Prepare to have your health questions answered
here on Safe, Effective Natural Solutions with
Dr. Todd Binkley, owner of Binkley Healing Center
in downtown Ventura. Now, here's Dr. Todd. Good
afternoon. I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, board -certified
doctor of non -force chiropractic and practitioner
of... Functional Medicine. Today, we're going
to talk about hypertension, high blood pressure,
and the importance of nitrous oxide in regulating
blood pressure. And I'm going to talk about a
couple of case studies, people that have gotten
great results that weren't being helped by standard
medicine and who are great examples of what's
possible without becoming dependent on pharmaceuticals
for the rest of your life. That being said, I
always caution people. I'm the guy that people
go to who want to get off all of their medications.
Quotes, unquotes. And, you know, sometimes that's
possible. Sometimes it isn't. But one of the
major exceptions to when you don't want to mess
with just randomly stopping medication. And to
be clear, I never tell anyone to stop taking
medication that was prescribed by some other
physician. If that is your goal, I'm going to
encourage you to talk to that physician and explain
what you're doing instead. and let him know that
you're doing what you're going to do. But the
most important example of when you shouldn't
do that, especially shouldn't do that without
coming up with some alternatives, is with blood
pressure. If you're on blood pressure medication,
if you're not doing something else to keep your
blood pressure low and regularly measuring your
blood pressure to confirm that it is within a
healthy, safe range, which is 120. over 80. High
blood pressure has traditionally always been
diagnosed as 140 over 90. The latest research
is now confirming that we really need to keep
it to 130. over 80. So the lower number should
still be 80 or less. The top number should really
be 130 if you want to live long and live well
and stay healthy. Even 140 is not low enough
if you want to optimize yourself of living a
long, natural, healthy life and dying peacefully
in your sleep as opposed to being suddenly struck
down in your prime by a heart attack or a stroke
that gave you no warning. So high blood pressure
is one of the places where functional medicine
practitioners and regular medical doctors, the
whole professions, cardiologists, everyone has
a fairly common point of view because you only
get one heart. Of course, okay, you could get
a heart replacement, but most people don't want
to get a heart transplant and it's pretty difficult
to get them currently. So yeah, keep your heart,
keep your blood vessels healthy, keep the pump
strong, keep the pressure low and keep the pipes
clear. Those are the three things that are the
main points of the whole talk that I do on preventing
cardiovascular disease. But here's what we're
going to start with today. Another headline published
in the Journal of American College of Cardiology,
more Americans need blood pressure meds. updated
guidelines say. So these updated guidelines were
proposed a few months ago. I mentioned them in
a previous show and they are now officially adopted
and basically confirming what I mentioned previously,
which is that we really should be controlling
blood pressure to 130 instead of 140 for the
top number. The bottom number is the same, 80
or lower is the goal. The top number should be
130. or lower. And so this new recommendation
is that people should start medication. Well,
obviously I don't necessarily agree with that.
There's lots of other ways to control your blood
pressure, but I do agree. And I tell all my patients
that if you're not doing that, two things need
to always happen regarding blood pressure. You
need to check it. Most people don't check their
blood pressure. You can get a top of the line
Omron. There's a couple of other good brands
that are really good. Home, blood pressure cuff,
automatic, battery powered, easy to use. Not
one that goes around your wrist or your finger,
but one that goes around the upper arm for about
40 bucks. And they even keep all your previous
readings so you can chart it. They come with
apps that you can use your phone to interact
with. Really simple thing to do. Sometimes people
just, well, a lot of times people just say, oh,
I don't want to know. Yes, you do. You want to
know. Even if you don't want to know, you should
know because you need to know whether or not
you're going to get blindsided. You don't want
to be blindsided. That's much worse than not
knowing if you're in trouble, especially when
there's something simple you can do about it.
There are lots of ways you can lower your blood
pressure without medication. But of course, the
main ways that modern medicine does it is with
medication. So the recommendations, the current
recommendations, now official. for anyone who
has an average blood pressure where the top number
is over 130. And after three months, sorry, after
three to six months of lifestyle intervention
without any change, In individuals who are estimated
to have a 10 -year cardiovascular risk of less
than 7 .5%, we'll come back to that. That's a
little bit technical. But basically, most people,
if the number is, most adults in America on a
standard American diet living with the normal
stresses that people have, if your blood pressure,
if the top number is above 130, and this is the
part that you probably don't hear from your doctor.
This is the official recommendation. It says
it right here. After three to six months of lifestyle
intervention. Did your doctor tell you that part
or do they just write your prescription for blood
pressure medication if you're on it? So that's
the part that still gets left out. And it's exciting
that for the first time it is in. clear print
in the official recommendations. What does that
mean? Three to six months of lifestyle intervention.
That means doing things that I'm going to talk
about more in a minute, but it's something as
simple as doing deep breathing exercises. And
it always starts with checking your blood pressure
to see if you need to do lifestyle interventions
and then see the results of those. So for example,
if you're in a stressful situation, you go home,
you take your blood pressure, we should talk
about... how to take your blood pressure tube.
I'll come back to that. You don't just sit down
when you're stressful, slap the cuff on, and
immediately start pumping. That's going to create
the same white coat syndrome that you get when
you go into the doctor's office. You need to
be relaxed when you're taking your blood pressure.
Put the cuff on and leave it on for a few minutes
and become relaxed before you push the button.
And then, for example, you can do something as
simple as lying on the floor and doing some specific
type of deep breathing exercises for 10 or 15
minutes. and then get up and recheck your pressure.
And you'll reliably notice that it goes dramatically
lower. 5, 10 points, sometimes 15, 20, even 30
points lower, depending on how high it was and
how effectively you did whatever you were attempting
to do to reduce it. So it's not deep breathing,
basically any way to reduce your stress. And
there are lots of ways to do that. But I must
stress again, because I know I have a lot of
listeners who are taking responsibility for their
own health. That's great. That's what I hope
listeners to my show do. That's what I love.
helping people with. That's what I'm good at
helping people with. And that's what people who
choose to take action are also good at prolonging
their lives and reducing dependency on drugs.
But this blood pressure is different. Blood pressure
is different than cholesterol. A lot of people
know that the standard medical line that everyone
needs to be on statin drugs is nonsense. There
are lots of other effective ways to reduce your
risk of heart disease that don't involve taking
statin drugs. Well, there are lots of ways that
you could lower your blood pressure, but a lot
of people don't do it. A lot of people don't
even measure their blood pressure. So just know
that this part, in this area of taking care of
your own health, you cannot assume that you're
fine if you feel fine. High blood pressure and
its consequences have no symptoms. The most common
first symptom of severe underlying heart disease.
is sudden death from a heart attack. So you want
to avoid that. The only way you know that you're
going to avoid that is by taking your blood pressure
in a relaxed way in the privacy of your own home,
charting the numbers, keeping a log of them so
that you know how you're doing. Daniel Jones,
MD of the University of Mississippi Medical Center
in Jackson, said in their press release, quote,
by addressing individual risks earlier. And offering
more tailored strategies across the lifespan,
these new 2025 guidelines aim to aid clinicians
in helping more people manage their blood pressure
and reduce the toll of not just heart disease,
but also kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, and
dementia. Anything that affects your risk of
heart disease dramatically affects your risk
of dementia, but also... kidney disease and type
2 diabetes. If you have those things, they'll
make them much worse. Most people with diabetes
die of a heart attack or a stroke. So all of
these things are connected. And these new guidelines
use a tool called the American Heart Association
PREVENT, Predicting Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
Events. It's a risk calculator. So you can go
to their website and look it up and you fill
in a little form and it'll give you, and it's
a percentage. Is it 5%, 10 %? Or more, the old
guideline was a 10 % number. The new guideline
they're looking for, 7 .5 % or less, is bad enough
to start taking medication. Well, anytime you
hear that, know that what it really means is
you need to do something to reduce those risk
factors. I'm going to get to them in just a second,
but there's other ways to reduce most of these
risk factors so you can still avoid taking the
medication. But you've got to check your pressure
and make sure. that you're doing what you need
to do. So here's the list of things that you
fill in. If you go to this tool, email me, I
can send you the link. Your gender, age, total
cholesterol, you can't modify those two, but
total cholesterol, HTL good cholesterol, blood
pressure, BMI, all of those things you can alter
dramatically with the things that you eat. the
way you manage your stress levels, things that
I can help you with, things that you may be aware
of, some things you may not be aware of but that
are available and perhaps easier to do than you
may think. BMI is on the list. A healthy BMI
is 18 .5 to 24. Overweight is 25 to 29 and obese
is 30. or more and if you most people know that
bmi is not by itself not a great measure of your
health because it doesn't take into account different
types of bodies if you're thick boned or thick
generally then It's okay to have a higher BMI
and still be healthy. Your kidney tests and diabetes
and whether or not you smoke and whether or not
you're on medication for blood pressure or cholesterol
are the other criteria on this American Heart
Association preventing your cardiovascular risk
disease. So in addition to gender, age, total
and good cholesterol, blood pressure, BMI, they're
also asking you to enter your average glomerular
filtration rate, which is a standard kidney test.
And so you won't know that unless you've had
a blood test that tells you that. But it's just
one of the measures of kidney function. And are
you diabetic or not? Do you smoke? Are you on
blood pressure medication or cholesterol medication?
Those are the things that are now used for the
latest, greatest predictor risk factor for cardiovascular
disease. So most of those things you can. you
can do something about yourself and avoid becoming
dependent on drugs. But it is a good measure.
They've put in the time. They've done the data.
This is a good measure of your risk of developing
cardiovascular disease with one proviso. So the
assumption... is that if you have high cholesterol,
it guarantees that you're at risk. That's the
one weakness. High cholesterol doesn't cause
heart disease. It is very strongly associated
with it. They do go together, but they're not
causatively linked. You can have high cholesterol
and be at low risk of heart disease, and you
can have normal cholesterol and be at high risk
of cardiovascular disease. I'm Dr. Todd Binkley.
You're listening to Safe, Effective, Natural
Solutions to Almost Any Health Challenge. Today
we're talking about high blood pressure, and
I promise I go over some case studies. So I want
to make sure that I don't forget to do that.
I always tend to run out of time early. So here's
just an example. Here's a common example. A 57
-year -old obese man. His average blood pressure
was 170 over 95, had been that way for several
years. He tried some blood pressure medication,
didn't like the way it made him feel. And he,
you know, he was a big, strong man. And he just,
he said, I'm not going to take this anymore.
I feel fine. Well, I told him, you know, it doesn't
matter how you feel. You need to get your blood
pressure down. He said, okay, well, how are we
going to do that? So one of the main things I
gave him was a product called Citronox by Ortho
Molecular Products. The main ingredient is citrulline.
And the reason that that works is because it
supports the production of nitric oxide. So one
of the main ways your body regulates blood pressure
is through the production of nitric oxide. And
so I gave him a supplement that directly increases
the effectiveness of that. And he was also taking
some of the basic things that I recommend for
everyone. A good multivitamin to supply minerals
that are necessary cofactors for enzymatic reactions
in every part of your body. He was taking a high
dose, a good high dose, three grams of a high
quality fish oil, which reduces inflammation.
in the entire cardiovascular system. He was taking
some seropeptase, which is a systemic enzyme
for joint health, joint inflammation, but also
reduces inflammation in the vasculature, which
will indirectly lower blood pressure. And he
was taking glutathione support to reduce inflammation
throughout the body. It was also taking betaine
HCL to maintain stomach acid levels. I mentioned
this last week or the week before, I think. There
was a study showing that people who take acid
-blocking drugs, PPIs, protonics, Prevacid, Nexium,
drugs like this, when they take these drugs,
they're deliberately lowering their stomach acid
levels. And a normal amount of stomach acid is
essential for nitric oxide production in the
stomach. So to regulate your blood pressure,
you need adequate nitric oxide. The main way
you get it is by converting nitrates and nitrites
in your stomach into nitric oxide, which requires
adequate acid. So lots of people don't have enough
of that as they get older. And so anyway, these
other nutrients he was taking for other reasons,
they're good things for anyone to take. I recommend
that everyone take a good four capsule a day
multivitamin, mainly for the minerals you don't
get from your food. I recommend that everyone
who wants to be healthy take a good dose of a
high quality fish oil and that everyone take
vitamin D. And a lot of people I find benefit
from systemic enzymes for arthritis and joint
inflammation and vascular inflammation. And a
lot of people are deficient in hydrochloric acid
in the stomach as they get older. So he was taking
these things. But then we added citrulline to
directly support nitric oxide. Citrulline, a
lot of people have heard of arginine, and there's
a lot of data on arginine to support nitric oxide
production, but arginine passes through your
system very quickly. It has a very temporary
effect on increased nitric oxygen production,
and citrulline is further up the chain in that
same pathway of... producing nitric oxide, and
so it has a longer -lasting effect. So he took
that. This 57 -year -old obese man reduced his
average blood pressure from 170, the top number,
to 135. That's huge. From 135 points, top number,
from 170 to 135. This is over several months.
And the bottom number, which was 95 before, too
high, reduced it down to 85. Still a little bit
higher than ideal, but a dramatic improvement.
And the dramatic reduction, much more dramatic
reduction in the top number, is a cause to celebrate.
And he was very excited. So that is a very common
example. I've had scores of patients, probably
hundreds of patients that had some similar circumstance
like that where maybe they already have a good
exercise program. They feel like and can demonstrate
to a certain level of my confidence that they're
managing their stress well. They don't seem super
stressed out by something. And they are, most
importantly, actively checking their blood pressure
and logging it so they know whether or not what
they're doing is working. And sometimes you just
need a little something extra. So supporting
nitric oxide production and a few basic nutrients
can often make the huge difference. Well, here's
another case that I always love to talk about.
This is an 82 -year -old woman. whose blood pressure
for many years, 15 years or more, had been averaging
157 over 90. So the top number is way too high.
The bottom number is right on the border of what's
considered high blood pressure. And she refused
to take medication. She was thin, fit, had an
amazing life. She was a concert violinist and
an orchestra conductor. She organized and produced
a Christmas play every year with children at
her church. She was a force of nature. So it
was easy to see why she refused to take these
medications. But also the main reason she didn't
want to take it is because they made her dizzy.
So if you're not checking your pressure regularly
and if you're not interacting with your physician
regularly, which she wasn't on this point, the
drugs made her dizzy. And so it's not hard to
see why she wouldn't want to take them. And that
is not uncommon, especially in people in their
80s, for a physician to give somebody too much.
to overzealously dose the blood pressure medication,
which results in someone feeling dizzy, especially
when they stand up quickly. So if that's happening,
then you shouldn't be taking that much medication.
But it doesn't mean you shouldn't take any. And
it definitely still means you should do something
to get that pressure under control. So I asked
her, I said, have you taken, she was a pretty
sophisticated customer. She had been trying various
things for many, many years before she came to
me. She was referred to me by a naturopath who
had been helping her with a number of things.
So I asked her, I said, have you taken a good
dose? Well, what's a good dose? Three grams,
three to four capsules of a high quality official.
Oh yeah, I tried that. It didn't work. I said,
are you taking 5 ,000 units of vitamin D every
day? To get your blood level up to between 50
and 90. She said, well, no, not that much. But
there's vitamin D somewhere in the stuff I take.
I know I'm taking my vitamin D. Well, she hasn't
tested it. And I said, are you taking a good
multivitamin to get all the minerals and bioavailable
forms that your body needs to catalyze all the
chemical reactions required for healing and repairing?
No. I mean, yes, no, I did that. It didn't work.
Have you taken natto kinase, the systemic enzyme
from the Japanese food natto that was identified
several decades ago to be a chief cause of the
much lower incidence of cardiovascular disease?
In the Japanese, no. She tried that once briefly,
didn't work. Has she tried any form of citrulline
like the product I was just talking about? Yeah,
she tried it, it didn't work. I said, are you
taking coenzyme Q10 to keep your heart strong
so that it doesn't have to work so hard when
you're active, even though your blood pressure
is too high and you can still do everything you
want without the pressure spiking? She says,
yeah, I tried that for several years, didn't
work. Well, hopefully by now listeners to this
show know where I'm going with this. What is
my next question? Have you ever tried taking
all of those things at the same time? Well, no,
of course not, she said indignantly. How would
I know if any of them worked if I didn't take
them one at a time to see if they worked? Well,
That strategy doesn't work. Nutrients don't work.
They're not drugs. They don't work by themselves.
They work in combination. You need to take them
in combination. And if you don't want to take
a whole bunch of capsules for the rest of your
life, I'm with you on that too. But the way you
do it, the way that's effective is to use proper
testing to identify what you need now and take
everything all at the same time and retest to
make sure that's working and then slowly take
things away. one at a time, to get down to the
least number of things you need to take in addition
to a good diet and moving your body regularly
to maintain your health. Well, this woman is
smart and she did exactly that. She took everything
that I just mentioned. And after a few weeks,
her blood pressure went in her 80s. This is really
difficult to do. It's really easy, relatively
easy to get someone's blood pressure down 15,
20, 30 points when they're in their 40s, 50s
and 60s. This is an 82 year old woman. I didn't
mention it before. She had also had open heart
surgery. a few, a couple of year and a half,
something like that before then. And her blood
pressure dropped 30 points. The top number went
from 157 to 127 over 90. The 90 is not going
to change. The bottom number is the pressure
that's in your pipes all the time. It's the result
of stiffness from aging, a little bit of plaque
buildup. It's really difficult to lower that
bottom number, and it's not caused by stress.
And it's not as important in a situation like
this. Getting that top number down is the one
that causes the most strain on your heart, the
one that causes a sudden heart attack or a stroke.
And we got it down 30 points. And she didn't
even need to take all those things forever. She
took them for a few months until we got it under
control, started doing some other things, and
started checking her blood pressure regularly
so she knew what was working and what was required
to maintain that. And she lived for many, many
years. After that, doing all of the things that
she loved. So what can you do to naturally lower
your blood pressure? Obviously, you need to check
it. And deep breathing, actually, is a simple
thing. And the most effective way to do it is
to, that anyone can do, is to just lie on the
floor. Not on your bed, not on a couch. You need
to be on a firm surface to get the muscles in
your rib cage and other muscles that affect the
stress that causes your blood pressure to go
up. You need to be lying on a firm. surface because
when you slowly breathe in, hold for a moment
and slowly breathe out, the pressure of gravity
pushing your weight against a firm surface like
the floor or a firm table, you could lie on any
kind of a table, a massage table or a coffee
table or a kitchen table with a mat on it, any
kind of firm surface, but it's important to be
on a firm surface and slowly breathe, hold for
a moment and breathe out. Breathe in for a count
of six or eight or however long. you can breathe
in as slowly as possible and count in your mind.
And if you get to eight, pause for a count of
one or two and then make sure the exhalation
takes longer. So if you breathe in for a count
of eight, then restrict the exhalation so that
it takes a little bit longer. If you breathe
into a count of eight, breathe out to a count
of 10. If you only count to six when you're breathing
in, then breathe out to a count of eight. Some
people recommend box breathing where you breathe
in on a count of four, hold for four, breathe
out for a count of four. That's okay too. Any
kind of deep breathing is going to be beneficial,
but I find the basics, the most important details
that make it effective are to breathe in as slowly
as you can, count, hold for a count or two, and
make the exhalation take longer. Most people
breathe in slowly and exhale quickly, just restricting
and extending that exhalation over and over slowly.
calmly on a firm surface for about 10 or 15 minutes,
not for a minute or two, at least 10 minutes.
Most of the time you really, and you can test
your blood pressure before and after. That's
how you know how long, how long do you need to
do it? Check your pressure before and after and
see how long it takes to make a difference. For
most people, it's about 15 minutes on a firm
surface. We are about out of time again. Thank
you so much for tuning in next week. We're going
to continue talking about that. There's so much
more information to give on how to reduce your
blood pressure. Please tune in next Friday at
2 p .m. You've been listening to Safe, Effective
Natural Solutions with Dr. Todd Binkley. If you
have a health question you want discussed on
the show, email your health questions to drbinkley
at binkleyhealingcenter .com. Take advantage
of this opportunity to ask questions for yourself
and for your loved ones because our health matters.
Join him next Friday at 2 p .m. for Safe, Effective
Natural Solutions here on 98 .3 FM The Word