The Scale of the Problem
In the United States, the American heart is suffering. 1 in every 4 deaths is caused by cardiovascular disease and every year over half a million Americans are diagnosed with heart disease. High blood pressure, aka hypertension, is one of the leading risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (i.e., heart disease and stroke). The US is facing a hypertensive crisis with about half of the population being diagnosed with high BP.
How to Understand the Numbers
The CDC categorizes blood pressure in three categories including normal, prehypertension, and hypertension. Normal BP is categorized with a systolic blood pressure less than 120 mm Hg and a diastolic blood pressure less than 80 mm Hg. Measuring your blood pressure is a good way to monitor whether you’re at risk for hypertension.
Diastolic vs. Systolic Blood Pressure
While these words may seem difficult, I’m here to help you remember what they mean to help you have a better understanding of how your body works. Your heart tenses, releases, and rests, so each of these stages have different pressures.
When you go for your annual physical or take your blood pressure at home, you’ll always see that a BP reading includes a top and bottom number. The top number is the higher number known as the systolic number whereas the bottom number is the lower number known as diastolic.
The pressure itself relates to that of the blood vessels like the arteries. When your heart beats and squeezes to push blood out to be pumped throughout the body, this creates pressure in the arteries resulting in the systolic BP top number.
Before your heart squeezes and beats, there’s a sliver a time when the heart is being filled with blood to be oxygenated. The pressure of the arteries during this time is known as the diastolic BP bottom number.
The Causes of High BP
Health problems are always caused by genetic, or environmental factors, or both.
If you have other family members that struggle with high BP, there’s a chance you could too. Diets high in saturated fats found in animal protein and sedentary lifestyles are the most common environmental factors responsible for high BP. Above all though, stress is one of the biggest culprits.
If you have a genetic predisposition for high BP and have other family members struggling with it, we advise you to take your blood pressure at home regularly. A BP machine will show you your diastolic BP, systolic BP, and heart beats per minute.
Treating & Managing High BP
If left untreated, high BP can be fatal and on top of that, it can lead to other life threatening diseases like kidney disease.
High BP is treated through improving dietary patterns as well as physical activity patterns and usually with prescription medication as well. There are many FDA approved BP meds out there, but many come alongside negative side effects like diziness, muscle pain, nausea, elevated potassium levels, and more.
Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a natural substance that has been studied for its calming and BP regulating effects. Because the main target of CBD is pain relief, and stress reduction, you can reduce and manage the biggest culprit for high BP: stress
CBD products like high strength CBD oils, capsules, gummies, and more could potentially be an option for those of you looking for alternatives that have little to no side effects. Say you’re in the elevated category of BP and need to make drastic changes to get out of the danger zone and you’re still not required to take meds.
Combining CBD, physical activity, and a whole foods plant based diet could help put you back where you need to be. Did you know that a plant based diet has been proven to reverse high BP, heart disease, diabetes, and more?
With just 3 sessions of 30 minutes of rigorous physical activity per week, you can reduce your risk of heart disease, high BP, and stroke. And to tie it all together, CBD can help maintain you in a state of calm and de-stress your system to regulate BP.
So, if you’re looking to buy CBD, try to purchase it from our ReThink CBD Shop that can help you understand it and use it correctly.
