Blood Pressure

Your body is talking to you.  Are you listening?

The definition of blood pressure is “The pressure of the blood against the inner walls of the blood vessels, varying in different parts of the body during different phases of contraction of the heart and under different conditions of health, exertion, etc.”
That is straight forward, but what causes the variances in the contraction of the heart and what are the contributing factors other than physical exertion? More importantly, wouldn’t it be nice to understand what your blood pressure reading is telling you, in simple laymen terms, so you can address the problem and not just mask the symptoms.

A blood pressure reading is made up of two parts. The top reading is called the systolic and the bottom reading is called the diastolic. It is important to note the top and bottom because it correlates directly with the adrenal glands(systolic) that sit on top of the kidneys (diastolic) in your body.
Text book blood pressure is in the range from 120-130 over 60-70. To fully understand blood pressure, a basic understanding of the role of the adrenal glands and kidneys is needed. In past articles I have discussed the role of the kidneys to filter and eliminate wastes and acids from the body, but what exactly are the adrenal glands responsible for?

The adrenal glands are everything to you, especially concerning the emotional body. They are part of the endocrine system, which is your body’s government. This government tells the rest of your body what to do. They are also part of the autonomic nervous system, which is called the second brain. This brain is located in the solar plexus/stomach area. When you see anxiety, shortness of breath, C. O. P. D., asthma, heart arrhythmia’s, paralysis and constipation in some cases, you see the autonomic nervous system or the ANS in play. The ANS has two sides to it, the parasympathetic reaching to the cerebellum and the sympathetic which reaches to the adrenal glands. One of the many functions of the adrenal glands is to produce neurotransmitters that turn this nervous system on. Geared to emotion as in “fight or flight,” the adrenal glands produce epinephrine and norepinephrine, which are your adrenaline’s, for activity and muscles.

The adrenal glands also produce dopamine and acetylcholine neurotransmitters.This allows for the function of elimination. So neurotransmitters turn things on and off. They shut down certain activities so that energy isn’t lost. When you need energy to the muscles to protect yourself, all energy has to be focused and this is what these neurotransmitters do. Depending on the function, the adrenal glands shut down some and increase others. This is where stress comes in and stress factors. Stress (fight or flight) shuts down dopamine and acetylcholine and increases epinephrine and norepinephrine. If this goes unchecked, your kidneys’ ability to eliminate wastes weakens and over time you will see more and more symptoms. Under stress, activity is increasing but we are shutting down the kidneys by not allowing them to do their job and filter wastes (acids) from the body.

With regard to blood pressure, the adrenal glands are responsible for the neurotransmitter signal that kicks the heart, know as the “cardiac punch” and it is the systolic part of your blood pressure reading. The systolic pressure not only tells you the pressure in the inner wall of your blood vessels, it tells you exactly how your adrenal glands are functioning. If you have a low systolic number (under 118), your body is telling you that the adrenal glands are under functioning. If you have a high systolic number (over 130), your adrenal glands are still under functioning, but now stress is involved, the neurotransmitters for elimination are shut off, the kidneys are not filtering and your lymphatic system is backing up.

If your kidneys are not filtering, it means acid is building up and when the kidneys start to lose their ability to filter even themselves, you start to see your creatinine levels in the blood go up, meaning the kidneys are starting to break down with all the acid retention. Some people will get UTI’s as well as inflammation throughout the body. This is acidosis because the lymph (your sewer system) isn’t moving anywhere and all the cells are just sitting in acid. When the kidneys start to back up, the diastolic number will go up (above 70) In contrast, If the diastolic number starts to go down (under 60), your body is telling you that the kidneys are very weak and you need to build them up.

There is also another type of blood pressure, which is called swinging blood pressure. When lymph backs up, it backs up systemically. When it does, it backs up the body causing stiff shoulders and a tight neck. This is the lymphatic system full of congestion, again because you are under stress and the kidneys are not filtering. When this lymph backs up the neck to the cerebellum, you will experience swinging blood pressure. When you are stressed, it goes up and when you are relaxed, it goes down. You cannot treat this type of blood pressure with ongoing medication for fear of dropping the body into hypotension. The best thing to do is to run cold water along the back of the neck and work on the neuro-lymphatic points down your back until the pressure comes down. The overall fix is to go to the adrenal glands and kidneys because that is where the problem exists. It is the under functioning of the adrenal glands and kidneys that are causing lymph to build up the back of the neck to the cerebellum.

As always, you have to take into account what fuel you are feeding your body. Man has chosen the high protein route and protein is an acid. Hopefully, you now understand what happens to your kidneys when they cannot keep up with filtering all the wastes (acids) from the body. So be warned, if you are consuming a high protein diet your kidneys are suffering. Maybe you have no symptoms today but in the long run, if you are saying yes to high protein, you are saying bye, bye to your kidneys and bye, bye to your bowels.

In most cases, abnormal blood pressure is easy to fix and it’s not by taking a pill to mask the symptoms. It is by empowering yourself to give the body the tools that it needs to heal itself. The key is to detox the body in order to heal your adrenal glands and kidney, which in turn will enable your blood pressure to return a healthy range. You accomplish this with a diet of mainly fruits, vegetables and herbs. Together, they strengthen clean and regenerate all cells of the body. It is also important to find relaxation methods to manage your stress so that the sympathetic nervous system is not in overdrive and your body is able to eliminate wastes. If you are on medication, please make sure to work with a health care professional. Let them know what you are trying to achieve so that he or she can monitor you until you have reached a healthy blood pressure range.

Remember, there are only two sides to chemistry (acid and alkaline) and your body works best when its chemistry is predominantly alkaline. When your body’s chemistry is out of balance, it sends you signals called symptoms which in this case is high, low or swinging blood pressure. Don’t mask the symptoms, eliminate them.

Your body is talking to you. Are you listening?