1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,660 Prepare to have your health questions answered here on Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions 2 00:00:06,660 --> 00:00:12,220 with Dr. Todd Binkley, owner of Binkley Healing Center in downtown Ventura. 3 00:00:12,220 --> 00:00:14,420 Now here's Dr. Todd. 4 00:00:14,420 --> 00:00:15,420 Good afternoon. 5 00:00:15,420 --> 00:00:19,940 I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, board certified doctor of non-force chiropractic and practitioner 6 00:00:19,940 --> 00:00:21,580 of functional medicine. 7 00:00:21,580 --> 00:00:25,940 The focus of today's talk is going to be about high blood pressure. 8 00:00:25,940 --> 00:00:29,900 Most people don't check their blood pressure often enough, and high blood pressure is a 9 00:00:29,900 --> 00:00:31,560 silent killer. 10 00:00:31,560 --> 00:00:38,120 If you want to be proactive and protect your health and you're over 40 or 50 or you have 11 00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:42,280 any significant stress in your life, even if you have no symptoms, you should check 12 00:00:42,280 --> 00:00:43,840 your blood pressure periodically. 13 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:46,000 I'm going to talk a lot about that today. 14 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:51,200 I'll talk about some patients that I've helped reduce their blood pressure without medication 15 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:56,640 and why it's important to take medication if your blood pressure remains high and nothing 16 00:00:56,640 --> 00:00:59,040 else you're doing is getting it down. 17 00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:00,520 So really important subject. 18 00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:02,960 I'm excited to talk about it today. 19 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:09,600 And if you have questions about that, please email me at drbinkley at binkleyhealingcenter.com. 20 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:13,340 You can also listen to all of the past episodes of this show. 21 00:01:13,340 --> 00:01:14,840 This is episode 49. 22 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:21,640 We're coming up on a year that this program has been on KDAR 98.3 FM. 23 00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:29,000 This is episode 49, so there's 48 past episodes available on my website, binkleyhealingcenter.com. 24 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:33,720 If you have an iPhone or an iPad and like to use Apple podcasts, it's available there. 25 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:37,960 Safe, effective, natural solutions, or just put in my name, it'll come up. 26 00:01:37,960 --> 00:01:40,800 Also Spotify and YouTube. 27 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:42,360 So check out those back episodes. 28 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:47,960 And if you like what you hear, please like, scroll to the bottom and like the podcast 29 00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:53,540 that encourages other people to check it out and hopefully influence more people to make 30 00:01:53,540 --> 00:01:55,360 healthier choices for their lives. 31 00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:57,400 That's the reason I do this show. 32 00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:00,280 Thank you for listening and I love questions. 33 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:04,360 Send your questions to me about high blood pressure or any other health related topic 34 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:09,880 and I can discuss it on the air or I can just respond to your message and answer your questions 35 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:10,880 privately. 36 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:15,000 So here's before we get into the blood pressure conversation, here's another major benefit 37 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:16,560 of doing testing with me. 38 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:18,080 I was just reading a review. 39 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:23,840 I spend, I don't know, 20 or 30 hours every week reviewing medical literature. 40 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:28,560 I get inundated with all of the, it just comes, you know, you used to have to spend hundreds 41 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:34,040 of dollars a month subscribing, you know, paid monthly subscriptions to various medical 42 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:37,160 journals depending on your specialty to get all the latest research. 43 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:42,820 And so the one thing that's nice is it all comes, it's emailed out to most doctors now 44 00:02:42,820 --> 00:02:47,720 through portals like Medscape and Medpage and others. 45 00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:48,720 Not WebMD. 46 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:53,600 WebMD is a patient based website that's mostly pharmaceutical marketing. 47 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:55,400 It's not the best source of information. 48 00:02:55,400 --> 00:03:00,080 If you're Googling, if you want to look up information about a condition and you want 49 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:04,920 to look up information online, I always recommend that you check out sites like the Cleveland 50 00:03:04,920 --> 00:03:10,160 Health Clinic or Harvard Medical News. 51 00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:13,240 And then of course all the real research is at PubMed. 52 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:16,560 That's usually a little bit more difficult to read for a lay person. 53 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:18,560 And of course, you know, ask me, send me your questions. 54 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:25,360 So but anyway, a major benefit of getting testing done at my office is I'm not connected 55 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:28,120 to the electronic health record system. 56 00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:35,320 So I was reading an article about other doctors lamenting that, you know, I mean most doctors 57 00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:40,320 hate the time it takes to input all of your information into the electronic health record 58 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:41,320 system. 59 00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:42,520 And you know, it is important. 60 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:43,680 It's great that it exists. 61 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:49,960 It's important that if you go to, you know, Dr. A over here, say you go to the emergency 62 00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:54,240 room and then later you return to your regular doctor, maybe in a different state if you're 63 00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:56,360 on vacation or just for whatever reason. 64 00:03:56,360 --> 00:04:03,240 And if you've had emergency care or medications that could interact with something some other 65 00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:08,560 doctor may prescribe, it's a great thing that doctors can look up and see what other meds 66 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:09,560 you're on. 67 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:14,480 And the main reason that the electronic health record system is a good thing is because if 68 00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:22,300 you're taking toxic potentially, you know, life altering medications that have strong 69 00:04:22,300 --> 00:04:27,520 interactions with each other and with things that you may eat or a whole host of other 70 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:31,320 things, it's important for any doctor who's treating you to know everything that you've 71 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:32,320 done recently. 72 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:35,540 And sometimes patients come in and they don't remember what happened or what that other 73 00:04:35,540 --> 00:04:38,720 doctor did, what tests they did, et cetera, so they can access it. 74 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:42,040 So that's a good thing generally and in principle. 75 00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:47,160 But this article was about how a lot of times you get the electronic health record and depending 76 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:52,040 on who entered the data at the other end, it could be next to useless. 77 00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:55,440 Somebody was describing a patient that went to emergency room and the data that had been 78 00:04:55,440 --> 00:05:00,080 entered by that emergency room was basically useless. 79 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:05,800 Still it didn't really give them, that doctor any kind of appreciation for what treatment 80 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:08,240 and testing that patient received in the ER. 81 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:14,080 And then he gave an opposite example where like you see in the movies, if you ever watch 82 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:20,560 shows about attorneys where they do a data dump and you get box fulls, you request the 83 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:28,040 data on someone and you get, you know, people come in with hand cards full of stacks of 84 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:29,040 boxes of medical records. 85 00:05:29,040 --> 00:05:30,040 Anyway, he did it. 86 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:34,240 He had another patient request the medical records and it was three or four box fulls, 87 00:05:34,240 --> 00:05:41,080 42 inches high stack of paper that was just impossible to weed through and also get any 88 00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:43,000 useful information from. 89 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:48,400 So that was a little bit of a tangent, but my point is sometimes you may want to get 90 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:53,880 some testing done to find out how things are going with your health and you may not want 91 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:58,540 anybody else to know about it or at least not right now, maybe later. 92 00:05:58,540 --> 00:06:05,420 So when you order tests in my office, no one else has access to them without your permission. 93 00:06:05,420 --> 00:06:12,260 So one recurring benefit of this, for example, is people who need to qualify for life insurance. 94 00:06:12,260 --> 00:06:15,620 If your cholesterol is high, life insurance is varied. 95 00:06:15,620 --> 00:06:20,960 They check your cholesterol, they check your blood pressure, your age, your weight, your 96 00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:24,200 BMI, some of the criteria. 97 00:06:24,200 --> 00:06:26,360 Those are the most important ones. 98 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:31,600 Some companies require other things, but the point is if you're going to apply for life 99 00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:36,120 insurance and maybe you've been speaking to your advisor and you're wondering if you're 100 00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:38,720 going to qualify, it can be very expensive. 101 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:46,860 If you're, especially if you're a man over 50 and you have any test finding that shows 102 00:06:46,860 --> 00:06:53,380 that you're at increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, et cetera. 103 00:06:53,380 --> 00:06:57,800 And so I've had many patients who have been in that situation have come in and maybe their 104 00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:03,280 cholesterol is a little bit elevated or maybe they do have pre-diabetes or some early signs 105 00:07:03,280 --> 00:07:05,600 of liver or kidney disease. 106 00:07:05,600 --> 00:07:09,520 And we put them on some better food, a little bit of exercise if they do it or oftentimes 107 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:11,180 just some supplements. 108 00:07:11,180 --> 00:07:16,640 Many, many times just give them a few supplements to flood their river of life that courses 109 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:18,540 throughout their body. 110 00:07:18,540 --> 00:07:24,120 Give it all the nutrients needed for your kidneys, your heart, your liver, your immune 111 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:26,440 system to start working better. 112 00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:31,520 Cholesterol is mostly controlled by your liver and three or four months later it goes back 113 00:07:31,520 --> 00:07:32,520 to normal. 114 00:07:32,520 --> 00:07:37,880 Then you take that test in or you go to the insurance company, however they want to do 115 00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:41,480 it and get that test done and qualify for the lowest rate. 116 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:45,080 Another common example is maybe you want to know what's going on with you and you don't 117 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:47,320 want your family to worry about it. 118 00:07:47,320 --> 00:07:49,280 So this one doesn't come up that often. 119 00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:51,040 I just thought of it as another example. 120 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:56,240 I usually recommend that patients include their family once they know what's going on 121 00:07:56,240 --> 00:07:58,680 if it's something important and they usually do. 122 00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:03,880 But for some it's nice to know even if their spouse or their brother or their daughter 123 00:08:03,880 --> 00:08:08,940 is a doctor, there is often a way to enable you to get information and a proper diagnosis 124 00:08:08,940 --> 00:08:13,600 and treatment recommendations before you choose, before you choose. 125 00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:17,440 You have that choice to share the information with others. 126 00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:19,160 So blood pressure. 127 00:08:19,160 --> 00:08:22,880 Some important studies have come out in the medical literature about potassium. 128 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:28,120 We hear all the time about, oh if you're going to control your blood pressure you need to 129 00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:30,080 not eat too much salt. 130 00:08:30,080 --> 00:08:34,120 But what they don't tell you is that what really matters is not your total sodium intake 131 00:08:34,120 --> 00:08:38,240 but your sodium potassium balance. 132 00:08:38,240 --> 00:08:40,480 Sodium and potassium are both essential nutrients. 133 00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:47,000 You couldn't survive without them and what really matters is keeping sodium and potassium 134 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:48,000 in balance. 135 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:49,760 I'm Dr. Todd Binkley. 136 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:53,880 You're listening to Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions to Almost Any Health Challenge. 137 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:59,400 We're talking about high blood pressure today and how you can control it safely and effectively 138 00:08:59,400 --> 00:09:01,360 with natural means wherever possible. 139 00:09:01,360 --> 00:09:05,820 But we're also going to talk about the importance of just making sure you know whether or not 140 00:09:05,820 --> 00:09:09,360 your blood pressure is high or not. 141 00:09:09,360 --> 00:09:13,280 So you usually don't hear much about the importance of potassium but for example if you've ever 142 00:09:13,280 --> 00:09:19,400 or you know anybody that's had heart surgery, many doctors recommend supplementing potassium 143 00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:23,800 to a high normal level after heart bypass surgery. 144 00:09:23,800 --> 00:09:30,240 This is an article that came out, it was reported in the European Society of Cardiology, sort 145 00:09:30,240 --> 00:09:36,960 of counteracting or pushing back against this widespread practice of routinely or sometimes 146 00:09:36,960 --> 00:09:42,360 even aggressively supplementing potassium to achieve this high normal level. 147 00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:49,240 This was reported by Benjamin O. Bryan, MD, PhD of a university that I can't pronounce 148 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:50,240 in Berlin. 149 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:55,920 They reported it to the European Society of Cardiology and basically they showed that 150 00:09:55,920 --> 00:10:05,640 this tight control of potassium is often unnecessary and is based on no solid evidence and sometimes 151 00:10:05,640 --> 00:10:08,340 can even cause problems. 152 00:10:08,340 --> 00:10:13,920 So too much of a good thing is never good and it's a little too technical to go into 153 00:10:13,920 --> 00:10:18,200 the details but I was surprised to see that, that study came out because it's really common 154 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:21,500 to recommend potassium. 155 00:10:21,500 --> 00:10:26,880 Potassium supplements are regulated usually to be no more than 99 milligrams because taking 156 00:10:26,880 --> 00:10:29,320 more than that can be problematic. 157 00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:32,800 The bigger picture is, which we're going to come back to in more detail in a minute, is 158 00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:35,680 you can get all the potassium you need from food. 159 00:10:35,680 --> 00:10:39,120 All vegetables have potassium in them. 160 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:45,820 So by contrast, there's another study that came out from the European Society of Cardiology 161 00:10:45,820 --> 00:10:50,400 updating their treatment guidelines for hypertension, for high blood pressure. 162 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:57,440 So high blood pressure has for decades been defined as 140 over 90 or above. 163 00:10:57,440 --> 00:11:04,000 So the systolic top number 140, bottom number diastolic over 90. 164 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:06,920 Normal blood pressure is 120 over 80. 165 00:11:06,920 --> 00:11:12,560 High blood pressure has long been considered to be 140 over 90. 166 00:11:12,560 --> 00:11:16,680 Well for several years now, they've been lowering that upper number. 167 00:11:16,680 --> 00:11:22,960 The top number has been increasingly recommended to be lowered to 130. 168 00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:32,120 So pretty much the working, it's not completely official yet, but many, many places, at least 169 00:11:32,120 --> 00:11:37,080 the cardiologists are recommending in America and in Europe, that you really think more 170 00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:42,320 of treating high blood pressure to 130 over 90. 171 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:44,840 And again, so normal is 120 over 80. 172 00:11:44,840 --> 00:11:49,840 But these guidelines in the European Society of Cardiology's most recent presentations, 173 00:11:49,840 --> 00:11:56,880 based on the review of boatloads of data, are recommending that the new guideline be 174 00:11:56,880 --> 00:12:06,440 for a blood pressure goal of 120 to 129, which is basically saying less than 130, but also 175 00:12:06,440 --> 00:12:10,800 for the bottom number to be 70 to 90. 176 00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:12,760 I've never seen that before. 177 00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:17,120 And I haven't been able to find the data that they based it on yet, but they're even saying 178 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:19,640 that the bottom number should be 70 or below. 179 00:12:19,640 --> 00:12:21,720 I'm not sure how important that is. 180 00:12:21,720 --> 00:12:28,720 But the things that were exciting about it to me is they've established three categories. 181 00:12:28,720 --> 00:12:33,720 Instead of just normal blood pressure, 120 over 80, or high blood pressure, 140 over 182 00:12:33,720 --> 00:12:40,560 90, or maybe 130 over 90, they're establishing a third level called elevated, not high, but 183 00:12:40,560 --> 00:12:43,820 elevated blood pressure. 184 00:12:43,820 --> 00:12:53,400 So they're saying now normal is 120 over 70, elevated is 120 to 139 over 70 to 90, and 185 00:12:53,400 --> 00:12:57,640 then the usual hypertension 140 over 90. 186 00:12:57,640 --> 00:13:02,760 But they also emphasize, this is one of the best parts, they emphasize that out of office, 187 00:13:02,760 --> 00:13:07,080 out of a doctor's office, blood pressure measurement is very important. 188 00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:08,080 They're stressing that. 189 00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:13,160 The guidelines for that are much stronger than in previous guidelines, because everyone 190 00:13:13,160 --> 00:13:15,360 has heard of the white coat syndrome. 191 00:13:15,360 --> 00:13:19,200 You go to the doctor's office and your blood pressure is elevated because you're in a doctor's 192 00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:20,280 office. 193 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:25,040 Maybe you're in an unfamiliar situation or you're worried about having to start taking 194 00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:30,360 more meds or a whole host of reasons people's pressure goes up when they're in a doctor's 195 00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:31,360 office. 196 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:34,760 So it's a really good idea for many, many people. 197 00:13:34,760 --> 00:13:42,120 Again, almost anybody over 50, say, or anyone who has high stress in their life. 198 00:13:42,120 --> 00:13:47,720 And when I have conversations with patients, they say, oh, I don't have any stress. 199 00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:49,200 Well, your blood pressure is off the charts. 200 00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:54,400 You tell me that you can't sleep and you have anxiety and you have a whole host of other 201 00:13:54,400 --> 00:13:56,260 things, but they don't experience. 202 00:13:56,260 --> 00:13:59,360 So if you don't like the word stress, if you think that you don't have stress, but you 203 00:13:59,360 --> 00:14:07,300 have anxiety, you can't sleep, you get angry, you have tight muscles, you have symptoms 204 00:14:07,300 --> 00:14:10,360 like this, you have stress. 205 00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:13,280 Call it, pick a different word if you don't like the word stress. 206 00:14:13,280 --> 00:14:15,520 But those are all signs of stress. 207 00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:19,920 If you have any of those things, you should be checking your blood pressure at least once 208 00:14:19,920 --> 00:14:20,920 a month. 209 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:28,400 And if it's high every day for a few weeks, a couple of weeks, when your blood pressure 210 00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:31,400 is elevated, one reading doesn't mean anything. 211 00:14:31,400 --> 00:14:34,920 You have to check it a few more times and get a pattern. 212 00:14:34,920 --> 00:14:39,280 And the best way, if it is high so that you don't freak out, the most important thing 213 00:14:39,280 --> 00:14:45,480 to do is check it every day a couple of times a day at least for a week and then average 214 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:46,520 those numbers. 215 00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:52,720 So write all the readings down for at least a week, add them all up and divide by the 216 00:14:52,720 --> 00:14:55,120 number of entries to get the average. 217 00:14:55,120 --> 00:15:02,000 And that average over a week is a much better indicator of your risk from the damaging effects 218 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:05,040 of high blood pressure than any individual reading. 219 00:15:05,040 --> 00:15:10,960 Another thing that was really exciting in this updated guidelines for the European guidelines 220 00:15:10,960 --> 00:15:15,320 for high blood pressure treatment is that they introduced a new recommendation for lifestyle 221 00:15:15,320 --> 00:15:22,560 options to help lower blood pressure, including changes to exercise advice and the addition 222 00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:24,560 of potassium supplementation. 223 00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:29,380 So I just mentioned that sometimes potassium supplementation is not so great. 224 00:15:29,380 --> 00:15:35,400 So they do qualify this by among other things recommending that you get the potassium not 225 00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:39,200 from a quote unquote supplement, but from food. 226 00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:46,000 But they also suggest that people in this new elevated middle of the road blood pressure 227 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:54,880 category, not too high, not too low, but elevated again by definition, 120 to 139 over 70 to 228 00:15:54,880 --> 00:15:56,920 89. 229 00:15:56,920 --> 00:16:03,080 And they recommended those people be subject to a risk stratification assessment before 230 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:04,480 the treatment decision is made. 231 00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:08,920 So basically before they just slap you on medication, write you a prescription, they 232 00:16:08,920 --> 00:16:10,200 check for certain things. 233 00:16:10,200 --> 00:16:16,200 So for example, people in the elevated blood pressure category, not high, but elevated 234 00:16:16,200 --> 00:16:22,080 who also have moderate or severe chronic kidney disease or already have established cardiovascular 235 00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:31,080 disease, diabetes, hereditary hypercholesterole, hereditary high cholesterol, or for any other 236 00:16:31,080 --> 00:16:36,480 reason are considered high increased risk for cardiovascular disease, then these patients 237 00:16:36,480 --> 00:16:44,880 are recommended to after three months of lifestyle intervention, consider going on drugs. 238 00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:46,320 So that's the important part. 239 00:16:46,320 --> 00:16:50,820 After three months of lifestyle intervention, they recommend, so they recommend doing three 240 00:16:50,820 --> 00:16:53,280 months of lifestyle intervention before starting on drugs. 241 00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:55,640 That's not in the American recommendations. 242 00:16:55,640 --> 00:17:01,640 They give lip surface to recommending lifestyle intervention, relaxation, better sleep, some 243 00:17:01,640 --> 00:17:04,940 of the things that I'm going to talk about here a little bit later. 244 00:17:04,940 --> 00:17:07,920 But in my experience, hardly anyone does it. 245 00:17:07,920 --> 00:17:11,200 And I don't know, I don't have any, I don't live in Europe. 246 00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:14,280 I don't know how many people in Europe are doing it either. 247 00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:15,820 But at least it's part of the recommendations. 248 00:17:15,820 --> 00:17:18,560 It's more strongly encouraged. 249 00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:25,800 The education, the research there generally always includes much stronger support for 250 00:17:25,800 --> 00:17:33,180 recommendations for doing something natural, healthy, better food, exercise, and supplements 251 00:17:33,180 --> 00:17:40,640 to address a situation that is easily treatable with that instead of just going straight to 252 00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:41,640 drugs. 253 00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:42,640 So that's always exciting. 254 00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:46,520 Here's another really exciting part of these new European recommendations that they insert 255 00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:48,140 certain caveats. 256 00:17:48,140 --> 00:17:53,020 So they suggest treating blood pressure to get it down to somewhere, the upper number 257 00:17:53,020 --> 00:18:00,300 to somewhere between 120 and 129, basically below 130 instead of just below 140. 258 00:18:00,300 --> 00:18:05,900 But they also say that more lenient targets can be considered in people with orthostatic 259 00:18:05,900 --> 00:18:06,900 hypotension. 260 00:18:06,900 --> 00:18:08,880 That means if you stand up, get dizzy. 261 00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:13,640 This is huge because many, many people, I've had, I don't know, countless patients who 262 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:17,980 were on meds for blood pressure and they refuse to take them because when they stand up quickly, 263 00:18:17,980 --> 00:18:19,660 they get dizzy. 264 00:18:19,660 --> 00:18:24,500 Especially older patients, old people that were in their upper, you know, 75 or older, 265 00:18:24,500 --> 00:18:27,940 80s especially, your blood vessels get stiff. 266 00:18:27,940 --> 00:18:32,020 And if you're too aggressively treating blood pressure with drugs, that's one of the main 267 00:18:32,020 --> 00:18:36,720 reasons to control it naturally instead of with drugs because the drugs can't respond 268 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:39,460 as fast as you can stand up. 269 00:18:39,460 --> 00:18:41,460 So you get dizzy and that's how you know. 270 00:18:41,460 --> 00:18:43,980 That's how you know, for example, if your blood pressure is too low. 271 00:18:43,980 --> 00:18:47,060 If you stand up quickly and you feel dizzy, your blood pressure is too low. 272 00:18:47,060 --> 00:18:50,620 And if you stand up quickly and you get dizzy and you're on blood pressure medication, you 273 00:18:50,620 --> 00:18:55,060 might be taking too much medication or the wrong medication or you're a really good candidate 274 00:18:55,060 --> 00:19:01,460 who should consider better food, exercise and supplements in addition to your medication. 275 00:19:01,460 --> 00:19:06,620 So these new European guidelines also suggest, you know, not aggressively, over aggressively 276 00:19:06,620 --> 00:19:13,180 treating people to these new lower targets of 120 to 130 upper number for blood pressure 277 00:19:13,180 --> 00:19:19,820 if they're 85 years or older or if they have moderate to severe frailty or a limited life 278 00:19:19,820 --> 00:19:20,820 expectancy. 279 00:19:20,820 --> 00:19:24,100 So, you know, people that are in care homes or have some kind of chronic disease, you 280 00:19:24,100 --> 00:19:28,060 know, there's no reason to overdo it with those people because it's not going to dramatically 281 00:19:28,060 --> 00:19:31,220 increase their lifespan. 282 00:19:31,220 --> 00:19:37,780 Interestingly, the same article quotes a physician at the University of Washington in Seattle, 283 00:19:37,780 --> 00:19:41,000 American College of Cardiology saying, these new European guidelines have thoughtfully 284 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:48,700 used the latest study data to simplify recommendations and coordinate their guidelines to be more 285 00:19:48,700 --> 00:19:50,940 in line with US guidelines. 286 00:19:50,940 --> 00:19:53,500 Well, they're not more in line with US guidelines. 287 00:19:53,500 --> 00:19:55,020 They're better than the US guidelines. 288 00:19:55,020 --> 00:19:58,900 The US guidelines do not emphasize testing your own blood pressure at home and they do 289 00:19:58,900 --> 00:20:04,380 not have this third classification of elevated blood pressure with the caveats that I just 290 00:20:04,380 --> 00:20:08,820 mentioned to avoid over treating blood pressure with medication. 291 00:20:08,820 --> 00:20:09,860 I'm Dr. Todd Benkley. 292 00:20:09,860 --> 00:20:13,980 You're listening to Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions to almost any health challenge. 293 00:20:13,980 --> 00:20:17,380 We're talking about high blood pressure today and it looks like I'm going to be doing a 294 00:20:17,380 --> 00:20:19,940 second episode on high blood pressure next week because we're going to run out of time 295 00:20:19,940 --> 00:20:22,420 before I get to all the stuff that I wanted to talk about today. 296 00:20:22,420 --> 00:20:28,060 But of paramount importance, something anyone can do, you can do, someone you know who has 297 00:20:28,060 --> 00:20:32,420 blood pressure can do, to lower your blood pressure is deep breathing exercise. 298 00:20:32,420 --> 00:20:37,220 So, lots of people talk about doing aerobic exercise, also very important. 299 00:20:37,220 --> 00:20:41,700 These European guidelines, for example, the last thing that was a change from the standard 300 00:20:41,700 --> 00:20:50,460 previous guidelines were 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise per week is also an option, 301 00:20:50,460 --> 00:20:54,580 an alternative to the current recommendation of at least two and a half hours per week 302 00:20:54,580 --> 00:20:56,540 of moderate intensity exercise. 303 00:20:56,540 --> 00:21:02,300 You know, so that's important because for older people, the moderate exercise is going 304 00:21:02,300 --> 00:21:04,260 to be better to prevent injuries, prevent falls. 305 00:21:04,260 --> 00:21:07,940 So people just don't have the strength to do vigorous exercise. 306 00:21:07,940 --> 00:21:14,460 But for younger high stress people, people you know that are less than 70, say for example, 307 00:21:14,460 --> 00:21:18,420 but or you know, especially people that are in their 40s or 50s but still have high blood 308 00:21:18,420 --> 00:21:23,860 pressure because of their lifestyle, they're going to benefit more from vigorous intensity 309 00:21:23,860 --> 00:21:26,620 exercise, because they're going to get stuff out of their system. 310 00:21:26,620 --> 00:21:27,980 It just feels good. 311 00:21:27,980 --> 00:21:33,120 People, you know, lots of people have just learned this from experience. 312 00:21:33,120 --> 00:21:38,800 So it's good to have it now codified into the recommendations for more people. 313 00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:43,860 But the goal of every functional medicine practitioner is to enable you to live long 314 00:21:43,860 --> 00:21:46,180 and live well without drugs. 315 00:21:46,180 --> 00:21:49,940 So I've seen thousands of patients personally with high blood pressure, and some of them 316 00:21:49,940 --> 00:21:54,480 want to get off of all their medications, including their blood pressure medications, 317 00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:55,680 and some of them don't. 318 00:21:55,680 --> 00:22:01,660 But I will never recommend that anyone stop taking blood pressure medication until their 319 00:22:01,660 --> 00:22:07,220 blood pressure is well controlled without it, number one, and they discuss their decision 320 00:22:07,220 --> 00:22:10,180 with their prescribing physician. 321 00:22:10,180 --> 00:22:12,580 So I often have people come in and say, I don't want to take any drugs. 322 00:22:12,580 --> 00:22:14,500 I want to get off all these medications. 323 00:22:14,500 --> 00:22:17,900 And you know, there's lots of ways to get off of certain medications. 324 00:22:17,900 --> 00:22:21,580 I still always recommend that they go and discuss that decision with whoever prescribed 325 00:22:21,580 --> 00:22:22,580 that medication. 326 00:22:22,580 --> 00:22:24,660 I didn't put you on any medication. 327 00:22:24,660 --> 00:22:26,360 It's not my job to take you off of that. 328 00:22:26,360 --> 00:22:27,360 That's your decision. 329 00:22:27,360 --> 00:22:29,660 You need to discuss it with that physician. 330 00:22:29,660 --> 00:22:34,100 For example, I don't think anybody, almost no one in my humble opinion, very few people 331 00:22:34,100 --> 00:22:36,060 need to take statin drugs. 332 00:22:36,060 --> 00:22:40,340 And very few people, in my opinion, should take or need to take, especially if they're 333 00:22:40,340 --> 00:22:45,420 willing to do the alternatives that work better, very few people need to take osteoporosis 334 00:22:45,420 --> 00:22:47,900 drugs because those things are mostly bad. 335 00:22:47,900 --> 00:22:51,140 And there's just so many better alternatives that work better. 336 00:22:51,140 --> 00:22:54,220 But blood pressure medications are the great exception. 337 00:22:54,220 --> 00:22:58,220 If you have high blood pressure and you're not controlling it without medication, then 338 00:22:58,220 --> 00:23:02,380 you need to take the medication, maybe for the rest of your life. 339 00:23:02,380 --> 00:23:06,820 Or again, if there's other ways to get your blood pressure down without medication, for 340 00:23:06,820 --> 00:23:12,140 many people, but not everyone, some people, if you're over 80, especially, it can be very 341 00:23:12,140 --> 00:23:13,140 difficult. 342 00:23:13,140 --> 00:23:18,580 I've had patients who've had high blood pressure for 30 years in their 80s get off of medication 343 00:23:18,580 --> 00:23:23,220 by controlling it with better food, exercise, and supplements, but they're the rarity. 344 00:23:23,220 --> 00:23:29,420 So unless you do something, and I'd be happy to do the proper testing to identify a way 345 00:23:29,420 --> 00:23:34,900 for you or someone you love to reduce their need for medication, because it's also good 346 00:23:34,900 --> 00:23:41,420 to most people end up on three or sometimes four medications just for blood pressure. 347 00:23:41,420 --> 00:23:46,140 They're on lisinopril and hydrochlorothiazide and maybe a beta blocker or something else. 348 00:23:46,140 --> 00:23:50,460 There's so many different drugs to control blood pressure. 349 00:23:50,460 --> 00:23:54,860 There are ways to reduce your dependency on pharmaceuticals, even if you still need to 350 00:23:54,860 --> 00:23:57,420 maybe just take one of them at a lower dose. 351 00:23:57,420 --> 00:24:00,820 And that's a good idea for a lot of people. 352 00:24:00,820 --> 00:24:05,380 As long as you make that decision with proper documentation, check your blood pressure at 353 00:24:05,380 --> 00:24:06,380 home. 354 00:24:06,380 --> 00:24:07,940 So I'm going to talk, tune back in next week. 355 00:24:07,940 --> 00:24:11,740 I'm going to talk and do a whole other episode on blood pressure because there's so much 356 00:24:11,740 --> 00:24:18,540 more material to go over, including getting a good blood pressure cuff to use at home. 357 00:24:18,540 --> 00:24:19,540 So thank you for listening. 358 00:24:19,540 --> 00:24:23,740 I'll see you next Friday for more information about high blood pressure and a safe, effective 359 00:24:23,740 --> 00:24:25,820 natural solution to eliminate it. 360 00:24:25,820 --> 00:24:27,660 Have a fantastic weekend. 361 00:24:27,660 --> 00:24:33,180 You've been listening to Safe, Effective Natural Solutions with Dr. Todd Binkley. 362 00:24:33,180 --> 00:24:37,720 If you have a health question you want discussed on the show, email your health questions to 363 00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:42,280 drbinkley at binkleyhealingcenter.com. 364 00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:46,980 Take advantage of this opportunity to ask questions for yourself and for your loved 365 00:24:46,980 --> 00:24:49,940 ones because our health matters. 366 00:24:49,940 --> 00:24:57,900 Join him next Friday at 4 p.m. for Safe, Effective Natural Solutions right here on 98.3 The Word, 367 00:24:57,900 --> 00:25:21,340 KDAR.