Hi  – I’m happy to hear you’ve lost some weight and increasing your exercise. I respectfully have to disagree with your doctor, as there is plenty that can be done to normalize blood pressure in the body.

The body is always responding to our environment, so what we have to do is put our detective hats on and try to figure out what is causing your body to respond by increasing its blood pressure.

If you haven’t already seen it, here is a handout about hypertension (high blood pressure) in the Symptom Dictionary that lists possible root causes that can be at play.

Let’s go through them together, and let me know what resonates most with you:
•  Chronic stress (high cortisol) leading to loss of potassium

->Cortisol naturally increases with age due to the increased amount of oxidative damage in the body, but in addition to that, how would you rate stress in your life? Emotional, physical and physiological stresses. Has Cortisol ever been measured?
•  Sodium/potassium imbalance (especially potassium) 

->Do you avoid salt by any chance? This can actually contribute to high blood pressure, contrary to what most people are told. Unless there is overt kidney disease, natural sea salt and Himalayan salt SHOULD be part of our diets. It’s excess sodium from processed foods and fast foods and processed table salt that should be avoided.

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen me adding ‘sole’ to my glass water bottle. This helps bring on board more electrolytes – especially sodium.

And here’s a video to help correct a potassium deficiency or insufficiency with some food recommendations that you can start to include more of. Here’s another video to see the signs and symptoms of a need for more potassium to help you figure out if that’s the issue. These are all in the Mineral Balance course if you care to dive deeper.
• Nutrient insufficiencies like magnesium to ensure cellular absorption of potassium, and Vitamin B6 & taurine which increases cellular absorption of magnesium & potassium.

->Here’s a video with the signs and symptoms of a magnesium deficiency (also in the Mineral Balance course) and here’s a video how to correct it. All of these nutrients can also be measured in blood if you wish to do some testing like RBC magnesium, potassium and Vitamin B6.
• Obesity and/or lack of exercise

->I’m glad you’re already tackling this root cause. Keep up the effort!
•  Insulin resistance/diabetes – ideal fasting insulin is 5 mIU/ml and HbA1c < 5.3% (causes mineral loss through increased urination & inflammation on lining of blood vessels)  ->Have you ever measured your fasting glucose, fasting insulin and HbA1c? Do you know if blood sugar regulation is an issue for you. If so, then we have a whole course to help address blood sugar dysregulation.
• Heavy metal toxicity (cadmium, arsenic, lead, etc) 

->With age, we lose bone mass and with that comes a release of lead into the body. It’s not uncommon for that to happen as we age unfortunately. Are you aware of any exposures in your lifetime to heavy metals? Amalgam fillings? Workplace environment? Consuming a lot of fish? Eating a lot of canned foods? So many toxic exposures today but something to think about and potentially explore if nothing else  I’ve mentioned resonates with you.
• Excess DHT testosterone

->do you experience any of these symptoms that could point to androgen dominance: scalp hair loss, facial/body hair growth, anger, aggression, irritation, quick to snap, acne?
• BPA from canned goods 

->BPA is also found in plastic and anything coated with plastic like plastic bottles, cash register receipts, lining of microwavable foods, etc.

As you can see, there’s lots to consider and address, and it’s absolutely possible to normalize blood pressure naturally when we identify and address the root cause.

Please take some time to read through the handouts and watch the videos, and let us know what resonates most with you so we can continue guiding you.

 I wanted to share another natural solution that can help lower blood pressure that I just recently came across as I was doing research for the newest adrenal balance course releasing soon.

It’s called RESPeRATE and it’s an FDA regulated device that claims to reduce blood pressure without the need for a prescription. It also has 16 clinical trials proving its effectiveness so this seems promising to me, although I don’t have personal experience to share.

The idea behind why it works is that it helps a person work on breathing exercises (ideally 3 x per day for 15 mins at a time) to help the blood vessels relax and reduce blood pressure over time.

Just thought to share… please do let us know if you end up buying one and using it. Would love to hear your experience if you do.

 stress is a HUGE factor affecting blood pressure. We will be releasing the Adrenal Balance course tomorrow and in it, I recommend you watch the section about aldosterone which is in the “Adrenal Basics” video at the beginning of the course. I explain the role of aldosterone and kidneys in regulating our blood pressure by modulating sodium and potassium levels.

Knowing that you have hyperthyroidism, I would also recommend you watch this video here for more information about causes and solutions. Bugleweed and selenium are particularly important with hyperthyroid function. And if you have any goiters or thyroid nodules, please watch this video too. Brazil nuts and sardines are great sources of selenium.

You can also watch this short video for more thyroid supportive food options that help provide more iron, zinc, vitamin A, selenium and iodine – key nutrients for thyroid health.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

 great – we’ll be waiting for your follow-on questions after you’ve had a chance to check out the videos I shared.

And we released our Adrenal Balance course today, so here’s the link to the Adrenal Hormone Basics video where I discuss the role of aldosterone in regulating blood pressure.

And since stress is part of the picture for you, here are a few more short videos to watch on how to test cortisol status to know how to support your adrenals better, and lower blood pressure:
• At home
• In blood
• Functional test using saliva/urine

Please let me know if you have any questions.

 Oh! No worries – I’ve got you covered with that too… do you have any thyroid test results you can share? 

The following videos can help you figure out why you have low thyroid function:
• Reasons for Low T4
• Reasons for Low T3
• Things to Avoid to Protect Your Thyroid
• Foods to support your thyroid (which I previously shared already)

Hi  – so going back to my original reply about the possible root causes of hypertension, I would suggest the following list:

-RBC magnesium (insist that it’s RBC and not serum magnesium)
-Vitamin B6 (this is not typically measured so your doctor may not want to run it)
-Electrolyte panel (sodium, potassium, chloride, CO2)
-Calcium, phosphorous (given the osteoporosis diagnosis)
-Blood sugar panel (fasting insulin, fasting glucose, HbA1C – insist they measure fasting insulin which they typically leave out)
-Iron, ferritin (this can affect thyroid conversion)

-Multi-sample salivary or urinary cortisol (not sure your doc can order this, but worth asking for it. Otherwise, I’d encourage you to venture into functional testing. Where do you live? I can help point you to a 3rd party lab that allows you to pay out-of-pocket for any test you wish).

This is a preliminary list for blood tests I’d recommend.

 we partnered with True Health Labs, and they provide tests to Canada!! Here are the options for stress tests in Canada. Let me know if you need help narrowing it down, but you can see the different prices and if it’s something you’d like to pursue.