Posts Tagged ‘high blood pressure solutions’

How I lowered blood pressure without drugs

It’s been just over 5 months since I dispensed with high blood pressure medications (that weren’t working and had unpleasant side effects) and began exploring alternative cures.

Yesterday was a big milestone. For the first time ever my blood pressure was monitored below the much slated ideal of 120/80. After doing a slow breathing exercise for 15 minutes it came in as 116/79.

Of course I was suspicious at first as because my blood pressure is usually in the 125-135 / 85-95 range. Given that my parents both suffered from high blood pressure and my higher blood pressure is most likely ‘in the genes’. So I figured that’s about as good as it’ll get for me. So I took the reading again at it this time it came in at 111/ 76 – amazing!

Amazing when you consider I was consistently 190+/120+ only five months before, plagued by headaches, heart palpitations, and the end of my life seemed to be approaching rapidly. You could say I’ve come a long way.

So what’s the secret to my new found health and ‘normal’ blood pressure? Two things – Diet and Exercise.

Exercise includes:

1. A 30 minute walk up the hill behind my house that gets my lungs and hearts working two or three time a week
2. Taking 15 minutes off for a slow breathing exercise (assisted by BreathEasy audio tracks)

Diet includes:

1. Drinking water more often (I prefer it carbonated)
2. Having a bowl of oatmeal every morning
3. Supplementing my daily diet with 500mg Vitamin C, multi vitamin (including 100mg Magnesium), 600mg Calcium, Cod Liver Oil capsules (Omega 3), 60mg Ginkgo Biloba, 160mg Korean Ginseng, 30 drops of Hawthorn tincture
4. Virtually eliminating processed foods now sticking with the basics.
5. Apples, bananas, celery, onions, garlic, tomatoes, (among other things of course).
6. Cayenne powder, apple cider vinegar, and only the best extra vigin olive oil.
7. Reduction in the amount of salt I consume. I now use the Celtic Sea Salt (Sel de Gurerande) naturally harvested from the coast of Brittanny, France (as they have done it for centuries)
8. Less red meat, more chicken and fish (but not the skin)
9. Red wine and dark chocolate everyday … and more nuts.

In a nutshell that’s about it. I now live a much healthier, relaxed and trouble free life with optimal blood pressure as well. It’s more than I would have imagined 5 months ago but now there’s no turning back. My final curtains have receded well off into the distant future.

How did I know what to do and eat to lower my dangerously high blood pressure? I did a lot of research and reading but the two indispensable helpers was Kevin Riley’s Guide Get Natural! Drop your Blood Pressure and BreathEasy.

Kevin Riley’s Get Natural! is the most informative (and enjoyable to read) guide on lowering blood pressure naturally without the use of medication. It really is top of the ‘lower your blood pressure advice’ mountain in my opinion.

BreathEasy audio tracks are also a great way to take 15 minutes off everyday and completely relax and calm down. I’m sure this is good for your whole-self, not just heart and blood pressure.

Well that’s what has worked for me. Please leave a comment and tell us what’s worked for you.

Because I run this blog on hypertension and natural cures, every now and then I get emails from people promoting this or that natural remedy to lower high blood pressure. Sometimes they sound interesting.

Here’s an email I got today from Bob Andrews:

High blood pressure runs in my family, so its not that surprising that I developed it too.

My mother, who is diabetic, has had high blood pressure for many years. She went

the conventional route and is on a cocktail of medications. They’re always having to

balance them and every so often it doesn’t work. Her blood pressure shoots up above

200 and they have to do another balancing act to get it back down. She currently

takes 3-4 medications together.

When I found out I had high blood pressure I didn’t want to go down that road.

I’m kind of a take charge kind of guy when it comes to my own destiny, so I didn’t

want to take high blood pressure medications. I don’t want to take any kind of pill

a medical doctor says I have to take every day. I would rather put my body back

in the right balance, so I sought out natural cures.

When you say “natural cure” people tend to think you’re talking about taking

herbs or something like that. But what I found was, you don’t have to do that when

it comes to high blood pressure. It turns out that high blood pressure is the result

of the body being out of natural balance-and you can fix that with simple lifestyle

changes.

See that’s the problem with medications.  Sure they lower blood pressure, but they

do it by fixing the end result. That is they get rid of the symptom but not the cause.

You see, high blood pressure is a symptom that your body isn’t functioning quite

right-its not really a disease in itself. Its really a problem of balance.

Well there are a few basic areas that you can work on. First, let’s talk about

breathing exercises, something I mentioned in a previous email. I can’t

emphasize enough how much breathing exercises help lower blood pressure. This

works because your body is out of balance with stress and tension, and the

breathing exercises help put you back in balance by getting rid of that tension.

Next on my list is getting lots of potassium in the diet. Most adults simply don’t

get enough, in fact some studies say we get half the amount of potassium that

our bodies really need. Potassium balances with sodium to manage nerve and

muscle function and fluid balance in the body. It acts to help the blood vessels

relax. So you can see that potassium helps lower blood pressure.

There are may other examples, but I don’t have the space to go into them here.

But I’d like to make a point before I go. Notice I haven’t mentioned any special

herbs or treatments. Potassium is found naturally in many foods you probably

enjoy like apples and oranges. The point is you can cure blood pressure naturally

without taking any supplements or herbs.

There is no one fix-it cure-all that will work for every single person, although

the breathing exercises come close. That’s why you need to attack on several

fronts if you’re going to utilize natural ways to combat blood pressure. Potassium

and breathing are just two examples.

Best Regards,

Bob

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,

Hawthorn trees and Hawthorn tincture

Hawthorn is one of the three sacred trees of the Irish and has always played a big role in Celtic folklore.As a symbol of protection a cutting was placed on doorways to ward off evil.Ribbons were also placed on the tree as decorations on May Day.

Although Hawthorn don’t grow very large they are tough and can live for up to 400 years.Today the Hawthorn is found clinging onto the mountainsides here in Wales and is often used as a hedgerow shrub.

Welsh Mountain Hawthorn

The hawthorn berry has long been regarded as a ‘heart herb’. Tinctures and teas made from it has been used to relieve stress and strengthen the heart by the Druids.

Modern science backs these beliefs. Hawthorn has a mixture of phenols that strengthen the heart, lower cholesterol, reduce resistance in arteries, and lowers blood pressure. It acts as a vacillator – helping the arteries to relax and widen and let the blood flow more smoothly with less pressure.

One Iranian study showed a significant decrease in blood pressure over a three-
month period of using Hawthorn. The effects of Hawthorn build up over time if taken regularly. Hawthorn’s cardio-protective effect actually gets stronger over time.

Hawthorn (using the berries and flowers) can be taken as a tea or a tincture. I take it every morning – 25 to 30 drops of tincture in a glass of water. You can buy Hawthorn tincture at most good health food shops. Or you can make your own.

To make Hawthorn tincture pick the flowers in the May/early June and the berries in late September/October. Place the berries and flowers in a jar and fill the jar with a spirit of 50% to 60% volume alcohol. Strong vodka is usually recommended but I have used moonshine with good results. Leave the mixture for 2 – 4 weeks out of direct sunlight. Then strain it and dispose of the solid stuff. Store the tincture in small dark bottles with a dropper for easy access and use.

Take 25 – 30 drops of Hawthorn tincture up to three times daily for cumulative and beneficial results and lower blood pressure.

Consider Hawthorn a powerful ally in your arsenal to fight high blood pressure and restore good health. Taken with a health diet and ample exercise and you should see your blood pressure come start to come down in no time at all.

By the way, if you need to lower your blood pressure starting today, 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.

Anytime I browse the web for high blood pressure articles I come across a boat load of conformist scaremongering.

It’s as if a party line on high blood pressure had been handed out and everyone is preaching from the same sermon.

The pharmaceutical bosses must be smiling themselves to sleep every night. Sales are good – and increasing.

Here’s an example I came across a few minutes ago form www.naturalproductssolution.com/devastating-effects-of-high-blood-pressure

Devastating Effects of High Blood Pressure

High Blood Pressure also called hypertension, is elevated pressure of the blood in the arteries. Blood pressure is the measurement of force applied to artery walls High blood pressure has to be taken seriously. It is a serious disease, the cause of which is more or less unknown. What we do know is that left untreated, high blood pressure over time can lead to serious heart disease and other vascular troubles, even death. Health professionals think that there are some genetic factors but as yet they cannot pin down the range of specific genes involved that cause high blood pressure. Studies suggest that people suffering from chronic high blood pressure may come from autonomic nervous system that controls heart rate, blood pressure and the blood vessels.

Detrimental effects of high blood pressure

It is the reason why high blood pressure has been called the “silent killer”. High blood pressure has detrimental effects on many organs like kidneys, eyes, and heart. High blood pressure is the primary cause of death in over 120,000 cases last year and contributes to 75% of all strokes and heart attacks and even more in African Americans. Research suggests that people with mild high blood pressure have three times more likely to have a heart attack as people with normal blood pressure and ten times the normal risk of stroke depending on the severity of the blood pressure. High blood pressure can also cause mental problems such as memory lost .

Fortunately, controlling blood pressure with the proper treatment can reduce or prevent those health complications. Healthy life style is a must for anyone with blood pressure (120/80mm Hg) and above in order to prevent serious complications of that disease.

My response:

High Blood Pressure is not a disease – it’s a condition brought on when a body gets out of balance.

High Blood pressure doesn’t “kill people”. It’s not a ‘thing’ – it’s a measurement. Of course extremely high blood pressure is sign that your circulatory system is approaching collapse. So heed its warnings.

120/80 is the now established ideal blood pressure rating – not a number that everyone can or should try to achieve (no more than everyone should try to force their feet into the ideal sized shoe.)

Anyone can reduce their blood pressure to a safe level (under 140/105) through exercise and diet.

Forcing it down with medications (and possibly suffering undesirable side effects) is not very wise … especially considering that statistically more deaths occur from heart disease and stroke while people are on these medications than those who do no on them.

Unfortunately the medical establishment as a whole has caught on and continue to push pills left right and center.

The answer? Lower your blood pressure naturally. Get your body back in balance through diet and exercise. Get healthy again. If I can do it anyone can.

You don’t have to spend too much time searching the web to find dire warnings about hypertension “the silent killer” urging you to run to your doctors and start a lifelong enslavement to the pharmaceutical industry.

Here’s an example from South Africa (www.findarticles.za.org):

High blood pressure rates are also growing among American children, paralleling an epidemic of obesity. Hypertension in grownups will usually be measured on at least two different trips to the doctor before a diagnosis is made. It can be treated by both modifying lifestyles, usually as the first step, and, if necessary, with medications. Diuretics work in the kidney and flush out excess water and sodium from the body.

Nearly 1 in 3 American adults has hypertension. Once It develops, it usually remains for the rest of your lifetime. Fortunately, it can be easily detected, and once you know you have it, you can work with your physician to control it.

About the Author:

About The writer: R. Ealom is the writer of this article and the creator of “Free Articles On Diseases: How To Prevent and Cure Them”. Need more information Please visit us at our websites@Diabetes & Cancer Secrets OR Go To Heart Disease & Obesity Secrets. You have full permission to reprint this article provided this box is kept unchanged.

My response:

Simon Foster

Controlling hypertension through medications should really be left as a last resort when everything else fails. Why?

Medications do not treat the cause of high blood pressure – just the symptoms – which means you’ll have to take them till the end of your days.

Statistics show that people on blood pressure controlling drugs are more likely to die from heart disease that those not on them.

Blood pressure controlling drugs often come with side effects that can significantly reduce your quality of life.

Certain exercises and dietary changes can reduce blood pressure to safe levels in 90%+ of high blood pressure sufferers. The end result is not just the end of severe hypertension but a healthier, happier and longer life.

There’s simple formula that is pounded out day after day on the web and it goes something like this:

“Go to your doctor, get your pressure read, if it’s over 140/90 get a prescription and start your lifelong habit of daily drug taking.”

Ok, that’s an oversimplification but it all amounts to the same thing – too hasty a diagnosis and a preference to patronize the pharmaceutical industry over getting you body back in a healthy balance.

here’s an example from copdnewsoftheday.com:

Always ask your provider what your blood pressure is and write it down. Discuss these numbers with your provider.

Your provider may prescribe medicine to help lower your blood pressure.

Take your medicine every day, or as directed by your provider.
If your blood pressure numbers get lower, it’s because your medicine is working. Don’t stop it or take a lower dose unless your provider says you should.

Blood pressure reading is an inexact science at best. Blood pressure readings vary as much as 10 points from one reading to another taken in succession. In other words, you could be pre-hypertension for one reading and below normal for the next – without your actual blood pressure changing at all. Accuracy can only be measured in ranges, not exact number.

Lowering blood pressure via natural an alternative means is easily achievable for most. Prescription medication should only be promoted as a last an desperate measure for that small minority that can’t do it any other way.

Although not well publicized, people on blood pressure lowering drugs have a greater chance of suffering heart attack and  stroke. That doesn’t necessarily mean that these drugs cause heart attack and  stroke. That’s just statistics.

The bottom line is this:

If you suffer from high blood pressure make the necessary lifestyle changes and get healthy – not drugged up.

From: bloodpressurequestions.org

What are the symptoms of high blood pressure?

Lace asked:I was just recently told i had high blood pressure, never would of thought it, i even told the doctor, i feel fine…wow…silent killer huh? thats pretty scary, i didn’t know that….thanks…

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.

From: www.organicsandyou.com

FOODS THAT BALANCE BLOOD PRESSURE

Legumes: mung bean sprouts, soy bean sprouts, tofu, tempeh, peas, Adzuki Beans, Black Beans, Black-eyed peas, Broad Beans (Fava Beans), Butter Beans, Calico Beans, Cannellini Beans, Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans), Edamame
Great Northern Beans, Italian Beans, Kidney Beans, Lentils, Lima Beans, Mung Beans, Navy Beans, Pinto Beans, Soy Beans, including black soy beans, Split Peas, White Beans

Grains: (whole grains, ½ cup for all grains) sprouted wheat – hard red winter wheat, Amaranth, Barley, pearled, Buckwheat (kasha), Bulgar, Oats, whole kernel, Rice, brown, Rice, wild, Rye, whole kernel, Quinoa, Wheat, whole kernel, All Bran with Extra Fiber, Bran Buds, Fiber One, Kashi, Go Lean, Shredded Wheat, Shredded Wheat and Bran, Buckwheat Groats, Oat Bran, Old Fashioned Oatmeal, Steel-Cut Oats

Vegetables: (Pungent) radish, horseradish, hot peppers, onion family (garlic, onion, leek, scallion, shallot, chive), Leafy greens (cabbage, spinach, carrot greens, mint leaf, nasturtium leaf, dandelion greens, kale, wheat greens, barley greens, broccoli, parsley), asparagus, bell peper, rose hip, tomato, celery
Green seaweeds: Green rope, Green tuft, Dead man’s fingers, Encrusting codium, Bird guano alga, Sea lettuce, Stringy, hairy, ribbon Ulva, Green barrels, Brown seaweeds: Winged kelp, Bottlebrush seaweed, Seersucker, Three-ribbed kelp, Northern bladder chain, Flattened acid kelp, Witch’s hair, Green acid kelp, Geather Boa, Rockweed, Spiraling rockweed, Sea cauliflower, Perennial kelp, Twisted sea tubes, Bull kelp, Dwarf rockweed, Woody-stemmed kelp, Sea fungus, Sugar kelp, Stiff-stiped kelp, Sea cabbage, Split kelp, Wireweed, Soda straws, Studded sea balloons), Red Seaweeds (Turkish towel, Bleached burnett, Winged rib, Sea moss, Sea sac, Rusty rock, Sea tangle, Turkish washcloth, Tar spot, Iridescent seaweed, Coarse sea lace, Black pine, Flattened sea brush, Sea brush, Sea laural, Red ribbon, Sea comb, Bleachweed, Sea noodles, Red eyelet silk), chlorella, cucumber
Mushrooms: Honey Mushroom, Brown Stew Fungus, The Miller, Shaggy Ink Cap, Green Russula, Russula integra, Weeping Milk-Cap, Saffron Milk-Cap, Hedgehog Fungus, Man on Horseback, Wood Blewit, Chantarelle, Funnel Chantarelle, Horn of Plenty, Yellow-Crack Bolete, Slippery Jack, Brown Birch Bolete, King Bolete, Sheep Polypore, Pestle Puffball

Fruit: (citrus) Clementine, Kumquat, Minneola, Mandarin, Orange, Satsuma, Tangarine, Tangelo, Lemon, Rough Lemon, Lime, Leech Lime, Grapefruit, Pummelo, Sweety, Ugli, banana, persimmon

Nuts & Seeds: Almonds, hazlenuts (filbert), flax seed, chia seed, pumpkin seed (lightly roasted to remove surface E coli), poppy seed, walnut, sunflower sprouts

Animal products: fish: sardine, salmon, mackerel, Cold water fish (LAKE TROUT, RAINBOW TROUT, BROOK TROUT, BROWN TROUT, ARCTIC GRAYLING, ARCTIC CHAR, SPLAKE, etc.) raw honey, bee pollen

Herbs: hawthorn berry, dandelion root, burdock root, chaparral, peppermint (palpitations), cayenne pepper, ginger, rhubarb root (constipation), yarrow, chamomile, motherwort, valerian (Traditional Chinese herbs & American herbs)

FOODS TO AVOID (worsens high blood pressure)

Sugar, or foods with added sugars, Processed grains, or foods containing them (except as listed on the Grains List e.g. packaged cereals, even whole grain cereals, are usually processed, verify), Refined grains (which don’t say “whole” in front of each grain on the label) or foods containing them, “Wheat” or “wheat flour” without the word “whole” is usually a code word for “white” (includes white rice, “Flour” listed alone is always white flour), Potatoes, Cakes, cookies, muffins, etc. Crackers, unless whole grain, Cereals, unless whole grain and at least 8 grams of fiber per serving, Chips, Ice cream, Jams and Jellies, Maple Syrup, Regular Soda and other sweetened beverages, Juices, Oils except for extra virgin olive oil, nut oils, and canola oil, Mayonnaise, Creamy salad dressings, Butter, Magarine, Dairy products that are not fat-free, including cheese, cream cheese, milk, etc., Fatty meats such as bacon or sausage, Anything with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats in it.

“The sages follow the laws of Nature and therefore their bodies are free from strange diseases. They do not lose any of their natural functions and their spirit of life is never exhausted.” — Inner Classic

Mark Hammer C.M.H.,  Master Herbalist - Longevity Mountain    5/09

Simon Foster

That’s a huge list of foods to help lower blood pressure. Kinda boggles the brain!

My favorites from your list (that I eat regularly) include: oatmeal, oat bran, spinach, lavabread (locally harvested dark green/black seaweed in South Wales), bananas, mackerel, sardines, and hawthorn flowers/berries freshly picked locally (in my back yard).

With regards to your list ‘Foods to Avoid’ I would suggest that these should be eaten in moderation or healthy substitutes found.

High blood pressure is a sign of you body getting out of balance from too much this, or not enough of that – not from accidentally eating the wrong thing one day.