Welcome, welcome, welcome to My Wellness to Success podcast. It is where I talk about health, wellness, and accountability tips so that we can live our best life. My name is Dr. Martin Canal and I am a health and wellness accountability coach and have been a nurse for over 26. This is my expert opinion. It is no way, shape, or form any medical advice. So if you feel the need to get medical help, please reach out to your own medical professional. What did you do for self-care today? This is how I start my day and ask myself, how am I gonna plan my day? So I make sure that I take care of. And at the end of the day, I reevaluate and I ask myself again, what did I do for self-care today? Because every day it is a necessity. It is a mandate. I call it a mandate for me and you to do anything for our health that is going to make us have a productive. and meaningful life. So in this podcast, I'm gonna talk about something dear to my heart, something that I have and why I am bringing so much awareness, mostly to women over 40. The topic is self-care and high blood pressure. Now, high blood pressure. Do you know what it. A lot of people know it by name, high blood pressure, hypertension, but do you really know what high blood pressure could do to your body? High blood pressure can have a significant, significant impact on your life if left untreated or uncontrolled. What happened to my mom was a result of high blood pressure. and it was so bad that she ended up suffering from a massive stroke, which left her paralyzed on the left side of her body. My aunt died of a stroke because of high blood pressure when she was in her forties. Now I, I have eye blood. I've been suffering with high blood pressure since I was 28. Since I was 28. I was being seen by a cardiologist and I was put on medication to help with my blood pressure because it was really high for me. my siblings, they all have high blood pressure, so we have to keep our blood pressure in check because we do not want all the negative outcomes that could happen because of high blood pressure. And I'm gonna mention a couple to you so that you guys just have this awareness of what high blood pressure can do to your body first. and the most serious one, I think, well, they're all serious, but it increases your wrist for heart disease and stroke. Okay? The, and what happened is there's like a constant pressure on the wall of your arteries, which can damaged them, okay? And you can develop plaque, which narrows the lumen of your arteri. and this can put you at risk for a heart, a heart attack, or a stroke. This is why you want to control your high blood pressure. This is not something you can ignore. It can also affect your kidney. It can cause kidney damage, and that can lead to your body not being able to filter Out toxins. And if that toxin says in your body, it can damage all your, all y, all your organ. And I'm sure you've seen people on dialysis. They're on dialysis because they've had kidney failure. They've had so much damage to you, the kidney, that the kidneys end up failing and they have to be put on dialysis so that their body can get rid of the toxics waste. I mean, I'm giving you the worst scenario here, but I want you to get an idea. You can also have vision loss. Vision loss is because the high blood pressure, there's so much pressure on, on the lumen of, of the artery and the blood vessel of the eyes that it can lead to vision problems and, and it, which can end up in vision loss. So you can't see anything. it could, it could also lead to sexual dysfunction. Okay. Which, you know, can affect relationships, intimacy, and you know, just to be more specific, it can, you know, make it difficult to achieve or maintain an erection or even achieve an orga. you can have cognitive decline, okay? Which can put you at risk for Alzheimer's on dementia. And you can have like something simple as just as a, a headache, okay? You, you're tired, have difficulty breathing and that can affect your quality of life. Now, managing your blood pressure is the key to prevent and avoid all these terrible outcomes. So you have got to make sure that you know your numbers, that you follow your numbers, not just one time, but over a period of time to see how your blood pressure is, if it's high, if it's low, or if it's being maintained, if it's normal blood. because then you'll know how, what to do and how to manage it, and the way you can manage your blood pressure. You know, first and foremost, regular exercise. Okay? Maintaining a healthy weight is the key. I improving circulation in your body because you're moving and that can lower your blood. you should do at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity most days of the week, okay? You have to keep on moving. And then with that, you have to have eating habits that's healthy. And eating dieted rich and whole grains, fruits, vegetable, low fat, dairy products can help lower blood. Okay. And definitely you have got to limit salt, salt, salt, salt, and saturated fat. Okay? Don't you feel sometimes when you are eating something that's so salty that you get thirsty and then you drink. And you drink and you drink, right? So limit your salt intake. You have got to manage your stress level. Stress re. is, is a key factor in decreasing blood pressure. Okay? Things like meditating deep breathing exercises, yoga, anything that you could do to release your stress, take a nice bubble baths, you know, with some nice musing playing in the background that could help you reduce your stress. Getting enough sleep is important for overall health. and that can also decrease blood pressure limiting the amount of alcohol that you take. Okay? Excessive alcohol consumption can raise your blood pressure. Smoking can raise your blood pressure. So if you can try to eliminate that as part of your daily routine, that will really, really, really help lower your blood pressure now. how do you take your blood pressure? Will, you can go to any stores like Publix or any, you know, foot store that you have, and they usually have a pharmacy area in there. And usually they have a blood pressure machine that you can check your blood pressure or you can get a home monitoring blood pressure machine that you can do it yourself or you can go and visit. Medical professional and they can monitor your blood pressure, and if they see that your blood pressure is on the high side, then they can start monitoring you and making sure that you're following, you know. you know, restrictions. You have restrictions or you get on medication that they order for you or you change your, your lifestyle. Because they usually start with lifestyle change first, and then they see how you do. And if this doesn't work, then they usually put you on some kind of medication. But you will have to see your own medical professional now. it is very important that you monitor your blood pressure, and if you get diagnosed with hypertension, it is doubly important. I should say doubly because it is very highly important that you keep your blood pressure in check, because if you do not, you don't want you. and your family to be affected by the negative, negative outcomes that could affect you in the long run. Because if you have a stroke, not only that, your personal life can be affected, but your professional life can be affected as well. And if you are the breadwinner of the family, just like my mom, That can lead to a disaster. When my mother suffered the stroke, we ended up having to go to food banks to get food, for us to be able to eat. and we had to require the assistant of, of where we lived, which back then was in Canada so that we can support ourselves. So it was, it was pretty, pretty rough. We went from, children that did have no cares in the world where we were living our lives. My mom was there providing for us. We were going to parties, we were getting ready for to go to college. Everything was great. But then I ended up having to get a job and just, it's like I had to shift my path in order for. my, my family and I to survive. So this is why I feel that it's, it is an important topic and that you have to pay attention because sometimes we are so busy, we on the go, go, go. That we just wanna provide and provide, and then we don't realize that we are neglecting our. and this is what happened to me a couple of years ago where I was overworked, stressed out, breadwinner, and not taking care of myself. And I just panicked when I realized that, that what happened to my mom could happen to me. The fear of me losing my independence and my productivity. you know, my earnings and my children taking care of me, just had me stop, look at the big picture, and then make changes appropriately so that I could prevent this horrible, horrible, horrible disease from happening to me. Since then, I have been on a path where every day I am grateful for living another day without. having any complication of my high blood pressure. Every time I feel a headache, the first thing I do is to take my blood pressure and, and if I see that it's even a little slightly high, then I start deep breathing exercises. I put music so I can relax. I try to decrease my stress level as as much as I can, and believe it or not, guys, it works. Having a grateful mind, having this positive mindset helps for me to reduce my blood pressure and just refocused on what I was doing and what led me to start feeling stressed out. For me to start having a headache and. Try to get rid of it and then be more productive in a way that will help me to have positive outcomes instead of negative ones. So it is important to manage high blood pressure with lifestyle changes if necessary. Okay. Remember to talk to your healthcare professional. If you need to make changes in your life, if you need to go on medication, if you need to do anything to you need to do in order to keep that blood pressure in check now. For more health and wellness strategies, go to martine canal.com. You can get my free ebook there. And remember, it's all about living a productive, passionate, and joyful life. Until next time we meet, take care.