Avoid high blood pressure and much more....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 3-8-2016

1.  Next is a list of dangerous health conditions that interact to multiply your risk of severe health problems.

2.  New research shows two ways to turn them all off at once!  That’s what triggered me to write this post.

And, I’ve added several other ways to multiply the effects of those two things.

3.  Here are the dangerous health conditions that interact to multiply your risks:

High blood pressure can help cause:

*Heart attacks;

*Both kinds of strokes (the obstructive or ischemic stroke similar to a heart attack but in the brain -- & the bleeding or hemorrhagic stroke);

*And kidney damage.

All of these can kill you or disable you.  Worse, heart disease can cause kidney damage and kidney damage can cause heart damage AND high blood pressure.

One of the most common causes of high blood pressure is when your blood vessels are stiff or unresponsive when your body tries to relax them. 

This happens when your body’s messenger for relaxation, NO or nitric oxide is either not released -- or when released, is ineffective.

>> It was just discovered that taking the acid reflux and heartburn drugs called proton pump inhibitors either prevents your body from releasing NO or responding to it or both.

Other research confirms that this causes heart disease and kidney disease.

(The Stanford researchers who made the main discovery note that the H2 blockers such as Zantac control excess acid release but avoid this problem with NO interference.)

4.  The research on salt and sodium intake is inconsistent for average intakes and below about 3500 mg a day of sodium.  But for high and very high intakes 4,000 mg of sodium to 7,000 mg and even more, that changes!

High intakes of salt cause damage to the inner surface of your blood vessels, endothelial damage.

Research published Medical News Today showed that this causes high uric acid!

When your body tries to repair the damage and overdoes it, that narrows and stiffens your blood vessels either reducing blood flow or increasing blood pressure or both.

And, research recently reported by Resparate (& likely elsewhere) shows this is a main cause of high uric acid.  And that a high fructose intake also causes it!

But high uric acid causes sharp uric acid crystals to show up in your joints which then hurt a lot when moved even a little.  OUCH! The condition is called gout.

So dropping salt intake to low or low moderate and completely stopping a high fructose intake is a way to remove the cause of gout.

So is following all the parts of a heart disease preventing lifestyle to stop causing endothelial damage.

Completely avoiding all contact with tobacco smoke also helps prevent the endothelial damage because each and every single exposure causes some!

(Unfortunately very few smokers know this yet!)

5.  The recent research that triggered this post is so important because it finds that a high fructose intake causes uric acid to increase.

AND uric acid, when high, also causes many of these problems itself!!

So, the free fructose elimination for preventing heart disease also tends to prevent gout!

This is because, as we now know, free fructose causes endothelial damage.

But even if free fructose also causes high uric acid a second way also, it’s clear from this research that to avoid gout or turn off its causes, in addition to completely stopping an excess salt intake, completely stopping free fructose intake is also essential.

Also, cherry extract both helps lower chronic inflammation and uric acid levels.

This research suggests that taking cherry extract may provide other protections too as a result.

6.  Here’s the research:

http://www.resperate.com/recipes-health-tips/fructose-raising-your-bp?utm_source=RESPeRATE+USA&utm_campaign=f1e7ac09b3-LP_News_recipe_US_2016_03_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ac3cc1206e-f1e7ac09b3-297316473

Here are some key quotes:

"High fructose levels raises uric acid and thereby hypertension risk.   January 9, 2013   

High intake of fructose or fruit sugar, such as that contained in sugary soft drinks, is associated with a number of spin-off metabolic disturbances, including hypertension.

Elevated fructose levels eventually raise uric acid levels, which are associated with increased risks for hypertension, gout, and renal impairment. 

A new article published in Renal and Neurology News says that while renal impairment itself seems to increase the risk for elevated amounts of uric acid through decreased excretion, 

The effect of uric acid on metabolic syndrome begs the question of whether a causative effect exists between uric acid and subsequent renal impairment.

Author Grissim Clark Connery, MS, RD, refers to an animal study that showed that 

rats on a high fructose diet and treated with allopurinol or benzbromarone  drugs used to increase the excretion of uric acid in the urine, 

did not develop hyperinsulinism, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or gain excess bodyweight. 

Those fed the same diet without the medication, developed all these symptoms, indicating that elevated uric acid is a potential propagator of metabolic syndrome.

How it works. Connery explains that uric acid appears to reduce nitric oxide synthesis, an important regulator of blood pressure through endothelial vasodilation. 

According to a study of hypertensive adolescents, a reduction in uric acid levels normalized blood pressure (BP) in 66% of the participants compared with controls.

In another study, high pressure increased in 74 overweight subjects after they received a high fructose diet for two weeks. 

The results were reversed after they received uric acid reducing agents. There is also a large body of evidence linking chronic kidney disease (CKD) and elevated uric acid levels.

Connery says that reducing consumption of added syrups and sugars in the diet is the most powerful way to reduce fructose intake. “Sweetened beverages often provide the largest fructose dose in the general population. 

Fruit in its natural form can be an appropriate food when proper portions are considered, but the intakes of fruit juices or dried fruits can easily provide high sources of fructose through excessive portion intake.”

7.  How to use this information to prevent high uric acid levels or lower uric acid levels that are already high:

The most important thing to do is to completely stop drinking any regular soft drinks and eating or drinking anything else that has ANY high fructose corn syrup.  To do that you must read labels. 

If any high fructose corn syrup or corn sugar is listed, do not buy or ingest that product!

(Surprisingly, research shows that diet soft drinks and the artificial sweeteners in them cause enough MORE harm and obesity, that completely stopping these as well is wise.)

a) Fruit juices are NOT OK.  Without the other nutrients and the slow release fiber of whole fruits and the lower fructose content of whole fruit, the free fructose is quite harmful.

Nor are fruit juice concentrates as sweeteners or agave nectar which besides its harsh taste is almost all free fructose! 

Fruit juice concentrates such as concentrated apple juice once thought to be better for you than sugar are free fructose; and this research shows are MUCH worse for your health than sugar.

A significantly high salt intake causes endothelial damage which itself causes high uric acid!

Proton pump inhibitors cause reduced NO release or reduced response to NO or both, possibly from endothelial damage.  This causes high blood pressure, heart disease, and renal damage too!

Adding hydrogenated oils to free fructose increases the endothelial damage and fatty liver which makes all this worse!  (Not only that, they build up so that a small regular intake means you have a very damaging high intake after just a few days.  That means the only safe intake of hydrogenated oils is ZERO!)

Adding MSG and/or excess omega 6 oils from grains and cheap grain oils and NOT getting DHA and other omega 3 oils, makes all this worse yet!  Use only extra virgin olive oil and never use corn or soy oil.  And use as little canola oil as possible because it’s high in omega 6.

To avoid MSG, avoid it directly of course.  But it’s so often disguised by calling it a spice or natural spice, that to avoid it you must also avoid ketchup or mustard or spice blends that have “spices” or “natural spices” as an ingredient. 

It’s still hard to find mustard and ketchup that is free of “spices” and high fructose corn syrup. But as the word spreads and the sales of those that only have ketchup and mustard go up, that will gradually change.

Cherry extract lowers inflammation from doing things like those just listed wrong.  But it apparently also heals endothelial damage and/or lowers uric acid too! 

Good choices for carbs are nonstarchy organic vegetables and raw tree nuts.!

Decent choices for carbs, in moderation, are organic carrots -- and yams and sweet potatoes and organic lentils; and organic fruit that is somewhat lower glycemic such as wild blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and cherries -- and cored apples and pears.

Almost OK choices for carbs a bit less often are beans with more carbs such as pinto beans and black beans; organic dried fruit such as raisins and prunes, and organic no sugar added applesauce; AND bananas.

For those who must have some grains or grain like foods, quinoa, barley, and rolled or steel cut oats also in moderation or less often can work.

8.  It can also help to increase blood flow for good exercise performance and better love making to increase Nitric Oxide release.

Besides stopping all the things that prevent nitric oxide release listed above, sharply increasing your intake of organic vegetables that are high in nitrate does double duty.

It does increase nitric oxide release AND the high potassium intake from doing so also lowers your blood pressure if it’s high and increases blood flow.

Surprisingly, the old cartoon character Popeye was correct.  Eating organic spinach or drinking it in a Vitamix drink, has both high nitrates and is high in potassium.  Doing this DOES boost exercise performance; and it lowers blood pressure if it’s high; and it increases blood flow.

The cruciferous greens, organic arugula and water cress also are high in dietary nitrates.  So is organic celery.

Beets are extremely messy and create stains easily but may be the highest in their ability to cause nitric oxide release.

Mercifully, I recently read research that found that as little as 3 ounces a day of beetroot juice is effective in boosting nitric oxide release and exercise performance.

And, Whole Foods now sells under its own brand a beetroot freeze dried powder.

I’ve found that a heaping teaspoon of that is at least equal to an ounce of the juice when mixed with chilled water.  So, I’ve added 3 heaping teaspoons to my pre-exercise drink.

I use a whisk to mix most of it in.  I also lick off the whisk before I wash it and use a spoon afterwards to eat the part that sticks to the cup I drink it from.

I also put paper towels underneath to catch what powder escapes; am extremely careful; and then discard the paper towels and the stain creating beetroot powder that still escapes!

(It may boost my nitric oxide release a bit less after taking proton pump inhibitors for over 25 years.  But it does seem to help.  Since beginning it, my mean blood pressure that I take each morning has dropped 3 to 5 points.  And, I can count that much beetroot extract as a serving of vegetables in my efforts to eat as close to 6 or more a day as I can.)