BLOOD PRESSURE

Blood Pressure is something all of us need so our blood can flow to every part of our bodies. However there’s no "just right" blood pressure that applies to everyone; 120 over 80 is just average. Like the idle of a car, some people run a little high, others a little low. Blood pressure also fluctuates based on:

• time of day
• exercise
• alcoholic intake
• emotional tension

If blood pressure stays very low it’s called hypotension and if it remains very high, it’s called hypertension.

A DEFENSE?
Although the cause of high blood pressure is a mystery, theories regarding its cause abound. There is even the possibility that in some people an elevated blood pressure plays an important purpose, that it might be the body’s defense against spinal pressure on the brain and spinal cord; the body responds by raising blood pressure.

THE MEDICAL APPROACH:
Most M.D.’s lower blood pressure with prescription drugs but that often ignores questions such as, "What is causing the pressure to raise?", "Is high blood pressure serving a purpose?", and "Are we just treating the symptoms?" One physician in discussing this writes, "it really isn’t a disease in itself but is rather a symptom of smoking, obesity, or perhaps inactivity...perhaps physicians should stop taking blood pressures and should start weighing people and asking them about exercise, diet, smoking, and work habits.

Blood pressure medications have many side effects: rash, hives, sensitivity to light, joint aches, confusion, loss of sexual vigor, weakness, dizziness, lack of energy, numbness in extremities, depression, anger, moodiness, muscle spasms and others.

THE CHIROPRACTIC APPROACH:
Chiropractic is not a blood pressure treatment but it is one of the best things you can do for your blood pressure, as well as the rest of your body. Doctors of chiropractic perform spinal adjustments to correct vertebral subluxations which upset body balance and nerve health.

For over a hundred years, doctors of chiropractic have observed that chiropractic care may exert a normalizing of blood pressure. The exact mechanism as to how chiropractic works so well is still not entirely understood. We do know that there’s an intimate relationship between the spine, the nervous system and the internal organs. Chiropractors believe that when they give a spinal adjustment to individuals who have spine and nerve stress caused by vertebral subluxations, the nervous system becomes more balanced.