Unregulated blood pressure is a health danger for cardiovascular events, stroke and dementia. We check every patient's blood pressure before their I.V. therapy, their first colonic and during their new patient exam.
What causes high blood pressure?
This week Korean researchers found evidence that BPA temporarily raises blood pressure.
How do you drink BPA? Everytime you drink out of a can lined with BPA resins you get exposed to BPA.
How did BPA get into cans? Consumer and environmental groups have lobbied for years to get the FDA to ban bisphenol A or BPA. BPA is in most plastic goods and it leaches out into foods and into our bodies.
The FDA continues to say that BPA is safe despite the studies that show a link between BPA and heart disease, obesity, male fertility issues, and high blood pressure. Kids with high levels of BPA in their urine are twice as likely to be obese.
In Fall of 2014, FDA experts completed a four-year review of over 300 scientific studies about BPA. The FDA believes that BPA is efficiently metabolized and released from the body. Tell that to someone who has genetic polymorphisms where they have impaired enzyme pathways and cannot efficiently process BPA. Even if you are lucky enough to have intact enzymatic pathways BPA enters the system and interferes with hormone production and cell-to-cell signaling before it is excreted. The damage is done either way.
In a recent study, drinking soy milk out of cans increased the urinary BPA concentration in volunteers by more than 1600 percent compared to the same beverages in bottles at the same temperature. Increased BPA in the system was linked to raised blood pressure and for those who have high blood pressure a 20 mmHg increase can double the risk of cardiovascular disease.
How can you lower your blood pressure? Don't drink canned beverages of any kind and don't eat canned foods.
Another way to lower your blood pressure is by drinking daily beetroot juice as was proved in a 4 week randomized phase 2 trial in hypertensive patients. They drank 250 mL of beetroot juice daily. Another benefit was improved endothelial function and reduced arterial stiffness with no change observed in the placebo group.
Beetroot juice is affordable, available and it contains dietary nitrates that are potent vasodilators in humans. Beetroot juice matched the average BP reduction achieved with a single antihypertensive medication at standard dose without the side effects.
The holiday season is here. Serve beetroot juice to your guests with a sprig of mint or a splash of lime juice. You can juice beets into a mixture with carrots, celery, spinach, ginger and lemon.
Beets are beautiful all year round.
