Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Many Americans suffer from anxiety that impacts their daily lives. They frequently turn to medications to help boost their mood, but did you know that there are nutrients that can help, too?
Did you know that your body can have too much iron? When this occurs, it can be toxic to your organs. The good news is there are nutrients that can help regulate iron levels within the body.
high blood pressure
InViteⓇ Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph.
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Today, we’re going to discuss the interaction between commonly prescribed high blood pressure treating medications and your immune system. This is a very important, critical discussion we need to have because we’re heading into the fall and winter.†
High blood pressure can be very dangerous. In fact, it can be more dangerous than the drugs used to treat them, so I am not against these drugs at all. However, they can deplete important nutrients that are needed for your immune system. This doesn’t translate to dropping the drug. What it does mean is that you have to replete the nutrients. Frequently, you’re not going to get enough from your food and this is especially true for older people, who are the people who tend to have high blood pressure.†
One of the immune system’s major jobs is to fight off infections. Infections become much more dangerous in people who have poorly functioning immune systems. There are a number of nutrients that are key to good immune system function, such as Vitamin D. You need Vitamin D to create immune cells and to help protect us from infection and our own immune system. Vitamin C is also important for the immune system.†
Then there’s zinc, which is commonly depleted by high blood pressure medication. You need zinc to create immune cells and antibodies. Zinc also makes it hard for infections to attach to our tissues. Studies show that elderly people who are commonly low in zinc have a higher risk of infection, especially pneumonia.†
ZINC FOR IMMUNITY DURING THE CORONAVIRUS – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 42. Listen Now>>
The last nutrient is melatonin, which is known as the nighttime hormone. You need this to sleep deeply and to get a long enough sleep to feel rested and refreshed. Melatonin is also needed to build bone and adjust your nighttime blood pressure. It has been recently found that immune cells can release melatonin to help kill infectious organisms.†
Here’s a study from July of this year looking at how common blood pressure drugs leave your immune cells weak against bacteria. It’s from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In this study, the researchers looked at ACE inhibitors, which are very commonly prescribed drugs for high blood pressure and heart failure. Millions of people are prescribed ACE inhibitors. The problem with these drugs is that they can weaken the body’s ability to fight off infections. They also looked at ARBs.†
The researchers looked at ARBs versus ACE inhibitors in both people and mice. They found that giving ACE inhibitors to mice really affects the immune system. After giving these drugs to the mice, they tested their neutrophils to see if they could kill very serious bacteria like MRSA. The researchers found that the neutrophils were much weaker when the mice were on ACE inhibitors.†
In this episode, Jerry Hickey, Ph. explains how prescription drugs for high blood pressure may impact the immune system. He shares research on this issue and also provides recommendations of nutrients that you may need to help fill any drug-induced nutrient depletions.†
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Thank you for tuning in to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting www.invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at InViteⓇ Health today. We’ll see you next time on another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast.
Many people consider stabbing chest pain to be the main heart attack symptom, but the truth is this can vary, especially in women. It’s important to be aware of the different ways heart attacks can present themselves in women that can be vastly different from how they present in men.
Have you heard of hypoglycemia? This occurs when your blood sugar drops too low. It can cause issues such as low energy, headaches and even seizures. The good news is that there are nutrients that can help support your blood glucose levels.
X-ray
InViteⓇ Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH
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If you’ve ever had to have an X-ray or a CT scan done, you’ve probably had the thought in the back of your mind if this is safe. Today I want to talk a little bit about what we do know when it comes to that radiation exposure and what risks are actually involved, whether we have to go in for dental X-rays, chest X-rays or CT scan.†
It’s estimated that in this country alone, we probably do over 100 million regular X-rays of the chest or bones every single year. When it comes to CT scans, we’re looking at probably over 80 million CT scans that are conducted each and every single year. When we look at the dental X-rays, this is over a billion conducted every single year in the United States. That’s a lot of radiation exposure that we can put ourselves at risk for.†
Considering how common these tests are, we have to be aware of the potential risks. We know that there is a dose-dependent adverse effect of X-rays that has been linked to cancers. Many researchers have been studying that particular cancer risk in both adults and children. It’s estimated that radiation exposure during medical imaging can be associated with 2% of all cancers in the United States.†
Studies have shown that exposure to ionizing radiation from X-rays can be very problematic. This is because of DNA damage, which can result in a DNA mutation that can then lead to cancer further down the road.†
TEST YOUR GENES FOR NUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 39. Listen Now>>
When it comes to oxidative stress and cellular damage, we have to think about antioxidants. Let’s run through the basics of nutrients you should be considering taking when it comes to your exposure to X-rays and CT scans.†
We know that antioxidants are going to be important when we have to shield ourselves from the danger of the radiation. We can look at things such as EGCG. Those polyphenols that come from green tea have been shown to be very beneficial when it comes to fending off the damaging effects of radiation. Quercetin is also beneficial for this purpose. All of these nutrients are things that we should be considering if we are going in for an X-ray or CT scan.†
We can certainly look at curcumin, which offers a kind of dual-action. It is working as an antioxidant to protect normal tissue, but it is also working in terms of the upregulation of genes that are responsible for cell death and cancers. This is why I generally include Bio-Curcumin 5-Loxin into a regimen if someone is going in for one of these tests.†
Other nutrients such as ginkgo biloba, ginseng extract and silymarin extract have also been studied for their radioprotective properties.†
In this episode, Amanda Williams, MPH discusses the potential dangers of radiation from common medical tests. She explains how this can be related to cancer and offers suggestions for nutrients that can help fend off this damage.†
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