Jeff's Thoughts

• How Do You Deal With High Blood Pressure? Take Medication Of Course

  13 April, 2016

   

  At Studio41 we take great pride in understanding our role as fitness professionals – that is to help people achieve a result. Not to train people endlessly thinking exercise is the only path necessarily for optimal health, but understanding the person holistically enough to know that we have to get someone healthy often before we can get a result (often people want the opposite – to get a result so they can become healthy).

  We often look at the medications people are on as they have a dramatic effect on our results. For example a female being on the contraceptive pill drives them towards a CoQ10 deficiency. CoQ10 is needed at the cellular level for energy. So if someone comes to us with low energy, we need to understand all the things that that person is doing and taking that could be causing this state. Simply to do more exercise will often yield very limited results (and quite often the opposite).

  One medication that is abundant is blood pressure medications. Professional doctors seem very comfortable to use these as a first go to. However is high blood pressure the problem? Maybe the question has to be asked “why is the body (which is a very smart thing) ramping up blood pressure? If we deal with the cause of the problem, maybe we would never have to have the person on blood pressure mediation at all?

  Often blood pressure is raised by the body as a result of being in a stressed state (sympathetic state). Obviously a short time can be beneficial. Higher blood pressure means you can pump blood faster, then you can run faster. However being in a stressed state for a long time can have devastating long term effects.

  Source: Bryan Walsh, Fat Is Not Your Fault Video Series

  We as health and fitness professionals are very lucky in the fact that people come to us are willing to work on their health. No one would respect a doctor if they said, “come back and see me weekly and we can take these lifestyle steps towards reducing your blood pressure”. The system has been set up so we want the magic pill, as if chronic elevated blood pressure is a stand alone issue and not simply one of the many actions the body has taken as a result of being in a prolonged stressed state.

  Here is a what one of our members has emailed us

  I had very good news this morning, my GP is so pleased with my progress that he has now taken me off all my medication. This is truly remarkable. For the last 4 years I have been on a daily statin for my cholesterol and 3 different daily  medications for my high blood pressure. My blood tests indicated that my cholesterol is still in a very good place despite being off the statin for 3 months and my blood pressure has remained in a very stable level despite going on to  reduced medication last quarter. The GP feels very confident that I can come off the remaining medication and just continue to monitor my BP through Studio 41. I am really ecstatic. In 2010 I was told that I would be on HBP medication for the rest of my life, with all the negative side-effects that the medication brings. I never imagined I would ever come off it at my age (51 on Friday). I cannot thank you both enough for everything you have helped me to achieve! Onwards and upwards.

  Testimonial: Graeme Lawrie

  At Studio41 our personal trainers will look at levels of stress through digestion (yes food can cause stress), sleep as we know when blood pressure is elevated our results will be limited – but understand that elevated blood pressure is not the problem.

  Also worth noting is the nutrient deciencies caused by blood pressure medications.

  CoQ10, Vit B6, Zinc and Vit B1.

  Source: Drug-Induced Nutrient Depletion Handbook, 2nd Edition. 

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