In Part 1, I talked about the causes of high blood pressure and the tendency many have to run to the doctor for medication to bring it down.
Drugs, unfortunately, are designed to deal only with the particular symptom – in this case, high blood pressure. But drugs do nothing to address the cause or to improve your health.
In fact, very often they have other effects that actually make the situation worse.
According to Al Sears, MD (alsearsmd.com), if you start taking a beta-blocker, for instance (a commonly prescribed drug for high blood pressure), it will artificially bring your blood pressure down. But it will also negatively affect the conditioning of your heart and its ability to beat strongly. That means it will be really hard to get benefit from any exercise you do.
As Ageless Beauties, what we’re aiming for here are things that will keep us in top condition – youthful and strong – that enhance our body’s natural healing capability.
Keep in mind the thing about diet, supplement and lifestyle “prescriptions” is that they may not immediately wipe out symptoms like meds do. But our symptoms 
are there as a wake-up call that it is indeed time to start paying closer attention to our needs.
Here are some great natural healing prescriptions to consider:
- To counter the fight-or-flight nervous system response, incorporate relaxed breathing exercises, meditation and/or yoga daily.
- Speak your truth. That means taking responsibility for yourself. It also means checking in with your body and really listening to its messages and asking for what you need.
- Incorporate lots more vegetables into your diet. Beets and members of the cruciferous family help relax blood vessels. Become veggie conscious!
- Supplement with magnesium (citrate, aspartate, or glycinate). Researchers have found that most of us are deficient, and this one mineral really makes a difference in so many body functions. It’s naturally found in nuts, seeds, pasture-raised dairy products, and dark green vegetables.
- Decrease systemic inflammation by avoiding sugar and anything that spikes insulin production in the body. It’s not just the white stuff that gets you!
- Avoid eating processed and/or fried foods prepared with soy or other vegetable oils that are high in omega-6 fatty acids. These disturb the balance of omega-3 and trigger more of that nasty inflammation.
- Instead of vegetable oils, look for and use extra virgin olive oil, pasture-raised butter, sesame or coconut oil.
- Supplementing with CoQ10 (the ubiquinol form) is good for all things cardiovascular.
- You’ll like this one – according to Dr. Sears, you can enjoy an occasional glass of champagne! Yes, champagne specifically. Because it’s fermented twice, it relaxes the blood vessels and helps keep blood pressure low.
- And – I saved the best for last – GET REGULAR MASSAGE! Craniosacral therapy is especially stress-reducing and has been likened to having someone else meditate you.
Despite the fact that both of my parents suffered with high blood pressure, my own BP was 110/63 the last time it was checked. Besides that, my husband was taking BP meds when we met and after following the above suggestions (mostly), he now has normal blood pressure. So, I know these prescriptions really work!
My client is a surgeon who’s frequently under a lot of pressure. When he checked his blood pressure recently, he saw an alarming number register on the device.
Processed foods and deep fried foods are also loaded with an overabundance of Omega-6 fats because the oils used are generally soy, corn, safflower or other polyunsaturated vegetable oils. These oils imbalance the Omega-3/Omega-6 ratio and also contribute to inflammation.
Most of us may not have long and legendary locks, but we’re pretty darned attached to what we do have! And, you may have noticed that as hormonal shifts start to happen, some (or maybe a lot) of our hair decides to fall out.
Here are some possible causes of excessive hair loss:
It’s safe to say, however, that paying attention to good health practices such as
I guess almost no one is totally immune to the sagging-neck thing. Maybe Jane Seymour and Sigourney Weaver. According to dermatologists, the neck starts to go around age 43. I must have been lucky, because I seriously didn’t notice anything until my 60s.
• I prepare most of my own meals from scratch, using fresh, organic ingredients and including lots of veggies.
Maybe you’ve had an eeeeeeekk! moment or two yourself lately and can identify with this. I was at an event recently – actually one of those fairly “Portlandia” style ones – called “Paint Nite” where the participants come together to get their “art” on by imbibing lots of palliative liquids while producing a painting as they follow the instructions of the local artist who’s leading the show.
I’d like to propose another option. How about becoming aware of the habits and choices we make that contribute to unhealthy aging and old-before-your-time skin and then choosing differently?
That’s sad because exercise is one of the best ways to manage cortisol levels and to tone, not just our muscles, but also our skin. Exercise triggers the production of one of the most important antioxidants in the body – glutathione – which slows down the aging process and helps ward off wrinkles and sagging. Exercise boosts the natural production of collagen, which improves skin thickness. Resistance training in particular helps build up muscles to create lifted, taut-looking skin.
Anyway, it’s a rare snowy day here in Portland, Oregon, and while enjoying a laid-back afternoon watching the snow fall, I got to thinking about hot cocoa. Now, if you know everything about me, you should know that I don’t keep packaged, commercially prepared substitutes for the real thing hanging around. No tear-open-here-and-dump-the-powder into the cup of microwaved hot water for this girl.
So, you ask, what the heck are flavonols and polyphenols good for? Well, both of these help fight aging and prevent disease. Flavonols help support healthy circulation and keep the arteries flexible and may also have anti-inflammatory and anti-allergenic properties. Polyphenols are believed to help lower cholesterol. They work as antioxidants that prevent cellular damage in the body (hence, the powerful age-and-disease-fighting ability).