Greetings, it's Eric Bakker, the naturopath. How you're going out there? Thanks for visiting my
channel again. I'm from New Zealand by the way, but I'm just thinking everybody already knows
that on this channel. So now how much omega-3 do I need to support high blood pressure? That's the
question for today. When I used to get patients in, because I retired in November 2019. When I
used to get patients in with high blood pressure, I always would think to myself, where does this
blood pressure come from? What's the cause? Is it idiopathic? Meaning has it got no known cause. Is
it white coat hypertension? Do they get high blood pressure when they come and see a practitioner?
What is it? What's bugging them? Is it genetic? Is it something they're eating?
Are they overweight? What's the problem? Why have they got high blood pressure?
Now medical people don't generally look too strong and hard at the causes. They're more interested
in reducing the blood pressure, which is of course what we need to do.
But to me, a treatment plan without seriously considering the cause is no treatment plan.
So it's very important that if you've got blood pressure and if you're trying to work out what
the cause is, and there usually is a cause. And if you look deep and hard and long enough,
in most cases, you'll find the cause. Okay. But with this video, we haven't got enough time to
talk about all the potential causes. But what many people are treated for with high blood pressure,
I think they call it essential hypertension. So basically they
don't know why people get blood pressure, but they just put on medication. So,
and once you start on medication and the longer you're on it for, the harder it is to get off.
So anyway, after spending a great deal of time online and discovered there are over 80 clinical
trials from the past 30 years alone regarding how beneficial Marine based omega-3 fatty acids are
to support those with elevated blood pressure. So there's no doubt. Absolutely no doubt. Don't make
any mistake about it. Scientists clearly validated omega-3 in being a support with blood pressure,
people with blood pressure. When I first started practicing a long, long time ago,
and I would mention to people, medical people I knew about fish oil and blood pressure. You
get laughed out of the room. Now you don't get laughed anymore because now they know
they can't laugh anymore. So important thing to remember with the essential fatty acids
is that they're involved in what's called cell signaling.
So the fish oil, the essential fatty acids form an important component of the membrane of the circle.
If we look at a cell it's basically a round blob with cytosol with this liquid gooey stuff on the
inside and the nucleus in the middle, and there's cellular membrane. Now the cellular membrane
is a by lipid membrane, phospholipid membrane. So it's got a couple of little
sort of parts to it, but the fish oil plays an important part in that.
So cell signaling means basically communication coming from outside, coming into the cell membrane
through the membrane, into the cytosol and then affecting the nucleus of the cell.
Now fish oil is known to have a very interesting effect on improving and regulating
cell signaling. And we believe this could be part of the blood pressure equation.
The other interesting thing that you may need to know, you may have already learnt online
is regarding nitric oxide. So let me read this out to you.
Your body's arteries produce a substance called nitric oxide in response to an increase in blood
pressure. So when your heart beats faster, or there's stress, or we've been exercising.
So nitric oxide production goes up. Omega-3 has a direct effect on the production of nitric oxide.
When incorporated into the cells lining the inside of your arteries and capillaries.
There are many studies that have now shown omega-3 fatty acids can in fact,
stimulate the production of nitric oxide, leading to an improvement and stability in blood pressure.
So nitric oxide really helps the artery cope with an increase influx in blood pressure.
So when you've got good nitric oxide production, you're going to have a good level blood pressure.
Nitric oxide also used with erectile difficulties with guys. It can be used for that as well.
An interesting thing is that omega-3 fish oil seems to add to the effects of some blood pressure
medications. So some medications you're taking, and then when you take a omega-3, you could get
even more of a lowering of the blood pressure, but it doesn't happen with all classes of blood
pressure pills. So the three main classes are beta blockers, calcium channel, I think regulators,
and ACE inhibitors. Is it ACE inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, and beta blockers?
That's right. These are the three classes. So the calcium channel ones came in at the end. The beta
blockers came in at the beginning. So the beta blockers basically block the influx of adrenaline
into the beta anergic cells of the heart. They block that. So that allows the heart
not to beat forcefully and rapidly, and it reduces the blood pressure that way.
Whereas, the ACE inhibitors work on angiotensin II, the hormone produced by
the kidneys. They work on reducing their input and slowing down the blood pressure that way.
Calcium channel blockers reduce the effect of calcium ions flooding and getting into
the myocardium. And because calcium I believe, increases the force and rate of contraction of the
heart. Whereas magnesium has more of the relaxing effect. Magnesium relaxes arteries. Calcium allows
the contraction. So if we can block calcium to ability to influence these muscle cells,
we can drop the blood pressure that way. These are all chemical ways of treating blood pressure.
What about if someone loses their butt? Like gets all the fat off the butt and their gut.
What about if someone stops eating so much tons and tons of processed food with salt in their diet
and start walking every day and drinking more water, they're going to lose weight.
Everybody who's got a big weight problem has got one or two foods underpinning that weight problem.
I know that from experience with some patients I've talked to.
I just know. With so much pretzels, with so much beer, with so much
white bread and peanut butter sandwiches. Think what yours is out there. If you've got a weight
problem, what's the thing that you like to sit down every night with in front of TV or Netflix?
What's the thing that you like to eat when you go to parties? This could be part of your blood
pressure issue. All right. Could be beer. Could be wine. Something's making you gain weight.
Now let's continue on. Some who are taking, oh, we talked about this. So the blood pressure can go
down when you're taking medications. Now, if you're not taking any medications
and you have got high blood pressure and you first start taking omega-3, you may start noticing if
you're taking say 3000 milligrams a day, the blood pressure can slightly go up, initially. I've seen
this with quite a few patients. Now for the first seven to 10 to 14 days, you get an elevation,
just slightly. And then a bell curve. And then the blood pressure goes down. All right.
This is particularly relevant information. If you really want to work on blood pressure,
just take 3,000 milligrams of fish oil per day. So one capsule morning, noon, and night,
but then also take some vitamin E between 400 to 800 international units. So vitamin E and fish
oil work well together. Now, those people who take upper end of E and omega per day and start on that
may well notice an increase in blood pressure, but don't worry. It should drop. It should drop.
Taking omega-3 may even trump other risk factors even restricting your salt in your diet. So
taking omega may be one of the most beneficial things for reducing blood pressure. A matter
analysis, reported the following reduction in blood pressure, systolic blood pressure associated
with the interventions in those involved in the study that had untreated high blood pressure.
So you've got systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure,
systole, diastole. To the systolic blood pressure is basically the rate of force of the blood
coming out of the heart [inaudible 00:08:46] into the circulation.
So it's the pressure of the heart onto the arteries basically throughout the body. It's that
pressure, that pressure, that pressure. So that's systolic. Diastolic is the relaxation phase,
is the total peripheral resistance or pressure in your blood vessels between the heartbeats.
Okay, so you got that. The systole is the beat and the diastole is the rest phase in between.
So if we can reduce the systolic pressure, we can drop the overall blood pressure in people. Now,
what they found is because if you traditionally look at how blood pressure is measured,
it's measured in how much mercury can be pushed up a vertical colon. Okay. We don't use mercury
anymore, but that's how it was. So consuming omega-3 can reduce the... We've got a 4.5
millimeter reduction in mercury, 4.5 millimeter. So they're saying if you can hit 4.5 or above,
you can reduce blood pressure. So reducing dietary sodium does a 3.6 millimeter reduction.
Increasing exercise does a 4.6 even higher than taking omega and cutting down on booze is 3.8.
So can you imagine if you exercise regularly and consumed omega-3?
Okay. You seriously helped to reduce your blood pressure.
So the American Heart Association recommends no more than 2,300 milligrams of omega-3 per day.
My recommendation is 3,000 per day. So, but always take the fish oil in conjunction with magnesium
with blood pressure. Don't take fish oil on its own. Buy some magnesium tablets and take those
two to three times a day, along with the fish oil. But you need to talk to your naturopathic
physician about this, or you might have an experienced person in a health food shop who
can guide you further. So, but remember if you've got uncontrolled high blood pressure,
specific medical concerns regarding blood pressure, you need to see your medical doctor.
Because you could be on diuretics on Lasix or the hydrochlorothiazide or pills that make
you pee a lot. Pee, pee, pee. Because peeing drops blood pressure. But every time you pee,
you're losing a lot of minerals and trace elements. And you're potentially also reducing
what your body should be keeping in. I don't like people peeing constantly. It's not a great idea.
So I feel it leads to loss of the body rather than to build the body up.
So encouraging urination is important, but not pharmaceutical urination. There's a big difference
there. So there have it. Fish oil does work for blood pressure. You need to take 3000 milligrams
per day in conjunction with magnesium. You need to see your doctor if there are medical concerns.
And don't forget the vitamin E. Wow. Big one. 11 minutes. Thanks for tuning in.