What Causes High Blood Pressure?
Essential hypertension is directly associated with the loss of skin capillaries. Human skin holds more blood than any other organ and has around thirty capillary loops per square millimetre. Loss, or rarefaction, of these capillaries is known to begin in the 30s and, by age 70, more than 40 per cent of the skin’s capillaries may be permanently lost. Women who are 80 years old or more may have no capillary loops at all in the forearm skin at all, a condition known as parchment skin.
Capillaries do not stretch or expand so when we lose one there is nowhere for its share of blood to go and it follows that this will cause a permanent rise of pressure in the arteries. This in turn results in a loss of arterial elasticity which is an indicator of hypertension and a risk factor in itself for accelerating disease development. So, why do we lose capillaries?
Over the last few thousands of years humans in temperate zones were used to many hours of physical work each day and this kept the body’s cooling system working efficiently. This physical work is no longer common for many people and lifestyle circumstances such as lack of exercise, poor diets, living in air-conditioned surroundings and stress are common, causing an imbalance in the management of electrolytes in the body.
Humans have about 3 to 4 million sweat glands spread throughout the skin. The glands supply continuous normal insensible perspiration via fragile ducts to the skin surface. Sweat is an aqueous liquid containing electrolytes, principally sodium, as well as waste products and antimicrobial peptides. As this liquid passes out through the sweat ducts, the transmembrane regulators in the duct wall make an adjustment to the electrolytes proportionate to the speed of passage through the duct. The antimicrobial peptides, acting together with the balance of electrolytes, reduce the microbial load on the skin and prevent entry of bacteria into the sweat ducts.
Human sweat glands and ducts have the ability to instantly switch over from insensible perspiration to the output of copious sweat in response to heat or exercise. Cooling copious sweat passes through the sweat ducts at seven times the rate of insensible perspiration. At this output, in a well-conditioned person, the transmembrane regulator of the duct removes all of the electrolytes. This effect is well known as the observation by athletes that there is no salt taste in their sweat when they are fully fit. If electrolytes were not conserved in this way, we would very quickly lose them all resulting in serious problems.
In copious sweating, without the balance of electrolytes as in perspiration, there is no protection against the entry of microbes into the sweat ducts. This does not matter, since the force of output of the copious sweat is sufficient to keep the ducts clear.
Populations of many societies are not fully fit, but typically have long periods of time with little physical activity, interspersed with short periods of exertion and stress. This pattern results in the sweat glands starting to switch from insensible perspiration output to copious sweat output, but not completing the switch. The sweat ducts become used to a slightly increased output of perspiration, which is, as a result, deficient in electrolytes.
Without the proper level of electrolytes the antimicrobial peptides are ineffective, allowing normal skin microbes to enter the sweat duct. The immune reaction to the entry of microbes into the duct blocks the duct at a point near to the sweat gland itself. Perspiration output under pressure from the sweat gland now ruptures the duct and redundant perspiration spreads into the surrounding skin, destroying any blood capillaries in its path. This is the cause of the rarefaction of capillaries, cumulatively increasing with age.
It is known that blood capillaries can regenerate, a process known as angiogenesis. Preventing the destruction of capillaries by redundant perspiration from ruptured sweat ducts should allow the body to make these repairs.
If a surplus of electrolytes could be created in the body then there would be no need for the protective conservation of electrolytes by the sweat ducts. If this surplus could be maintained then the sweat ducts would remain open, protected by antimicrobial peptides. Adding electrolytes to body water, e.g. to the water in the digestive tract, would result in surplus electrolytes being immediately dispersed and eliminated via the kidneys. For success, it would be necessary to create an apparent surplus that could not be eliminated.
This can be achieved by taking an ion eXtra capsule. Continue reading How ion eXtra Works to learn more!
