Tag Archive for alternative treatments

What is the reason people have high blood pressure?

From: http://bloodpressurequestions.org

My brother has Lupus and the doctor has tripled medication on steroids, but recently he has had high blood pressure. Is there anything out there that is not a drug and can help him reduce his blood pressure?

Response:

There are ways to reduce blood pressure naturally (without resorting to prescription medications).

Why would anyone want to do this? Apart from many unpleasant side-effects with much prescribed medication there is the fact that once started you’re a on them for life.

Why? Because all medications to lower blood pressure only treat the symptoms – not the causes. So as soon as you stop taking them your blood pressure shoots back up.

There are a number of worthy treatments to treat the causes of blood pressure and lower it permanently without resorting to drugs.

I know because I used to suffer extreme high blood pressure (195+) without any clear cause (other than genetics).

I now enjoy normal ranges (120 – 145) without medications.

For a frank review on treatments I continue to use visit me at:

http://highbloodpressurebegone.com/alternative-high-blood-pressure-cures-review/

cytomegalovirus causes high blood pressure – true or false?

from:

http://www.bukisa.com

http://www.lsblog.org

http://www.nationalpost.com

among others …

The BIG story that’s run amok on the Internet lately:

Mice infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV) were more likely to develop not only high blood pressure

but also the hardening of the arteries called atherosclerosis

, according to a report in the May 15 issue of PLoS Pathogens by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston.

CMV infection is widespread, Crumpacker noted. Studies indicate that between 60 percent and 99 percent of adults worldwide are infected, according to the study. But aside from pregnancy, where CMV infection is associated with serious birth defects, it causes no problems for most adults “until they get something that compromises the immune system,” he noted.

“Vascular [blood vessel] injury has been suspected for quite a while,” Crumpacker said. “What we have added, in collaboration with cardiologists, is evidence that in mice, CMV can cause an increase in blood pressure.”

Blood vessel problems related to CMV infection were first noted in heart transplant recipients, Crumpacker said. Those who were CMV-positive were more likely to have blockage of the heart arteries

.

Most cases of high blood pressure in humans are of unknown origin, Crumpacker said. “Ninety-eight percent of the time, we don’t know what the cause is,” he said. If CMV infection is established as a cause — something that requires much more research — the way would be open for better methods of prevention and treatment, Crumpacker said.

“This is very exciting and important work,” said Dr. Mark R. Schleiss, who holds the American Legion chair of pediatric infectious disease at the University of Minnesota and is a leading figure in the drive to develop a CMV vaccine.

My Response:

If the virus infects 60 to 90 percent of the population and it causes high blood pressure then how come that same amount of people don’t have high blood pressure?

There maybe a link between CMV and hypertension but from everything I’ve read so far its seems the whole story is based on a lot of assumptions and conjecture.

I wouldn’t be too fast to jump on the CMV bandwagon.

Simon

P.S. How do you measure a mouse’s blood pressure anyway?

Alternative approaches to lowering blood pressure – faith and skeptism

I’m on two ‘alternative approaches’ to lowering my very high pressure.

One is largely diet-based gleaned from this book, “Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally, Safely & Without Drugs.” (I’ll put a link up in the side bar when I figure out how to.)

The other one is a bit more strange. Three exercises of both mental and physical nature. Nothing too hard. The first one is a kind of rhythmic walking for 10 minutes. The second is an emotional release/breathing exercise (25 minutes). And the third one is a deep relaxation exercise best performed in bed before one drifts off to sleep (also 25 minutes in duration).

These exercises are on audio and in a written transcript and are advertised and sold on the net by a Christian Goodman who has an address in Iceland.

But who is Christian Goodman and do his exercises really work? Time will tell. He’s not cheap. $49 if I remember correctly. When I first came across his site, product, and claims I thought ‘what a con!’.

But I signed up to his list and got the occasional alert to his blog entries. Seemed to be talking sense.

After one month of taking my daily prescribed medicine my blood pressure hadn’t drop one single point (192/120). I revisited Christian’s site and read it again and pondered. He gives a 2 month guarantee with his exercises. Either it works and your blood pressure is lowered. Or he’ll return every penny of the cost – no questions asked.

So I asked myself – what have I got to lose? If it works then living a longer and healthier life is definitely worth 50 bucks. If it doesn’t work – it want cost me anything but time trying it out.

So I got it about three weeks ago. I’ve been pretty faithful and doing the exercises every day. Has it worked? Maybe. My pressure is lower (150 -165 range) but that could be to change in diet as well.

So the verdict is out for the moment. If my blood pressure drops below, say 140 before the trial 8 weeks is up I’ll let him keep my money. If not I’ll ask for it back.

I think they are good exercises. I don’t think he’s a con. But that doesn’t mean the exercises will for everyone every time.

I’ll put a link to his website on the bar to the right also.

As an end note, I want to mention another site I came across that uses special audio tapes you breath along with to slow your breathe and lower your blood pressure. They have samples and I tried them out. Seems to work. My blood pressure dropped to 130 / 90 for the first time in probably many. many years. I’m not convinced the lower blood pressure will last more than a hour or so. (You see I’m a very skeptical person.) But it’s definitely worth a check out. I’ll try to paste a link to them also.

Chow for now,
Simon

Blood Pressure Blues

Last summer (2008) my father (whom I was visiting in eastern Canada at the time) badgered me to have a blood pressure test at the local pharmacy. I’d didn’t think much of it and went along with it. I got a reading of 158 / 95 which was on the high side but not critical.

So in response I cut down on my salt intake.  I continued on my single handed sailing journey up to Iceland and back down to Wales arriving back home in mid September. (You can check out my sailing blog here)

My girlfriend who worked at a pharmacy and nursed her ailing mother had a blood pressure monitor and  a few occasions that I was tested I was in the 155 / 100 region. Not too alarmed I cut down more on my salt intake and started eating garlic regularly. (I had read somewhere that it was effective in lowering blood pressure).

This winter I started feeling run down more often than usual. Mild headaches too frequent also. Then my heart when funny one night. After a romp in bed with my girlfriend my heart started pounding. Nothing unusual in that perhaps except it wouldn’t stop. It took half an hour of walking around and standing outside in the cold air before it finally settled down and the pounding in my ears receded. Yep, it had me worried.

When to the doctor that week and my blood pressure was reading 192 / 130. Not good. The doctor immediately subscribed Rampril 2.5 mg (ACE inhibitor) to be take once a day and blood test to be taken.

After one month of Rampril and two blood tests and ECG test my blood pressure remained over 190 / 130. I hadn’t improved one iota. That was three weeks ago and I have since been in search alternative treatments as the prescribed one has only given me a persistent dry cough.

I’m pleased to say that I’ve been experimenting with a few different approaches to reducing high blood pressure including mental and physical exercises, natural medicines, and diet.

After about 10 days trying an ‘alternative approach’ to lowering blood pressure I was monitored at 165  / 103. A major improvement. What a relief!

Still a way to go though.

I fill in the details of my ‘alternative method’ in my next blog post.

Most high blood pressure blogs and websites I’ve come across usually profess that “have the cure” and then try to sell you it.

My hope is that this blog becomes a community of people who can share their experiences to find out what really works and what doesn’t. I don’t have the ‘magic pill’ but i will share with you what seems to be working for me and hopefully if readers will be willing to post comments I’ll learn something too.

High Blood Pressure: we’re in this together.

Chat later,

Simon

Natural Blood Pressure Reduction guidedownload-button

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