Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Exercise is important.

Diet, what you're putting in your body, things like smoking, alcohol excess and stress.

Because stress is in so many ways associated with all those kind of hormones that are produced, which actually constrict our blood vessels.

So if you're in a state of chronic stress, our blood vessels are going to be much tighter in general.

And that will then contribute to the blood pressure going up.

And of course, stress will affect your sleep.

When you don't sleep, you develop a predilection for sweet foods.

When you develop a predilection for sweet foods, you get these huge surges in insulin.

So it's all interlinked.

And it's also very important, I think, that people become a lot more aware of the food industry and what the food industry is all about and what kind of compromises are made with your food before it ends up on your table.

It's important to understand that sometimes your blood pressure is a manifestation, an outwardly manifestation, of the compromises you're placing on your body.

And therefore, it shouldn't be looked upon as, oh, blood pressure is the worst thing in the world.

It should be what you're doing to your body.

That Western lifestyle is probably more harmful.

Stress is probably more harmful.

If you're smoking 100 cigarettes a day, that's more harmful than trying to control the blood pressure that has risen as a consequence of that.

A hundred percent.

And if you look at diabetes, type 1 diabetes is a condition, but type 2 diabetes for most people is a symptom.

That, I think, is really important.

And I think this is exactly where we need to be heading.