Heart Health Nutrition

Of all the cardiovascular problems I’ve treated in my career, none has been more common—or potentially troublesome—than high blood pressure. According to the Centers for Disease Control, an estimated one in three American adults has this condition, which can easily lead to heart disease if not properly controlled.

If you’ve been told you that you need to lower your blood pressure, that advice probably came with a prescription for a diuretic or a beta blocker—two drugs that are commonly used to control high blood pressure. However, you’d be surprised at how easy it is to get similar results simply by making some lifestyle changes. I’ve had many patients who were able to reduce their medication dosage or go off blood pressure drugs entirely by making adjustments to their diet, exercise, nutritional supplementation, and stress management.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to coach you on how to implement some of the most effective natural ways to lower blood pressure. And to make sure that you’re not overwhelmed by too much change at once, I’m going to take a phase-in approach. That is, I’ll focus on the importance of diet this week, and next week—after you’ve had some practice with different ways of eating—I’ll add exercise. We’ll pick up nutritional supplements and stress management in weeks three and four, respectively.

Before we start, however, I want to stress that the results of this program are cumulative—so it will be important that you maintain the changes you make. You may begin seeing some results by the end of the four-week coaching period, but improvements will continue in future weeks. After eight weeks, you should notice definite reductions in both systolic and diastolic pressures.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for my first recommendations, which will include tips on what foods will help lower blood pressure. As I’ve written before, I believe that good cardiovascular nutrition is the cornerstone of health. Without it, the other changes you make won’t be quite as effective.

I look forward to getting started!

For more information on ways to lower your blood pressure, visit www.dr.sinatra.com.