What the New Blood Pressure Range Guidelines Mean
Aug 24, 2023
What the New Blood Pressure Range Guidelines Mean
Blood pressure measurement guidelines explained. Natural approaches to blood pressure control can work better than drugs because you’re treating the underlying cause, and can end up having only good side effects.https://nutritionfacts.org/subscribe/ http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-t …, which compares the effect of fasting to medications, cutting down on alcohol, meat, and salt, eating more fruits and vegetables, or eating completely plant-based. And then finally a review of all the fasting trials to date coming up in Fasting to Naturally Reverse High Blood Pressure (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/fasti …https://nutritionfacts.org/video/spri …) and The Evidence That Salt Raises Blood Pressure (https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the- …http://nutritionfacts.org/video/what- … and someone on the NutritionFacts.org team will try to answer it.http://nutritionfacts.org/video/what- … You’ll also find a transcript and acknowledgements for the video, my blog and speaking tour schedule, and an easy way to search (by translated language even) through our videos spanning more than 2,000 health topics. https://www.youtube.com/subscription _…https://nutritionfacts.zendesk.com/hc …https://NutritionFacts.org https://nutritionfacts.org/subscribe https://nutritionfacts.org/donate https://nutritionfacts.org/audio www.facebook.com/NutritionFacts.org www.twitter.com/nutrition_facts www.instagram.com/nutrition_facts_org https://nutritionfacts.org/books https://drgreger.org
Content
0 -> "What the New Blood Pressure
Range Guidelines Mean"
9.92 -> The number one killer in the United
States and on the planet Earth
15.28 -> is a bad diet.
17.17 -> That is why I’ve dedicated my
life to the study of nutrition.
21.32 -> Killer #2 is high blood pressure.
23.78 -> The reason it’s so deadly is that
it increases your risk of dying
26.32 -> from so many different diseases:
heart disease and stroke,
30.07 -> to heart and kidney failure.
32.56 -> We’re talking an exponential increase
in risk of dying from a stroke
36.92 -> as our pressures go up starting
from around 110 over 70,
40.82 -> an exponential increase in the
risk of dying from heart disease,
44.1 -> again starting at a blood
pressure of about 110/70.
47.86 -> We used to consider a blood pressure
as high as 175 to be normal,
52.579 -> normal if you wanted to
die from the normal diseases
55.969 -> like heart attack and stroke.
57.22 -> A quote-unquote “normal” of 175
over 110 could put you at over
60.96 -> a thousand percent higher risk of
having you croak from a stroke
64.83 -> compared to the ideal—
not the normal, but the ideal,
68.14 -> which is down around 110/70.
71.81 -> The definition of high blood
pressure, hypertension,
74.56 -> dropped from as high as 190/110,
down to 160 over 95,
80.03 -> with treatment thresholds for high
risk groups starting at 150/90
83.24 -> down to 140/90, and then,
most recently, 130/80.
87.5 -> Now…instead of 1 in 3
Americans having hypertension,
93.149 -> with the new definition,
it’s closer to 1 in 2,
95.53 -> or more like two-thirds among
those over the age of 45.
100.49 -> Every time the threshold drops,
labeling tens of millions more people
104.61 -> as diseased, there’s this backlash.
106.68 -> Same thing every time
the cholesterol guidelines
108.21 -> get more and more stringent,
but don’t blame the guidelines.
113.1 -> Americans are diseased.
114.1 -> That’s the real problem.
116.31 -> The American way of life is
the problem, not the guidelines.
119.85 -> Maybe we should focus on that instead.
123.409 -> After all, the number one killer
of men and women is heart disease,
127.17 -> a disease that can be prevented, arrested,
129.35 -> and reversed with a healthy enough diet.
132.81 -> So, even though a cholesterol
of 200 may be normal,
135.27 -> maybe we should tell people
to strive for under 150.
139.22 -> Even though a BMI of 24.9 is
technically not overweight,
142.97 -> an average height woman, for example,
would be better off down around
146.59 -> 120 pounds than 145.
148.35 -> And, similarly, though a blood
pressure of 120/80 may be normal,
154.16 -> 110 would be a better top number,
and 70 a better lower number;
158.92 -> as even down in that range
between 70 to 75, or 75 to 80,
164.23 -> each 5-point increment is
associated with a third more stroke
167.86 -> and at least a fifth more heart disease.
170.18 -> So, why are the new guidelines
up at 130 over 80?
175.51 -> With an average of three
different blood pressure drugs
178.1 -> you can force people’s blood
pressures from 140 down to 120,
181.54 -> compared to just giving them
two blood pressure drugs,
184.34 -> and high-risk people live
longer because of it.
187.16 -> Significantly less death in the
intensive treatment group but,
190.78 -> because of the higher doses and
drugs, had more side effects;
194.51 -> so, you have to weigh the
risks versus benefits…
198.38 -> One to 2% of people on the
drugs for 5 years will benefit,
202.51 -> not having a cardiovascular event
when they otherwise might have,
206.83 -> and that has to be balanced against
the higher risk of adverse side effects.
210.69 -> So, you’ll hear commentators
saying things like yeah,
214.48 -> the drugs decreased your
risk of “events” by 25%,
217.42 -> but increased your risk of a
serious side effects by 88%.
221.41 -> OK, but those events can
include things like death,
226.93 -> whereas the side effects are
more on the order of fainting.
231.13 -> “These adverse events [do] need
to be weighed against the benefits
235.77 -> with respect to cardiovascular
events and death
238.18 -> that are associated with intensive
control of systolic blood pressure.”
242.63 -> Like, if we use drugs to
push high-risk people down
246.21 -> to a top number of 120 we might
prevent over 100,000 deaths
252.04 -> and 46,000 cases of heart
failure every year,
255.21 -> but could cause “43,000 cases
of electrolyte abnormalities
259.31 -> and 88,000 cases of
acute kidney injury.”
262.53 -> Not great, but better than dying.
265.99 -> So, you can see the conundrum
guidelines committees are in.
270.56 -> On one hand lowering blood
pressure is good for your
273.52 -> heart, kidneys, and brain,
but at a certain point
276.3 -> the side effects from the drugs
could outweigh the benefits.
279.62 -> Ideally, we want to get patients’
blood pressures as low as possible,
283.699 -> but only want to use drugs to do
it “when the effects of treatment
287.9 -> are likely to be less destructive
than the elevated blood pressure.”
291.37 -> The problem is that most people who die
293.15 -> from heart disease, heart failure,
and stroke may be in that
297.02 -> borderline range not sufficiently
elevated to warrant drug treatment.
302.259 -> If only there were some way
to lower blood pressures
304.759 -> without drugs to get the
best of both worlds.
307.99 -> Thankfully, there are.
309.599 -> Regular aerobic exercise, weight loss,
313.039 -> smoking cessation, increased
dietary fiber intake,
315.55 -> decreased alcoholic beverage
intake, consumption of a more
319.199 -> plant-based diet and cutting down on salt.
324.02 -> The advantage is, first of
all, no bad side effects.
327.52 -> Some lifestyle interventions can
actually work better than the drugs
331.02 -> because you’re treating the cause,
333.979 -> and actually have
instead good side effects.
336.43 -> So, not 1 or 2% benefit over
5 years—everybody benefits.
340.93 -> We’ll explore one drug-free
approach—water-only fasting, next.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3suvEOuF87c
