Protect yourself from high blood pressure without drugs....

Today's Post:  Friday, 3-1-2013

Think about this:

Unless high blood pressure gets so sky high it causes scary or life threatening symptoms, people who have high blood pressure feel healthy.

Most people who take drugs to lower high blood pressure feel sick. Some even look sick or are disabled in some ways.

THIS looks like a no brainer so far.  If that’s all you see, no one in their right minds would EVER take drugs to lower high blood pressure!

1.  New research in many areas is beginning to say this is actually correct for most people even when you know the rest of the story!

The reason that people with high blood pressure take drugs to lower their high blood pressure  is because their doctors told them doing so would protect them from heart attacks, strokes, and other problems well worth avoiding.  (To be fair there is some evidence this is the case.)

2.  The new information is that it’s usually more effective and MUCH less nasty to protect yourself from these events in other more directly effective ways.

3.  And, lowering your blood pressure in related ways does so and gives you other health benefits instead of side effects!

4.  That said, there are some people who initially should take some drugs to lower high blood pressure. 

a) But those people have little real protection without protecting themselves from these events in these other more directly effective ways in addition.

b) And, if they work to lower their blood pressure in related ways too, that often works and gives them other health benefits instead of side effects!

c) In addition, doing so will allow them to use lower doses of the blood pressure lowering drugs they do take. 

e) Often it will lower blood pressure enough to make taking the drugs no longer necessary or desirable.

Yesterday, I got an email from an information source about high blood pressure that reminded me forcefully of this.

The poor man who wrote in was really upset at how bad the impact on his quality of life had been while trying the various blood pressure lowering drugs.

The email I get is called Ask Dr Rowena and is sponsored by the Resparate which is one of the ways to lower high blood pressure without drugs

In the email Ask Dr Rowena I got yesterday on 2-28-2013, this question appeared:

"All the blood pressure medications that I have tried till now have caused me either headaches, weakness or fatigue.  These side effects occur at different levels depending on which drugs my doctor prescribed to me.   The only one that did not is Tekturna, but I got a rash instead.  I’m frustrated, my internist seems at a loss.  Do you have a better solution?"

Dr Rowena's answer was incomplete but relatively good in principle.  

She said to:

1.  Eat better and use other known ways to lower your blood pressure such as using the Resparate.  Even some success can allow you to use lower doses on your BP drugs and because the side effects are dose related, that can help.  

(My comment:  At a lower dose, ARB BP drugs seem to have fewer side effects than most. And, in the case of the man who asked the question, at a much lower dose, the "Tekturna" drug might not cause the rash or by then also adding a safe antihistamine, that might help.  Lastly, tiny doses of two compatible BP drugs can sometimes lower high blood pressure enough to get it well below 160 over 100.)

2.  She ends with don't stop your BP drugs without working with your doctor. That's correct as far as it goes.  But she does NOT say or write the two reasons for this.  

(The two reasons are:  With many BP drugs, suddenly stopping them can cause your blood pressure to go up fast which can cause life threatening problems!  So you need an experienced doctor or pharmacist to guide you through stepping down the dose slowly.  Secondly, most doctors know that readings of 160 over 100 or more if at all common in a person can also trigger life threatening problems.  Most don't know that it is NOT necessary to get a person's BP much below that with drugs.  But they do know that drugs should be used to get readings below that.)

So what's the best solution?

In fact, BP drugs are mostly bad for you and a poor solution to the real problems involved.  

Beta blockers have two legitimate uses. But they are quite harmful for anyone else.  

The other drugs are mostly not much better.  Some BP drugs even have a death rate from life threatening allergic reactions which as far as I know most doctors don't know to tell their patients how to avoid them.  (To be safe due to the sudden onset, it looks like you need to go to the ER with a book and take the first dose of that BP drug first thing in the morning.  And, you need to stay there all day.  Ace inhibitors are one such BP drug.  Then, if you have no problems, you can likely take them safely after that.)

So, what are the better solutions?  Nondrug blood pressure lowering is important but DIRECT actions to prevent the things high blood pressure is lowered to prevent is more effective, more important, and when done correctly, is SAFER than taking drugs AND it has other health benefits instead of side effects!

Become very good and consistent using ALL the nondrug methods to lower high blood pressure.

Short list of those: 5 to 7 times a week, use the Resparate or do Tai Chi; stop drinking both regular and diet soft drinks; totally avoid tobacco smoke including second hand smoke; use only extra virgin olive oil and never use corn or soy or canola oils with high omega 6 levels; go on a Mediterranean Diet version of the DASH II diet and add some extra vegetables -- more each week; NEVER again willingly eat food with hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup; refined grains, or MSG because these are fatteners and heart attack starters!  And gradually cut your consumption of real sugar.  Most people need to cut at least 70 to 80%.

Those actions also help prevent the heart attacks, strokes, and mental decline that high blood pressure can help cause or make worse!

Take other actions to prevent heart attacks, strokes, and mental decline directly.  That's a bit too complex to list completely here.  But you can do this effectively WITHOUT drugs -- including statins which have a side effect rate similar to BP drugs and are not very effective for most people. (Eating organic blueberries, using extra virgin olive oil only, and eating avocados and raw nuts if you aren't allergic to them helps prevent these harmful events.  And many supplements do as well.)

Once the rest of that is in place, begin a program of vigorous exercise every week and never miss a week or stop other than for significant illness or emergencies.  

Use one or two strength training sessions per week. Use two or three sessions of the burst, short but very vigorous short sections and rest, kind of interval cardio each week.  

BUT, start at a VERY easy level and force your initial improvements to be very gradual.  Since you will keep doing these, over time you can get quite strong and amazingly fit by continuing these slow improvements for many years!

Note that each of all these actions done together will cause fat loss in people who have not been exercising and who have been very eating badly while also making those people LESS hungry.

If in addition, people who need to lose many more pounds of fat -- do all of the above and add the other methods that cause fat loss successfully, their disease protection will improve and their blood pressure will go down even more.

Important summary:

1.  If your repeated average blood pressure where you take the average of the second and third readings in a 3 part set is always over 160 over 100, you will be safer if you take at least enough blood pressure lowering drugs to reach readings of more like 150 over 80.

2.  For readings below 160 over 100 such as 150 over 80 or 145 over 90, it IS highly desirable to lower your blood pressure.  But drugs are not only an optional choice to do that, they are often NOT the best choice to do so.

Not only are the side effects of the drugs harsh for your quality of life, they begin to be harder on you in turns of risk than the blood pressure lowering they do at levels this low.

3.  And, for both sets of people, the most effective way to prevent the harmful events that high blood pressure can cause is to do ALL these other nondrug methods to prevent these events directly!

Recently for example, exercise was shown to be more protective than taking the drugs   -- and so much so that, if you only took the drugs or you only exercised, you were safer if you chose exercise!

My take on this is that if you take the other steps to exercise safely and to lower high blood pressure without drugs and to add the several other direct protections to exercise, doing that set of things is actually the most protective choice of all!