High Blood Pressure Remedies

• 1 Tbsp. flaxseeds, ground
• ½ cup fresh fruit—blueberries, a peach, kiwi, banana, or whatever you like
• 8 oz. organic rice milk, organic skim milk, organic yogurt, or unsweetened juice (you can also use water or a combination)
• 1 serving size (follow directions on package) of soy or whey protein powder

• Age 55 or older
• Heredity/family history
• Men
• History of heart attack and/or stroke
• Medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure levels, vascular disease, atrial fibrillation, and sickle cell anemia
• Drug/alcohol abuse
• Poor diet
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Living in the southeast US (“stroke belt”)
• Low socioeconomic status

Drugs typically prescribed for reducing cholesterol have no impact on Lp(a) levels. In fact, a study involving these drugs showed an increase in Lp(a) levels! And therein lies the dilemma.

While drugs prescribed to help you attain and maintain healthy cholesterol can reduce LDL, they can’t alter Lp(a). If you find that Lp(a) runs in your family, you must attack it with an alternative approach. Here’s what I recommend:

• Follow my Pan-Asian Modified Mediterranean diet, making sure to eat fresh fish at least two to three times a week. Eat fresh fruits, legumes, cold-water fish such as salmon, sardines, and mackerel or fish oils, particularly docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which blocks the inflammatory and blood-clotting capabilities of Lp(a). Omit saturated fats. Instead, choose monounsaturated fats like olive oil and polyunsaturated fats like alpha-linolenic acid, found in flaxseed and flaxseed oil.   (These are excellent tips to adhere to for overall cardiovascular nutrition.)
• Take 100 mg of niacin, twice a day. If you experience side effects like flushing, headache, and diarrhea, follow the diet and stop the niacin. You can try a lower dosage at a later date, then slowly increase the dose to 500 mg a day, twice a day for further protection. TwinLabs' quick-acting Niacin is a good product.
• Take 1–2 grams of vitamin C and 100–200 mg of CoQ10 each day.
• Policosanol—20 mg daily at bedtime.
• Exercise regularly.
• Ask your doctor about screening techniques to assess your heart risk factors. If you’re concerned, you and your family members should have your Lp(a) and other risk factors (homocysteine, fibrinogen and serum ferritin) evaluated by your doctor.
• Be aware of other risk factors for cardiovascular problems, including smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, glucose intolerance and repressed emotions, which can have a harmful effect on the health of your heart.

Let me start out by saying that I realize it may feel strange to discuss cardiovascular problems in the context of your emotions. Your feelings are probably not something you ever thought about in connection with heart risk factors. 

You may already be aware of heart risk factors commonly reported in the popular press and medical journals: older age, unfavorable family history, poor diet, elevated blood fats, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, diabetes, high blood pressure, cigarette smoking and personality type (the infamous “Type A”).

This is why I want to make you aware of how the “lesser known” heart risk factor—your mind—affects your body. I want you to take advantage of new information that could dramatically improve your healing process.

I’m not surprised that you haven’t heard much about heartbreak’s role in heart disease. Heartbreak is not considered a medical “condition” because love is not a recognized physical function. Until recently, physiology has limited itself to the mechanics and chemistry of how organs work and has ignored the impact of various emotional states on those functions. Science is necessarily confined to phenomena that can be measured and quantified.

Although the feeling states lie outside the realm of science, I think it’s a mistake to exclude them from our understanding of the human body. Love is a tremendously vital force in human behavior, and I firmly believe that we must try to understand its nature and the role it plays in our emotional and physical health.

I want to make it clear that love and intimacy cannot “cure” cardiovascular problems. But if you learn to cope with heartbreak, anger, or resentment, rather than suppressing the feelings, you’ll be doing your heart a world of good. You will harness the power of your emotions to heal your body. Honesty, tears, and smiles have as much to do with recovering from cardiovascular problems as eating well, exercising, and taking vitamins.

For years now, I’ve been telling my readers and patients to avoid acetaminophen—especially the extra-strength variety—because of the potential for liver problems. I’ve also said to avoid NSAIDs because of the potential for gastrointestinal bleeding, liver damage, and kidney dysfunction.

My advice is clearly supported by a report from the Harvard School of Medicine’s ongoing Nurses' Health Study that suggests that the use of painkillers can make it difficult for women to control high blood pressure. 

The report, published in the September 2005 issue of Hypertension, concluded that women are at increased risk for high blood pressure if they take daily doses of non-aspirin painkillers—such as extra-strength acetaminophen (Tylenol) and ibuprofen (Advil and Motrin).

This observation is especially troubling for pain-ridden patients looking for alternatives after learning a few years ago that prescription NSAID painkillers (such as Vioxx) are associated with higher risk for cardiovascular problems. 

The Harvard study involved 5,123 women age 34 to 77, none of whom had high blood pressure at the onset. Here are the results:

• For women not taking painkillers, the risk of developing high blood pressure levels was about 1 to 3 percent a year.
• Women who were taking an average daily dose of more than 500 mg of acetaminophen (one extra-strength tablet) had a 93 to 99 percent increased risk of developing high blood pressure (and, most likely, a more difficult time maintaining healthy blood pressure) within three years, compared to women taking less than 500 mg.
• Women who were taking more than 400 mg a day of over-the-counter NSAIDS (the equivalent of two ibuprofen) had a 60 to 78 percent increased risk of developing high blood pressure levels, compared to women taking less than 400 mg.
• The widespread use of acetaminophen and over-the-counter NSAIDs may contribute to the high prevalence of chronic hypertension in the United States.

Please take this information to heart. If you take painkillers regularly, please inform your doctor. He or she may have some safer recommendations. Here are a few of mine:

• White willow bark (180 mg twice a day); or
• Low-dose aspirin (325–650 mg a day as tolerated, but discontinue if you experience abdominal discomfort); or
• SAM-e (200–400 mg, once or twice a day as needed).

Remember, there are always safer alternatives to “the business-as-usual” drugs we’re being marketed in the media.

As a cardiologist and a holistic health practitioner, I take blood pressure levels of every patient who comes into my office. And sadly enough, oftentimes, I find that that their blood pressure levels are too high. As you probably know, high blood pressure levels are often a precursor to serious cardiovascular problems, including heart attack and stroke, so this is a situation that I take very seriously.

Some of these patients, however, tell me that they are doing all they can to control high blood pressure and that when they go home and measure it themselves, their blood pressure levels are normal. Occasionally they’ll ask if the instruments in my office are off, or if my staff misread the result.

The actual problem, however, is a common condition called white-coat hypertension (WCH). It’s used to describe people who become anxious over a visit to a physician, dentist, or medical facility. The visit evokes a fight-or-flight response, and their blood pressure levels go up.

Research has shown that abnormally high blood pressure readings in a medical setting could be more than just a benign byproduct of anxiety.  Although the condition is poorly understood, WCH could be a precursor to high blood pressure levels, poor blood circulation, and other cardiovascular problems.

A Danish study published in the Journal of Human Hypertension found a heightened cardiovascular event risk for patients with WCH over a 10-year period. A Japanese study reported in the journal Hypertension Research suggests that WCH contributes to carotid arteriosclerosis. And in another Japanese medical report, based on eight years of observation, researchers suggest that WCH is a “transitional condition to hypertension” and may carry a “poor cardiovascular prognosis.”

If you experience WCH, I suggest you take the following high blood pressure remedies to get it under control and avoid potential cardiovascular problems:

• Introduce a regular stress-reduction program into your life. That could include activities such as exercise, tai-chi, meditation, or yoga. This is a wonderful way of lowering blood pressure naturally.
• Watch the salt (again). This cardiovascular nutrition tip can’t be stressed enough.
• Start taking blood pressure-friendly supplements on a daily basis—such as fish oil (2,000-3,000 mg), magnesium (400-800 mg), hydrosoluble CoQ10 (50-150 mg), and a garlic supplement high in allicin (500-1,000 mg). You can find these supplements in most health food stores.

One of the many things you can do to control high blood pressure levels is to carefully watch your salt intake. Doing so is one of those simple high blood pressure remedies that doesn’t involve a doctor’s visit or a pill -- and that’s a very good thing!

Your body requires sodium (a component of salt) to regulate fluid balance and distribution, as well as nerve and muscle cell function. But, while you need some sodium, the standard diet includes way too much. This is one of the reasons why so many people have blood pressure levels that are too high and suffer with a myriad of other cardiovascular problems.

The current recommendation for salt consumption is less than 2,400 mg of sodium a day, which amounts to about one teaspoon of salt. Recent research suggests that people ingesting less than 1,500 mg of sodium a day are better able to maintain healthy blood pressure. If you have high blood pressure levels, you should definitely aim for that number. Don’t use salt from the shaker, and read labels to add up the amount you’re taking in.

Many items at fast food restaurants are high in salt, so you can easily exceed the recommended level with one serving.   That’s why I’ve always strongly urged people who are looking for natural ways to lower blood pressure levels, improve blood circulation, or to reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke to avoid fast food restaurants. Going to one once in a while is okay for most people, but regular visits are a sure way to cause cardiovascular problems.

You can easily make up for the reduced salt in your diet by cooking with fresh herbs and spices such as basil, garlic, oregano, rosemary, chives, parsley, and onion. What’s more, all of these flavorings contain natural substances that make them good for any cardiovascular nutrition program, but also good for your overall health.

For decades I’ve been making spaghetti sauce for family and friends. As I prepare the sauce over the course of a day, I repeatedly taste it to make sure that I get it just right.

Twenty or so years ago, I noticed that the day after the meal I had gained a few pounds—and I was unusually thirsty as well. I was perplexed until I investigated and learned that the canned tomatoes, pastes, and purees I was using were high in salt.

Here I was, a cardiologist, as well as a holistic health practitioner, and I hadn’t made the connection. Excess salt contributes to water retention, and that was my problem. Of course, too much salt also makes it difficult to control high blood pressure and contributes toward a myriad of other heart risk factors.

I quickly changed my ways and my spaghetti sauce recipe. I started avoiding foods high in salt, which meant reading labels on foods in the grocery store. (This one act alone is an excellent way to naturally maintain good blood pressure levels.)  Most people don’t think they eat too much salt because they didn’t use a salt shaker. Unfortunately, that’s simply not the case.

The average adult consumes the equivalent of nearly two teaspoons of salt a day—practically two times the upper limit for good health. And the majority of that excess salt is hidden in processed foods, such as canned spaghetti sauces, soups, and dill pickles.

I’ll never forget a patient of mine who had chronic hypertension and ate his fill of canned ham (packed with salt) on Easter Sunday. The next day he was in the emergency room with a hypertensive crisis and acute heart failure. His heart just couldn’t handle the large amount of salt he had consumed.

His was an extraordinary situation, but it underscores the need to be careful with salt intake. So let his story and mine be lessons for you as well. 

In my last blog post, we talked about the importance of monitoring your blood pressure regularly. But what do you do if your blood pressure levels are high, or borderline high? There are several things you can (and should) do to control high blood pressure as a woman.

1.      To Control High Blood Pressure, Be Careful with Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT): In 2004, results were published from the Women’s Health Initiative, a study including women taking Premarin. The women taking this pharmaceutical form of estrogen, (made from the urine of pregnant mares), were observed to have “skyrocketing” blood pressure levels. But Premarin is not the only HRT that causes high blood pressure.

Dr. Sinatra has noted that Provera, another HRT mainstay, drove up blood pressure in the women he treated, many of whom were no longer hypertensive once they discontinued the drug.

What we’re learning is that to control high blood pressure, individually tailored bio-identical hormone therapy from more natural plant and synthetic sources are better for women. Combining estradiole, estriol, estrone, testosterone, and progesterone may soften those arterial walls that can stiffen with age, and may even intercept elevating blood pressure.  So please consider this approach if you are on the traditional HRT medications, especially if you’re trying to control high blood pressure.

2.      Watch the Painkillers: A report from the Harvard School of Medicine’s ongoing Nurses Health Study, published in the September 2005 issue of Hypertension, concluded that women are at increased risk for high blood pressure if they take daily doses of non-aspirin painkillers such as extra-strength acetaminophen and ibuprofen.

If you take painkillers regularly and are trying to control high blood pressure, please ask your doctor for safer recommendations. What we use at our house—and it works well for various muscle aches and pains—is Traumeel, a homeopathic remedy you can find in health food stores. Traumeel is available in both a topical cream and a tablet that you place under your tongue.

3.      Control High Blood Pressure with Some Simple Changes to Your Diet: To control high blood pressure and keep your heart healthy, you want to increase your intake complex carbohydrates (like oatmeal); low-glycemic vegetables such as asparagus, broccoli and kale; legumes like chick peas and lentils; fruits; cold-water fish (especially fatty ones); organic eggs; olive oil; and nuts, seeds, and flaxseed.

At the same time, to control high blood pressure you want to decrease your intake of refined white flour and sugar, partially hydrogenated oils, starchy vegetables like corn and peas, processed fruit juices, organ meats, cashews (because they’re high in saturated fat), full-fat dairy products, and omega-6 oils (such as corn, safflower, and sunflower). 

4.      Eat More Garlic:   An Australian review of 11 studies in which hypertensive patients were randomly given a garlic supplement or placebo, found that garlic can lower blood pressure as effectively as some drugs. On average, the mega-analysis turned up blood pressure reductions of 8.4 systolic points, and 7.3 diastolic points. The higher a patient’s blood pressure was at the beginning, the more it was lowered by taking garlic.

To control high blood pressure, I recommend four cloves of raw garlic (about four grams) daily to achieve a noticeable blood pressure lowering effect. You could also toss crushed garlic into food for the last few minutes of cooking, but anything more than lightly warming it will destroy its medicinal properties to control high blood pressure.

5.      Control High Blood Pressure with Exercise:  Regular exercise is a sure way to help control high blood pressure. Physical activity also lowers levels of stress hormones circulating in the blood, which is important since stress tends to constrict arteries and drive up blood pressure. To control high blood pressure, you want to strive to exercise three to four times a week. Try taking a brisk walk, getting on your bicycle, playing noncompetitive golf or tennis, or even dancing —all of which are great for your blood pressure and your stress level. Even simple day-to-day activities like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking further back in a parking lot, or a leisurely walk, are helpful to control high blood pressure.

6.      De-Stress—It’s a Surefire Way to Control High Blood Pressure: Stress is a major mitigating factor when it comes to your blood pressure, so be aware of the psychological pressures you’re juggling. Overachieving and time urgency are all-too common “normals” for women. We juggle multiple roles as breadwinner, wife, daughter, mother, and friend that often involve nurturing others at our own expense if we don’t refuel.

Some good ways to de-stress and control high blood pressure include meditation, relaxation, imagery, yoga, prayer, Tai Chi, exercise, reading, listening to calming music, or playing with children and friends into your daily life.  

Also remember that not all venting is “complaining.” Talking with someone you trust about the stresses in your life, benefits your wellbeing—and helps you control high blood pressure.

Lastly, remember to stay positive! No woman is sentenced to a life of high blood pressure because of her DNA. It’s not our destiny! Our blood pressure reading is only a number, and it’s one we can lower with our own conscientious lifestyle changes, and medication if needed.

Watch for more information about women and high blood pressure in Dr. Sinatra’s monthly newsletter, Heart, Health & Nutrition. 

As I mentioned in my last blog post, high blood pressure often has no symptoms, which is why it’s referred to as the silent killer. The most important thing you can do to keep yourself out of the “danger zone” is to test your blood pressure levels regularly.

High blood pressure levels means you have a systolic blood pressure of 140 mmHg or greater, and/or a diastolic pressure of 90 mmHg or greater. Systolic is the pressure when your heart contracts and diastolic is the pressure between heartbeats when your heart relaxes. Healthy blood pressure levels are considered to be 120 over 80, or lower. 

If you have a strong family history of high blood pressure levels, like I do, I recommend getting a blood pressure monitor you can use at home. Not only does it let you test your blood pressure levels more frequently—it helps you avoid something called “white coat syndrome.” That’s when your blood pressure spikes in the doctor’s office due to the anxiety of the situation, giving you an artificially high reading.

If your blood pressure levels are high, or borderline high, there’s no reason to think that pharmaceuticals are your only option. Tomorrow, I’ll give you six natural blood pressure remedies that can help.

Chances are that as a woman you do a monthly breast exam. But when is the last time you checked your blood pressure?  It used to be thought that maintaining healthy pressure was a “man’s issue.” But did you know that women—and especially women in menopause—are at an even greater risk of not having healthy blood pressure then men? 

This was something I learned about healthy blood pressure in my own family. Despite our strong family history of high blood pressure and other heart health issues, the women in my family all had low blood pressure in their younger years. Our systolic blood pressures tended to hover around 100, and our diastolic numbers ran between 58 and 60.

But as many women in our family reached menopause, and their natural estrogen levels tapered off, their ability to maintain healthy blood pressure decreased significantly. This isn’t something to take lightly. Not having healthy blood pressure is linked with serious health issues like Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and renal failure—and can shorten a woman’s life by ten to twenty years! 

What’s even scarier is that high blood pressure often has no visible symptoms. In most cases you’ll feel just fine, except perhaps a vague headache. That’s why high blood pressure is often referred to as the “silent killer.”

Tomorrow, I’ll give you secrets for how you can protect yourself—so you can stay out of the blood pressure “danger zone.”

Years ago, high blood pressure was something adults developed as they got older. But given our modern day lifestyles—filled with fast-food based, high fat diets, and sedentary activities—record numbers of children have hypertension. 

As caretakers for our children during their early lives, it’s really up to adults to help our children maintain healthy blood pressure. After all, we’re the ones prepping their meals, supervising their out-of-school hours, and taking them to the pediatricians. And moms, dads and grandparents call all team up together to help the children we love.

So, how can we help our children achieve healthy blood pressure?

Keep Them Active: Studies show that more active kids tend to have healthy blood pressure. So, the best thing we can do is keep our kids physically active. When I raised my children, all we had to monitor was television viewing.  Now we have the internet, cell phones, and electronic games to contend with. So, get the whole family off the couch and go out for a walk, bike ride, or toss the ball around in the yard. 

 

As a mom, and a grandmother of seven, I’d like to address an overlooked—and far too often under-diagnosed—condition that’s happening to kids in record numbers. Its high blood pressure levels…and it’s affecting far more than our children’s hearts.

A new study just came out this summer which showed that not only do record numbers of children have high blood pressure levels—but their minds and bodies are paying an extraordinary price for our ignorance!

Researchers at the University of Rochester followed 201 children ages 10 to 18 that were referred for high blood pressure. Of those children, 100 were diagnosed with hypertension, and the other 101 children either didn’t have hypertension or had “white coat hypertension” (anxiety at the doctor’s office, which falsely registers a high blood pressure reading).

But what’s most startling is the children with high blood pressure levels were four times more likely than children with healthy blood pressure to have learning disabilities and/or ADHD! To me, that’s a frightening statistic. Just think of how many children are either struggling in school, or taking ADHD medications—when their real issue is high blood pressure levels.

Plus, what wasn’t mentioned by the researchers is something Dr. Sinatra would check for if one of our own grandchildren was hypertensive, and/or had ADHD or a learning disability: their lead and heavy metal level. If you are concerned about a child, find yourself a good ND (Naturopathic Doctor like our son, Drew) and check their blood and urine levels of these toxic agents.

Clearly, we need to understand that learning disabilities and ADHD aren’t always just isolated issues. Often, they’re a sign that we need to investigate further and ensure that there is nothing amiss in our children’s core health. 

 
Next time, I’ll be sharing more information about high blood pressure levels in children—and what we can do to turn the issue around.

We’ve been hearing a lot about sleep lately.  We’re all familiar at this point with Michael Jackson’s previous insomnia issues, and in yesterday's issue of The New York Times there was an article about a new Pew Research Study that shows that 34% of Americans report they take a daily nap…mainly because they’re not getting enough sleep at night.

We’ve clearly become a sleep-challenged nation, but what many people don’t realize is a lack of sleep is one of the heart risk factors.  A chronic lack of sleep makes you more prone to high blood pressure, and heart disease.  Not to mention that sleep loss can cause you to become hungrier for high calorie foods, which leads to other heart risk factors.

Since a lack of sleep is such a big heart risk factor, how can you ensure you'll get a better night’s sleep? Here's some tips based on some research and what we find works in our own home:

• Go to bed about the same time each night, ideally before 10:00 p.m.—and 11:00 p.m. at the latest.  Going to bed earlier in the evening puts you more in line with your body’s natural sleep/wake cycle. 
  
   
• Eat only light snacks after 7:30 p.m. Heavy meals, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar eaten too close to bedtime can make it impossible to fall asleep. If you get hungry in the late evening, have a light “tryptophan” snack—such as a turkey sandwich or glass of warm milk. 
   
• Avoid stimulation, such as watching television programming with loud controversy, or a movie laced with violence, in the evening hours before sleep. 
   
• A warm bath helps soothe mind and body before retiring. We add Epsom salts because the ingredients are so calming. 
   
• Keep your bedroom cool and dark. Darkness signals your body to produce melatonin (aka the “Hormone of Darkness”), which is the key to deep, restful sleep. Make sure your curtains or blinds block all light from the outside,  and that your bedroom is well ventilated. 
   
• Drink a cup of tea that contains valerian or chamomile, both of which help to make you drowsy. 
   
• Turn your clock around, since watching the clock can increase your adrenaline levels—making it even harder to fall asleep. 
   
• Electromagnetic fields (EMF) lower melatonin levels, so eliminate electricity--- like the television--- as much as possible in your sleeping room… if you must have an electric clock, keep it at least 4 feet away; battery or wind-up clocks are better…my husband even unplugs bedroom lamps when he turns in 
   
• If you’re having trouble falling asleep, use the time for rest, which is also rejuvenating, and will keep your body’s melatonin production cycling appropriately. People often turn a light back on to read, or head to the kitchen and open the refrigerator door; both light exposures disrupt your body’s natural production of melatonin.
   
• Red light is the best for night lights (or even your “fridge”), as it is the only color on the spectrum that doesn’t disrupt the “hormone of darkness."

• Meditation can also help you reframe the time you lay awake into something positive to do for yourself until you fall asleep.

I’ve written a lot about healthy blood pressure over the past few weeks, and there’s good reason for that. Controlling chronic hypertension is one of the best ways to reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke.

Today I want to go back to the relationship between diet and blood pressure levels, and talk specifically about salt.

Most people think they’re doing a good job cutting down on their salt intake simply by sitting down for a meal and not reaching for the salt shaker. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. What you eat is just as important.

The majority of salt we consume is hidden in the ingredients used to increase the shelf-life of processed and fast foods. Some salty choices, like potato chips, are obvious, but others you may not be aware of.

I’ll never forget a hypertensive patient of mine who ate his fill of canned ham (packed with salt) one Easter Sunday. The next day he was in the emergency room in hypertensive crisis, having an episode of acute congestive heart failure. His heart couldn’t handle the enormous amount of salt he’d eaten.

Now, I’ll admit that was an extraordinary situation, but it happens, and it underscores the need to be careful with salt intake—especially if you have high blood pressure levels, bad circulation, or other cardiovascular problems.

So the next time you reach for something to eat, make sure it’s not full of "hidden salt." I’ve put together a partial list of products that are loaded with it, to help you steer clear of some of the worst offenders:
 

• Canned and dried (packaged) foods, especially soups
• Potato chips, pretzels, saltines
• Salty or smoked meats—bacon, bologna, corned beef, luncheon meats, sausage—canned meats, and pickled meats
• Salty or smoked fish—anchovies, caviar, herring, and sardines
• Pickles and sauerkraut
• Salted nuts
• Olives
• Processed cheese and cheese spreads
• Macaroni and cheese
• Canned vegetables and vegetable juices
• Ketchup and tomato sauce
• Soy sauce
• Frozen pizza

If you’re struggling to control high blood pressure, you might want to consider making an appointment with a chiropractor.

According to a study published in the Journal of Human Hypertension, unresolved high blood pressure may be related to a misalignment in the atlas (C-1) vertebra, which sits at the top of your spinal column. (It’s said to have been named after Atlas in Greek mythology, who was sentenced to hold the heavens on his shoulders.)

To test their idea, researchers divided 50 patients with chronic hypertension into two groups. One group received a single chiropractic manipulation of the atlas vertebra, and the other group received a non-significant adjustment.

After eight weeks, the patients who received the atlas manipulation showed a significant improvement in blood pressure levels. Their systolic readings dropped by an average of 14 points and their diastolic readings dropped by an average of 8 points—an improvement similar to that which can be achieved by taking medication.

The reason for the improvement is related to the atlas vertebra’s unique shape. Unlike other spinal vertebrae, the atlas is relatively flat and depends solely on muscles and ligaments to remain properly aligned. This difference allows the skull to rotate freely but makes the atlas particularly vulnerable to displacement. Misalignment can potentially interfere with nervous tissue pathways in the brain stem and lead to high blood pressure.

Because C-1 misalignment does not typically result in pain, it usually remains undiagnosed and untreated. That’s why I recommend giving this approach a try if your other efforts at lowering blood pressure naturally haven’t had the results you were hoping for. You may simply have a problem that you don’t know about. Once corrected, you’ll be on your way to healthy blood pressure and a healthy heart!