My learning on Hypertension from the video lecture by Dr. S. Vijayaraghavan
Source: YouTube channel Goodbye Diabetes
Hypertension
Our whole body is controlled by the nervous system. One part of it – the autonomic nervous system is responsible for the control of activities that happens subconsciously like breathing, digestion etc. There are two divisions to it – Sympathetic and Parasympathetic. The sympathetic part deals with emergency response whereas parasympathetic handles rest and restoration activities.
Hypertension (colloquially High BP) is caused by high activity of sympathetic nervous system. It is just a symptom triggered by injuries of any nature – physical (punch on your head), chemical (toxic food) or emotional (a family member’s death). The body perceives everything in the same way, and reacts accordingly. What happens during emergency? The body tries to restore your mental and physical alertness and blood is shunted to brain, eyes and other extremities. This sympathetic over-activity makes the heart pump blood with greater force. So a threat stimulates a cascade of activities and products in the body, which results in elevated blood pressure.
On the contrary, while you sleep and rest, the parasympathetic activity takes the blood from the extremities to the digestive system to aid in digestion.
A person with hypertension, diabetes, or any other symptom is sympathetically driven. High BP is also caused by other factors like Vitamin D3 deficiency. Taking tablets for hypertension can only give temporary relief but the blood pressure will shoot up again. Therefore, people with hypertension are given higher and higher doses of medicines. The ultimate solution is about finding out the cause in each specific case and taking corrective action accordingly. Sometimes, vitamins D3 deficiency may lead to high BP. Some diabetic people with high BP got their blood pressure stabilized once their blood sugar became normal. The root cause is the same; it has several branches like diabetes, hypertension etc. Once you cut the root, everything becomes normal. Consuming some medicines(drugs) as a short-term solution only brings more complications than benefits in the longer run.
Two studies – the Helsinki Businessmen study and the UK MRC Trial proved that medication for hypertension were of no use. Medication for hypertension may bring the symptoms down, but the root cause remains and the end result is the same.
Hypertension can be treated by changing the way of eating; it doesn’t require medicines.
