Episode 147: Blood Pressure Stress

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Be my physician.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
He said, you're definitely ill than to the nurse. I've
seen worse.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Than the doctor.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Just gave me a pill. Take one of those three
times today. You don't never stop on till you're really
dead er, alf better keep out of the reach of children.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Made.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
The thing is that some side effects, you mean, the
probably will well. Limits of fact you can't come. I'll
give you one out of the film.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
On top of that, on top of that, on top
of that, on top.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Of that, on top of that, on top of that,
and then he showed me his bill.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
I popped another pill.

Speaker 4 (00:36):
Welcome to When Your Health Matters. Your host is doctor
Richard Huntoon of Advanced Alternative Medicine Center located right here
in Pool of Georgia. Doctor Hantoon has been practicing alternative health,
utilizing chiropractic and many other health techniques for the past
twenty seven years to support you when your health matters.
It's his intention to offer practical advice every week for

(00:57):
you to consider and to apply in your own life
to make your life and the lives of your family
and friends healthier and happier. When you have questions, you'll
get your answers from doctor Rick himself or another expert
on the show. Being empowered to make positive health choices
before problem arises is the best way to approach health,
and doctor Rick promises to have information for you every

(01:17):
week that will allow you to become proactive and empowered
to take control of your health and your life.

Speaker 5 (01:23):
You are listening to the Alternative Healthcare Network.

Speaker 6 (01:27):
Welcome to this week's show, When Your Health Matters, the
show designed to empower you to better health through knowledge
and education. And I'm your host, doctor Richard Untun from
Advanced Alternative Medicine Center. And here's my partner for the show,
your health advocate, Mark steff.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
It's a pleasure to be back with you today, and
I wanted to talk to you about a subject that
I think a lot of people are dealing with, and
that is the issue of stress and how that relates
to your blood pressure. But before we get into some
of the more dynamic things about stress, what exactly is
blood pressure and what does it tell you about your health?

Speaker 7 (02:04):
Well, I appreciate that question. Mark.

Speaker 6 (02:05):
Blood pressure is the measurement of the resistance within the
arteries of the body, and it's an indication of the
stress within the heart. And the cardiovascular system itself. It
tells us what the current levels of stress are in
the person and is one indicator of how the person
is doing. Used to be considered a vital indicator, and

(02:25):
for most healthcare offices it is ignored, or not taken properly.

Speaker 7 (02:29):
Or not even taken at all, ignored, ignored.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Really, I would think that because I mean, every time
I've ever gone to a doctor's obviously that's one of
the first things they do is they test blood pressure,
they test the oxygen level.

Speaker 6 (02:43):
Well, yeah, they do, they do that, but they don't
really do anything with the number. If it's if it's
something that the doctor choose to uh take advantage of,
then there'll be a conversation. But if you're generally in uh,
you know, the doctor's office for nothing hugely specific, or

(03:07):
if you're there for a specific issue, they will take
that as part of your introduction to the office. They'll take,
you know, your pulse, they'll take your blood pressure, they'll
take your temperature, they'll take those things and they'll put
the notes, the numbers in the file. But then unless

(03:27):
they're really a problem, they don't even mention them.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
So you mean, unless you're going to somebody that's a
specialist about having high blood pressure or something like that.
They're just it's just a point of reference.

Speaker 6 (03:39):
That's a point of reference. It's it's you know, just
the the data that they keep every time that you
come in. Because we were taught when we first got
into evaluating people that you want to, quote, do the vitals,
and that's your height, that's your weight, that's your blood
pressure at your pulse rate, and so they will have

(04:02):
a tendency to take quote the vitals and they will
go into the file, but nothing's really done with them
unless one of them is the particular reason why you
came into the office to begin with.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Mm hmm. Now does that blood pressure actually measure the
level of stress in your body? I mean, stress is
a pretty inclusive word. So what is the stress that
it's measuring.

Speaker 6 (04:28):
Well, actually, it measures the pressure within the heart and
the vascular system when the heart beats and when it
relaxes and fills, and so it's you're actually measuring what
the pressure is when the heart maximumly contracts to pump
blood to the rest of the body, and then when
it relaxes so that it can actually fill for the

(04:50):
next beat.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
So there's always I mean, there's always got to be
some level of pressure in there, right, correct. So would
you say that mental stress alone could actually make your
blood pressure rise?

Speaker 6 (05:03):
Absolutely, As the body simply responds to stress, regardless of
whether it's physical, mental, emotional, chemical, or thermal, whether it's
actual stress or perceived stress, the body's going to respond
mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
So even if it's in your imagination, you could still
just the thought could actually cause your blood pressure arise.

Speaker 7 (05:25):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Well, So what is it about high blood pressure that
makes it such a big problem.

Speaker 6 (05:31):
Well, they've made it such a big problem in an
effort to push medication, and we don't teach people how
to be healthy, and all we do is focused on
disease and management of disease. Blood pressure is an easy target,
it's low cost to determine, and it's high lifetime return for.

Speaker 7 (05:46):
Most mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Now, I mean, but there are problems if you have
high blood pressure. Aren't there going to be problems associated
with it?

Speaker 6 (05:55):
Yeah, you can get vascular disease, you can get heart disease,
kidney disease, a dreamal burnout, and so we certainly want
to appreciate that each one of those takes years in
order to finally develop. And blood pressure is kind of
like a doorway or a window into seeing if the

(06:16):
person has a tendency towards those long term chronic diseases.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
So are there other kinds of problems that high blood
pressure that would indicate for a person? I mean, high
blood pressure itself is one thing, but what about would
that tell you you have heart disease, or would that
tell you you have an ulcer? Or would that tell
you anything else about your health?

Speaker 6 (06:39):
Well, it doesn't necessarily tell you anything else about your health.
What it does do is, like I said, it's a
window for them to measure. You know, there are no
symptoms of high blood.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
Pressure, So unlike stomach aches and pains here and there.

Speaker 6 (06:56):
Right where you get an ache or a pain or
some kind of of direct indication there there, the high
blood pressure is considered the silent killer because there are
no symptoms associated with it.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
That's so interesting because I remember hearing people in life,
and you know, even in movies it's like, oh, it's
making me blood pressure rise, And people will say something
like that, like there is some way that they're recognizing
that the stress they're under would make them say my
blood pressure has gone up.

Speaker 6 (07:28):
Yeah, and it's ultimately because that's that's how they the
industry has made it that way. It's fascinating that in
countries outside of the United States, blood pressure we consider
high and need to medicate.

Speaker 7 (07:40):
Other countries do not, and there's no medication offered.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Huh, that's wild. And now you said that there are
two different parts of the measurement. There's the systolic reading
and then there's the diastolic So it's because your heart
is beating, so it's pumping blood out and then it
has to fill back into the heart.

Speaker 6 (08:00):
Right, So when your heart is beating, that's when there's
maximum pressure. That's called your systolic pressure. That's the first
number that they take. And then the second number is
the diastolic pressure. When the heart is relaxed and uh,
you know, blood is returning and filling up the chambers
of the heart in order to get beat out.

Speaker 7 (08:18):
The next the you know, contraction of the heart.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
So how so I know. So they usually put a
cuff around your arm, right, and then the squeezes tighter
and tighter and tighter. So what does that actually allow that?
How does that allow them to measure your blood pressure.

Speaker 6 (08:33):
Well, what it's doing is it's closing off the blood
flow into the.

Speaker 7 (08:39):
Arm like it's like a tourniquet. Okay. And so when they've.

Speaker 6 (08:45):
Raised the pressure to the point where now the blood
vessels are totally being blocked off and no blood is
flowing through, and then they slowly release the pressure while
they're listening with the stethoscope to where the artery is
below the blood pressure cuff. When the pressure has opened
enough to where blood starts to flow again, that's the

(09:08):
first measurement that they're going to hear within the sethoscope.
And once the heart starts beating, whatever that pressure registers
on the sphigma monometer is your systolic or your upper number.
That's the maximum pressure that the heart is under it, right,

(09:28):
And then they continue to let the pressure out and
you'll still hear the heart beating, heart beating, heart beating,
heart beating. And then when you get to where you've
released enough of the pressure and the blood vessel has
gone back to its normal size and things are going
through it, then the sound that you're hearing in your
ears while taking the blood pressure will stop making a sound.

(09:52):
And when it stops making a sound, that's when you
are at your maximum expansion of the arteries, and that's
considered to your diastolic pressure, and that's when the heart
is relaxed and it's not under duress.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Mm hmm. No, that's interesting. So, now your blood pressure
changes throughout the day, doesn't It's not always the same.

Speaker 6 (10:13):
Well, it changes based upon what it is that you're
doing and and how your body responds to that. Uh So,
it's it's it's just a question of of what is
your your stress like during the day, and what is
it that that how is your body dealing with that stress,
and does it respond in a in a balanced, healthy

(10:36):
fashion or is it responding in a way that is
leading to things like heart disease and athrosclerosis and kidney problems,
et cetera.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Mm hmm. Now, if you take your let's say you
take your blood pressure twice in a row, right back
to back, will you get a different reading?

Speaker 6 (10:54):
That depends on if you are duplicating the same procedure.
If you change position, the answer will be no. If
you change arms, the answers could be no. And so
when we take if you truly want to take blood
pressure correctly, you want to start with the patient seated
with the cuff on, and you want to get the
blood pressure reading, and immediately after you get the reading,

(11:17):
have them stand up and take the blood pressure again.
And then when you've gotten that reading, then you want
to have them lay down and take the blood pressure
a third time. And what you're doing is you're subjecting
the body to the laws of gravity. And if the
stress of gravity causes your blood pressure to dump or
causes your blood pressure to have a delayed response to

(11:39):
the stress of gravity, then your body isn't responding the
way that it should. You have adrenal stress and your
body's under and not managing the stress that it it's
not managing it properly.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
So that would seem like, I mean, a very different
bit of information you're getting that way, if you're seeing
by basically putting the body through the different stress relaxation
phases that you're talking about, that you're going to actually
see how the blood pressure changes due to the positional
change and the stress that that causes, and then you'll

(12:14):
find out really something important information about what's going on
with the person's health.

Speaker 6 (12:20):
Well, yeah, that's why it's important. If you're going to
take blood pressure, you don't just take it in one position.
You want to do it in the three positions, so
you actually have.

Speaker 7 (12:28):
Data that is.

Speaker 6 (12:30):
Indicating how the body is responding to the simple stress
of gravity. And we're all affected by gravity, but there's
a lot of people in the senior citizen category that
when they get up too quickly.

Speaker 7 (12:45):
They get lightheaded, right, get lightheaded.

Speaker 6 (12:47):
And so what's happening is the stress of gravity is
pulling blood out of the head, so you don't have
enough blood circulating around the head, and you start to
lose your balance and you get a little bit woozy, etc.
Until the body compensates for the stress of gravity and
then responds by pumping more blood up to the head.

(13:09):
The distance, the amount of time that it takes for
the body for the brain to recover from the stress
of gravity, indicates how bad stress is affecting the person
and how serious a problem that they have. Related to
how the body regulates blood pressure.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
So when you stand up and get light headed, would
that register on when you're taking the blood pressure or
that a subjective feeling.

Speaker 6 (13:34):
No, you would definitely have it register, which is why
you need to take it in three positions, seated, then standing,
then laying down. So when you go from seated to
standing and the blood is being pulled out of your head,
a normal response, a healthy response, would be that your
blood pressure goes up about seven to twelve points to
compensate for keeping enough blood in your brain.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
So you need more blood pressure to move blood up
into your head after standing up because you've strained. Put
that expt right.

Speaker 6 (14:05):
The change in position requires a change in compensation within
the body. So when you go from seated to standing,
you should see your blood pressure go from let's say
one hundred and twenty over eighty, you should see it
go to one hundred and thirty one hundred and thirty
two over eighty. So you should see the blood pressure

(14:25):
go up about ten to twelve points. And then when
you go from standing to laying down, now you're resting,
now you've taken stress out of the system, you should
expect the blood pressure to go back down ten to
twelve points. And so when you take the blood pressure
in those three positions, you do it seated, then you
have the person stand and take it immediately again, and

(14:47):
then have them lay down and take it immediately again.
You should see the blood pressure go from whatever it
was it's seated, it should increase ten to twelve points
when you stand, and it should definitely go down at
least twelve to fifteen points when you lay down, because
you're taking stress out of the system. Now, a lot
of people we mentioned people getting up quickly and getting

(15:08):
light headed. Those people their blood pressure doesn't go up
from seated to standing. Their blood pressure actually goes down
from seated to standing, which is the opposite of how
it should be going. And then when they go from
standing to laying down, then they will see a delayed
response which should have gone immediately up and then down.

(15:30):
They will see that it went down and then goes up.
And the time it takes to go from where you
are and at a seated position to where it are
when it goes up. The distance in the amount of
time helps a clinician understand, well, what kind of stress
is this body under and how does it just simply
respond to the stress of gravity. And if it can't

(15:52):
respond to the stress of gravity, then it's got deeper
issues that you now need to look into.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
I see, and it's amazing that it would make those
that quickly. So just simply standing up your boodet is
like right on it.

Speaker 7 (16:05):
It should be.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
It should be, I'm talking about a healthy person.

Speaker 6 (16:08):
If it doesn't, that indicates that your body is lacking
resources in which to maintain its normal level of function.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
Now does the blood pressure? How does it relate to
how the heart functions?

Speaker 6 (16:23):
It relates to the amount of stress on the heart
and the vascular system itself. The higher the pressure, the
more stress over time, which can lead to bad outcomes.
As far as you know, you get irregular heartbeats, you
get what's called either a mitral valve or a tricuspit
valve prolapse, where the doors aren't opening and closing in

(16:47):
a nice, timely fashion and meeting in the middle where
they're supposed to. When a heart becomes deficient and certain
nutrients has a tendency to twist on itself, which then
hinders how the door is open and close in a
normal fashion, and you know, then you'll end up going
down a whole rabbit hole as far as testing goes,

(17:08):
et cetera, because they're going to want to look for
the most extreme conditions instead of just simply understanding that
you have a nutritional deficiency that will help to restore
balance to the heart.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
I mean, if there's no symptom to high blood pressure,
how would you know that you have that condition? And
how do you know when that condition has reached a
level where it is of concern to your health?

Speaker 6 (17:32):
Well, the only way that you're going to know is
to have your blood pressure taken, and to have it
taken appropriately. I mean you could go into CVS, or
you can go into Walmart or whatever in the pharmaceutical
area of Walmart, and they typically have a blood pressure
machine where you stick your hand in a machine and
it measures the pulse et cetera through your hands, and

(17:54):
you can have your blood pressure taken there. It's certainly
a convenient place to go get it taken. It doesn't
require a doctor's visit. But how accurate is the machine?

Speaker 7 (18:08):
And what do you do with that number?

Speaker 6 (18:11):
Do you now take that number and bring it to
your physician. So typically, when somebody comes to my office,
if we find that they have adrenal insufficiency and they've
got some.

Speaker 7 (18:23):
Other things going on, then I'll take out my.

Speaker 6 (18:27):
Blood pressure apparatus and we'll take their blood pressure. But
we're always going to take it in three positions.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
Interesting, Well, this is a great conversation for our first
section here today, we do need to take a short
commercial break to hear from our sponsor, the Alternative Healthcare
Network dot com. But when we get back, I want
to continue our conversation about stress and blood pressure.

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(19:20):
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Speaker 1 (19:27):
So we were talking a bit about, you know, high
blood pressure in our first section. I wonder what about
low blood pressure? Is that a problem. You did say
that somebody's blood pressure will drop too much on standing
up and they'll feel lightheaded. Are there other problems with
low blood pressure?

Speaker 6 (19:46):
The first type is called orthostatic hypotension and is common
and mostly ignored, which shouldn't be ignored. It is the
sudden drop in blood pressure that we spoke about before
the commercial break, when you go from seeded to standing
and it takes a few seconds to minute to recover,
and this should be addressed as a problem, but is
often ignored. Post Prandial hypotension happens after eating a big

(20:10):
meal because all the blood then ends up going into
your digestive organs, and then you go to stand up
and there's no blood in your head, and so you
get lightheaded as a result of that.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
Interesting, what are the main causes of high blood pressure?

Speaker 7 (20:28):
What are the main causes?

Speaker 6 (20:29):
Stress as a result of nutritional deficiencies. Chronic stress with
no relief of that stress certainly is the main cause
of high blood pressure.

Speaker 7 (20:41):
Yeah, So when you talk.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
About these nutritional deficiencies, are there specific ones that are
related to blood pressure or are these just overall general
you're not eating enough vegetables or something.

Speaker 6 (20:56):
Well, it's a question of making sure that you're getting
enough of the nutrients that the bio it needs in
order to have the ingredients that it needs to maintain itself.
If you don't have the necessary ingredients in which to
maintain how the body functions physiologically, then you're going to
start to develop physiological imbalances. And blood pressure is a

(21:19):
physiological process that is controlled and regulated by your adrenal
glands through your kidneys, and that typically is in response
to resources or not having enough resources.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
What about things like if you're overweight, does that affect
your blood pressure?

Speaker 6 (21:41):
Being overweight could cause that to become an issue. It's
important to appreciate that just because a person's overweight doesn't
mean that they have a blood pressure issue. Everything functions
under duress to cause high blood pressure. So the more
weight that you're carrying, if you're not aerobically fit in

(22:04):
spite of your size, then that certainly can contribute to it.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
Now you mentioned aerobically fit, is that something that you
should be mindful of in terms of keeping regulating your
blood pressure?

Speaker 6 (22:17):
Well, we should all be more aerobically fit than we
currently are. Everybody has a tendency to be sedentary in
their jobs, you know, and because we're not being more
physically active with our daily routine, then the body becomes
a little bit lazy and it doesn't respond to stress.

(22:39):
The way that it should because we don't stress it
out with physical activity.

Speaker 7 (22:43):
During the course of our day. Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
Now there are other things that go into you know,
we die about nutrition, but what about things like dehydration.
There's a lot of talk about electrolyte waters and electrolyte imbalances,
and there's a whole thing about the sodium and potassium
levels in your body. How do those affect your blood pressure?

Speaker 6 (23:07):
Well, when you are dehydrated, your blood pressure should naturally
go should naturally go down. Why is that Well, because
there's less fluid in the system. So the body will
respond by releasing a hormone to conserve sodium, which conserves water,
and then the blood pressure will begin to go up.
When one is stressed, the body conserves sodium and blood

(23:27):
pressure increases. What happens when the body when the stress
has passed, you get a thing hauled aldosterone eskate to
help the body excrete fluid and also to let go
of some of the sodium.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
Now, you mentioned a few minutes ago the fact that
the kidney plays in this role. What is the role
of the kidneys in regulating your blood pressure? I thought
blood pressure was about what's going on with your circulatory system.

Speaker 6 (23:58):
Well, the kidneys, with the help of the adream hormones,
regulate the holding or releasing of all electrolytes, especially sodium
and potassium, and these two specifically help to regulate blood pressure.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Now, another problem that we've talked about in the past,
not that long ago, inflammation that seems to be a
major problem for a lot of people that it's sort
of the precursor to almost every disease out there. What
role does inflammation play in blood pressure being out of balance?

Speaker 6 (24:30):
Well, we need to appreciate that inflammation is caused by
nutritional deficiencies. The body responds to hoarding sodium when stressed,
as we have explained, and this drives blood pressure up.
And so what we want to appreciate is the fact
that anytime somebody has inflammation, their body is letting you

(24:54):
know that it's lacking the resources it needs to return
back to balance and return back to harmony. So inflammation
is the first indication of some kind of disease process starting,
and if you are able to nip it in the bud,
then it never actually gets to progress to a full
blown disease state.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Well, and you're talking about dealing with these kind of
health concerns. One of the things that we've talked about
is that it takes a long time for its symptoms
to develop. So you may be on the road to
developing some kind of health problem not knowing it for
a long time before that first symptoms shows.

Speaker 6 (25:34):
Up, right, And that's why the healthcare industry and the
insurance industry.

Speaker 7 (25:39):
Have paired up to.

Speaker 6 (25:42):
Have people come in for a quote wellness visit once
a year so they can catch things that will require treatment,
to the point where they're even willing to give away
the evaluation because they know that they'll roughly capture seventy
percent of the people that take advantage.

Speaker 7 (25:59):
Of the evaluation.

Speaker 6 (26:01):
So if you get a free evaluation, it's an opportunity
for them to see, okay, who doesn't need any kind
of care, who's on the cusp of needing care, who
definitely needs care, And then you know, if they catch
seven out of every ten people that definitely need care, okay,
it's a you know, seventy percent return on their investment.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
I mean, I mean, I would think that would be
a good thing. That you want to know that you
need care, don't you.

Speaker 6 (26:28):
Well, of course you want to know, but you don't
want to do it reactively. You want to do it proactively.
You want to be responsible for your health, and you
want to be living a lifestyle that promotes your health
because you're doing things the way that you should be doing.
You're eating the right kinds of foods, you're not eating
the crap foods. You're drinking plenty of high quality water.
You're exercising, you're getting enough sleep, and you're taking care

(26:53):
of yourself and you're managing your stress.

Speaker 7 (26:55):
In a way. Those are all the things that you
want to do to be proactive.

Speaker 6 (27:00):
If you are a couch potato or somebody that just
sits behind a computer screen for ten twelve hours a
day and never does any kind of exercising and plows
through bags of whatever it is that they happen to
be snacking on, you're going to want to have that
person checked relatively regularly, and the insurance industry will allow

(27:21):
you to get.

Speaker 7 (27:21):
Checked once a year.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
So from your perspective, what you would like to see
in that annual health visit is that there's nothing that
you need to get any additional care for because your
health checks out, Oh, you're in good shape. Would that
be what you would be wanting to see out of
that wellness visit.

Speaker 6 (27:42):
The wellness visit, from my perspective, is a gift by
the insurance industry for you to go in and have
an evaluation.

Speaker 7 (27:50):
My thought is is you should always take.

Speaker 6 (27:51):
Advantage of something that they're willing to give away for free.
But you shouldn't be that person that only goes to
see their doctor that one time a year. If they
work with somebody that is a holistic health care provider
who can look at your body holistically and nip problems
in the bud before they become fully you know, vetted

(28:16):
health concerns that are going to require lots of treatment
and different medications. If you're living the proactive lifestyle and
you have a health care provider that helps you maintain
your health on a regular basis, not somebody who checks
you once a year to see if you qualify for
any intervention, it's a completely different philosophy. It's a completely

(28:39):
different approach.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
Now you're talking extensively about diet and how that affects
what's going on with your blood pressure. So are there
certain foods that would cause or lead to high blood pressure?

Speaker 6 (28:55):
Well, they talk about sodium in your diet, and if
you're eating foods that are high.

Speaker 7 (29:01):
In sodium, if you're eating foods that are high in.

Speaker 6 (29:06):
Any kind of artificial flavorings MSG. You know, the chemicals
that we've done shows on in the past that find
their way into our food supply, and how the body
has to deal with those chemicals that find their way
into our food supply. Those are all the different things

(29:26):
that stress the body out, that cause nutritional deficiencies, which
then disregulates how the stress system, governed by the adrenal glands,
regulates your stress response either in a balanced way or
in most people's case, in an unbalanced way.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
So, if there are foods that could lead you to
the problem of high blood pressure, are there other foods,
specific foods that would be helpful to regulate your blood pressure.

Speaker 6 (29:55):
Well, yeah, I mean specific foods that help to lower
blood pressure. Are is the opposite of the sodium food
in the physiology of what carries things into the cell
versus what carries things out of the cell. The counterpart
to sodium.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
Is potassium, So you can have more potassium, and so
if you.

Speaker 6 (30:16):
Add more potassium into the diet, that will help to
offset the excess of sodium that helps to drive blood
pressure up, and so most people aren't because of what
they've done in the food industry. Most people aren't suffering
from an excess amount of sodium, they're suffering from a
lack of potassium.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Where do you get potassium from.

Speaker 6 (30:39):
Well, you can get potassium from bananas, which is an
easy source of food. And you know, leafy green vegetables,
foods that have the more color that the foods have,
the more balanced in terms of the chemicals that are
necessary to maintain health and balance within the body. So,

(31:03):
you know, we've heard it our whole lives that you
need to eat more fruits and vegetables because those are
things that nature grows. Except now that we've modified nature
and genetically modified nature, then sometimes that's not the case.
But my perspective has always been if God grows it,
you should eat it. And if you spend more time

(31:23):
eating God grown food as opposed to man made food,
then you'll have much better health outcomes.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
Now, would it be enough to use nutrition as an
alternative to blood pressure medication to lower your blood pressure?

Speaker 6 (31:38):
In terms of what we do in my office, The
answer is is yes, as all nutritional deficiencies are the cause.
So if you eliminate the deficiencies by feeding the body
proper nutrition, then the blood pressure issues don't result.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
Now, what about somebody who has some kind of vascular disease,
hardening of the arteries or something like that. What does
that do to affect your blood pressure?

Speaker 6 (32:07):
Well, if the flexibility of the arteries are hardening and
they're not as pliable and it's not as flexible, then
that's going to create problems within the blood vessels, which
is going to create more pressure in the system.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
And are there other problems that would extend you from
those kind of things like hardened arteries or thickened arteries.

Speaker 6 (32:31):
Well, all heart related issues and vascular issues are directly
related to the thickening of the arteries into posits within
the arteries. So all cardiovascular issues are made worse when
the stress within the arteries causes the arteries to thicken.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
Now, you mentioned that aerobic exercises something that you can
use to sort of help with getting your blood pressure
in the right place. How do you do that kind
of exer say, what would that involve?

Speaker 6 (33:04):
Understanding what your heart rate is, why you're exercising. If
as a general rule. If you take one hundred and
eighty and you subtract your age, that's typically the highest
level that you want your blood pressure to go. So
when you take one hundred and eighty, subtract your age,

(33:27):
and so if we use me as an example, one
hundred and eighty minus sixty some sixty years of age. Now,
so that makes it one hundred and twenty. Now, if
I've worked out consistently, then I don't want my heart
rate to go above one hundred and twenty beats per minute.
And but that's the maximum number that I don't want

(33:49):
it to exceed. Well, what's the minimum number that I
needed to get it up to. Well, if I subtract
ten from that, So that makes it one hundred and ten.
If I keep my heart rate between one hundred and
ten and one hundred and twenty, and I do that
for greater than twenty minutes, after twenty minutes, I'm going
to be working out aerobically, I'm going to be burning
fat for fuel, and I'm going to be using sodium

(34:09):
as the primary electrolyte to help feed the system to
make the system go. If I go above one hundred
and twenty, or if I don't get up to as
high as one hundred and ten. Now I'm working out anaerobically,
and anaerobically creates fitness, but it doesn't do anything for
your health, whereas aerobically builds your health while also increasing

(34:31):
your fitness. And the difference is when you're working out anaerobically,
you want to use potassium as the primary electrolyte versus
sodium one it's used in aerobic activity. And so when
you get your heart rate within a certain range based
upon your age and your health, okay, and you support

(34:53):
it that way by doing that kind of repetitive exercise,
whether it's running, whether it's cycling, whether it's swimming, whether
it's an elliptical, whether it's the StairMaster, wherever, that the
physical activity is just very repetitive, and you do it
for greater than twenty minutes after a proper warm up.

(35:14):
After the twenty minutes, you're going to get your body
to convert over to burning fat for fuel, and that's
where you go from. Your efficiency is improved by over
two hundred and twenty five percent.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Uh huh. So anybody is looking at losing weight, you
want to want to be in that zone there right.

Speaker 6 (35:33):
If you exercise aerobically and you do it for forty
minutes a day, okay, it's going to be pretty hard
for you not to lose weight.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
Well, this is again a great conversation to Doc Rick.
We need to take another short commercial break to hear
from our sponsor, the Alternative Healthcare Network dot com. When
we get back, I want to conclude our show today
on this topic of stress and blood pressure.

Speaker 5 (35:58):
We're listening to the Alternative health Care Network.

Speaker 6 (36:02):
If you're currently suffering from any health concern and you're
not getting the results you're looking for, please feel free
to call me directly at area code eight four five
five six one two two two five again eight four
five five six one two two two five, or you
can email me directly at Doc Gric at spineboy dot com.
That's Doc Riick at spine boy dot com. And I

(36:26):
look forward to serving your healthcare needs naturally.

Speaker 5 (36:29):
You are listening to the Alternative Healthcare Network.

Speaker 8 (36:33):
Now.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
Before the break, we were talking about the way exercises
exercise impacts your blood pressure, and you were talking about
that aerobic exercise. What about somebody who does a lot
of activity in their life, whether it's walking, or but
they're not necessarily in an organized fashion the way you
were talking about that forty minute window. How would that

(36:55):
affect people's blood pressure.

Speaker 6 (36:58):
Well, if they're doing it regularly, like if their job
requires them to walk a lot.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
Like a postman or somebody that's walking a lot.

Speaker 6 (37:07):
Then their blood pressure typically is going to be fine.
Why because they're constantly doing physical activity. Okay, it maybe
isn't to the point where you're getting your heart rate
up to a specific level. But the physical activity, any
kind of physical activity that you can do regularly, certainly,
if it's.

Speaker 7 (37:26):
Part of your job, then I'm not really concerned about.

Speaker 6 (37:31):
You know, you having the issues associated with being more sedentary.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
Yeah. Now, the other thing was that there's a difference
between what you were saying about like building muscle or
or fitness versus health. So could you talk a little
bit more about that differential and why that would be
important if you're concerned about your blood pressure.

Speaker 6 (37:56):
Well, fitness is your ability to perform physical activity, okay,
So anybody that can perform physical activity is demonstrating their
fitness level.

Speaker 7 (38:07):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (38:08):
Health is something completely different. So we talk about in
the office, and one of my great mentors wrote a
whole book on it. The book that he wrote was
called In Fitness and in Health, and what he did
was he pulled apart the difference between what is considered
fitness versus what is considered health. So it's possible to

(38:30):
be very fits and unhealthy. It's also possible to be
healthy and very unfit. Ideally you want both.

Speaker 7 (38:39):
Now I can relate a.

Speaker 6 (38:40):
Very personal story for the listener. I used to be
a cyclist. I still aspire to continue cycling. I just
haven't done it in a while. And I could go
out and I could ride my bike pretty hard for
an hour without it being an issue at all. You know,
I've ridden a hundred mile bike races, so cycling has

(39:05):
never been an issue for me. And then one of
my former colleagues, God Rest her Soul, her husband at
the time, encouraged me to go with him and do
a biathlon where you ran two miles, you cycled for
twenty five and then you ran two miles. And I thought, well,

(39:25):
I'm in pretty good shape cycling wise. That shouldn't be
a big deal.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Wrong.

Speaker 6 (39:31):
Oh really, I found out within half a mile that
doesn't matter how much fitness I have related to cycling.
It doesn't translate to running. And so I walked the
last probably two thirds of a mile to get to
the bike, past everybody that I could possibly get close to,

(39:55):
into twenty five miles of cycling, and then had to
do another two miles of running and I couldn't really
continue running after the second half mile.

Speaker 7 (40:08):
And so it's you know, it's.

Speaker 6 (40:11):
One activity doesn't necessarily translate to your efficiency at doing
a different activity. You have to train your body in
order to be able to do that. And that's what's
important for the listener to understand. You may be good
at one activity, but maybe terrible at a similar activity,
just simply because it's a different activity. And so that's
why cross training and varying the type of exercise that

(40:36):
you do relatively often is important to just keep you
well rounded and to help increase your health while also
helping your fitness.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
Would that would it be enough to use exercises as
a way to keep your blood pressure down?

Speaker 6 (40:53):
Yeah, if you're exercising the right way. I mean you
go to the gym and you push weights, Okay, it's
not really going to do anything to lower your blood pressure.

Speaker 7 (41:01):
You're going to have to exercise aerobically.

Speaker 6 (41:04):
And again, that's the the treadmill, that's the running, that's
the walking, that's the cycling, that's the elliptical, that's the staremaster.
That's where you're doing a repetitive motion continuously for a
minimum of forty minutes.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
Now, in terms of stress, is it more stressful to
be inactive or because it isn't. Putting yourself through the exercise.
Even these fitness exercises or the aerobic exercises, those are
put a certain kind of stress on your body.

Speaker 7 (41:35):
Well, they do.

Speaker 6 (41:35):
They put a stress on your body to actually increase
its ability to.

Speaker 7 (41:41):
Deal with stress.

Speaker 6 (41:43):
Okay, if if you're somebody that can run.

Speaker 7 (41:48):
I don't know, seven.

Speaker 6 (41:50):
Miles an hour or even three miles an hour, okay,
versus somebody that doesn't run at all. Okay, the stress
of you running for an hour every day, whether it's
three miles an hour and five seven, whatever the case
happens to be, whatever your body can tolerate, whatever you've
conditioned it to be able to withstand. And that's the

(42:13):
wonderful thing about aerobic activity is the more you do it,
the more efficient you become at it, and the more
efficient your body becomes. One of the things that I
teach my practice members who are into doing this kind
of following, this kind of way of thinking is what
I want you to do is I want you to
map out a course for yourself in your neighborhood or

(42:35):
on a track or whatever, and I just want you
to let your heart rate dictate the pace that you go.
So if you get your heart rate up, like for me,
we said between one hundred and ten and one hundred
and twenty, If I get my heart rate up to
one hundred and fifteen and I maintain that pace for

(42:55):
an hour, I'm going to cover a certain distance. If
I keep training that way, I will see that the
distance increases keeping my heart rate at the rate at
the same level. So the more efficient through the repetition

(43:16):
that your body becomes, the efficiency increases, then you'll go
further in the same amount of time using the same
amount of effort. So the way that we measure progress
is by keeping all the parameters the same and just
see what the distance is that you cover over the
same amount of time, and you'll see that you improve.

Speaker 7 (43:38):
You know, fifty yards, one hundred yards, two hundred yards,
four hundred yards.

Speaker 6 (43:44):
Half a mile, you know, you'll see that you improve
and the distance that you're covering. So if you cover
a longer distance and the same amount of time keeping
your heart rate at the same rate, the increase in
distance is your progress and that's your body functioning more efficiently.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
Now, when you talk about blood pressure medications, what do
those do?

Speaker 7 (44:11):
What do blood pressure medications do?

Speaker 1 (44:13):
The obviously they lower your blood pressure, but there must
be other things that happen, because aren't there aren't there
a wide variety?

Speaker 6 (44:20):
There are a wide variety, and that's why I asked
the question. So the type of medication that you're taking
is going to answer the question what do blood pressure
medications do? Like I started to say, that depends on
the type of medication. They work with different mechanisms and therefore,
depending upon the type of medication that you're on, it

(44:42):
may have a positive lowering your blood pressure effect, but
what damage is it creating in other aspects of the body.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
So, I mean the medications you're taking, you're looking you
don't want to have a heart attack, you don't want
to have a stroke. So are those things the benefits
of taking a blood pressure medication?

Speaker 6 (45:08):
Well, yeah, they control the pressure and the hope is
is that they lessen and prevent a heart attack from occurring,
and they take the stress out of the system by
lowering the pressure within the system.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
What kind of side effects might you have from taking
those kind of medications?

Speaker 6 (45:23):
Wonderful things like dizziness, lightheadedness, fatigue, weakness, headaches, offset stomach nausea, vomiting, diarrhea.
If you're a man, you can have erection issues, you
can get swollen ankles and feet, and you can even
get skin rashes.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
Really well, So when you take a medication like this,
you're taking it. Basically you're on it forever. But what
if you wanted to get off it? Can that is
that possible?

Speaker 6 (45:55):
Well, if they stop the medication, if they've never addressed
the actual problem, and then the problem is still there.
So the recommendation is to allow the company who makes
them the medication to continue making lots of money on
the patient never truly gets better. And so when you
work with somebody such as myself and I help you
to understand what the mechanisms of what's causing your high

(46:19):
blood pressure and what we need to do to address
those mechanisms, then the time will come to where if
you're still taking your medication and the problem has been removed,
then you're going to start to have blood pressure that's
too low.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
So what are some of the natural ways that you
might have or suggest it for somebody to lower your
blood pressure.

Speaker 6 (46:38):
Well, the easiest way if you want to do this,
if you're concerned that your doctor is going to be
telling you that you have high blood pressure when.

Speaker 7 (46:45):
You know that you don't have high blood pressure.

Speaker 6 (46:48):
When you're in the treatment room waiting for the physician's assistant,
the nurse practitioner, even the doctor to come in to
take your blood pressure. Before or they come in the room,
you just want to sit there comfortably, and you want
to take your two fingers of your right hand and
the two fingers of your left hand. You want to

(47:09):
put them over your eyeballs with your eyes closed, of course,
and you want to apply pressure to the point where
it starts to feel uncomfortable. And if you hold that
pressure for five seconds, that will automatically cause the physiology
of your body to lower its blood pressure. So if

(47:30):
you do that just before they come in to take
your blood pressure, then you will take the whole white
coat syndrome and the fear of them telling you something's
wrong with you and artificially raising your blood pressure.

Speaker 7 (47:42):
You'll actually take that out of the equation.

Speaker 6 (47:45):
You'll lower your blood pressure, and then they actually say, Wow,
your blood pressure is spectacular.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
That's interesting. Now, are there specific supplements, dietary supplements that
would be recommended for lowering your blood pressure.

Speaker 6 (48:01):
There are several that will help address the deficiencies that
can create the body's response of high blood pressure. I'm
not going to list off three or four different supplements
for people to consider going to the store and getting,
just because every person is unique and different. We need
to understand the mechanism for why their blood pressure is up,
and then we will support their very specific circumstances with

(48:25):
the proper nutritional supplements in an effort to get their
body to work properly. Suffice to say, if you're taking
a good whole food adrenal support product, that's going to
make a big difference in terms of how your body
responds to stress, and it's going to help to regulate
how the adrenals function better.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
Now, there are a couple other things they wanted to
ask about. One is sleep. The sleep affect your blood
pressure and how would that be related.

Speaker 6 (48:54):
Well, sleep does affect your blood pressure. If you're not
getting enough sleep, then your body's not having the time
necessary to recover. Sleeping is responsible for your body's ability
to recover and take it out of the fight flight
mode and put it into the relaxation, digestion, healing mode.
If you're not getting enough hours of that time, then

(49:16):
you're not taking your body out of the alarm response
long enough for the body to recover.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
I got it now. The other thing I wanted to
ask about is hydration, having enough fluid in your body.
I mean, I know we've talked a lot about drinking
enough water. Then most people are dehydrated.

Speaker 6 (49:33):
Right Most people are walking around functionally dehydrated, meaning that
they're functioning, but they don't have enough fluid in the system.
Simple tests to do is if you hold your arm
straight out in front of you and you look at
the vessels on the back of your hand. If those
blood vessels disappear just simply by holding your arm up
in front of you, then you need to drink more water.

(49:55):
If they're there comfortably and they don't really disappear at all,
then you're probably the way that you need to be.
And what we also need to understand is anything other
than water is ultimately going to dehydrate you because your
body actually has to digest whatever it is that you're
drinking in order to extract the water out of whatever

(50:16):
that liquid is. So, whether it's a tea, whether it's
a coffee, whether it's a soda, whatever the case happens
to be beer, alcoholic beverages of sorts, your body actually
has to digest that in order to separate out whatever
is in the liquid from the water itself, and in
the process of doing that, you're actually losing water.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
Well, this is as been a fascinating conversation, Doug Rick,
and as we close out this show today, there may
be people out there who've been listening to us who
would be interested in consulting with you about their own
particular questions. What are the best ways to go about
reaching out and having that conversation with.

Speaker 7 (50:57):
You, Well, the best way would be to call my
l phone directly.

Speaker 6 (51:01):
My cell phone number is area code eight four five
five six one two two two five again eight four
five five six one two two two five. If I
don't answer the phone, please leave a message with your
name end phone number and I will call you back,
and you might be surprised at how quickly I.

Speaker 7 (51:17):
Actually call you back.

Speaker 6 (51:21):
I don't like to do this, but this is the
way that our society is. So people will text me
a lot of times. They text me without even letting
me know who they are, which means I don't have
any relationship with you, which means that I'm probably going
to ignore the text. But if you are courteous and
you realize that you're going to be taking some of

(51:42):
my time out of my day, if you say who
you are, if you say why you're reaching out to me,
I don't care how long the text is. I would
just like to know who I am and why you're
texting me, and then I'm more than happy to respond
to you.

Speaker 7 (51:58):
You can always email me.

Speaker 6 (51:59):
Directly at doc Rick, doc riic k it's fine boy
dot com. Or you can even stop into the office
at one thirty eight Canal Street and pull her park.
We're in Sweet four zero four of building four hundred.
Coming into the plaza, we are the second building on
the left, and when you walk in the front door
of the building, we are the first office on your right,

(52:20):
and it's Sweet four zero four. So whether you call,
whether you text, whether you stop in, whether you email,
whatever the case is. If you're having a health issue
and it's not getting resolved to your satisfaction, I'd love
an opportunity to help make a difference in your life
and to support you the best way that I know how.

Speaker 7 (52:38):
So I want to thank you for tuning in this week.

Speaker 6 (52:41):
I want to ask you to tune back in next week,
same health time, same health station. This is doctor Richard
Huntoon from an advanced alternative medicine center and my cohort
Mark Saban, saying, we look forward to speaking with you
again next week.

Speaker 7 (52:55):
When your health matters.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
My position, he said, you're definitely ill. Sent to the nurse.
I've seen worse. So the doctor just gave me a pill.

Speaker 8 (53:06):
Take one of those three times today. You don't ever
stop until you're.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
Nearly dead or almost better.

Speaker 8 (53:12):
Keep out of the reach of children, the things that
might be some side effects, you mean, the probably will
well limits of fact.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
Just come back and I'll give you one another film.

Speaker 3 (53:21):
On top of that, on top of that, on top
of that, on top of that, on top of that,
on top of that, and THENDY showed me his bill.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
I putted another pill.

Speaker 8 (53:34):
What do na out of their headache has become a
pain in the butt. What was just an itchy finger
now is a swollen foot. Doctor ripeing out of breath.
And I've never walked up a hill. Avoid all died
from exercise.

Speaker 7 (53:48):
I wrong.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
I gave you a pill, but bring some side effects.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
You being the probably will well limit effect.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
Just come back and I'll give you another hill. On
top of that, on top of that, on top of that,
on top of that, on top of that, on top
of that. Then he showed me his bill. I popped
another pill.

Speaker 8 (54:10):
I look down the internet, checked out the medical sight.
He said, you may not be depressive, but then again
you might.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
You're worried than you are.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
Then take this Hipple test. Obviously you need a pill.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
You know how one is best.

Speaker 8 (54:25):
The thing is that might be sub side effects, or
I can that before I've been rushing back to the doctor,
he said, are you're looking for more?

Speaker 3 (54:32):
On top of that, on top of that, on top
of that, on top of that, on top of that,
on top of that.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
I grabbed you, minderstand, I constructed him.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
If I came, I why you're the game.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
You are the farms. We turn your medical and score.
You want to stay here,