Wellness Unmasked Weekly Rundown: 2025 Blood Pressure Guidelines & The Fight to Make America Healthy Again

Dr. Nicole Saphier gives her thoughts on past government health reports for lacking rigor and welcomes the upcoming "Make America Healthy Again" report, which promises to address childhood obesity, chronic illness, and needed food policy changes. Dr. Saphier also reviews the new 2025 blood pressure guidelines, applauding their emphasis on prevention, early intervention, and personal responsibility. She encourages listeners to stay informed, monitor their health, and support evidence-based reforms to improve America’s well-being. Wellness Unmasked is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Friday. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Willness. I'n mass I'm doctor Nicole Saffire and
this is your weekly rundown. We are tackling two big topics. First.
The second Make America Healthy Again or MAHA Report is
due out any day now, and there's a lot of
chatter about what it might say, because, well, let's be honest,
the last one, while it contained a lot of good information,

(00:21):
it focused a lot on childhood obesity and chronic illness
when it came to our kids. There were a lot
of flaws in this report. In fact, it was pretty embarrassing.
There were fake citations, a lot of it seemed ai generated.
Bottom line, it would not pass the sniff test when
it came to academics when it comes to any sort

(00:42):
of publishing. I was very excited for this first report
to come out because finally we were talking about something
that needs to be addressed. It really is a medical emergency,
the health of our kids. But the report itself, unfortunately,
was a little embarrassing from medical standards. So I am
hoping that they will pay a little bit more attention
to detail in this next report. So what do we

(01:04):
think is actually going to be in this report? Well,
my guess is we're going to hear a little bit
more about childhood illness again. I think they're also going
to do a deeper dive into adult chronic disease trends
like obesity, diabetes, and autoimmune conditions, which I've told you
before I also have one of them. I think we're
going to see some recommendations for the whole federal food policy.

(01:26):
Remember decades ago when they came out with the food pyramid,
you know, fruits, vegetables, grains, blah blah blah blah blah.
We all had those pictures of food pyramids and schools.
I have a feeling that they are going to revamp
that because the reality is that food pyramid is part
of the reason we are where we are today with
all of our illness, because at the bottom it had

(01:47):
all of the whole grains and breads and carbohydrates. And sure,
while maybe if we live in the blue zones all
across the world where it is pure bread, someone is
back in the back rolling out the dough and not
the ultra processed crap that we consume on a daily
basis here in the United States, then maybe it would
have been okay. But the reality is the grains and

(02:10):
breads that we are consuming is not not the kind
that was entended with that food pyramid. So I think
we're going to see some changes in that. They're probably
going to mention some environmental health proposals, you know, removing
more of the dies and the chemicals. All these little
things can contribute together to really make America healthy again.

(02:30):
Not one thing is going to be the saving grace,
but it will take a lot of little things and
especially people taking it seriously and making some changes to
overall decrease the chronic illness in our country. Now, the
next thing something that came out recently new twenty twenty
five blood pressure guidelines. This week, the American Heart Association

(02:51):
in American College of Cardiology released their first major update
to blood pressure guidelines since twenty seventeen. And there's a
lot here that can change how we die, diagnose, and
treat hypertension also known as high blood pressure. They're emphasizing
prevention and treatment before blood pressure spiles upward, which is
shouldn't we have been doing that all along? We shouldn't

(03:12):
just say, okay, well, once your blood pressure gets here,
this is what we need to do. They're putting a
little bit more emphasis on what we're going to do
before that top systolic number gets to one hundred and thirty.
This isn't just for your heart health, but it's also
to help other things like your brain health, because good
blood pressure reduces your risk for dementia later on in life.

(03:32):
Outgoes the old risk calculator. Now there's a new risk
tool which takes a broader look at the overall cardiovascular risk,
which includes more of family history and helps tailor treatment
specific to the individual. And they are also emphasizing on
lifestyle first, but you know, with backup, they still want diet, exercise,
weight management, and stress control front and center. But they're

(03:56):
also encouraging earlier use of medications when needed, including some
of those weight loss injections like GLP ones for people
with both high blood pressure and obesity. There's been a
new study out this week that actually shows that people
who are regularly using those GLP ones have actually shaved
off years of debilitating illness and may actually increase not

(04:20):
only their quality of life, but how long they actually
may be living. So there's going to be more to
come on these GLP ones. I don't recommend everyone goes
out and gets on them. But certainly if you are
someone who is overweight has some medical conditions, you should
talk to your doctor about it because they are proving
to have some significant benefit. Recommendations are also expanding guidance
for managing high blood pressure during pregnancy and aforte delivery

(04:43):
with women, with an emphasis on early treatment and close
follow up. Cardiovascular disease or heart disease and stroke remain
the number one killer in women, so I'm very happy
to see them focusing more on women. It's also encouraging
healthcare providers to work together for patients to monitor the
blood pressure at home and doctors to prescribe combination pills
when possible to make things simpler. In short, well these

(05:05):
guidelines are pushed to catch problems sooner, individualized care and
make treatment easier to stick with. And this is all
good news if we want to keep both our hearts
and our brains healthy. Thank you so much for tuning in.
I'm doctor Nicole Sapphire and this has been your Wellness
Unmass Weekly Rundown. We are going to keep a close
eye on the MAHA report when it drops, and in

(05:26):
the meantime maybe check your blood pressure at home. When
you go to the pharmacy, sometimes they have those machines.
You might be surprised what you find. Make sure you
listen to Wellness on Mass with doctor Nicole Sapphire on
iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and we will
see you next time.