Taking care of your heart is a primary and essential action to avoid common conditions such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

Your heart health is central to overall good health. It’s responsible for pumping nutrient-rich blood throughout your body, it supplies oxygen while removing toxins and waste.

High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure is a common condition that affects the body’s arteries. It’s also called hypertension. If you have high blood pressure, the force of the blood pushing against the artery walls is consistently too high. The heart has to work harder to pump blood.

Blood pressure is measured in millimetres of mercury (mm Hg). In general, hypertension is a blood pressure reading of 130/80 millimetres of mercury (mm Hg) or higher.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a waxy substance found in your blood. Your body needs cholesterol to build healthy cells, but high levels of cholesterol can increase your risk of heart disease.

With high cholesterol, you can develop fatty deposits in your blood vessels. Eventually, these deposits grow, making it difficult for enough blood to flow through your arteries. Sometimes, those deposits can break suddenly and form a clot that causes a heart attack or stroke.

High cholesterol can be inherited, but it’s often the result of unhealthy lifestyle choices, which make it preventable and treatable. A healthy diet, regular exercise and sometimes medication can help reduce high cholesterol.

High cholesterol and high blood pressure are certainly linked. Cholesterol plaque and calcium cause your arteries to become hard and narrow. So, your heart has to strain much harder to pump blood through them. As a result, your blood pressure becomes too high.

Lifestyle changes are important for managing both high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Some changes include:

• Eat less saturated fat and trans fat
• Eat fewer fried foods and processed foods
• Eat less sodium (salt)
• Stop smoking and using tobacco products

There are also many supplements out there that can be incredibly helpful – Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamin B, Potassium – these are all high blood pressure and cholesterol fighters and essential for your day to day wellbeing! 

Potassium: Increasing potassium intake can help decrease your blood pressure if you have high blood pressure. By lowering blood pressure, increasing potassium intake can also reduce your risk for heart disease and stroke.

Vitamin B: Vitamin B9, also known as folate, is essential for blood formation and cell growth. Folate supplementation can help reduce blood pressure by promoting blood flow and helping blood vessels relax. 

Folic acid is an antioxidant that helps reduce oxidative stress that impairs the function of nitric oxide, thereby reducing blood pressure.

Vitamin B2, also known as riboflavin, has been shown to lower blood pressure in people with a methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene mutation. The MTHFR gene is responsible for the synthesis of folate, which facilitates normal blood flow and blood vessel health. 

Vitamin D: Studies show that vitamin D levels are lower in people with hypertension than in a healthy population. Therefore, vitamin D supplementation could prevent the risk of hypertension by 30%⁹ and reduce blood pressure in those diagnosed with the disease. Plausible evidence of the association between vitamin D and hypertension is that low temperatures increase blood pressure, also known as ‘winter hypertension.’ There’s less sunlight during winter, which can cause vitamin D deficiency and hypertension, indicating a link between the two factors.

At Gr8 Health, we also have incredibly powerful vitamins and supplements that can assist with reducing cholesterols levels and high blood pressure. 

Cabot Health Magnesium Ultra Potent Powder Citrus 465g

Thompson’s One-A-Day Hawthorn 2000 60c

MTHFR Wellbeing Methyl B12 Drops 30ml

Blackmores Cholesterol Health 60C

Herbs of Gold Bergamot Cholesterol Care 60 Caps

Nutra Life Kyolic Aged Garlic Extract Heart & Cholesterol Formula 120c

SPECIAL MENTION –

Melrose Australian Flaxseed Oil 500ml

Melrose Organic Flaxseed Oil 500ml

Flaxseed oil is an absolute powerful ingredient to have for high blood pressure and cholesterol! People use flaxseed and flaxseed oil to reduce cholesterol and blood sugar and treat digestive conditions. Some people also take flaxseed to treat inflammatory diseases. Melrose offers the best flaxseed option and the only difference between these options is that one is organic – but both are incredible additions to your wellbeing!

References:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-pressure/symptoms-causes/syc-20373410

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/symptoms-causes/syc-20350800

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/supplements-lower-blood-pressure#4.-Potassium

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/11918-cholesterol-high-cholesterol-diseases#:~:text=High%20blood%20pressure%20(hypertension)%20and,blood%20pressure%20becomes%20too%20high.

https://www.cdc.gov/salt/potassium.htm#:~:text=Increasing%20potassium%20intake%20can%20help,for%20heart%20disease%20and%20stroke.

https://healthmatch.io/high-blood-pressure/which-vitamins-are-good-for-high-blood-pressure#what-vitamins-are-good-for-reducing-high-blood-pressure

https://healthmatch.io/high-blood-pressure/which-vitamins-are-good-for-high-blood-pressure#what-vitamins-are-good-for-reducing-high-blood-pressure