Why The ‘Weight Factor’ Is So Important In Managing High Blood Pressure

In last week’s CHA newsletter, I wrote an article on natural ways to reduce high blood pressure (HBP). It was a follow up to Dr. Liu’s article on how Chinese Medicine treats hypertension that we ran in the April 4th newsletter, so this is now the third in this short hypertension series.

The reason why I am currently so interested in this topic is that when our friend Dr. Bill Code (our former CHA President) and his wife stayed with us a couple of months or so ago he took my blood pressure. When he saw the reading he was horrified and said I needed to make some serious changes to get it under control. I was aware that I had a problem, but I am not at all keen on getting back onto the pharmaceuticals to try and control it, hence all my current research into the alternatives.

With all the reading I have been doing, I now think the key thing that will be effective for me is losing a bit of weight.

According to Mayo Clinic cardiologist, Dr. Stephen Kopecky, every pound of weight we gain adds 8 kilometres of blood vessels to our internal blood circulatory system. So, if your heart beats 100,000 times a day, that’s 800,000 kilometres a day that the heart needs to pump, just for that one extra pound of fat, never mind all the other pounds of flesh I’m already lumbering around! As Dr. Kopecky says, “So if you’re 10 pounds overweight, it’s a lot and your heart gets tired and your blood pressure goes up.”

Well that makes sense to me.

Hence, my goal is to lose 15 pounds of weight over the next 3 months, which I’m hoping will get me out of the hypertension ‘red zone.’ This is going to be tough, especially given the demands of my job, and my weakness for eating out. However, I think trading convenience for health is probably a good idea, and if losing 15 pounds can add to my longevity and quality of life, it seems like a no-brainer.

So, I have now started the DASH diet which I mentioned in my article last week and am busy drinking beet juice, Zinzino Omega 3 oil and Vital Health’s V-Daily multi-vitamin everyday to wash down my meals of heart-healthy fruits and vegetables. My current weight is 102.5 kgs. Over the next three months I’ll let you know how much I’m able to shed and how much of a difference it makes to my blood pressure…

Generally I wouldn’t consider myself “obese” and fortunately I have the height to distract from being a bit overweight. But many people, including many young people in North America, are noticeably overweight and that has a significant impact on their blood pressure and their overall health and wellbeing.

According to the Alliance for Natural Health International, over the last 20 years, the number of children and young people with high blood pressure has nearly doubled. Once seen as an adult problem, it now shows up in classrooms, playgrounds and at routine pediatric visits.

According to The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, prevalence of hypertension rose in children and teens from 3.4% in 2000 to 6.5% in 2020 and this is continuing to accelerate: We now have more than 114 million young people affected by high blood pressure. This surge begs a question: are kids truly sicker, or are we simply casting a wider diagnostic net?

It is likely both, but the sedentary life-style of kids today and their poor diets are definitely contributing to significant weight gain, which, as we see above, is a significant contributor to this potentially life-threatening condition.

As reported in The Defender (the Children’s Health Defense newsletter), “At the center of this issue is obesity — consistently identified as the strongest predictor of blood pressure rising above the 90th or 95th percentile. Multiple studies have shown that obesity alone significantly increases a child’s risk, with more than 30% of obese boys (and up to 42% in some ethnic groups) and 23–30% of obese girls meeting the criteria for high or borderline blood pressure.

A large meta-analysis also found that obese children were six times more likely to have elevated blood pressure than those of normal weight, while school-based research showed that students at risk of overweight had noticeably higher rates of HBP than their peers.”

As CHA Director Leah Crowell discussed in his recent “What’s Wrong With Kids Today?” training session, improved diet and a reduction of sedentary screen-time are very important for the physical and psychological health of children and teens.

In conclusion, Children’s Health Defense says, “It is worrying that a condition once seen almost exclusively in adults is now showing up in children and at such alarming rates. Somewhere along the way, we normalized reaching for medication before addressing the root causes, even in young people whose bodies are still developing.

Children should not be carrying the burden of diseases driven largely by modern lifestyles, nor should drugs become the default solution for every health concern. We owe them better than that. Especially when in many cases, HBP — and the creation of chronic disease — is wholly preventable.

So how do we begin to turn the tide and support children in ways that strengthen health rather than simply manage disease?”

To answer this question, below are practical, research-supported steps to help reclaim a child’s health (and perhaps your own hypertension-related health issues as well):

1. Weight reduction: Even modest weight loss can significantly lower blood pressure.
2. Daily physical activity: Aim for a minimum of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity most days. Active play influences brain structure, neurological processes and emotional resilience as well as lowering blood pressure and insulin levels and promoting better metabolic health.
3. Reduce sedentary time: Closely linked to the previous point is the need to limit screen-based activities to less than two hours a day to lower blood pressure and improve overall metabolic health.
4. Stress management: The effects of stress and trauma are insidious and affect the entire body, given that the whole immune system is activated. The body doesn’t differentiate between physical or emotional wounding.
5. Heart-healthy diet: Increase the child’s intake of fruits, vegetables and fibre, whilst ensuring sufficient healthy fats and protein. Avoid all ultra-processed foods.
6. Get more quality sleep.
7. Family-based approaches: Everyone thrives when the entire family adopts healthier habits together. Shared meals, shared activity, fun, laughter and consistent routines dramatically improve outcomes.

Alan Brough

Sources for this article include:
https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-minute-fat-is-not-inert
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/number-children-youth-high-blood-pressure-doubled
https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/blood-pressure-reduction-with-beet