The Circulatory

As you all know, we are living in very uncertain times. And it’s in times like these that many of us feel a natural calling to help our fellow man. You may be surprised to learn that acts of kindness can have a positive impact not only on the people they’re directed toward, but on your blood pressure. Turns out our hearts truly have a built-in mechanism for incentivizing us to help each other.

In this spirit, we came across two studies that we really wanted to share with you, in the Journal Health Psychology. These 2 studies address the heart. The emotional heart AND the anatomical heart.

Pomegranates are in season! This special fruit has been known for its healing properties for centuries. In fact, it’s featured prominently in ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Indian texts for its medicinal properties.

So what makes pomegranates so special? It turns out that modern science has validated their wide range of positive health effects. Here’s a few reasons why pomegranate deserves a place on your plate this fall:

We’re all dealt a genetic hand, and knowledge of that can sometimes cause us to act irrationally. In terms of high blood pressure, this might look like not getting our numbers checked (kind of like an ostrich with its head in the sand). Or it might lead to us thinking “I’m going to have high blood pressure and die from some comorbidity anyway, so I might as well eat and drink whatever I want, smoke, be a couch potato, and/or not manage my stress.”

Diuretics help remove excess sodium (salt) and water from the body, and in doing this, promote the production and excretion of urine. Diuretics that aren’t “potassium-sparing” can cause us to lose potassium as well. We need to be careful about losing potassium. More about that later.