High blood pressure, or hypertension, is the biggest risk factor for premature death, accounting for half of all deaths caused by cardiovascular disease. Nine in 10 Americans are expected to develop high blood pressure by the age of 65. Keeping your blood pressure under control is one of the most important things you can do to extend your lifespan.

   Making the problem worse, studies have shown that drug therapy for “high normal” blood pressure and even mild hypertension is not effective. A large review of randomized clinical trials performed by the prestigious Cochrane Collaboration found that anti-hypertensive drugs used to treat mild hypertension did not reduce disease complications or the risk of death.

   The following are some common causes for hypertension.

   Increased Blood Sugar: If you have elevated stress hormones, it increases insulin secretions which causes a switch towards fat storage and pro-inflammatory pathways. This causes weight gain through fat storage, protein depletion and massive inflammation destroying the endothelial wall of the arteries, causing scarring, rigidity, reduced pliability and high blood pressure.

   Lowered Oxygen in Blood: Under stress, our bodies revert to short, shallow breathing habits causing lowered oxygen content and increased levels of carbon dioxide in our tissues.

   Increased Cholesterol: Cholesterol is a repair mechanism. When your bodies are in stress mode, there is a need for cellular repair, therefore cholesterol naturally rises in response. Short-term, this is a good response. Long-term, if the body is inflamed, the cholesterol will get oxidized by the constant cascade of free radicals. This can severely damage the blood vessel walls.

   Acidic Blood Stream: When the blood stream is acidic, the body must compensate by utilizing more water and alkaline buffering minerals to neutralize, which steals fluids and nutrients from joints, blood vessel walls and other structures like bone, muscle and ligaments.

   Disrupted Sleep Cycle: When our bodies are in a chronic stress mode, we have abnormal flocculation which disrupts our sleep cycles and leaves us groggy in the morning and exhausted throughout the day.

   Ligament Laxity: Chronic stress causes uncontrolled damage to the spine and nervous system, called subluxation, leading to a number of possible symptoms including pain, restricted motion and organ dysfunction.

   Low-grade, chronic inflammation is systemic and can last for months or years. This inflammatory state is associated with a wide range of health conditions, including metabolic syndrome, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cancer, Alzheimer’s and heart disease. What causes inflammation of this nature are things that place an excessive stress load on the body. This can include physical, emotional and chemical stress.

   When oxidative stress is elevated, it can cause the angiotensinogen glycoprotein to convert to angiotensin. The hormone angiotensin causes sodium retention and vascular construction. This “oxidative switch” floods the system with angiotensin and dramatically affects blood pressure balance.

   Some ways to lower your blood pressure naturally are the following.

   First a look at your diet. You should remove all processed grains and refined sugars. As alternatives to products made with industrial wheat and corn, try organic quinoa and wild rice. Refined sugar causes elevated glucose levels resulting in insulin spikes that can lead to premature aging and degenerative diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

   Remove inflammatory fats and replace them with heart-healthy fats. Bad fats include hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils, trans fats and polyunsaturated industrial seed oils such as corn, vegetable, soy and canola oil. Sources of good fats essential to hormone production, cancer prevention, brain function, weight loss and heart disease prevention come from coconut oil, avocados, local farmed eggs, kefir, ghee, organic butter, grass-fed raw milk and raw nuts and seeds.

   Choosing the best meat is important. Commercial meat has been linked to heart disease. Factory farmed cattle are also pumped full of hormones and antibiotics. You should choose the leanest meat possible.

   The consumption of trace mineral-rich foods is also important. Potassium helps to lower blood pressure naturally. The best potassium-rich foods include lemons, limes, avocados, dark green leafy vegetables and mushrooms. Eating cold-water fish three times a week is just as effective as taking a high-dose fish oil supplement. Like potassium, magnesium has been shown to reduce blood pressure. Nuts, seeds, spinach, beet greens and chocolate are the highest food sources of magnesium. Salt is also important and the myth of being cautious with salt is not always the case. If you restrict salt too much, it can be harmful to your health.

   Second, take a look at your lifestyle as there are a number of behavioral changes that can be made to lower your blood pressure. Weight loss, exercise, getting exposure to sunlight, biofeedback and sleep are all things to look at. Sleeping a high quality 8-9 hours each night is key to healing and improving blood flow. Every hour of sleep before midnight is equivalent to three hours of regenerative sleep after 12 p.m. Avoid electronics, sugar, caffeine, heavy foods and stress close to going to bed.

   You should also find ways to reduce stressful activities and enjoy more peace and calm. Being under a state of chronic stress increases inflammation and pressure in your blood vessels.

   Some other lifestyle ideas include focusing on deep breathing, intermittent fasting and grounding your body. Walking barefoot on grass, dirt or sand, you absorb natural EMFs from the ground that balance your electrical rhythms.

   Third, there are several supplements that have been shown to be quite effective for lowering blood pressure. Some to consider are: CoQ10 (Coenzyme Q10), garlic, vitamin C, omega 3’s, optimize vitamin D levels (exposure to sunlight is best, but foods like oysters, yogurt, liver, egg yolk and spinach are also good), and power up your Nrf2 pathway by adding in clinical doses of resveratrol, curcumin, quercetin, sulforaphane and Green tea.