What actually causes high blood pressure?

Blood pressure is coined the silent killer, especially among men. But far too often the blame is thrown on foods that we’ve always eaten and thrived upon. Foods such as salt and saturated fats aren’t inherently harmful whatsoever and the correlation of these in junk food diets doesn’t mean they are the cause.

The immense difference between table salt and sea salt is one area that starts to open peoples eyes to the idea that maybe real salt isn’t the cause of high blood pressure after all. Combined with the fact that safe total cholesterol limits have been gradually lowered over decades, as the blame for high blood pressure was placed on total cholesterol levels rather than the ratio of LDL to HDL. All this begs the question, what actually causes high blood pressure and how can you avoid it?

Organ health 

If someone is suffering from high blood pressure the first action shouldn’t be an ultra processed “low cholesterol” diet but this is so often what people turn to. Seed oil spreads (spreadable butter) and ready-made vegetarian meals.

Their diet may be an issue but turning to low cholesterol options that are ultra processed isn’t going to fix the issue, if anything it will worsen the situation.

The heart, kidneys, adrenal glands and the brain are all responsible for controlling blood pressure, of course arteries affect blood pressure too but they are not in control of it. 

The first step then is to help our organs heal, removing alcohol, ultra processed foods (especially seed oils), paying attention to the quality of the fats we eat and buying organic. 

When we begin to heal our organs the body can self regulate more easily, lowering blood pressure to a healthy level. Eating organs such as heart and kidney can have a massive impact on those same organs within our body, improving our bodies ability to manage and maintain healthy blood pressure levels.

Ratio of cholesterol vs total 

Total cholesterol levels used to be set at a safe limit which was far higher than is recommended today, nowadays doctors will look at most peoples blood test results and instantly recommend a low cholesterol diet and statins. 

But the ratio of LDL (Low-Density Lipoprotein) to HDL (High-Density Lipoprotein) is the key component in cholesterol levels. LDL is commonly referred to as bad cholesterol as it is believed to build up in your blood vessels. 

It is important to note that we need cholesterol for good hormone health, the key is getting our cholesterol from high quality sources such as grass fed beef, grass-fed  milk and butter, organic eggs etc.

The blanket approach of avoiding all cholesterol or at least minimising it, results in poor hormone health and lack of vitality, the issue is far deeper than simply how much cholesterol we intake, as we’ll dive into in a second.

Inflammation levels 

Inflammation is a far better gauge when looking into blood pressure, if our bodies are inflamed then blood pressure rises, the body is simply trying to deal with inflammation. But far too often it has to over compensate since inflammation is constant in the modern age for the average person consuming the average western diet and are absorbing toxins from every angle.

Stripping back all the highly inflammatory foods, endocrine disruptors, air contaminants as well as supporting the body in flushing toxins from the body is how we lower inflammation as a whole. 

This can look different for different people but the basics would be an organic whole food diet only, lots of vitamin C from food, grounding daily for at least 10 minutes, supporting the lymphatic system and giving the body the nutrients and energy it needs.

Stress 

One thing modern doctors do get right is in advocating for lowering stress levels, stress is a killer and that is something everyone can agree on but far too few people take seriously. 

We cannot avoid all stress that is obvious but chronic stress is something we need to nip in the bud as soon as we possibly can. Just like background radiation, constant chronic stress takes its toll on our bodies and one area in particular our blood pressure levels.

When cortisol levels rise, blood pressure rises along with it. The more stressed we are the higher the blood pressure, you can see how much of an issue this is when so many people are highly stressed a lot of the time and combined with a body that simply cannot switch off.

Lowering stress then is part looking after yourself through diet and exercise but also part mental. Not choosing to stress over things you cannot control and not taking on more than you can bear. Stress is a killer, treat it like so.

Food & environment 

As mentioned above the food we eat can place a lot of stress on our bodies, this ultimately is what leads to raised blood pressure, our bodies become incapable of managing a healthy level. Combine this with stress from outside sources and a toxic environment and here you have the answer. It isn’t down to saturated fat, cholesterol or salt, it’s down to an unhealthy body.

If you cannot sit still, fall asleep easily, or feel calm then you have work to do. It is not about targeting cholesterol or salt intake and blaming that for what has happened, instead looking at how you are eating as a whole and how you live day to day and seeing if that is conducive to good health or not. 

Giving our bodies the tools it needs to heal can improve our health in record time, but the important part is not to stress about change and instead make a deceleration to changing how you operate moving forward. Small changes that are stuck to are far more affective than big changes that are dropped after a few days or weeks.

Summary 

Jumping to blame foods that have always been around is common of western medicine. Rather than assessing quality, the consensus is that certain foods no matter origin or quality are bad and need to minimised.

Salt has always been cherished for hydration, food taste and vitality. Saturated fat and cholesterol exist so commonly in nature it is hard to avoid these vitality boosting foods when eating a whole food diet. Focus on regaining a healthy body and a healthy blood pressure will follow.