Blood Pressure

The importance of a healthy blood pressure is rightly emphasized in Conventional Western Medicine, and when they are needed, we are fortunate to have a variety of medicines at our disposal that can and do save lives. As with any illness however, at our Center we believe it is important to get to the root causes in order to develop the most natural and effective treatment plans. This helps to make sure we are minimizing or even eliminating the need for medicines if possible, but more importantly, it means better long term health since we are not just masking a symptom.

Blood Pressure is a good example of the need for individualized, holistic medicine. There are many root causes of increased blood pressure readings. One well known one is “white coat syndrome”, where readings are just high because of being at the doctors office. This is one area where technology (the relatively high quality and affordability of home blood pressure monitors, as well as Apps to track blood pressure and other critical health data) gives us great advantages. It allows us to be in better control of our own health. There is nothing worse than being on a blood pressure medicine, with potential side effects, simply to treat high readings which only register at the doctor’s office.

Even with true high blood pressure, there can be many causes. One is straightforward hardening of the arteries- either beginning or advancing cardiovascular disease. Here we need to treat the blood pressure as well as the risk factors causing the cardiovascular disease itself (of which there can also be many different root causes as well!).

Other factors, such as stress of course, can also raise blood pressure. This can be internal or external stress. It is important to recognize which is which, and with our thorough evaluations, we take seriously being specific and explaining the physiology which can be leading to high blood pressure. For example, inflammation, hormone imbalances, adrenal burnout, autoimmune disease, and other factors may not directly be caused by cardiovascular disease but can still raise blood pressure.

Therefore, whether we are treating blood pressure with medicines, lifestyle, nutrition, supplements and vitamins, stress reduction, or other methods, we need to know the root causes in order to have the right targets. Doing so ensures not only that the numbers on the machine go down, but that you feel better, not worse, in the process. We look forward to seeing you and helping you optimize your plan for a healthy blood pressure if you are dealing with this issue.