Heredity & Blood Pressure

We’re all dealt a genetic hand, and knowledge of that can sometimes cause us to act irrationally. Then asking yourself the main question if high blood pressure is heredity? 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 us thinking “I’m going to have high blood pressure and die from some comorbidity anyway, so I might as well eat and drink whatever I want, smoke, be a couch potato, and/or not manage my stress.”

If we are driven by either of these postures, it’s important to keep epigenetics in mind.

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. Epigenetics are the fingers striking the keys to play your life’s song.

When playing the piano, different things can effect whether or not a key is played and the outcome of the intended song. The player’s amount of practice, their muscle agility, their interpretation of the song, their mood, the lighting in the room, their energy level—you get the picture!

So too, with epigenetics and the heredity 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 hereditarily, 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
• Cranberries

Lifestyle:

• Don’t smoke, and 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 filled with your good health!

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