One night I was in Australia at a restaurant next to a table filled with a group of Asian businessmen. Someone’s phone rang. All 15 of the men wearing black suits or stripped shirts leaned down under the table to check their phones in their bags. I also leaned down under the table and held my purse up to my ear to listen for a phone ring through the material. A phone continued to ring. I looked across and the gents remained in this downward doggie facing position staring right back at me, all of us still hearing the phone but not sure who was getting the call. Which turned out to be someone at a neighboring table. But instead of sitting upright, for some reason we stay glued in time, me with my purse held ridiculously against my ear, them with their cameras swaying from their necks. In these silly inverted positions, rather than be embarrassed we all started to laugh hysterically. None of us was prompted to go vertical. We laughed upside down for at least 4-5 minutes. I drooled I laughed so hard. We didn’t speak the same language, except for laughter, which I discovered that night bridges all languages.
I will never forget that Kodak cell phone moment.
So what’s this entire cell phone madness doing to our blood pressure?
Research suggests that talking on mobile phones boosts blood pressure. During a single phone call, blood pressure readings jumped significantly from 121/77 to 129/82. But folks who used cell phones a lot, 30 calls or more a day, didn’t have this bump up in blood pressure. Researchers scratched their heads wondering if making lots more calls a day, creates less adverse physiologic reactions to talking on a cell.
Information like this was shared as International members gathered at the 28th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Hypertension in San Francisco to figure out why there is such an epidemic of the silent killer ‘hypertension’ (high blood pressure). They shared research about what bumps blood pressure dangerously high and what lowers it gently down. Top of the danger list was cell phone usage under 30 calls a day.
Yoga – Yoga on the other hand was found to significantly lowered blood pressure, even if only practiced several times a week.
What about Salt – research shows that folks with high blood pressure prefer more salty flavored foods and thus tend to consume more salt. The role of salt in high blood pressure is not set in stone, but refined salt appears to be a much more dangerous thing to shake on food than sea salt or as you will read below, ‘Wright Salt’. But research in SF showed that if more herbs and other tastier non-salty alternatives were used then this propensity for saltier flavors declined.
Moral of this story, use herbs generously and use sea salt instead of refined salt, as they are two totally different animals. Presentation at 28th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Hypertension in San Francisco this May 11-15 2013
The true ‘wrong’ salt is refined salt. On the other hand, there does exist ‘Wright Salt’ (which as you will see is not wrong). Dr. Wright found research that showed that when Finland had the entire country switch from refined salt to a salt lower in sodium but high in magnesium plus a healthy amino acid, heart disease rates went down significantly over a number of years. You can purchase this salt on line and give it a try. Click here for pdf on WrightSalt.
Last year at a cardiology conference the blood pressure lowering talent of flaxseeds was presented. So to be kind to your blood pressure, heart and kidneys, consider yoga, use more herbs, use cells phones less or more as fate would have it, get some Wright Salt, and figure out a way to consume more flaxseeds daily. (My gluten webinar – May 2013 – gave a recipe for pasta where flaxseeds on top of the pasta are made to taste like fine Italian cheese. Check out BodyMindHormones.com eStore for Gluten Glitz & Glitches audio archived along with 120 pdf original slides for your personal library or for teaching/sharing).