High Blood Pressure Be Gone

Posts Tagged ‘recipies for hypertension’

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.

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?

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.

The best way to lower your blood pressure and get your body back in balance is through diet and exercise. It’s really as simple as that.

The worst way, in my opinion, is also the most common – taking prescription medication to artificially lower your blood pressure while not changing the factors that led to high blood pressure in the first place.

So what causes high blood pressure?

Some people might object saying that high blood pressure is caused by genetic factors outside if their control.

I would agree that a lot of blood pressure problems can be ascribed to genetic factors. But that’s not the same as saying there is nothing can be done about it – or saying  prescription medication is the only solution.

Some people, like myself, seem to be genetically predisposed to high blood pressure. It runs in my family apparently. My mother had high blood pressure and my father who is still alive regularly takes half a dozen pills a day for this and that including high blood pressure.

I have taken another path. Instead of resigning myself to a lifetime on pills I have made an effort to re-regulate my blood pressure through diet and exercise.

What is considered high blood pressure / hypertension?

The old rule of thumb was 100 plus your age was an acceptable blood pressure given that it was accepted that blood pressure naturally rises with age. The new regime says that everyone should be at or below 120/80. This has been a great boon to international pharmaceutical corporations given that virtually everyone above the age of forty is now eligible to be prescribed a lifetime of daily pills. If I sound cynical it’s because I am.

Lowering my blood pressure through diet and exercise hasn’t been instant. But my blood pressure has kept down over the months to an acceptable level. No, I’ll probably never enjoy blood pressure consistently below 120/80 -  it’s not in my genes. But as long as I consistently remain below 140/105 (usually in the 130/90 range) I figure that’s OK for me. I’m not in a high risk category for heart disease or stroke. And I feel better and more fit than I have for many years.

So why do I shun hypertension medications? It’s not the cost. I could get them for free here in the UK. No, it’s because blood pressure lowering medications do not fix the problem. If they did, after your blood pressure was down you could stop taking them. But the pharmaceutical industry has yet to create a drug that can really fix blood pressure. Sure, their drugs artificially lower your blood pressure. But stop taking them and it shoots right back up.

Statistics show that more people die from heart disease and stroke while on blood pressure lowering medication. That’s not to say that these medications are causing heart disease or strokes. But if you think that your safer on them then think again.

And then there’s the side effects. My only experience with a blood pressure lowering medication was for 8 week with Rampril – an ACE inhibitor. For 8 weeks I had an irritating dry cough day and night while my blood pressure refused to come down from its 190+/120+ readings. I’ve read about even worse side effects with some other medications but have no experience to validate.

So .. the Rambril went in the bin and I embarked on a new regime of diet and exercise. Within one month my blood pressure was beginning to drop. Within 3 months my BP readings were consistently below 135/95 occasionally as low as 118/79 (rare but does happen).

Diets to control high blood pressure … or … recipes for hypertension

Blood pressure lowering diet means eating less of somethings and eating more of others. It’s not all about moving simply to a bland diet of ‘healthy foods’ that suck much of the culinary pleasures out of life. Not at all. My new diet included things like a glass of red wine and dark chocolate one a day. among other things.

My new diet also involves a bowl of oatmeal every morning and some vitamin supplements. Currently I take each morning calcium, vitamin C, multi vitamin (that includes magnesium – very important) , cod liver oil (in capsules), and Korean ginseng, and ginkgo extract. I also have 20 odd drops of Hawthorn tincture in a glass of water every day.  I make the tincture myself as we are blessed with many Hawthorn trees here growing up on the mountains.

Blood pressure lowering exercises involve walking more. For me it’s a 20 minute hike up the mountain when the weather is friendly. (I live part way up a mountain in Wales). When I get to my summit I eat an apple I usually take with me. Yep, that’s part of my diet.

Other exercises involve slowing you system down with breathing exercises and the like.  One exercise involves a kind of rhythmic walking which I’ll do indoors when the weather is miserable (like today).

I hope over the coming weeks to fill in all the details of my diet and exercise that has worked so remarkably well in lowering my blood pressure from dangerously high levels as a resource for others struggling with high blood pressure problems too.

If you have any questions and or suggestions please leave a comment. I will attempt to answer all feedback.

Take care, we’re all in this together.

P.S. If you suffer from high blood pressure and are considering alternative treatments being promoted on the web, be sure to check out my review pages (links on the right hand column). I’ve checked most of the popular ones out and give you an objective assessment – warts and all!