This function is essential to your health. Without it, a simple flu would kill you and a splinter would bring you to the emergency room. But according to a study published in the journal, Immunity, this essential cell function is also responsible for deadly high blood pressure. Scientists from IRCCS Neuromed have discovered recently that T-cells, immune cells produced mostly by the spleen, play a major role in raising blood pressure. This sounds a little strange since the T-cells are an essential part of the immune system, but they also drive inflammation in the arteries, which causes damage to cardiovascular health.

The big question, however, is why does the body send out T-cells to raise blood pressure?

The scientists theorized that PlGF (a specific protein that interacts both with T-cell production and function to widen arteries) was the missing link in this function. To prove their theory, the scientists genetically engineered a group of mice, so they would not produce PlGF under any circumstances. Then they loaded the mice with angiotensin II, a hormone that usually raises blood pressure. But the engineered mice didn’t release any T-cells from the spleen and therefore their blood pressure stayed low. Whereas normal mice who produced PlGF, released T-cells and developed hypertension. Now, as the medical system would have it, the conclusion was to develop drugs to decrease PlGF and therefore decrease the number of T-cells released. And that’s where my opinion parts with the scientists.

Why in the world would you want to strong-arm the essential part of your immune system instead of first asking WHY does this function begin in the first place?

T-cell/inflammation response is called out when your body believes it’s under attack, or when there is a great danger to your health. This could be bacteria, pollution, foreign objects (splinter) or any other external threat to your body. Subtler, however, is any kind of stress. Especially long-lasting stress. This could be mental (challenge at work), emotional (divorce), sensory (traffic noise), or physical (running a marathon, disease), but any kind of long-lasting stress puts your immune system in high gear to build up any damage done as soon as possible. This study was remarkable, and it revealed some of the physical processes your body goes through to raise blood pressure once it’s under stress. Your brain sends out PlGF, which produces T-cells and raises blood pressure when your body is experiencing long-lasting stress of some kind. Even after the stress is no longer present, the brain becomes somewhat stuck in the process of releasing PlGF. Therefore, the inflammation response (T-cells) and high blood pressure are stuck in ‘high gear,’ which again, causes stress throughout your body. The solution is to break this vicious circle. My approach is to apply something I call a Focused Break. It reboots your system, causing it to evaluate the need for increasing blood pressure or not. The typical result is that BP drops down to a normal level.

To apply the Focused Break, you must use 3 easy exercises. Learn more about the Focused Break and the 3 easy exercises here..!