Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Lower high blood pressure without drug side effects....

Today's Post: Tuesday, 8-18-2009


Though it remains unpublished, I wrote an eBook about this subject.

Here’s a few of the conclusions I reached and facts I learned.

Blood pressures of 160 over 100 are dangerous if not brought below about 150 over
80. And, if someone cannot do that quickly without drugs, blood pressure reducing drugs, when used to do so, lower the rate of stroke, heart attack, and death.

Below that level, the drug side effects tend to be hard enough on your body, the advantage of using drugs to lower your blood pressure tends to disappear.

But as you go from about 115 over 75 to over 140 over 90, your risk of dementia, other forms of mental decline, stroke, heart attack, and death tend to rise. These risks begin to be even higher between 140 over 90 and 159 0ver 99. Even worse, once someone gets to over 140 over 90, they often get worse if they do nothing until it’s over 160 over 100.

So, using nondrug methods to keep your blood pressure well below 140 over 90 and keeping it there are very desirable.

Eating right, or switching from eating a horrible diet to eating right, plus slight additional salt restriction lowers blood pressure reliably. See the research on the DASH diet plus salt restriction. This same way of eating is quite similar to the Mediterranean Diet with more emphasis on lots of vegetables and less starchy pastas plus avoiding most full fat diary, fatty meats, and heavily salted foods.

Regular exercise on almost every day of the week also lowers blood pressure. People who exercise only a few days a week in fact, have lower blood pressure on the days they exercise.

Combining eating right and regular exercise tends to prevent getting fat or obese. And, obesity tends to cause high blood pressure.

Combining eating right and regular exercise plus very modest but sustained calorie restriction will tend to help people lose excess fat. And, in fatter people, losing excess fat has often simply turned off high blood pressure.

Avoiding severe or chronic excessive stress if you can and using a method of physical stress relief reliably lowers high blood pressure. Tai Chi, if you once learn it and do it every day for a few minutes, both provides exercise AND physical stress relief and has lowered high blood pressure by 17 systolic and 11 diastolic.

Taking several kinds of vitamins along with a basic multivitamin plus minerals and adding 400 to 600 mg a day of extra magnesium helps lower high blood pressure.

If you do have blood pressure over 160 over 100, most doctors tend to give you one or more of their favorite drugs and in high doses. Then if that fails to lower your high blood pressure, they tend to increase the doses of the drug they know best.

That often causes such harsh side effects that the person treated goes from feeling healthy to feeling like hell.

Needless to say, doctors find many patients who refuse to stay on these drugs and the rest wish they didn’t have to.

There are two solutions.

Do all of the methods listed here and the one in the Total Health Breakthroughs article I include below first if your blood pressure is below 160 over 100.

That will protect your health, lower your blood pressure, and avoid ever needing the drugs in most cases.

And if you add all the methods in today’s post while monitoring your blood pressure, you can likely discontinue the drugs eventually even if you start out at over 160 over 100 and taking the drugs.

If not, a low dose ARB, a low dose calcium channel blocker, and if necessary, a low dose of a third drug that you tend not to get side effects from can often be enough to do the job with very few if any side effects. (Exforge is a drug that combines an ARB with a calcium channel blocker in one pill. If you don’t have problems with either of its components tried one at a time to check first, the lowest dose of Exforge can be a decent choice.) ARB’s tend to have fewer side effects than most blood pressure drugs and are what the doctor’s call, “well tolerated” even in slightly higher doses. And, in most drugs, lower doses tend to have far fewer side effects.

But many people can add a single supplement to lower their blood pressure enough to avoid drugs. Taking 200 mg a day of CoQ10, once early in the day & once at lunch time has often helped people lower their blood pressure by about 16 systolic and 9 diastolic within just a few weeks. (4 to 8 weeks in the studies I saw.)

For example, blood pressure of 158 over 96 is close to needing drugs to bring it down. Taking CoQ10 can lower that to 142 over 87 which is a level at which it’s very probably safe to use the other methods in this post to get lower blood pressure and thus avoid the drugs permanently.

AND, there is now a way to get even faster and possibly better results with this supplement!

It seems that in your body, CoQ10 is turned into the active form, Ubiquinol. For more on that and its effect on lowering high blood pressure, here is the article from THB from Friday last week.

"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com ."

Blood Pressure Meds for All?

By Al Sears, MD


I just finished reading the British Medical Journal ... there was an article by a group of researchers telling doctors they should put everyone over 40 on blood pressure drugs -- even if they don't have high blood pressure!1

According to the study's authors, “Guidelines on the use of blood pressure lowering drugs can be simplified so that drugs are offered to people with all levels of blood pressure. Our results indicate the importance of lowering blood pressure in everyone over a certain age, rather than measuring it in everyone and treating it in some.”

Can you imagine? Taking drugs every day when you're in perfect health? This is a sign of things to come. Drug companies aren't satisfied with controlling medical schools, the media and the FDA... now they want all of us to take a drug every day whether you need it or not.

Are they kidding?

Why You Need Ubiquinol CoQ10

Traditionally, all CoQ10 supplements use the active ingredient ubiquinone. But once this gets into your system, your body must convert ubiquinone into another substance called ubiquinol.

Ubiquinol is the form of CoQ10 that works miracles. But there's a problem... Your body's ability to convert ubiquinone into ubiquinol starts to decline after age 45. As a result, your body doesn't get the full effect. And in many cases -- if you're 50 or older -- traditional CoQ10 won't give you the same disease protection it gives to younger people.

But Japanese researchers have discovered a reliable way to skip the conversion process and take ubiquinol straight on its own. The idea has been around for some time. But until now, no one could figure out how to make ubiquinol stable enough to take on its own.

This new option provides 8 times higher absorption of CoQ10 and keeps your blood levels high over an extended period.

Just 150 mg of ubiquinol CoQ10 elevates blood levels to almost 4 mcg/mL. You would need 1,200 mg of the traditional form to match that effect.

What may be even more important is how long ubiquinol stays in your body compared to the old ubiquinone. In one study using mice, the new ubiquinol was present in the blood at a 3.75-fold greater concentration after 8 hours. (A blood level of 4.5 mcg/mL after 8 hours of taking 100 mg.)6

This high concentration staying in your system for 8 hours is one of the keys to its blood pressure-lowering potential. The same amount of traditional ubiquinone dropped to a low level (just 1.2 mcg/mL) after 8 hours -- too low to have a powerful effect.

The truth is that you may not need blood pressure drugs -- even if you have high blood pressure. I see this all the time. Patients come into my office looking wrecked and demoralized, drugged up on blood pressure meds like beta blockers and ACE inhibitors.

Most folks don't realize these things make you fat... you blow up like a balloon. They can even cause heart failure.

Worried about high blood pressure? Today I'll show you what I've been using with my patients for years and the results are amazing. Here's what you do: check your blood pressure; start the simple strategy I mention below and then test again a few months later. You'll see what I mean.

Steer Clear of Dangerous Pills

Case in point: One of my patients, Roxanne, had been on an ACE inhibitor for 4 years. She had gained 10 lbs. and was tired all the time. And at 140/85, her blood pressure was still on the high side, even on the drugs.

I told her to stop taking the blood pressure pills immediately. They weren't working anyway. And I put her on a simple nutrient. After 9 months, her blood pressure was back to a healthy 118/80.

Plus, she told me she had more energy and was already working on losing the weight she had gained.

Roxanne's story isn't unique. Blood pressure pills typically make you weak and tired. Some patients have nasty side effects like depression, impotence, joint pain, and even kidney and liver damage.

What's worse is that blood pressure meds don't even work for the majority who take them. Only 42.9% of patients ever see acceptable blood pressure levels.2

Another study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine reveals just how worthless they are. In the group given the placebo, 30% lowered their blood pressure below the set goal. Apparently, just doing nothing will help close to a third of those with high blood pressure.3

Of course, I wouldn't advocate that you do nothing if you have high blood pressure -- it does raise your chances of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. But you can treat your high blood pressure effectively without exposing yourself to the side effects that come with these drugs.

Get the One Nutrient That Eliminates Hypertension

The first thing I instruct my patients with high blood pressure to do is take 50 mg of ubiquinol CoQ10 every day. It's the only thing I told Roxanne to take. She made no other changes and watched her blood pressure return to healthy levels.

You'll probably never hear it mentioned by the medical establishment, but it's highly effective at reducing blood pressure without any dangerous side effects.

Over 50% of patients coming to my office with high blood pressure taking blood pressure drugs have been able to stop those drugs with CoQ10. Several double-blind clinical trials have corroborated CoQ10's blood pressure-lowering effects. For example, a team at the University of Texas found that CoQ10 is so effective, it enabled them to safely take patients off blood pressure medications.4

A double blind, placebo-controlled study published in the Journal of Human Hypertension followed two groups of people with high blood pressure. One group took CoQ10 for eight weeks while the other took a placebo. The CoQ10 group showed a significant reduction in blood pressure.5

A meta-analysis of studies that looked at CoQ10 and hypertension revealed that CoQ10 can lower systolic blood pressure by up to 17 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by up to 10 mmHg without side effects.7

No matter what your blood pressure, insist on blood testing for CoQ10. If your levels are low, start with 50 mg of ubiquinol CoQ10 a day. After that, monitor your levels after three months.

If you only do one thing for healthy blood pressure, take CoQ10.

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD

References

1. Law MR, et al. BMJ. 2009; 338: b1665.

2. Meeting of the American Society of Hypertension, May 2000; www.mercola.com/2000/may/28/blood_pressure.htm.

3. Arch Intern Med. 2000;160:1449-1454.

4. Langsjoena, P et. al. Molecular Aspects of Medicine. Volume 15, Supplement 1, 1994, Pages s265-s272.

5. Singh, et al. Journal of Human Hypertension, 13(1999):203-208.

6. CoQ10 reducing activity in rats. Unpublished data provided by Dr. Mae.

7. Rosenfeldt FL, et al. J Human Hypertension. 21: 297-306, 2007.

[Ed. Note: Dr. Sears is Chairman of the Board of Total Health Breakthroughs. He has written over 500 articles and 7 books in the fields of alternative medicine, anti-aging, and nutritional supplementation.]”

X* X* X* X* X* X* X* X*

If you’ve begun to use much of the information in this post, you may already be doing several things that help you keep your blood pressure low.

So, a good way to keep yourself informed and motivated to follow this lifestyle is to read our blog.

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5 Comments:

Anonymous cause of high blood pressure said...

A double blind, placebo-controlled study published in the Journal of Human Hypertension followed two groups of people with high blood pressure.High blood pressure cure supplement, natural herbal remedy to lower & control high blood pressure. Use Alistrol everyday to help maintain healthy circulation and support cardio-vascular health.

3:36 AM  
Blogger David said...

1. I looked up the supplement alistrol. And, it may be helpful for some people.

It has 4 ingredients. Of those ingredients, I'm familiar with deodorized garlic extract and hawthorn berry extract.

Garlic may not lower LDL cholesterol much if at all. But because it does help your blood vessels be more flexible and responsive and has been said to help prevent or reverse the build up of plaque in your arteries, taking deodorized garlic supplements has lowered blood pressure for some people and may be worth trying.

Hawthorn is a proven heart tonic and has also successfully lowered blood pressure in some people.

But since I'm not familiar with the holly leaf extract and the daikon seed extract in alistrol, I prefer personally to get my deodorized garlic and hawthorn supplements separately.

That said, taking alistrol does sound like it will help some people lower high blood pressure.

And, I've gotten some new info since I wrote this post.:

2. Taking CoQ10 or ubiquinol has lowered blood pressure in people with high blood pressure -- and by enough to help people avoid needing to take drugs, or to safely discontinue one or two drugs for lowering their high blood pressure.

In fact, due it staying in your blood stream for 8 hours, taking 50 mg of ubiquinol every 8 hours might be the best way to get the most blood pressure lowering.

1:31 PM  
Blogger Brate said...

Quite a considerable approach towards preventing self from heart attack. One should also keep an aspirin with him all the time if he is facing a problem of heart. This might really help to thwart the severity of the heart attack or the heart stroke. This might help you survive in severe cases. Such medication should be kept handy for those who are on the threat of having a heart attack. My personal experience led me to suggest you all. Aspirin can really help you reduce the severity , as it decreases the blood pressure, and the heart beat rate making the blood density to be decreased to some extent. And for those who needs to travel more and are not able to be in the constant touch with the doctors, they should be enrolled in any of the medical facility providing online and eConsultations by the physicians. This really helps a lot. Because, generally we do feel some symptoms of pre-heart attack, but we generally ignore it. And that is the point where one makes a big mistake. So, an immediate contact with a physician can help you recognize the indications, and help you to react to it immediately. I am enrolled in one such medical facility known as prevention plus program of Elite Health. You can find more information from their website: www.elitehealth.com/prevention_plus_health_plan.php

9:11 PM  
Anonymous maggie.danhakl@healthline.com said...

Hi,

Healthline just published a visualization of your daily value of sodium. In the chart, you can see what half of your DV of salt looks like for 30 foods: http://www.healthline.com/health/high-blood-pressure-hypertension/daily-value-sodium

This is very valuable content as it puts nutrition information into perspective and helps a person understand how much sodium is actually in their food. I thought this would be of interest to your audience and wanted to see if you would include this as a resource on your page: http://iehealth.blogspot.com/2009/08/lower-high-blood-pressure-without-drug.html

If you do not believe this would be a good fit for a resource on your site, even sharing this on your social communities would be a great alternativeto help get the word out.

Thanks for your time reviewing. Please let me know your thoughts and if there are any questions I can answer.

All the best,
Maggie Danhakl • Assistant Marketing Manager
p: 415-281-3124 f: 415-281-3199

Healthline • The Power of Intelligent Health
660 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
www.healthline.com | @Healthline | @HealthlineCorp

About Us: corp.healthline.com

6:21 AM  
Blogger David said...

Just got a comment for a website promoting this:

"If you have poorly controlled high blood pressure, increasing your intake of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and omega-3s could improve your blood pressure readings."

In my experience, I've found these do little for reducing high blood pressure. Some vitamins & omega-3s DO provide protection from harmful effects of high blood pressure.

Taking vitamin D3 and particularly vitamin K2 and deodorized garlic and an omega 3 supplement and the omega 3 DHA AND eating organic vegetables and one organic whole fruit or fruit serving a day ARE protective. So are curmin, turmeric, and ginger. They may even prevent high blood pressure from going up.

But to lower it, you need a way to boost your vegal system,laugter & good friends can do this or take low doses of a diruretic and ace inhibitor. Slow nose breathing and financial solvency and a high level of grit to beat challenges can also help.

And, some new technology to train your heart to beat more slowly and boost your vegal system or training your body to keep your vegal system turned on with brain feedback have worked in trials but are not yet available to the public.

8:53 AM  

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