The MOST Overlooked Cause of Hypertension (High Blood Pressure)

Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast

Dr. Eric Berg

Health & Fitness

4.6 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2024

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Around 90% of all hypertension is essential hypertension, which means it has no known cause.

Southern states have the highest risk of hypertension and the highest risk of strokes. They also have a much higher rate of zinc-deficient soils.

Zinc deficiency can cause hypertension. Doctors are often hyper-focused on reducing sodium to lower blood pressure, and people are surprised to find their blood pressure does not go down after reducing their salt intake.

If you’re deficient in zinc, your sense of taste and smell is often inhibited. This might cause you to add more salt to your food and crave junk food. The average American indeed consumes too much sodium from junk food and not enough potassium, but zinc deficiency is also a significant issue.

ACE 2 inhibitors are the number one blood pressure medication. This type of medication depletes zinc, potentially causing more blood pressure problems. Diuretics, antibiotics, antacids, and birth control pills also deplete zinc.

Zinc is a helper mineral for making nitric oxide, a vasodilator that helps relax the blood vessels. Zinc is required for nitric oxide to work. Zinc is also necessary to make certain antioxidants, including SOD, which helps to keep inflammation at bay.

You can become deficient in zinc by consuming food grown in zinc-deficient soils or if you don’t consume shellfish and red meat. Sugar, refined carbs, whole grains, alcohol, and fructose deplete zinc. Weak stomach acid interferes with mineral absorption, which can contribute to a zinc deficiency.

Oysters and other shellfish, as well as red meat, are the best sources of zinc.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Let's talk about the most overlooked cause of hypertension.
0:06.0	And this concealed cause of hypertension is a shortage of an essential trace mineral,
0:12.0	which I think has been hidden from view for a very long time,
0:15.2	and I want to put it on your radar because we know that vitamin D deficiencies can create hypertension.
0:20.9	We also know that a potassium deficiency can also create hypertension. We also know that a potassium deficiency can also create
0:24.1	hypertension and we also know that 90% of all hypertension is called essential which
0:29.6	means they don't know what causes it and I really think it's related to nutrition
0:33.8	but this third nutritional deficiency connection to hypertension and I'm going to share it
0:38.5	with you right now. I mean just look at this right here you have high blood
0:41.4	pressure right the problem with high blood pressure right the problem with
0:43.0	high blood pressure is it puts you at risk for a stroke and also if you look at a map
0:47.6	of United States southern states have the highest risk of high blood pressure, hypertension, as well as the highest risk of strokes.
0:59.0	And those southern states also correlate with a much higher deficiency of zinc in their soils.
1:05.0	Yeah, so a zinc deficiency can cause hypertension and I'm going to explain why.
1:12.0	But first let's just talk about sodium for example
1:14.8	because doctors are so hyper-focused on this sodium you must get rid of sodium but
1:18.9	it's been a big disappointment because a lot of people reduce the sodium and they still have hypertension and they still have to be on the medication.
1:26.0	You also have folate. folate, if that's deficient, can raise your homocystine, which can lead to high blood pressure and a stroke as well.
1:34.0	And homocystin is a certain thing in your blood that puts you at risk for cardiovascular problems.
1:40.0	But a zinc deficiency is way more common.
1:42.0	So check this out. When you're deficient in zinc, but a zinc deficiency is way more common.
1:43.0	So check this out.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -350 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dr. Eric Berg, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Dr. Eric Berg and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.