Naperville Integrated Wellness
NAPERVILLE'S TOP RATED LOCAL® FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE FACILITY
Functional Medicine Health Pyramid # 9 Heart Health
Are you at risk?
What you can do about it?
Today’s subject is cardiovascular disease. This includes heart and blood vessel health and the regulation of blood pressure. You will notice that I have placed Heart at Level #9 of the Functional Medicine Health Pyramid (FMHP). You are probably wonder why it is near the top instead of at the bottom of the FMHP. This will all make sense once you have read this article. I will discuss cardiovascular health in two major sections: If cholesterol medication works so well, then why is heart disease…aka “cholesterol” still the number one cause of death in this country? This is because cholesterol only sticks to damaged blood vessels! It’s not because 200 is a “magic number”…stay under 200 and you are safe, go higher than 200 and cholesterol now just starts sticking to your blood vessels. If you stop for a moment and think about this, you will see how ridiculous this sounds. And if the “magic number” of 200 was correct, then we could eradicate all heart disease…and it would not STILL BE THE NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF DEATH. Here is a physio—LOGICAL answer to this problem. Cholesterol sticks to blood vessels that are in a chronic state of inflammation and damage and it WILL STICK TO YOUR ARTERIES WHETHER YOUR CHOLESTEROL IS 150 OR 350! Inflammation in it’s many forms is the ROOT CAUSE of cardiovascular disease…NOT cholesterol. This is WHY Heart is at Level #9 on the Functional Medicine Health Pyramid and WHY you need to correct lower levels if your goal is to prevent heart disease. The lower levels are what keep your blood vessels healthy and cholesterol-free. Functional Medicine looks to the source of damage and addresses the CAUSE (FM Heart disease root cause) YOU CAN SEE THAT EVERY LEVEL OF THE FMHP WILL IMPACT YOUR BLOOD VESSEL AND CARDIOVASUCLAR HEALTH! A good functional medicine doctor understands these relationships and can help you determine your risk factors and what to do about them. Ask your doctor what causes high blood pressure. They will usually give you some vague or scripted answers. “Too much salt” or “Lack of exercise” or “You are overweight” or “it is common as you get older” or “its genetic” …lots of general answers…simply because they don’t exactly know why. So, how is blood pressure controlled in a healthy body? It’s your Brain / nervous system. Well first of all most people with high blood pressure have been diagnosed with Essential Hypertension…here is a quote from Healthline… “Essential hypertension is high blood pressure that doesn’t have a known secondary cause. It’s also referred to as primary hypertension. Blood pressure is the force of blood against your artery walls as your heart pumps blood through your body.” In this case, a secondary cause would be another known disease causing high blood pressure; like an adrenal gland tumor or kidney disease, etc. So, the CAUSE of Essential Hypertension is not known. There you go, nobody seems to know what causes high blood pressure. Ok, so let’s now look at what kind of medications are used to lower blood pressure: These medications basically do 1 of 2 things. They decrease your blood volume which will reduce pressure, or they override the failure of the nervous system which should keep blood vessels relaxed…which lowers blood pressure. Your body has mechanisms to regulate blood volume and blood pressure via the nervous system. A breakdown in regulation, and hence elevated blood pressure, is not due to a lack of beta blockers or diuretics in the body! A properly working nervous system keeps your blood pressure in a healthy range. It is the job of your nervous system to detect when blood pressure goes too high or too low and correct the imbalance. To raise blood pressure, it will increase heart rate, constrict blood vessels, and increase blood volume. To reduce blood pressure, it can reduce heart rate and relax blood vessels. Another job of the nervous system is to also detect levels of nutrients like sodium and potassium (both of which have a significant impact on blood volume), and make corrections as needed via the kidneys. Functional medicine blood pressure lowering strategies. One cannot address blood pressure without addressing the things that have a negative impact on the functioning of the nervous system. This includes diet/nutrition (level 1 on the pyramid) and lifestyle factors (which can include levels 2,3,4). The Standard American Diet is loaded with inflammatory foods. Inflammation is correlated with high blood pressure AND cardiovascular disease. Proper weight management and appropriate exercise (lifestyle factors) can also impact the nervous system to help lower blood pressure. If you have less body fat, blood pressure can be reduced because you don’t need to push blood through all that fat. Other benefits of exercise include improvement in neurological (brain) health, the result of which will be improved blood pressure regulation and heart health. There are factors that are not under our direct control (environmental exposures) but we can do things to mitigate the impact of the exposures on our health. This would include changing the environment to the degree possible and implementing detoxification support to further support the body. So how do you improve your heart health and lower your risk of cardiovascular disease? Functional Medicine addresses this by supporting the lower levels of the FMHP. As also mentioned, it is appropriate to address diet and lifestyle and incorporate an exercise program to support and improve Brain function. In my next article I will be covering Genes which I have placed at Level #10 of the FMHP. I hope you have found value in this information. Take the time to do your research so that you can make an informed decision on the next steps in your wellness journey. It is my sincere hope for you to find abundant health, happiness and an improved quality of life! – Dr. Sharon Borkowski ND, DC If you would like more information about functional medicine and integrative medicine, go to napervilleintegratedwellness.com Check out our Google reviews to see what others are saying about us. Do your own research, inform yourself and ask lots of questions. When collecting information, you MUST consider the source. There is no shortage of false, misleading, outdated, profit-driven and utterly biased information in healthcare today, even from the most respected sources and organizations. Functional medicine doctor near me This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional healthcare services. Contact our office for more information. This approach to healthcare is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, mitigate, or prevent any disease. 
Cholesterol, atherosclerosis and common misconceptions
Cholesterol…the villain of heart and blood vessel health has been a very popular topic of discussion for decades. It has been mislabeled as the sole cause of heart disease for a long time. This assertion is not entirely correct. Take a look at how cholesterol “sticks” to your arteries and causes atherosclerosis and clogged blood vessels and even stroke. Cholesterol cannot truly be the villain because it does not attach itself to healthy blood vessels! Traditional medicine claims that if your total cholesterol is below 200, then you are in good shape and not at risk for heart disease and stroke. The problem with this statement is that most people who end up hospitalized for heart attack or stroke have ‘normal’ cholesterol (200 or less). Many of these individuals have been taking cholesterol-lowering medication as well.Cardiovasular Disease Functional Medicine (FM)
Let’s look at the common causes of blood vessel damage:
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
How do I know this?
Common Medications to treat high blood pressure
Functional Medicine High Blood Pressure