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?
