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Turmeric for lower blood pressure

I recently received some feedback regarding tumeric and its beneficial effects on our blood pressure. I’ve heard this before although haven’t used it enough to gauge it effectiveness.

Maybe I should start collecting some curry recipes that uses tumeric.

It would be interesting to hear from other people and about tumeric and its effect on the cardiovascular system.

The feedback I am referring to is pasted below.

Simon,

I’ve known about the health benefits of turmeric for years.
It has powerful immune boosting properties & is a natural
anti-inflammatory agent. It is available in capsules at
health food stores.

My wife hates curry (I love it) but she does take the
capsules. I did not know, however, that it helps lower BP.
Unfortunately, I recently had to go on Lopressor for high
BP after years of keeping it down naturally.

One day it spiked to 161/130! Stress & excess weight are
the two main culprits, I think. I’m working on reducing both.

I printed out your book & it got me having organic oatmeal
with lots of seeds & nuts for breakfast most mornings. A
little low GI fruit. That’s pretty much all the carbs I eat
for the day. I avoid white stuff (bread, sugar, pasta,
potatoes, etc). Lunch is usually some kind of salad & dinner
is poultry, fish or sometimes steak with a vegetable.
The scale is finally moving in the right direction.

Lower blood pressure with celery

08/09/2010 admin Food & Exercise to lower blood pressure naturally, Good Food = Lower Blood Pressure, hypertension dialogues No comments

There are a number of basic foods we can add to our diet that help reduce blood pressure. One of the best is celery. An unpretentious garden vegetable, celery has a number of great health benefits.

Below is a video from a Californian lass who explains the benefits of celery and all the good things it can do for you – including helping lower blood pressure.

Benefits of celery include;

high levels of potassium (helps lower blood pressure)
natural diuretic (helps lower blood pressure)
high in fiber (natural de-toxifier)
low in calories (helper you to lose weight)

Celery is a good way to lose weight cause it fills you up yet has very few calories. It is claimed that you burn more calories chewing celery up and digesting it than it returns. Hence a steady diet of celery could make you slim fast.

The definite guide in lowering your blood pressure through good eating is Kevin Riley’ Get Natural. If you love food and love eating and need to lower your blood pressure you’ll enjoy his book. Written by a man who loves food but knows how to use it to stay healthy and fit.

Hidden salt and high blood pressure.

30/08/2010 admin Food & Exercise to lower blood pressure naturally, Good Food = Lower Blood Pressure, high blood pressure solutions, how to lower high blood pressure, hypertension dialogues No comments

The link between excessive salt intake and high blood pressure have been firmly established. In response a lot of people will sprinkle less salt on their meals or stop using salt altogether. Yet the high blood pressure remains. Why?

First of all, its important to point out that high blood pressure has a lot of causes such as stress, genetics, high cholesterol, genetics, etc. If too much salt is the main cause of your hypertension then cutting down on salt should lower your blood pressure. But for many of us it’s simply not enough. we need to incorporate a range of healthy measures into our daily lives.

Secondly, salt effects people and their blood pressure differently. Some people display a high ‘sodium intolerance’ which means that their bodies can not tolerate the same salt levels as others without developing negative symptoms such as elevated blood pressure. However, the majority of us do not suffer from sodium intolerance – but that’s not the same things as saying we can consume all the slat we want with no ill effects. Moderation is always the key when it comes to salt.

The recommended intake of salt a day per adult is below 6 grams – although 3 or less grams considered safer. By the way, there is approximately 6 grams salt in 1 teaspoon of table salt and around 2 grams of salt in 1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt.

Very few of use sprinkle more than 3 grams a day on our meals with a salt shaker. I would suspect that very few of us would even reach 1 gram a day with the shaker. Even 1 gram is a lot of shaking.

We overdose on salt no t with the shaker but with the salt content hidden in a lot of food we buy. I’m not just talking about fast food, restaurant food, or highly processed ‘treats’ like crisps / chips. Take you everyday white sliced bread for example. On average there is 0.4 grams of salt in each slice. Have a few slices, with salted butter and a preservative and you are soon exceeding your daily recommended salt intake – without ever touching the salt shaker.

Many breakfast cereals are also another high salt food meal that we normally would consider healthy. So what’s on to do?

First, shop for food wisely and choose the ‘low salt/sodium’ variety over the standard one. Secondly go back to basics and prepare more meals yourself from simple unprocessed food. Learn to bake bread and control the amount salt, if any, you care to put in.

If you do this you can get out the old salt shaker and start using it again. After all it’s good to have some salt in your diet. if you lived solely on a diet of raw food prepared by yourself you could suffer salt deprivation.

Harvesting salt in Brittany

Personally I like salt, good salt that is, genuine harvested sea salt from the shores of Brittany – Sel de Guerande. Unlike the bleached chemical sodium available in stores, genuine sea salt is a light grayish color, full of all the trace elements and nutrients from the sea. It cost more, (around $14 for a 1,000 grams), but a kilogram should last me for many years.

So there you have it. Don’t be a victim of overconsumption of hidden salt in common foods. Choose low salt varieties or prepare food yourself. You’ll then be able to enjoy salt on your food again in much smaller and healthier quantities.

For the ultimate guide in good eating and healthy eating that will help you lower your blood pressure and enjoy your food more, I can give no higher recommendation than Kevin Riley’s Get Natural. This book and food guide has changed the way I eat and look at food forever – all for the better. If you already have a copy you know what I mean. If not you can grab one thriough the link below:

Get Natural! by Kevin Riley

Salt and High Blood Pressure – dispelling the myth

10/01/2010 admin Good Food = Lower Blood Pressure No comments

Salt in moderation

The common wisdom these days regarding salt is that it’s bad for you. Period. Salt causes high blood pressure. Period. You must reduce or eliminate your salt intake. Period.

However, when you look a little deeper into the salt and high blood pressure link it’s not quite as black and white as commonly understood.

The fact is – no salt in your diet is unhealthy. We need a small amount of salt in our diet to maintain a balance. Moderation is the key, not an outright ban.

Of course it could be said that we don’t need to sprinkle salt on our foods because there’s more than enough salt contained in the modern diet. That’s true if your diet consists of eating at restaurants (where high levels of salt are contained in the preparation of meals) or you have a diet of mainly processed foods (cans, frozen goods, ready-made meals etc.).

Naturally harvested sea salt is the best for blood pressure

If your diet essentially consists of basic natural foods prepared at home then you’ll have to add some salt yourself. This is where you want to put your store-bought table salt (sodium chloride) away and pull out some naturally harvested sea salt. The finest is harvested in a centuries old traditional manner on the shores of Brittany France.This is nutritious salt at its best.

Nutritious salt? I kid you not. Naturally harvested sea salt is rich with minerals and trace elements that help keep your body and cardiovascular system in balance. Sure it costs more. But given the amount we use in a year the extra cost can counted in cents, not dollars.

And it tastes better.

Potassium and salt

To maintain healthy blood pressure levels you need a balance of both salt and potassium in your blood. Many people with high blood pressure have been tested and found deficient in potassium. A lack of potassium can cause your blood pressure to rise.

There are two things that can cause a lack of potassium – too much salt intake and not enough potassium intake. Too much salt can eliminate the potassium that you need. Moderate salt intake (say, under 3 grams a day) keeps the balance right. To ensure your diet has sufficient potassium eat potassium-rich foods daily … such as bananas, avocados and orange juice.

There is no need for self-denial and abstinence to achieve healthy blood pressure naturally. Moderation is the key.

North Americans can buy naturally harvested sea salt (Sel de Guerande) at www.amazon.com/sel-de-guerande

Here in the UK the London Fine Foods Group will deliver it direct to your door.

Enjoy.

High Blood Pressure? Oatmeal to the Rescue!

30/10/2009 admin Good Food = Lower Blood Pressure, hypertension dialogues No comments

Oatmeal makes a comeback

Oatmeal used to be a standard breakfast dish back in the ‘good ol’ days’ but has now been largely replaced by sugary cereals. From a health perspective this has been a big mistake. A bowl of oatmeal every morning is a great way to start the day. And it especially helpful in restoring balance to your cardio-vascular system and lowering your blood pressure.

Of course the are other ways to eat oatmeal than in porridge. You can add oats to your cooking – bread, meatloaf, deserts – use your imagination.

Mind you, oats never had a reputation of fine dining.

In 1755 Samuel Johnson described oats as “A grain which, in England, is generally given to horses, but which in Scotland supports the people”.

The Scot’s reply? “That’s why England has such good horses and Scotland has such fine men!”

Get Natural! by Kevin Riley

Oatmeal gets FDA approval

In 1996 oatmeal was the first food that was granted by the FDA the right to make a specific health claim. The US Food and Drug Administration approved the health claim “Diets low in saturated fats and cholesterol that provide 3g or more per day in soluble fiber from oat bran, oatmeal, or whole oat flour may reduce the risk of heart disease.”

Overall, this wonder food reduces cholesterol, lowers blood pressure, and reduces the risk of heart problems. Study after study has shown this to be true.

How oatmeal works to lower blood pressure

There are a number of things in oats that contribute to your cardio-vascular health but it is thought that the water soluble fiber beta-gluten provides the most benefits. This gel slows down rates of digestion of other foods and helps keep your blood sugars down as well as keeping your insulin levels normal – resulting in lower blood pressure.

Oats also lowers cholesterol. In one test called The smart Heart Challenge hundreds of people ate one bowl of oatmeal a day and after a month. Afterwards 70% of the volunteers had lower cholesterol levels. The Journal of American Medical Association reported that the fiber beta-gluten found in oats is as effective in reducing cholesterol as statin drug treatment.

Eat oatmeal every day!

Need I say more? Give your cardio-vascular system a present, every morning, with a bowl of oatmeal. Here’s how i make it: One cup of water, one handful of oats, one big dollup of honey into a pot. Bring to a boil and then turn off the heat and let cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Add a chopped up banana and enjoy. There is no better way than to start your day.

Lowering your blood pressure naturally without the use of (or in addition to) prescription medications is fifty percent diet and fifty percent exercise.

Start lowering your blood pressure today

The good news is that there’s a way to lower your blood pressure naturally without taking medications and putting up with side effects.

But the catch is that it doesn’t come as a magic pill and takes some time and practice. It also requires a change in diet and lifestyle.

If you need to lower your blood pressure, and want to accomplish it without taking medications, I can give no better recommendation than Kevin Riley’s 12 week program Get Natural! Following this program I managed to lower my blood pressure from 190+/120+ to 125/85 in less than 12 weeks.

Get Natural! is both easy to follow, fun to read, and it works.

Get Natural! comes as a free bonus as part of the BreathEasy slow breathing exercise program.

I would personally endorse the BreathEasy program too. I do a 15 minute slow breathing exercise most nights before bed. It’s very relaxing and even in the span of 15 minutes by blood pressure will drop 10 points or more.

You can check out some free samples of BreathEasy audio tracks at this link: www.highbloodpressurehq.com

These two programs have worked wonders for me.

Salad to lower your blood pressure

10/09/2009 admin Good Food = Lower Blood Pressure No comments

Carrying on the theme of eating yourself to lower blood pressure, I should mention that I like to eat salad regularly – sometimes as a meal in its own right.

What’s different about the salads I make and how do they help keep my blood pressure down?

First of all I like to add a small tin of tuna to my salad. Not only does this ‘bulk it out’ and make it more of a meal but fish contains essential oils good for your circulatory system. (Fish is one of the leanest source of protein and also contains omega-3 fatty acids, which have a positive effect on the blood system. In short, fish fights hypertension (and tastes great).

I buy the tuna in brine but drain it before drowning heaps of extra virgin olive oil, a decent wallop of apple cider vinegar, crushed garlics, and liberal sprinkles of cayenne pepper. This then forms a fantastic tasting salad dressing and every ingredient helps keep the blood pressure get down and stay down.

How so?

Garlic both prevents and cures atherosclerosis (hardening of your arteries). It not only slows the build up of dangerous plaque on the walls of your arteries it can even reverse the process.

Olive oil has a beneficial mix of polyphenols, tocopherols, and oleic acid … all good
allies in the fight against hypertension. Eating garlic can make your arteries young again. (Get the cold-pressed extra virgin stuff as it contains the most benefits – and tastes better).

Both cayenne pepper and apple cider vinegar have been long noted for their beneficial properties to cure all sorts of ailments – including hypertension. As a strong tonic for for high blood pressure some people will drink a glass of water everyday with a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and cayenne pepper added. (I’m not quite ready for that one!)

Make sure you have some celery, tomatoes and onions in your salad. Both these vegetables provide a boost to your blood system and help lower your blood pressure.

There’s a flavonoid in celery called apigenin that dilates blood vessels and lowers blood pressure. Celery also contains a unique chemical called 3-n-butyl phthalide which has been singled out as the main compound that lowers blood pressure.

Tomatoes contain an antioxidant is called lycopene which helps in the prevention of heart disease and some types of cancer – as well as lower blood pressure.

Onions contain a flavonoid called quercetin – a strong antioxidant. Quercetin lowers blood pressure, slow heart rate, and improves the inner lining of arteries.

So there you have it. Here’s a run down of all the blood pressure lowering foods I ad to every salad I eat:

fish, garlic, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, cayenne pepper, onions, tomatoes, and celery.

Of course I add other things like lettuce, peppers, olives, cucumber, etc., and they all taste great and are good for you … but its the upper list that will actively work to lower your blood pressure and keep it low.

Got any great blood pressure lowering recipes? Send them this way!

Good eating folks.

Hypertension solutions – red wine & resveratrol

04/09/2009 admin Good Food = Lower Blood Pressure, hypertension dialogues One comment

It has been documented that the French nation enjoy better health all around and lower rates of high blood pressure and coronary disease than most other nations. This is partly due to diet and their habit of drinking red wine on a daily basis.

Red wine contains an antioxidant called resveratrol. Like other antioxidants resveratrol helps prevent hardening of the arteries and your blood platelets from clumping together.

Blood platelets are those things that enables your blood to clot – which is important if you cut yourself. But clots forming inside your circulatory system is not healthy and is the prime cause of strokes.

In other words red wine helps keep your blood system in good health and your blood pressure down.

In case you wondered, resveratrol isn’t just found in red wine. It comes from the skin of the grapes. You can get resveratrol simply from drinking grape juice but resveratrol isn’t water soluble. The alcohol in in wine extracts the resveratrol more efficiently and assists the absorption of it into your body.

So have a glass or two every day! Get the darker red wine for maximum resveratrol content. Say a merlot, cabernet, zinfandel, shiraz, or pinot noir.

I have to admit that before learning of the beneficial qualities of red wine I was not a big drinker of wine. Now I buy a bottle or two a week and have learned a few lessons on buying wine.

First, don’t be fooled by price alone. Expensive wine is not necessarily the best wine and cheap red wine is not necessarily the worst. On the contrary, some of the cheaper red wines seem to have the most pleasant taste.

On a TV program this spring wine tasting experts had to taste and rank various popular red wines on the market – blind (they weren’t allowed to see what brand of wine they were tasting). They all agreed on the best tasting wine. And it turned out to be one of the cheapest! So much for price as an indication of quality!

To get a great tasting red wine I would suggest you experiment with various types. Make a list of what you drink – the good, bad and ugly – so you know what to pick and what to avoid.

If red wine really isn’t “your cup of tea”, you can get resveratrol supplements. They have become very popular lately in the USA as part of an anti-aging and weight-loss system being highlighted on TV shows like Oprah.

For UK-based people,

In the USA,

High blood pressure diets

29/08/2009 admin Good Food = Lower Blood Pressure, hypertension dialogues No comments

Good morning. And a very good morning it is.

Mornings play an important part of my diet that has helped me to lower my blood pressure and keep it low.

Here’s how it goes:

I start with a glass of water as soon as I rise from bed. I prefer the carbonated water available in bottles from the store. But that’s just the kid in me. As far as I am aware carbonated water has no greater health benefits than still water.

After my first glass is consumed I pour myself another but with this one I add a squirt (25 – 30 drops) of Hawthorn tincture. It adds a subtle and refreshing taste to the water but it’s not the taste I’m after. Hawthorn flowers and berries act as a vacillator. They relax and widen blood vessels in the most pleasant manner. One shot in the morning for me is plenty although for bad cases of high blood pressure some three shots a day is recommended. (I make my own Hawthorn tincture as Hawthorn grows strong and potent up here on the Welsh mountainsides – but I’ll leave the details for another post if anyone is interested.)

So after my two glasses of water I’ll sometimes move to a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Not the decaffeinated variety but coffee straight from the bean – as nature intended. I say ‘sometimes’ because I used to drink coffee every morning as a rule – and lots of it. Now it’s a matter of choice – not habit or compulsion.

Later in the morning as hunger begins to rise its head I prepare a bowl of oatmeal. As far as I am concerned, oats are the best health food anywhere – not just for high blood pressure but for all around good health. This traditional staple of the Scots.

A study in Chicago found that – in a group of people on hypertension drugs – eating
oat cereal daily for 12 weeks reduced … or eliminated their need for blood-pressure
medication. Dr Joseph Keenan noted that a diet containing soluble fiber-rich oat
cereals … greatly improved control of the patients’ hypertension.

Why is oatmeal so effective in reducing hypertension?

In a nutshell, oatmeal (or even better, oat bran) contains beta-glucan which helps to moderate our blood sugar and insulin levels. It keeps your body in balance avoiding blood sugar spikes and avoids insulin insensitivity enabling your body to better store magnesium, which aids in the relaxing and expansion of you blood vessels. The results is lower blood pressure. I’m not a trained biologist but that’s how it was explained to me.

With my bowl of oatmeal I take some vitamin supplements currently composing of one multi-vitamin pill (containing magnesium among other things), one vitamin C pill, and one Calcium pill. I also take some cod liver oil (rich in Omege-3) in gelatin capsules, some Ginkgo and Ginseng for general well-being as well as lowering blood pressure.

The outcome of this morning diet is another enjoyable day with improved blood pressure and general well-being – better prepared to deal with all the muck that life sometimes throws at you.

This works for me. what Works for you?

Foods good for high blood pressure

24/08/2009 admin Good Food = Lower Blood Pressure, high blood pressure solutions No comments

There is no single answer for the question – what causes high blood pressure and high pulse rate. In the majority of cases it remain unknown and is put down to genetics. It certainly seems to run in families.

Regardless of causes you can reduce your blood pressure permanently through diet and exercise. (I speak from direct experience – not something I read somewhere.)

You may have heard of the DASH diet standing for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. It’s a simple overview but worth a look. I uploaded a copy and you should be able to download a pdf copy (Adobe Reader) by clicking here. (It’s written and published by a government department so don’t expect it to be too racy or entertaining.)

So here are some of my favorite foods good for high blood pressure:

bananas (full of potassium)
apples
extra virgin olive oil
apple cider vinegar
oatmeal and oat bran
red wine (a glass a day)
dark chocolate (min 70% cocoa)
whole grain cereals
nuts
chamomile tea
salads

The list could of course go on but the list above include things I eat regularly if not daily. Chamomile tea works on relaxing your nervous system (like slow breathing exercises) while other foods listed above have substances that directly affect your circulatory system in a positive way – repairing and expanding your artery walls and strengthening your heart.

To get the full picture foods, including their history, interesting facts, and how and why they work, I’d recommend Keven Riley’s Get Natural! Drop Your Blood Pressure. Of everything I have read so far on foods good for high blood pressure this guide has been the most informative and enjoyable to read.

Is all salt bad for blood pressure?

12/06/2009 admin Good Food = Lower Blood Pressure, hypertension dialogues No comments

From: hypnowil.wordpress.com

One of the most common high blood pressure causes is excessive salt consumption. Some people have high sensitivity to sodium (salt), and their blood pressure goes up when they use salt. When these people reduce their sodium intake their blood pressure tends to lower. According to many experts, taking in too much salt is common among Americans. It is estimated that we consume 10 to 15 times more salt than we need.

Diets of fast and processed foods contain particularly high amounts of sodium. To reduce your sodium intake levels read labels carefully to find out how much sodium is contained in food items and then avoid those with high sodium levels. Although this is only one of the high blood pressure causes for certain salt sensitive people, it can’t hurt to decrease your salt consumption, and may help prevent your risk of heart attack.

Be careful what drugs you put in your body. Certain drugs, such as amphetamines (stimulants), diet pills, and some pills used for cold and allergy symptoms, tend to raise blood pressure. Also, people that drink too much alcohol have a tendency to develop high blood pressure. For those that are sensitive to alcohol, drinking more than one to two drinks of alcohol per day tends to raise their blood pressure.

Simon Foster

There are also some nice things you can do to help lower your high blood pressure – like have a glass of red wine and 100 grams of dark chocolate everyday.

It’s not all about self-denial.

With regards to salt, yes, too much is not good. On the other hand, if you cut out all processed foods as I have, you have to be mindful to get enough salt.

And not all salt is the same. No no. Naturally harvested Celtic Sea salt from Brittany still contains all the nutrients and minerals nature intended. A much better substitute to common table salt most commonly used.

The bottom line is this: Lower your blood pressure by living a balanced happy life through moderation, not self-denial.

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