I'm Dr. Michael Greger and this is Nutrition Facts.

There's one thing we've been thinking a lot about lately,

and that's how to stay healthy in the middle of a global pandemic,

especially since we've learned that those with underlying health problems like obesity,

hypertension, diabetes, heart disease,

are more likely to have serious complications if they can track COVID-19.

So what do we do?

We try to stay healthy with evidence-based nutrition.

Did you know that natural approaches to lowering high blood pressure can work better than drugs?

Why?

Because you're treating the underlying cause and can end up having only good side effects.

Here's our first story.

The number one kill in the United States and on the planet Earth is a bad diet.

That's why I've dedicated my life to the study of nutrition.

Killing number two is high blood pressure.

The reason it's so deadly is that it increases your risk of dying from so many different diseases,

heart disease, stroke, to heart and kidney failure.

We're talking an exponential increase in the risk of dying from a stroke,

as our pressures go up starting from around 110 over 70,

an exponential increase in the risk of dying from heart disease,

again, starting in a blood pressure around 110 over 70.

We used to consider a blood pressure as high as 175 to be normal.

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