So today we're going to talk about low blood pressure and a few related conditions. One being something called POTS. POTS stands for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.
Now I know you know what posture means, but what about this term orthostatic? It's a term to describe upright posture. So postural orthostatic hypotension is used to describe a condition where you're lying down and then you stand up and your blood pressure drops. But not only does your blood pressure drop, your pulse rate starts going up, you feel dizzy, disoriented, you can lose your sense of vision, you can feel lightheaded, fatigue, nauseous, blurred vision, shakiness, fainting, and you can actually go unconscious. Now your normal blood pressure should be 120 over 80. Now low blood pressure or hypotension is defined being the systolic number or the top number being less than 90 and the bottom or diastolic being less than 60. Now, I also want to mention when people go into shock, the first thing that happens is their blood pressure drops right down.
And this could occur from being overheated, overtraining, loss of blood, taking certain medications, trauma, and the list goes on and on. But what I want to focus on in this video is mainly the mechanism of what occurs when you stand up and your blood pressure drops, what's behind this, and what can you do about it. So what are the possibilities?
Well, number one, It could be that you just don't have enough blood in your body, and that can come from various things. Internal bleeding. Another possibility could be that you're anemic. That could be from low iron. Another common reason for not enough volume of blood in your body is you're dehydrated because you don't have enough salt.
Salt helps you retain fluid, and this can show up a couple ways. Number one, just not consuming enough salt. Number two, Drinking excessive amount of water without the salt can severely dehydrate you because all this water is going to dilute the last bit of sodium you have and severely dehydrate you.
And so you can be dehydrated by consuming too much water without the salt. The salt is there to help you retain the fluid. One interesting point about this is when someone starts the ketogenic diet, they lose a lot of fluid because they're no longer retaining fluid. And so people, when they start the ketogenic diet, should actually consume a little more salt.
Now, if you are taking diuretics, if you have vomiting, if you have dehydration, those could be other reasons why you don't have enough fluid in your body. And that can show up as low blood pressure. All right, so there's something else I want to talk about, and that relates to something called the autonomic nervous system. If your autonomic nervous system is not working right, if it's dysfunctional, That could be the reason why your blood pressure drops when you stand up, because the autonomic nervous system has everything to do with adapting your body to stress, especially postural stresses.
So let's say, for example, this is your body and you have your blood, right? And you lay down. So when you stand up, your blood's going to pull to the bottom of your body and your legs, right?
Well, what's going to happen to your head up here if you don't have enough blood and oxygen as you're going to pass out? So the autonomic nervous system helps push or squeeze the blood up into your brain. That's what it does. So the autonomic nervous system is mainly located in the lower part of your brain called the brain stem. And your brain stem is very sensitive to a B1 deficiency.
Why? Because you need B1 to handle the massive oxygen that the brain requires to do its function. B1 is like the spark plug in a carburetor where you're mixing oxygen and fuel.
Without the B1, you won't get that combustion, and you won't be able to use the fuel in your brain. So without B1, the brain doesn't work that well, and the autonomic nervous system does not work that well. In fact, even when you're deficient slightly in B1, you can have very similar symptoms to POTS.
For example, your pulse rate goes up, you can have arrhythmias, you get dizzy when you stand up. Now, the way that someone becomes deficient in B1 is mainly through consuming refined carbohydrates. in sugars. They can also get it by consuming too many sulfites in red wine and also dried fruit, also malabsorption.
So if you have a gut problem, it could be that you're just not able to absorb vitamin B1. And then also when you start the ketogenic diet, the requirement for B1 goes way up. And if you're deficient, you're going to have symptoms, especially keto fatigue. And also the more stress you have, the more B1 you're going to need. The other key nutrient for the autonomic nervous system is vitamin D.
Without vitamin D, your autonomic nervous system is just not going to work that well. So if you have POTS, if you have low blood pressure, three things that I would focus on is more salt, more B1 through nutritional yeast, and more vitamin D3. Hey, before you leave, I just wanted to give you a little quick history on some of the books that I wrote.
This was one of the first books called Dr. Berg Body Shapes. It was my attempt at writing about body types. What was very interesting about this book is I actually did all the images myself. Don't ask me why. They look actually not quite as professional as some of the images that I have in the new book.
But anyway, this is my first attempt right here called Dr. Berg's Body Shape Diets. And then I wrote a book more extensive called The Seven Principles of Fat Burning. I don't even have a copy anymore, actually, because it's outdated. The next book I put about a thousand hours into this one right here called The New Body Type Guide. Major updates on the body types.
I put a lot of energy into this. It has professional images, graphics, all sorts of things. Now, the problem with this book is it doesn't really describe what this is really about.
Body types are only a small portion of what's in this book. And that's why I changed the name to the Healthy Keto Plan. If you happen to have this book, you don't really need this book because there's only very, very minor updates.
But if you don't have this, you need to get this one right here. This book goes into every single detail that you would ever want to know about. It goes into the seven principles of fat burning.
It goes into hormones, the body types, the basic keto plan. It goes into intermittent fasting. I talk about the 10 fat burning triggers and blockers and fat burning strategies with a lot of details in every single chapter.
I go into body issues that interfere with losing weight. There's very few people that just have a weight problem. They have a lot of body issues, whether it's sleeping problems, stress problems, inflammation.
menopause. I cover that extensively in this book. Then I talk about how to get rid of stress, and I show you a technique. Then I get into exercising. And then I have a lot of really good recipes in this book as well.
So this is a good reference guide. On my website, if you get this book, you get this one free. It's called Healthy Keto and Imminent Fasting.
This is the shortcut, a quick guide to this book. the reason I created this book is to have you within 45 minutes learn how to do keto, okay, intermittent fasting, exactly what you need to do. Then you can fill in the blanks with this book right here.
So right now I'm doing a special. If you get this book, you get this one totally free, or you can go to Amazon and get these individually. So I just want to clarify the difference between this book and this updated one right here.
If you don't have this, you need to get this right here. That way you can get the exact correct information to do it healthily.