Blood pressure control – take the low road

Take the low road

Parts I and II of this series explain why this is important and how to recognize hypertension. This post is about how to get it all under control.

Your target and how to bullseye it

We need ‘normal’ [young person] levels of <120/<80 to minimise cardiovascular risk. For example, a level of 110/70 would be wonderful.

Two Key Questions:

1. How do we get to that level when our BP is up?
2. Is this degree of reduction safely achievable?

There are lifestyle and medical approaches.

The best approach is a combined one. Don’t say ”I will try the lifestyle approach first and see about medication if that fails”, because any time spent with high BP is damaging, and the acute events like heart attack and stroke that may occur with untreated BP are life threatening. SO do not delay getting your BP down. Fortunately, as modern BP medication is non-harmful there is no reason to be shy of taking treatment. 

The optimum approach is start on medication, get control, do the lifestyle change, too, and maybe later, reduce the meds a bit. Moreover, if you are overweight, a drinker, eat a lot of salt, and have insulin resistance you will only get optimum control by making lifestyle changes to alter those factors alongside your medication. Around 50% of you will need only one drug to get your BP down but equally 50% will need two.

Salt reduction is always helpful but has a low impact; magnesium supplementation at around 300mg daily has a significant effect.

The Short Answer

Reduce alcohol; lose 5-10 Kg depending on how over-heavy you are; try for 10,000 steps a day and a more active life overall; take either candesartan 8mg [potentially increasing to 16mg] or indapamide Slow Release 1.5 mg as your first line agent and add the other drug if you need a combination to get the needed result. It is possible that taking a magnesium supplement as I recommend for all over 60’s may have a beneficial effect.

To get the whole inside story read more

The Big 4 – Essential Supplements Over 50

Supplements for Over-50s

Lots of possibilities – 4 essentials

If you are over 50, there are the essential vitamins minerals and supplements you need in order to support health, then there are lots of other possibilities used to reduce inflammation and enhance your protection against life threatening illness.

This post is about the essential minimum 4 you need.

New thoughts on B12, omega 3 & Multivitamin replacement

Here are some thoughts on B12 0mega 3, zinc and a variety of other nutrients that are components of a multivitamin tablet.

Top Line recommendations

1. Magnesium Taurate 300 mg at bedtime [1 capsule]
2. Zinc citrate 30 mg at bedtime [Pure brand = 1 capsule]
3. B12 oral spray 2000 mcg daily.[Better You B12 boost]
4. Centrum Silver Adult Over 50: 1 daily.
5. Vegan Omega 3 4G daily [Nutravita brand = 2 capsules]

Supernutrition #6: Anti-inflammaging Supplements

The story of super-supplements – truth or fiction?

Although my usual nutritional message is “optimum diet, no need for additives or multivitamin preparations” and nobody needs extra vitamin C if they eat fruit and vegetables… as far as anti-ageing is concerned, to get potent anti inflammaging activity you need a supplement.

For example, to reach the recommended daily intake of 800-1000mg of quercetin takes more onions, coffee, dill etc than any of us want to consume. Similarly, curcumin (the potent anti-inflammatory agent in turmeric) is very poorly absorbed from food and only a supplement will make any impact [and avoid a very yellow mess in your kitchen].

Supernutrition #1: Use a Rainbow Plate to turbocharge your anti-ageing strategy

Supernutrition to lower your biological age doesn’t come from a single faddish ‘superfood’, but from a diet packed with the multiple beneficial nutrients that reduce inflamm-aging, promote immunity and reduce dementia and cancer risk.

YES! you can influence these outcomes by your food choices: in fact, it is absolutely the best way [alongside daily exercise]. The key dietary components to achieve this are adequate protein intake, lots of polyphenols and flavonoids, an appropriate choice of oils and fats and attention to trace element and vitamin content. Polyphenols and flavonoids are the chemicals in food that do the anticancer/ anti-inflammatory work.