Dr. Amy Nett: Great question. I do all of the regular things. What is contributing to inflammation? Another huge one on this is HPA axis, so figure out stress levels. Is the patient doing a mindfulness practice? Certainly there are some patients who seem to have a familial predisposition towards hypertension, and it’s going to be all the more important to really emphasize HPA axis, stress management, having a meditation or mindfulness practice to increase the tone of the parasympathetic nervous system. Really, at all of my appointments, I think I try to do this. I ask patients how their meditation practice is going, how their mindfulness practice is going, to really try to bring home the importance of that because I think we might all know, based on our own experience, that’s probably the most difficult piece, to have a very consistent mindfulness practice, but it’s so important.
For high blood pressure, definitely foods. Make sure they’re not eating foods that are triggering them. Methylation is something I would look at for high blood pressure. Inflammation, methylation—kind of all of the usual things. I’m trying to think if there’s anything I specifically do for high blood pressure. I’ll have to get back to you if I can think of anything that I do that’s more targeted towards hypertension. Probably just focusing on a nutrient-dense diet, lowering inflammation, and getting … Sorry, I just lost my thought on that because I was reading things and Anthony asked about potassium. It depends on what their potassium levels are. If they have borderline low potassium, I might, but generally that hasn’t been an issue. That’s why I’m saying a nutrient-dense diet and sort of optimizing diet.