For most of us, Halloween is a fun time of the year. Fall weather, beautiful foliage, Halloween decorations, costumes, happy children, parties, CANDY!

Did I mention candy? Oh right. Candy. It does have its appeal … it’s sweet, it’s fun, it’s colorful (not naturally colorful, but colorful nonetheless) and at this time of year, it’s ubiquitous!

We know it’s not a smart addition to a healthful diet or a healthy life. And yet, for so many of us it’s difficult to resist when we’re surrounded by it. What are we to do? What if we have high BP and we’re working toward Better Numbers, Better Life? We need a couple of tools to help us navigate this holiday.

Here are a couple of ideas that will hopefully assist you in accomplishing your Better Numbers, Better Life goal, while still keeping the smile on the Jack O’ Lantern:

1. Environmental Control. We’ve discussed this in a previous issue of The Circulatory. To sum it up: Don’t keep things in your environment (home, car, work) that will constantly be calling your name and begging you to get rid of it by eating it! When it’s there, it takes a huge amount of willpower to resist it. We all have willpower sometimes. NONE of us has it all of the time! We’re all human (even if we’re wearing a gorilla costume for Halloween) and it’s okay to have some candy.  Sometimes if we tell ourselves that we can’t have any at all, we rebel and eat everything in sight. It’s better to let yourself enjoy some. It’s an unusual day and it’s just one day, if you implement some environmental control!
   
2. Buy yourself some candy that is actually good for you. Candy that’s good for you? Yes! Is it colorful? No. Is it your first choice? Maybe, maybe not. Can you savor it as it melts in your mouth while knowing that it’s affirmatively GOOD for your blood pressure? YES!!! What is it? DARK CHOCOLATE! Yes, there are studies showing that it actually has the effect of decreasing both systolic and diastolic blood pressure! Pounds of it? No. But as we mentioned in our section of “What Foods To Eat” in our eBook about high blood pressure (which you can download for free at 120life.com), you can have an ounce a day of 70% dark chocolate. Yes, every day! 🙂

What’s the takeaway? If candy is your thing, decide ahead of time which 3 types are your favorite, and allow yourself to have one of each. No need to feel deprived.  After you eat that 3^rd piece, put a period at the end of that sentence by eating a piece of 70% dark chocolate … and/or, an apple. You get to start a new sentence the next day. Don’t try to “make up for it”. Just eat normally. The way you do in working toward Better Numbers, Better Life. Put any leftover candy in a bag, tie it in a knot and give it away. Perhaps to a children’s charity or a homeless shelter, or whatever floats your boat. Except for the 70% dark chocolate! Good for your health! And the soul!

Happy Halloween and here’s to your health!

One of the many things that can cause high blood pressure is Obstructive Sleep Apnea. OSA decreases oxygen in your body while you’re sleeping, which can lead to surges in both your systolic and diastolic blood pressure. These surges in blood pressure put stress on the heart and the arteries. For many people with OSA, this increase in blood pressure will stick around during the day, even when they’re breathing normally!

There are numerous things that can cause OSA. Some of them are in our control, some aren’t. Overweight and obesity as defined by BMI (body mass index) are the strongest risk factors for OSA, as more than 50% of people with OSA are overweight or obese. Luckily, they are both factors that are in our control.

BMI is a numerical value of our weight (in kilograms) as it relates to our height (in meters squared) and it is used to define underweight, normal weight, overweight and obesity:

• Underweight: Less than 18.5
• Healthy weight: 18.5-24.9
• Overweight: 25-29.9
• Obese: 30 or higher

If you’d like to take a second to calculate your BMI, you can do so here.

Waist circumference and neck circumference are risk factors as well. A waist circumference of 41 inches or more for men and 39 inches or more for women, and/or a neck circumference of 17 inches or more for men and 16 inches or more for women, can increase risk. But the good news is that there is a way to lower your BMI, waist circumference, and neck circumference all at once: lose weight.

Weight gain and OSA have a chicken and egg relationship. Being obese or overweight can cause OSA, as the excess weight (particularly around our abdomen and neck) literally puts pressure on our upper airways, contributing to OSA. In turn, the interrupted sleep from OSA can change our insulin resistance and production of hunger/fullness signaling hormones, which can contribute to obesity. This can cause a “vicious cycle” of increasingly unhealthy sleep patterns and consistent weight gain.

 What are signs that you might have OSA?

1. Excessive daytime sleepiness
2. Loud snoring
3. Observed episodes of stopped breathing during sleep
4. Abrupt awakenings accompanied by gasping or choking
5. Awakening with a dry mouth or sore throat
6. Morning headache
7. Difficulty concentrating during the day
8. Experiencing mood changes, such as depression or irritability
9. High blood pressure
10. Nighttime sweating
11. Decreased libido

If you experience any of these symptoms, please speak with your doctor. Treatment can decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease (including high blood pressure) and diabetes.

What do OSA and obesity have in common? They’re both potential causes of high blood pressure.

Remember that at the beginning of this Circulatory I said that obesity is one of the factors that causes OSA that we can control. Obesity is also one of the factors that causes high blood pressure that we can control, as it causes it both independently and as a byproduct of OSA.

Talking about obesity and how it pertains to ourselves can sometimes overwhelm us. Please remember: Small changes. One step at a time. And if you need some more advice, take another look at a previous Circulatory installment, “The Power of Tiny Habits”.

Here’s to your health!

Ocean waves, hello waves, heat waves, goodbye waves, waves of humidity, sound waves. Some of these can positively affect our heath by refreshing us, making us happy, nourishing our spirit.  However, two of them have the potential to negatively affect our health—especially when they happen simultaneously. When combined, waves of heat and humidity can have a dangerous effect on our heart rate, our hydration status, and our blood pressure.

This is because when it’s hot and humid outside, our bodies desperately try to avoid overheating.

Why? Well, we have thousands of proteins in our body called enzymes, which are necessary for carrying out vital tasks like producing energy. However, these ultra-important proteins can easily be broken down by heat. As a result, when our internal temperature gets too high (say about 104 degrees Fahrenheit), the body tries to expel heat as quickly as possible. It does this by telling our heart to pump harder and faster, which gets our blood closer to the surface of our skin so that it can release the heat. The body also releases fluid and electrolytes in the form of perspiration so that the resulting evaporation can cool us off.

Sadly, this process can also have a serious impact upon your heart health. The fluid and electrolytes that are lost when we sweat are needed for muscle contraction, nerve conduction, and the prevention of further fluid loss. When the cells in our body don’t have enough fluid, the brain sends a signal to our pituitary gland to secrete a chemical that constricts our blood vessels, which causes our blood pressure to rise. With our heart pumping harder and faster, our body rapidly losing fluid and electrolytes, and our blood pressure climbing, it’s like a triple whammy of escalating health risks.

So, what can we do to address the heat and our hydration status?

In terms of the heat:

• Wear light colored loose-fitting clothes.
• Don’t wear heavy close-toed shoes.
• If you must be outside, take breaks to sit in shaded and air-conditioned areas.
• Avoid being outside when the sun and heat are the strongest, which is between 12 and 3 PM.

In terms of our hydration status:

• Drink water or seltzer. Add lemon or lime juice to your water for a small hit of electrolytes.
• Don’t just drink when you’re thirsty. Sometimes when we think we’re hungry, we’re actually thirsty, and sometimes we don’t experience thirst until we’re close to being dehydrated. Instead, try to follow the “8×8 Rule”: drink eight 8oz glasses/day on days when you haven’t had a hard/long workout and/or on days when the temperature isn’t extraordinarily high.
• Avoid beverages with sugar, alcohol and/or caffeine.
• Unsweetened coconut water is a good source of fluid and electrolytes.
• Drink before, during, and after a workout.
• You’ll know you’re drinking enough if your urine is colorless or light straw yellow.
• Eat some delicious and thirst-quenching watermelon. It will give you fluid, electrolytes, and it can help your body make some more nitric oxide, which can help in normalizing your blood pressure!
• Frozen (organic!) red grapes will cool you off, and they have resveratrol, which is good for your blood vessel walls!

Enjoy the ocean waves of summer. Here’s to your health!

Just thinking of what we need to do to make a difference in our blood pressure can be overwhelming: cut back on sodium, increase your potassium intake, lose weight, stop smoking, get more exercise, manage your stress…

So in this installment of The Circulatory, I want to emphasize the sometimes surprising impact that a tiny change in habit can make.

Here’s an example to illustrate this point:

Let’s say you want to lose some weight. It isn’t just an uphill battle, it’s one that you’re tired of trying to climb. You’re a modern Sisyphus trying to push that stone to the top of the mountain, only to have it fall back whenever you’re close.

So here’s a much easier way to conquer the mountain.  Instead of aiming for the top, focus on getting to the nearest next level. Losing just 5% of our body weight (that’s just 10lbs for a 200 lb. person) can help decrease our blood pressure, our triglycerides, our risk for type 2 diabetes, our joint pain, and our risk of cardiovascular disease.

5% can do all that.

Now, is losing 5% of our body weight easier said than done? Maybe. But here are a few pieces of information about tiny habit changes that can make that goal seem easier to accomplish:

• It takes 3500 calories over/or under maintenance needs to gain/or lose a pound of fat.
• This means that 35,000 calories subtracted from your intake over the course of a year would have you lose 10 pounds of fat.
• An average 12oz can of soda is 150 calories. Cut out 1 can of soda (or the equivalent caloric deficit) every day for a year, and that alone would give you a 15lb fat loss.
• An average serving of full-fat salad dressing is 2 tablespoons and a whopping 150 calories. Most of us use more than 2 tablespoons … a lot more. Cut out one serving/day. Same result as above.
• A serving of most  chocolate chip cookies (2 cookies) is 156 calories. Cutting out 2 each day would give you a 16 lb. fat loss over the course of a year.
• Alcohol calorie averages:
  • 12 oz Beer – 150 calories
  • 5 oz Red Wine – 125 calories
  • 5 oz White Wine ­– 100 calories
  • 1.5oz Whiskey – 100 calories
  • average cocktail range from 128 (scotch and soda) to 644 (Pina Colada) calories

So, cutting out one of these each day would give you a fat loss of 10lbs to 67 lbs over the course of a year, depending on which you cut out. I’m guessing that there aren’t many people having a Pina Colada every day!

As an added bonus, 10 lbs. of fat loss isn’t the same as 10 lbs. of weight loss. In the process of losing fat, we will also lose water that our body holds onto in its stored carbohydrates. This will reflect as a weight loss that is greater than 10 lbs!

So any one of these tiny changes (or the caloric equivalent) would get a 200 lb. person to 5% fat loss over the course of a year. Two of these tiny changes? A 10% fat loss over the course of a year, and so on and so forth. But just one of these changes could lead to a significant decrease in blood pressure, triglycerides, inflammation, joint pain, and risk of cardiovascular disease or type 2 diabetes.

This same approach is true for most goals we’re trying to accomplish. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Walk it rather than run it. One tiny habit at a time.

Here’s to your health!

BBQs! Picnics! Street Fairs! Amusement Parks! Where does all of this fun summertime food rate on the healthy vs. unhealthy scorecard?

There is certainly is an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables available. Obviously, we all know how they score! So many naturallyoccurring colors of the rainbow, all of which have health benefits to offer. But the unnatural foods we eat at some of these summer activities can potentially impact our health in ways that might surprise you.

In this issue of The Circulatory, I’ll be addressing nitrates. We’ll take a look at which foods are high in nitrates, how they work in our body, and how to differentiate between which nitrate-containing foods are good for us and which nitrate-containing foods aren’t.

When you chew anything containing nitrates, the natural bacteria in your mouth converts it into nitrites. After it gets to your stomach, those nitrites are converted to one of two compounds. We want them to become the one called nitric oxide, a gas which also happens to be a potent blood vessel dilator. When blood vessels are dilated, they are relaxed and widened, allowing for more blood flow, which helps normalize blood pressure. Increased nitric oxide in the body also promotes the removal of waste and carbon dioxide from, as well as promoting delivery of oxygen and nutrients to, the body. These benefits are particularly important to your heart, genitals, and brain.

GOOD FOR US

You have to love the beet.  Yes, the beautifully, naturally red beet is one of the most potent and healthy nitrate-containing foods in nature. Its antioxidant content (e.g., vitamin C and polyphenols) as well its lack of industrial processing assists our body in creating nitric oxide, as well as preventing the body from creating dangerous nitrosamines (described below).

BAD FOR US

The nitrite and nitrate-containing foods to avoid are cured and processed meats. Bacon and hot dogs are just two of these culprits, both of which are often dished up at picnics and BBQs. When you eat these foods, they are most often converted to a compound that is carcinogenic. Even though these foods contain nitrites, it is usually in the form of sodium nitrite or sodium nitrate (as opposed to a naturally occurring nitrate). When these foods are chewed and swallowed and make their way to your stomach, the meat’s protein and heme content (the molecule that carries iron in animals) help convert the nitrite into the carcinogens called nitrosamines. We don’t want that.

The sodium nitrite/sodium nitrate in these processed meats have the added disadvantage of being high in – you guessed it – sodium, which we need to limit to help normalize our blood pressure.

Wow. Does that mean never eating a hot dog again? That’s up to you. As for me, I like to tell the story of being at BBQ a few years ago. One of the people who knew that I’m a nutritionist came up to me mid-bite and said, “you’re eating a hot dog?” And I replied “yup, I’m still a human!” 🙂

Once in a while is okay. It’s summer, after all! But do your best to make sure that your daily routine includes lots of healthy, naturally occurring, nitrate-containing foods like:

• Beetroot
• Arugula
• Fennel
• Leek
• Parsley
• Endive
• Carrot
• Spinach
• Chinese cabbage
• Bok choy
• Cabbage
• Rhubarb
• Dill
• Turnip

Your heart will thank you later. Here’s to your health!

Last weekend was Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer. That means we (finally!) get to look forward to longer days and more sunshine! But aside from the mood-boosting value of sunshine and the opportunity for more outdoor activity, we also get to take advantage of the added benefit of our body producing more vitamin D. This can be helpful with our goal of blood pressure normalization.

Numerous clinical studies have shown that there is an association between high blood pressure and low levels of vitamin D. 

According to a study published in the Journal of Nephropathology, those with vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency had greater activity of an enzyme called angiotensin converting enzyme, or ACE, which constricts blood vessels and subsequently raises blood pressure. Many people who have high blood pressure take medications that are ACE Inhibitors, which work as you’d imagine they would (by inhibiting the production of ACE). Doing this helps prevent the constriction of blood vessels, and thus helps to normalize BP.

A brief explanation of why vitamin D appears to be helpful with blood pressure normalization:

Renin is produced in our kidneys and it increases the production of ACE. Vitamin D appears to turn down the production of renin. Because vitamin D turns down the production of renin, the production of ACE goes down, and so blood vessels don’t constrict as much. This action is the probable mechanism of vitamin D’s role in blood pressure normalization.  

So, blah blah blah with the technicalities… What’s important? 

Having adequate amount of the sunshine vitamin is important to your goal of blood pressure normalization. And the best ways to get vitamin D are sun, food, and supplementation.

Why is it called “the sunshine vitamin”? Our skin produces large amounts of vitamin D when the sun is high in the sky and lots of our bare skin is exposed (like your bare back when you’re tanning or going to the beach). We make what we need in about half the time it would take to get a sunburn. That being said, it does get a bit more difficult for our skin to produce it as we age, and so many of us live in climates where that level of sun exposure isn’t available year-round. And of course, we need to be mindful of skin cancer prevention and not over-exposing ourselves. 

That’s why it’s also important to get vitamin D through food and supplementation.

Foods that contain vitamin D are: fatty fish, beef liver, egg yolks, fortified milk and orange juice, fortified cereal. Meanwhile, supplementation should be in the form of vitamin D3 cholecalciferol. It’s the form of vitamin D best absorbed by the body.

It’s a good idea to ask your doctor for a blood test to check your vitamin D levels and speak to him/her about supplementation before starting.

Personally, as I live in the northeast, I opt for the sun in appropriate amounts in the summer, fatty fish like wild Alaskan sockeye salmon and pasture raised eggs year round, and vitamin D3 supplementation in the fall, winter and spring.

Adequate levels of vitamin D helping in blood pressure normalization is only one of the MANY benefits of vitamin D. So get your levels checked!

Here’s to your health!

We’re all dealt a genetic hand. Some of us might let fear of inheriting the same genes that our relatives have get in the way of getting timely physical exams. Some of us might let this same fear allow us to give up because “it’s a done deal” and we’re going to stay this way forever. In terms of high blood pressure, this might look like not getting our numbers checked (kind of like an ostrich with its head in the sand). Or it might lead to “I’m going to have high blood pressure and die from some comorbidity anyway, so I might as well eat whatever I want and/or drink as much alcohol as I want to, or smoke, or be a couch potato, or not manage my stress”.

If we are driven by any of these thought patterns, it’s important to keep in mind epigenetics.

Epigenetics deal with the forces that determine whether inherited genes in our DNA are turned on, turned off, or remain unexpressed.

So … think of your body as a piano, your genes (DNA) as the keys, your life is the song that’s being played, and epigenetics are the fingers striking the keys to play your life’s song.

When playing the piano, different things can affect whether or not a key is played and the outcome of the intended song… Has the player been practicing? What about their muscle agility, the player’s interpretation of the song, the player’s mood, the lighting in the room, or their energy level? You get the picture!

It’s a similar type of deal with our epigenetic fingers and the hand we’ve been dealt. In this case, the fingers are our environment combined with our lifestyle choices. For example: If we’ve inherited the genes for high blood pressure, it’s not necessarily “written in stone” that we will have it, or that if we do have it that we will have the comorbidities that our relatives had or do have. There’s no reason to lose hope or give up and give in.  The fingers of epigenetics, when given favorable conditions, have the potential to skip those undesirable gene keys on the piano.

How can we help create favorable conditions to facilitate the environment to have the song we want played? By incorporating the following lifestyle modifications:

Our food and beverage choices:

• Water
• Low sodium foods
• Foods naturally high in potassium
• Foods with magnesium
• Colorful fruits and vegetables
• Whole grains
• Fish (especially Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon)
• Poultry
• Lean beef
• Beans
• Seeds, Nuts
• Avocado
• Teas (hibiscus, green tea)
• Low/no fat dairy

Lifestyle:

• Don’t smoke. Avoid second hand smoke
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Manage stress- meditation, therapy, exercise, soul-nourishing social activities
• If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation
• Physical Activity- not only does this reduce stress, there are some studies showing a specific epigenetic mechanism by exercise helps manage blood pressure.

Choose wisely to help those “fingers” play the life song you want!!

Here’s to beautiful music and good health!

Everyone hates stress. Even hearing the word can make us nervous. But it’s important to know how stress works, because it can have a huge impact on our blood pressure.

When talking about stress, the medical community will sometimes speak of something called GAS, or General Adaptation Syndrome.GAS is the process the body goes through when it is exposed to stress. It includes 3 stages:

• The first is the alarm stage. The body detects distress, and in response it releases stress hormones into the system. These hormones increase our heart rate and blood sugar levels and narrow our blood vessels, thereby increasing our blood pressure. It’s the body trying to take care of us via the fight-or-flight response.
• The second is the resistance stage, which occurs if the stress is no longer present. In this stage, the body tries to bring things back to how they were before by reducing stress hormones and bringing the heart rate and blood pressure down to normal levels.
• The third is the exhaustion stage. In this stage, which comes after a prolonged period of experiencing stress, the body feels depleted because of its repeated attempts to recover from the first stage (alarm stage).

Aside from fatigue, anxiety, mental fog, and depression, if we don’t find a way to keep our bodies from entering that third stage, then we are at risk of developing decreased immune function, stomach ulcers, type-2 diabetes and cardiac disease (including high blood pressure).

But that doesn’t mean that avoiding stress entirely is the best option, either: there’s “good” stress and “not good” stress. “Good” stress is part of being alive. We’re nervous about a presentation, a promotion, a pregnancy, etc. It keeps us motivated, keeps our body working, and helps us stay alert and focused. This type of stress would take us through stages one and two of GAS.

Then there’s the “not good” stress, which comes about when you hear or see something that makes you feel a lack of control. That’s when your blood pressure medication has been recalled, your significant other is mad at you, the economy isn’t doing well, your favorite news channel keeps yelling about politics, you’re afraid of something, or you keep comparing your life to what you see on social media. That can take us into the third stage of GAS, and bring with it all the physical ailments I mentioned earlier.

Obviously, we can’t always avoid “not good” stress, and so we need to find ways to manage it. That way, we can reassert control of our own body and keep stress from causing physical problems.

Some suggestions for managing stress:

• Physical Activity. Particularly something you enjoy. You can, walk, hike, play tennis, pickleball, go to the gym, jump on a trampoline, or dance in your room! Just move your body!
• Meditation. If you don’t have any experience with meditating, there are many apps available to help you. I personally recommend Headspace, but if you find something else that works well for you, use that.
• Talk therapy. That works whether or not you’re seeing a professional or getting together with a friend to talk.
• Taking action to change things that can be changed. Speaking with appropriate parties at work or home. Changing jobs. Asking for help. Speaking with your MD about medication recalls. Getting involved in a cause that empowers you.
• Scheduling and doing things that you can look forward to. When done regularly, even something small can make a difference. Art classes, voice lessons, instrument lessons, language lessons.

Anything that makes you feel more in control and/or brings you bliss is encouraged! Your heart will thank you later!

Here’s to your health!

By Susan Schachter, MSRDN

Personally, I love the taste of 120/Life. That being said, I also haven’t fooled myself into believing that everyone has the same taste palate as I do. Plain and simple, some people are just not going to love the taste of the drink.

With that in mind, I thought I should offer up a handful of suggestions on how to make it more palatable for those of you who do not share my feelings about its flavor… because, after all, drinking it is a deliberate act to move oneself toward better health and better numbers!

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Blend #1: The Citrus & Seltzer

Description: Add 8 ounces of water or seltzer, along with some unsweetened lemon/lime juice or apple cider vinegar.

The water/seltzer will dilute the flavor and the lemon, lime and/or apple cider vinegar will cut the sweetness and help protect the nitric oxide production, while hardly increasing your caloric intake from the drink.

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Blend #2: The Fruit Amplifier

Description: Add 1-2 ounces of a fruit juice of your choice (i.e. apple, sweet cranberry, pomegranate, grape, watermelon).

Only adding 1 ounce will hardly increase the caloric value of the drink, while adding some sweetness. Additionally, if the juice you choose is watermelon, cranberry or pomegranate, you just may be adding some additional blood pressure control benefits to the drink.

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Blend #3: The Coconut Companion  

Description: Add 4-8 ounces of an unsweetened coconut water (like Harmless Harvest’s Harmless Coconut Water).

In some studies, coconut water has been shown to be helpful with blood pressure control. Depending on the brand you choose, it will also add a hefty helping of potassium (important for blood pressure control) while adding only 30-60 calories to your drink.

Or, if that doesn’t work for you:

Blend #4: The Smooth Shaker 

Description: Add 120/Life to your morning vegetable/fruit shake (without dairy or protein powder).

I would lean more heavily on the vegetable portion of this rather than the fruit (because 120/Life already contains fruit). If you choose to include spinach or arugula in your shake, your nitric oxide production will get a boost as well!

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Hopefully that helps you and/or your loved ones out. And no matter how you like to enjoy 120/Life, don’t forget to drink a bottle every day!

Here’s to your health!