized sleep apnea and they're you know waking up in the night or coming just above into the wakefulness threshold and don't realize it they're choking themselves they're hypoxic there's not enough blood going to their brain and then they sleep again and they do that all night studies are important talk about that the this the unrecognized sleep apnea and the consequences and the association with atrial fibrillation and things like that so definitely if you're feeling like you're not getting that full night sleep even though you tried for eight hours uh that's something you should get your your sleep we tried to have a sleep expert on here but he kept sleeping pass yeah narcolepsy and those and those sleep they're I've done one and and it's awkward you have a bunch of probes all over your body and you're in an unfamiliar environment think how am I going to get a good i s hand anyway but you do you're right and and then they show you the number of times like your legs arms are moving and wait and you're like what the heck I feel like I had a decent night's sleep and you're not and it's really dangerous for you so if you are concerned about this or particularly if you're concerned about your partner because of the way that they behave and they keep you up often if the partner says listen your sleep is weird we need to get you to the doctor to save your life really yeah and there's some things that you can do some simple things um you know you're not going to eat after dinner yep you're for sure not going to have a caffeinated beverage after dinner but most people would say don't have a caffeinated beverage after 12:00 noon cuz caffeine can linger in your body for quite a lengthy period of time um alcohol consumption is not going to lend itself to a good sleep yeah that's weird because you'd think you know I have a few drinks I'm going to sleep better in fact that's not true not true so there's there are some good books out there there's one called why we sleep it's a really good book like sleep hygiene habits yeah yeah we have a video about that as well um the next to last one on my list is measuring your blood pressure because a lot of people think this doesn't apply to me I don't have high blood pressure and they go to the doctor's office and maybe it's really high and they write that off as being you know White Coat Syndrome having elevated blood pressure because you're in your doctor's office what do you tell people about the roles of having something to measure your blood pressure at home oh it's gold okay um so to be perfectly Frank we don't trust the blood pressures we get in our offices right and so the Canadian guidelines actually say um that while we might measure a blood pressure in the office when I when I leave here today and I do that throughout the day um I'm using it as a guide but it is not going to be a target for me in terms of initiating therapy okay so if we use a machine in the office it has to be an automatic machine be kind where your doctor kind of blowing up his the cuff and listening with stethoscope because we know we make rounding errors get a little bit lazy when we do that it's hard the machines don't lie um and the machines will often do repeated measures they drop the first number because it's always higher and then they average the other numbers oh so an office automated office Reading is fantastic but the best ones are uh the 24hour ambulatory readings so patients get a blood pressure cuff we send them on their way they wear it for 24 hours and it takes readings all through the day and even when they're sleeping and it journals it and it journals it and so then I I can read that the following day and go okay here's your average here's your day average here's your night average right um and then and then ideally though if a patient just you know often they're about $75 to $100 if a patient purchases her own blood pressure machine for home use that's fantastic and and it doesn't have to be there are a lot of sophisticated apps but it can be just as simple as a calendar just print a calendar and just write your blood pressures in the days of the week hey do you trust the wrist ones at all or no I stick with the arm ones stick with the arm ones yeah okay and it's weird though because like the studies that we based all our blood pressure Therapeutics on were office measurements though weren't they or were they home measurements they were mostly office measurements and but mostly the automated office measurements so they were they were you know more accurate it's kind of comparing apples to oranges a little bit if we're if you're thinking of all your home blood pressures and then using that to you know apply to the data we got from those studies that were all office measurements true although the the newer data like the Sprint data is more uh is more robust yeah okay anything else on our list of things that you can do on your own at home to lower your blood pressure in addition to watching this video uh oh a dog okay dog yeah dogs lower blood pressure interesting like just the owning one what about when they're a puppy I feel like that raised my blood pressure when we had a puppy may need some not everybody no dogs are not suited for everybody but um but but because they make you walk them so you know and it makes you happy it's the mindfulness thing so there's a there's a lot of things just about that um you know that uh that that love that uh that you get maybe not you know they're cat lovers I'm sure so maybe it's a cat my dog digs the garden sometimes and that does not blood press ra your at all um last question just about high blood pressure because definitely leave comments about your experience what you've done to lower your blood pressure is there any change in the blood pressure guidelines like as we get older because a lot of people are like listen I'm 70 do I not need slightly higher blood pressure because I'm I kind of earned it because I'm a little bit older and there's a lot of controversy and a lot of very strong feelings about this as far as comments that we've received back here what are your thoughts or what does the evidence say about and I don't have to think about it and it's not you know what do you believe Dr heon I don't have to believe anything and I like that we don't want to believe stuff we want to know stuff we need to know stuff right and that's why guidelines are set up whether you're in Canada Europe Australia you know England United States we have guidelines for things to stop Physicians from believing things right level five evidence you want good evidence so that when you're doing something for a patient that the rest of the physicians in the country are doing it and sometimes the rest of the physicians in the world are doing it and so there is no age stratification here primarily um so the majority of patients the guidelines are all still the same right so we're ready to feeli those comments people are going to be mad but this is for your benefit yeah yes okay now you know everything you need to know about what you can do to control your blood pressure obviously this is something you can discuss with your doctor if your blood pressure does not respond to these measures over a reasonable period of time then there are pharmaceutical interventions that can help and are often are required we've talked about this in other videos but this is a great start Point yeah if you don't like being on medications I don't like being on medications if you don't like being on medications these are things you can try and are proven to work there you go thanks Dr he so much for educating us if you guys like this video please like it subscribe to our Channel what's that thing around your neck anyway and remember you are in charge of your own health we'll see you next time

Channel: Talking With Docs

Views: 1,188,954

Keywords: how to lower blood pressure, blood pressure, high blood pressure, how to lower blood pressure naturally, lower blood pressure, how to lower your blood pressure, how to lower high blood pressure, lower blood pressure naturally, how to lower blood pressure immediately, how to lower your blood pressure fast, how to lower your blood pressure quickly, how to lower your blood pressure naturally, how to lower your blood pressure in minutes, how to lower your blood pressure instantly

Id: 50BW8b9DNaQ

Length: 20min 4sec (1204 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 01 2023