For those that don't know, I have hypertension. That's right...high blood pressure. I don't take medication however. Instead, I figured out, through trial & error, that I am sodium sensitive and so I control my hypertension through lifestyle choices. You read that right...I am hypertensive and avoid taking medication through healthy lifestyle choices. What are those? Of course I'll illuminate.
I learned years ago, that I am sodium sensitive, meaning my body tolerates far less sodium than normal individuals. Many folks can consume the recommended 2300 mg of sodium daily (or more) and have no ill effects, whereas sodium sensitive individuals will often have hypertension at these sodium levels and benefit greatly from consuming a sodium restricted diet (less than 1500 mg per day). This is almost impossible to do when eating a typical Western diet of pre-packaged and prepared foods.
Back in late 2010, I wrote a rather lengthy email (below in full) detailing the background of my hypertension, what I had learned about the process behind hypertension, and the lifestyle choices I made to control it. This email was directed to African-American members of my circle (friends & family) but the advice is pertinent to anyone with hypertension.
It is now 6 years later and I'm happy to say I'm still living the low-sodium lifestyle and my blood pressure is fine...125/80 this morning. Of course, I'm an avid exerciser, and that helps keep my blood pressure in check for sure. I would attribute 90% of it though to diet. In my next entry will publish a list of low- and lower-sodium foods that I've found over the years that I love to consume. For now, I hope you get something from the email that I wrote.
-Will
Begin email dated 12/21/2010
This email began as an update for my family, but I realized the information was pertinent to African-Americans in general, so I've decided to broaden the distribution to include black folks I know (or have known) that might benefit from the information. Some folks I've been in touch with recently, others haven't heard from me in years. I hope you're open to receive some of my story.
As you know (or maybe you didn't), I've lost a tremondous amount of body fat over the past 8 or so years, going from a very unhealthy high weight of ~330 lbs and ~30% body fat at 29 years old down to my current weight of 225 lbs and ~11% body fat at 37 years old. I did this the old fashioned way...by altering my exercise & eating habits to support a healthy lifestyle. Over the years, I was always plagued by elevated blood pressure. Since I was 23 years old until this year, my blood pressure has constantly been in the range of 140/90. As a young, obese man, the doctors constantly preached losing weight (and at the time, stopping smoking). I stopped smoking, became a strength athlete, and changed my body composition to that of a much leaner individual. This year, my doctor said my blood pressure was now of concern since I've controlled all aspects of my health (my blood sugar & cholesterol are all within the normal-excellent range and my ticker is stronger than most) and that was the only thing out of whack. She put me on a low dose of HCTZ this summer to bring my blood pressure into normal range. These pills worked. My blood pressure went down to 125/85, which is a little above normal, but still acceptable and a great improvement over 140/90. The diuretics didn't really change the way I felt in any way, I just didn't like the idea of being on prescription medication. I began researching what these diuretics were actually trying to accomplish & I found that they were trying to artificially lower the sodium in your blood by acting on the kidneys to reduce sodium reabsorption...i.e., shunting excess sodium into your urine instead of back into your bloodstream. Excess sodium in the bloodstream causes your blood cells to retain more water, increasing the overall volume of blood in your body. Your heart, veins, & arteries have a finite capacity, so this extra volume leads to an increase in the pressure exerted on the walls of these organs, which leads to all the horrifying effects of hypertension...stroke, myocardial infarction, heart failure, arterial aneurysm, and chronic kidney failure. Once I understood the mechanism, I asked the doctor if trying a reduced sodium diet along with the pills would hurt me. She said no and I began my latest experiment in November...the low sodium diet. The results were shocking. While on the last few pills of my previous prescription I eliminated all added sodium from my diet for a week (no packaged foods, no sausage, no adding salt to anything...just eating lean cuts of meat, fruits, vegetables, & products with very low or no sodium in them) and my blood pressure plummeted to about 110/65. I was amazed. I discovered on my own that I'm sodium sensitive. Whereas individuals with normal sodium tolerance can ingest anywhere from 2000-4000 mg of sodium per day and have normal blood pressure, I find I have to keep my sodium intake < 1200 mg per day. Apparently, this is very prevalent among African Americans. This article is very informative and you should read it and pass it along to anyone you think might benefit - http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/407741.
This just goes to the heart of my developing feelings towards western medicine. They are too happy to hop us up on pills to keep us consuming all the products that are developed by this ridiculous food system. When I saw what dropping my sodium content did to my blood pressure, I immediately stopped taking the blood pressure medication. I was afraid to begin adding sodium back to my diet at all, but have started experimenting with sodium levels to find a balance between taste/satisfaction with my food and maintaining a healthy blood pressure. I pretty much only consume whole foods now. Most prepared foods, I prepare myself with all my recipes adjusted to accomodate my sodium intake requirements. I make bread every other week (that way I can control the amount of sodium that goes into my bread), I cook meals for the week every Sunday, and the rest of my daily diet consists of milk, eggs, whole oats, fresh fruits & vegetables. I consume very few pre-packaged things...I buy cereal (granola type with as low of sodium as I can find), unsalted butter, and unsalted peanut butter. My blood pressure now regularly sits at around 120/70. The key is letting go of convenient, pre-packaged foods. Even though a given pre-packaged food product may not be "salty" it still probably has a high sodium content due to additives & preservatives like sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite, sodium bisulfate, disodium EDTA, sodium benzoate, sodium carboxymethylcellulose, sodium gluconate, pantothenic acid (sodium pantothenate), pectin (sodium pectinate), sodium tartrate, and the list goes on. Read your food labels...these things are often present, sometimes in abundance, in most all pre-packaged foods. Even though these additives may be in small quantities, they incrementally add to our daily sodium intake, and for African-Americans this has resulted in one of the highest blood pressure rates for any population (Asians have higher than average blood pressure rates as well due to the amount of sodium found in things like MSG).
For my family members on this distribution, I know high blood pressure is in our family...there's a strong genetic component. I'm evidence of this due to my bi-racial heritage. High blood pressure is pretty much unheard of in my mother's family...they have other problems...cancer, cholesterol, & what not...but blood pressure...not an issue there. This sensitivity of mine comes directly from the African-American side of my genetics, so I'm urging you all now to take a good look at what you're consuming. Have your blood pressure checked regularly if you aren't already. I bought a blood pressure machine for my home (you can get them at Target or Walmart & they aren't expensive) that way I can monitor regularly and conveniently. Men - if your upper arm is greater than 13" in circumference, which it probably is (mine is 17") you'll need to get a cuff for larger arms.
If you have high/elevated blood pressure, changing your diet is one of the easiest, most cost-effective ways for you to treat it. I know it's hard because we all like to eat what we like to eat, but adjusting your taste buds as a matter of health & longevity should not be a hard decision to make. We also need to be passing on this knowledge & these habits to our African-American children as we have passed on our genetics to them. To get started, I suggest doing what I did...eliminate all added sodium for a short period of time. Measure your blood pressure before and after the experiment. I would be very surprised if you didn't see a drastic drop in your blood pressure. After that, begin adjusting your diet to suit your tastes & blood pressure needs. Constant monitoring is necessary so you can judge the amount of sodium you need to maintain healthy blood pressure. There's tons of info on the web regarding low- & no-sodium diets. The DASH diet is recommended for sodium sensitive individuals, & I guess I'm on my own version of it. I tried a salt substitute & found that it made everything taste bitter so I chucked it and just decreased the sodium content without trying to mask the lack of sodium with something else. There are definitely food no-no's that you should eliminate, severely limit your intake of, or try to find an unsalted version of. Off the top of my head, I can think of:
-Any processed meat product (sausage, lunch meat, spam, etc.) - this stuff has so much sodium, I bet you'd see a noticeable drop in blood pressure just by dropping them from your diet. I love breakfast sausage, so this one has been hard for me.
-Pickles & olives
-Most condiments - salad dressings, ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, bbq sauce, worcestershire sauce, steak sauce...basically any sauce, gravy, or dressing that you didn't make your self.
This has been very difficult for me even though, since losing the weight, I've always cooked 90% of my food. Now, I cook 99% of my food and I add very little salt to anything. In order to lose weight, I began measuring food components (fat, carbohydrates, protein, & calories). Now I have to measure sodium & potassium as well. Websites like http://www.calorieking.com/ are great resources in that you can get all of the food nutrition information for foods that don't have labels (i.e. your fresh fruits, veggies, & meats). You'll be surprised by the amount of sodium that naturally occurs in foods. Right now, a typical day's eating for me looks like:
7:00 a.m. - 3 whole eggs (scrambled with non-stick cooking spray), 1/2 cup of whole oats cooked with 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter & 2 tbsp sugar added
10:00 a.m. - salad (one leaf romaine lettuce, 5-10 leaves of spinach, 1 roma tomato, 1/4 cucumber, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 tsp olive oil, liberal amount of vinegar), fruit (this week it's a sliced mango)
1:00 p.m. - one serving of whatever I cooked on Sunday...this week it's pot roast with carrots & red potatoes...no salt was used in the cooking of the roast
4:00 p.m. - two pieces of fruit (this week it's a tangerine & a banana)
7:00 p.m. - peanut butter & jelly sandwich (two slices of homemade whole wheat bread, 1 tbsp unsalted peanut butter, 1 tbsp all natural strawberry preserves)
8:00 p.m. - 1-2 bowls granola type cereal (depending on how hungry I am after working out).
According to my rough calculations, this is somewhere in the neighborhood of 2300 calories with a daily sodium intake of around 1000 mg. Obviously, this diet works for me with my needs as a strength athlete who's 6'4". You would have to determine your own caloric needs based on your height & weight goals, but aiming for 1000-1500 mg of sodium per day is pretty solid advice.
Anyways, sorry for the lengthy email, but I wanted to share some important information & findings with you. I hope you find this inspiring and helpful.
Feel free to pass this along to anyone you think would benefit from reading it and let me know if there's anything I can help you with.
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Monday, March 28, 2016
Resurgence
It has been over 2 years since my last entry. Life has a funny way of engulfing you in unforseen activities that derail any plans you may have made. Having made another cross-country move, adjusting to new positions at work, settling into married life for the third time, adjusting to the news that I'll soon be a father again (ironically for the third time), then preparing for that new adventure, all within the span of 14 months has left me with little time for my own pursuits. Through all of this madness, some nuggets of learning and wisdom have surfaced that I was not expecting.
1) I've had noticeable changes to my recovery ability as I'm entering my mid-forties
This could be due to age but I suspect another culprit is cumulated effects of working a sedentary job for the last 14+ years. I've always had problems with my right knee, especially during low barometric pressure weather episodes, but now I find my right hip, ankle, and shoulder are consistently tight and overly sore after workouts. I spend a lot more time doing warmup activities before working out and have dedicated more time every week to stretching and soft tissue work. Chiropractic, while a staple component of my recovery routine during my competitive years, has fallen to the wayside for the past 4-5 years. Now that I'm back in north Texas, I've scheduled my first appointment back with my old chiropractor to help get my joints re-aligned. I've learned that regular chiropractic care is essential for those of us that work desk jobs.
2) I've learned that I respond well to an overload of exercise on a weekly basis, however that exercise should be balanced
Having gone through years of concentrated strength and strength endurance training to compete in Powerlifting, Strongman, and Olympic-style Weightlifting, my natural inclination is to train hard and heavy with weights. Having neither the drive, the desire, the time, nor the recovery I did 10 years ago has left me a sore bag of bones at various times within the last year or so. Training in this style (low rep, heavy weights combined with HIIT style cardio throughout most of the year) requires a certain level of time investment that I simply do not wish to carve out any longer. I've learned that a good mix of strength training geared towards hypertrophy for my upper body and flexibility/mobility for my lower body a couple of days per week balanced with 2-4 days of strategically organized HIIT and medium endurance cardio work best for me at this age.
3) Exercise selection is highly dependent on environment
This one has only become apparent to me this past year. Living in SoCal offered me so many awesome opportunities to exercise outside (cycling, hiking, running the Santa Monica Stairs or the stairs at Sand Dune Park in Manhattan Beach) that I'd let my weight training reduce to 2 days per week of mainly O-lifts and I was able to stay lean through all of the other activities. That doesn't work here in DFW b/c, although there's a pretty large cycling culture here, I just don't enjoy getting outside in this environment very much to exercise (heat, allergies, bugs, etc). Hence, I've picked up 10 lbs of unwanted flab that I struggle mightily to get rid of. I've been my leanest in Texas when I have a membership at a gym with a lap pool and I can swim 2-4 days per week to complement my strength training.
4) Diet is even more of a 4-letter word in your forties
I've probably most acutely felt the effects of age-related metabolic decrease when it comes to my diet. I still track my food and honestly, my diet hasn't changed much at all in the last decade yet I hold on to ~10 extra pounds of body fat compared to in my thirties. In a nutshell, this is metabolism. I don't do the same amount of high-intensity exercise that I did back then but I'm eating roughly the same amount of calories. This coupled with the natural decrease in metabolic rate that comes with aging are the culprits. I am stubborn and loathe to decrease my caloric intake by 100-300 calories per day so I tend to seek to make this up with exercise.
These are four of the key things I've learned in the last couple of years. The purpose of this blog was initially to chronicle a long journey from fatness to fitness. Now, I believe the purpose is aptly morphing into the long journey through the life of fitness.
More to come...
1) I've had noticeable changes to my recovery ability as I'm entering my mid-forties
This could be due to age but I suspect another culprit is cumulated effects of working a sedentary job for the last 14+ years. I've always had problems with my right knee, especially during low barometric pressure weather episodes, but now I find my right hip, ankle, and shoulder are consistently tight and overly sore after workouts. I spend a lot more time doing warmup activities before working out and have dedicated more time every week to stretching and soft tissue work. Chiropractic, while a staple component of my recovery routine during my competitive years, has fallen to the wayside for the past 4-5 years. Now that I'm back in north Texas, I've scheduled my first appointment back with my old chiropractor to help get my joints re-aligned. I've learned that regular chiropractic care is essential for those of us that work desk jobs.
2) I've learned that I respond well to an overload of exercise on a weekly basis, however that exercise should be balanced
Having gone through years of concentrated strength and strength endurance training to compete in Powerlifting, Strongman, and Olympic-style Weightlifting, my natural inclination is to train hard and heavy with weights. Having neither the drive, the desire, the time, nor the recovery I did 10 years ago has left me a sore bag of bones at various times within the last year or so. Training in this style (low rep, heavy weights combined with HIIT style cardio throughout most of the year) requires a certain level of time investment that I simply do not wish to carve out any longer. I've learned that a good mix of strength training geared towards hypertrophy for my upper body and flexibility/mobility for my lower body a couple of days per week balanced with 2-4 days of strategically organized HIIT and medium endurance cardio work best for me at this age.
3) Exercise selection is highly dependent on environment
This one has only become apparent to me this past year. Living in SoCal offered me so many awesome opportunities to exercise outside (cycling, hiking, running the Santa Monica Stairs or the stairs at Sand Dune Park in Manhattan Beach) that I'd let my weight training reduce to 2 days per week of mainly O-lifts and I was able to stay lean through all of the other activities. That doesn't work here in DFW b/c, although there's a pretty large cycling culture here, I just don't enjoy getting outside in this environment very much to exercise (heat, allergies, bugs, etc). Hence, I've picked up 10 lbs of unwanted flab that I struggle mightily to get rid of. I've been my leanest in Texas when I have a membership at a gym with a lap pool and I can swim 2-4 days per week to complement my strength training.
4) Diet is even more of a 4-letter word in your forties
I've probably most acutely felt the effects of age-related metabolic decrease when it comes to my diet. I still track my food and honestly, my diet hasn't changed much at all in the last decade yet I hold on to ~10 extra pounds of body fat compared to in my thirties. In a nutshell, this is metabolism. I don't do the same amount of high-intensity exercise that I did back then but I'm eating roughly the same amount of calories. This coupled with the natural decrease in metabolic rate that comes with aging are the culprits. I am stubborn and loathe to decrease my caloric intake by 100-300 calories per day so I tend to seek to make this up with exercise.
These are four of the key things I've learned in the last couple of years. The purpose of this blog was initially to chronicle a long journey from fatness to fitness. Now, I believe the purpose is aptly morphing into the long journey through the life of fitness.
More to come...
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