Your blood pressure fluctuates throughout the day depending on your activities. However, hypertension, or high blood pressure, results when you experience a continuous strain of blood against the walls within your arteries.

Blood pressure that is excessively and consistently elevated is considered a “silent killer.” This is because you will most likely not manifest symptoms until it develops into an adverse condition, such as stroke or coronary artery disease.

Many things can contribute to hypertension, including bad nutritional habits, which often lead to obesity. Therefore, it is considered a good idea to consult with a nutritional expert in order to keep your blood pressure within a healthy range.

Let’s examine how a nutritional counselor can help lower high blood pressure and where you can find a trusted nutritional counselor at AlphaCare Wellness Center.

Nutritional Counsellors Utilize Holistic Approach

A nutritional counselor uses a holistic approach to keeping your blood pressure within the normal range. This means that they will not focus only on physical parameters, but will evaluate your physical, mental, and spiritual situations and observe how these elements overlap and contribute to your disorder.

Your nutritional counselor will also delve deeply into your medical history in order to connect the dots between hypertension, lifestyle, genetics, and additional health conditions and construct a highly individualized therapeutic care plan that targets your diet, co-occurring illnesses, and spiritual connections.

A nutritional counselor understands that no two clients are the same; therefore, no two clients can have the same care plan for hypertension.

It is pertinent to mention here that nutritional counseling is not a dieting scheme; rather, it is a collaborative process between you and the functional medicine practitioner and counselor that integrates education, goal development, and self-empowerment into the methods which they employ to lower your blood pressure and put you on the road to improved wellness.

Nutritional Counsellor’s Strategies to Lower Your Blood Pressure

The following covers some strategies your counselor will utilize to lower your blood pressure:

Fix Your Imbalanced Diet

Your dietary habits are the key modifiable risk factors for hypertension. Therefore, a nutritional counselor will assess your specific dietary needs, help establish health objectives, and advise you to consume your meals consciously. Your nutritional counselor may also advise you to cultivate the habit of reading the supplement facts and information presented on food items.

Fixing an imbalanced diet can also help shed the extra pounds that may be contributing to your high blood pressure. They will recommend you fix your diet in the following ways.

• Reduce sodium or table salt intake (take only 6g/day for primary hypertension)
• Lower saturated fat intake
• Increase potassium-containing food items in your diet
• Limit the consumption of alcohol and caffeinated beverages
• Consume a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, fibers, and nuts such as cashew and almonds

It is important to mention here that most dietary recommendations from your nutritional counselor are in accordance with the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stopping Hypertension) endorsed by the American Heart Association.

Goals And Strategies to Modify Behaviors and Lifestyle Factors That Lead to High Blood Pressure

Although modifying your diet is extremely vital for controlling hypertension, it is not enough. To keep the blood pressure in the normal or near normal range, there is always the need to eliminate the elements from your life that further increase your blood pressure.

The nutritional counselor will identify behaviors and lifestyle factors, such as emotional eating, poor stress management, and unusual working schedules, that may negatively affect your blood pressure. Afterward, they will determine the most effective strategies that can assist you in modifying and maintaining improved habits and choices.

Medications and Nutraceuticals

There is no denying that prescription medications can be effective in the prevention of hypertension, but working with a nutritional counselor means you can also benefit from herbs, nutraceuticals, and therapeutic services that can be just as useful in helping you reach your specific healthcare objectives.

Nutritional counselors, like our Dr. Catherine Oseni, have a vast knowledge of medical-grade nutraceuticals and supplements, along with how they interact with commonly prescribed medications. They apply this knowledge to assist with weight management strategies designed to lower blood pressure so that you can experience and enjoy optimal health.

Ongoing Support

Your nutritional counseling program will include follow-up consultations in order to monitor your continual health progress for more comprehensive blood pressure management. This will enable your healthcare practitioner to determine how close you are to achieving your wellness goals and provide you with the ongoing support and additional strategies you will need in order to achieve desirable and sustainable outcomes.

Nutritional Counselling

If you have been diagnosed with high blood pressure and are looking for a trusted nutritional counselor, please visit us here at Alpha Care Wellness. Our board-certified and fellowship-trained integrative and functional medicine practitioner, Dr. Catherine Oseni, Pharm.D, ABAAHP, FAAMFM, FICT, offers integrative and functional nutritional counseling to help people manage chronic diseases, such as hypertension so that they are able to enjoy happier, healthier and longer lives.

If you would like to make an appointment with our counselor, please contact our office at (817) 550-6332 or click here to submit a request.