CardiAction Lifestyle
Recommendations

COHORT 3

Arterial Flexibility and Blood Pressure

SummaryLifestyleExerciseNutritionSupplementsRecommended References

Congratulations for taking a pro-active approach to your health and well-being.

Your PWA results have displayed that your blood vessels (the ‘pipes’) are showing signs of inflammation. This may decrease flexibility in the artery wall and can lead to arterial stiffness.

In addition, your main artery (the aorta) is not as flexible as it ideally could be. This means your heart has to ‘pump’ harder to circulate blood around your body and as a result your blood pressure is elevated.

This is indicated by both your Central Augmentation Pressure and Central Systolic Pressure being above the CardiAction Target Range (CTR).

The following recommendations are based on extensive scientific literature and are intended as ‘general guidelines’ which can help lower both your measurements and therefore improve the flexibility of your arteries and reduce your blood pressure.

In addition to following these recommendations, you may also benefit from learning more about Inflammation and
Arterial Stiffness in the CardiAction Healthy Tips section of your CardiAction App.

DISCLAIMER:
Prior to making any significant nutritional, exercise, or lifestyle choices it is always advised to seek appropriate medical advice from your healthcare practitioner.

Lifestyle

As well as addressing your nutrition and exercise, it’s important to recognise that your lifestyle can also influence your blood pressure. The following lifestyle suggestions should be considered to make improving your cardiovascular health maintainable.

Recommendations

Minimise Alcohol Intake

Both red and white wine are more beneficial than high-sugar options (e.g. beer/artificial mixers with spirits). Red wine is particularly high in antioxidants and is a healthier choice, if you enjoy an alcoholic drink. However, whilst wine is
a preferable alcoholic choice, the consumption of any alcohol has a damaging impact on your health.

  • Aim for no alcohol intake apart from the occasional social drink and opt for a healthier option wherever possible.
Managing Stress

An appropriate amount of stress is helpful in your life – it increases neuronal activity which allows you to focus more intensely on pressing topics. However, it’s when there is too much stress that it becomes problematic to your
health and can lessen your ability to productively engage in day-to-day activities. Prolonged, unresolvable stress is associated with hypertension and therefore understanding and managing your stress levels is important to
improve your cardiovascular health. Research has specifically found that practising mindfulness can reduce your blood pressure and inappropriate inflammatory response.

Stress levels can be managed by:
  • Mental rest/recovery (e.g. relaxing or mediating)
  • Social connection
  • Enjoyable exercise and physical intimacy
  • Restorative sleep
Avoid or Stop Smoking

Smoking damages your arteries and increases blood pressure. If you currently smoke, this is one of the first lifestyle changes you should make to decrease your risk of developing CVD and improve the flexibility of your arteries.

A good initial step is to begin cutting back on cigarette consumption or switching to an e-cigarette (which also carries health risks). Having the appropriate support and enrolling on a stop-smoking program is helpful.

Exercise

Aerobic exercise is a great way of lowering your blood pressure and it can be achieved through different methods of exercise. It’s important to note that it is possible to overtrain, whereby you do so much exercise that your body cannot clear the waste product of energy generation which can contribute to damaging your cardiovascular system.

A good measure of whether the exercise your doing is positively impacting your cardiovascular health is to see a reduction in your resting heart rate.

Attention:
If you have been identified as high risk and advised by your Screener to seek medical advice, please talk to your healthcare provider before radically altering your exercise regime.

Recommendations

Cardiovascular Exercise

Cardiovascular conditioning is otherwise referred to as ‘cardio’ e.g. you’re burning oxygen to generate energy. It’s important to find a form of cardio that you enjoy and don’t feel like it is a chore. Different examples of cardio are – cycling, running, swimming, brisk walking, dancing, tennis, hill walking and high intensity interval training (HIIT).

The target heart rate zone for aerobic exercise is different for each person and due to your increased blood pressure, the target zone is 50% of your maximum heart rate. You can calculate your maximum heart rate by
deducting your age from 220 and then multiplying this by 0.5. If your resting heart rate is higher than 50% of
your maximum heart rate you should discuss this with your doctor.

You can calculate your maximum heart rate by deducting your age from 220 and then multiplying this by 0.5.If your resting heart rate is higher than 50% of your maximum heart rate you should discuss this with your doctor.

Example
If you are 65 your target heart rate zone for aerobic exercise would be 78bpm:
(220 – 65) x 0.50 = 78

You should aim to be in this aerobic zone for up to 30 minutes 3-5 times a week. As your cardiovascular health improves you could aim to be in a higher heart rate zone, for example 65- 80%.

Incorporating more movement in your day-to-day life is also a good way to lower your blood pressure e.g. use stairs instead of a lift, park further away from your destination and cycle/walk as your commute.

NUTRITION

Your diet influences your inflammatory response and your blood pressure. Both excesses and deficiencies in your nutrition may be contributing to your inflammatory response which increases arterial stiffness and specifically aortic stiffness can raise your blood pressure.
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Fortunately, a great deal of this inflammation can be reversed through targeted dietary choices.

Recommendations

Suggested Foods
Omega-3

Omega-3 is a fatty acid that is vital for your body to generate a healthy and appropriate inflammatory response. It is most easily acquired through consuming marine based foods but can also be found in a lower availability in plant products. If you do not consume at least 5 servings of seafood a week you could consider
taking an Omega-3 supplement (also available in vegan form).

  • Fish - salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines, shellfish, and tuna. 5 serves/week
  • Hemp seed oil, walnuts, flax seeds as alternatives to fish (however this requires your body to convert ALA to EPA/DHA which may result in less omega-3 being available).
Reduce Sodium Intake.

Reduce Sodium Intake. Sodium is an essential mineral your body needs to function; however excessive sodium can result in raised blood pressure. The Western Diet tends to include a high amount of processed food which includes added salt which is not necessary. Avoiding processed foods and limiting additional salt
to your meals is a beneficial way of balancing your sodium intake.

  • Substitute with fresh herbs instead i.e., basil, turmeric etc. Avoid using pre-prepared sauces, limit take-away food, check food labels when purchasing food and opt for a low-salt option.
  • Potassium Chloride can be used as a salt substitute.
  • Potassium rich foods - bananas, dried fruits, beans/lentils, and avocados.
Nitrate & Sulforaphane Rich Vegetables.

Nitrate & Sulforaphane Rich Vegetables. Nitrates are a vasodilator – which means that they open up and expand the vascular space to respond to the sodium load in your diet. Increasing consumption of nitrate rich vegetables helps to maintain a healthy blood pressure.

  • Green vegetables - asparagus, broccoli, kale, green beans, parsley, basil, spinach, cabbage, and zucchini.
  • Allium & brassica vegetables – garlic, onion, leeks, cauliflower, kale, etc.
Lutein Rich Vegetables

Lutein Rich Vegetables are specifically good at reducing your diastolic blood pressure.

  • Green vegetables - asparagus, broccoli, kale, green beans, parsley, basil, spinach, cabbage, and zucchini.
High Fibre Intake.

High Fibre Intake. Fibre allows good digestion by allowing your gut-biome to metabolise food effectively. If you don’t extract the nutrients that you need from your food this can result in nutrient deficiencies – therefore a high quantity of fibre in your diet helps your body to get the anti-inflammatory benefits most effectively
from your food.

  • Psyllium husks, fruits, legumes, hummus, chickpeas, split peas, lentil, black beans, artichokes, peas, oats, bran flakes, and chia seeds. Aim to consume 18+ grams/day.
Avoid refined sugars.

Avoid refined sugars. Refined sugars are regarded as highly inflammatory and should be avoided. A good substitute if you enjoy a sweet treat is switching to chocolate which contains 70%+ cocoa. Dark chocolate also has additional health benefits and is beneficial for your cardiovascular system.

Supplements

You could consider taking dietary supplements if you think that your current diet is not providing the optimum levels of nutrients you. More information about supplements can be found on the CardiAction Supplement Guide
(on the CardiAction Healthy Tips section of your CardiAction App) and by visiting your local pharmacy.

Recommendations

The most beneficial supplements for reducing inflammation and blood pressure are:

Stress levels can be managed by:

  • Magnesium: May benefit from taking 250-400mg/day.
  • Potassium: May benefit from taking 200mg/day.
  • Omega-3: Containing EPA, DHA or an EPA/DHA combination. May benefit from taking 2-4 grams/day.
  • Vitamin-C: May benefit from taking 250-500mg 2x/day.
  • Vitamin-D: May benefit from taking 400-2,000 International Units/day.

Prior to making LENS changes and considering taking nutrigenomic targeting supplements, you would benefit from having an Omega-3 and Vitamin-D test to determine if your levels are low.

Knowing your Omega-3/Vitamin-D levels enables you to identify if these are drivers causing your arterial stiffness/elevated blood pressure and allows you to further target this. CardiAction dry-blood spot testing is available on our website or from the pharmacy that you had your PWA screening in.

CardiAction Lifestyle Recommendations (Cohort 3)