Lower Blood Pressure Naturally

Salt has been prized since days of antiquity; is it really such a high blood pressure risk?

What’s the truth behind salt and our health? Is it really linked to high blood pressure?

If you follow the media you would certainly think so. It’s easy to imagine salt as high blood pressure in a bottle. What else could you conclude? Wherever you look, health websites, TV news reports, magazines… one of the first tips for lower blood pressure is to avoid or reduce salt.

Then you have all the “low” or “reduced-salt” foods in the supermarkets. Some health experts even recommend using so-called salt “substitutes”. This salt must be dangerous stuff indeed!

But in these days of health and food scares it’s easy to forget the legacy of salt in our history…

Salt was traded throughout the ancient world. It's essential to good health and blood pressure.

In your early days at school you may have heard of the “Silk Route”, the celebrated trail from Europe to China forged by Marco Polo in pursuit of exotic spices and other treasures of the Orient.

But just as reknowned during its time was “The Salt Route”, the Roman roads over which the precious crystals were transported along with other expensive goods from all over the known world.

Salt has been coveted and traded – even used as a currency itself – since the earliest times. Wars have been fought over it. Animals travel vast distances to find it… and often die if they don’t.

With its value as a food preservative, salt had a major influence on the development of civilization. And early people recognized the many other health benefits of salt. Ironically, considering its demonization, sodium plays a crucial role in regulating healthy blood pressure. Life itself depends on maintaining sufficient levels of sodium along with other essential minerals.

So what’s gone wrong? Why is salt now so strongly linked to high blood pressure?

It comes down to over-use… you may even call it abuse. Salt tastes good. It livens up bland food. Calling it a drug experience may be a stretch but it definitely tickles our pleasure centers. Saltiness is one of the four basic taste groups… we have taste buds specifically adapted to it. It’s even mildly addictive.

It didn’t take food manufacturers long to realize that salt helps sell more food. The result of this is that the salt content of our food, especially snacks, have crept relentlessly upward.

And we can’t blame only food producers. Because salt is cheap, abundant and tasty, people began putting extra on their plates. Salt and pepper shakers became required accoutrements to any dining table (at least in Anglo-Saxon households… the French and other people shudder at our habit of shaking salt on food without even tasting it first!).

Healthy blood pressure is a matter of balance…

The eventual result of all this extra sodium is a mineral imbalance in our bodies. Blood chemisty is a key regulator of our blood pressure. If levels of minerals including calcium, sodium, magnesium and potassium become destablilized it throws the whole system out of kilter.

Specifically, when excess salt is consumed you end up with not only high sodium levels but also relative deficiencies of the other minerals. The overall effect is to destabilize blood chemistry thus raising blood pressure.

As we’re dealing with an imbalance there are a number of scenarios that can contribute to high blood pressure. So a deficiency of, say, magnesium, can increase blood pressure as surely as too much sodium does. But with the processed foods we eat and the general abuse of sodium in our diet, salt is nearly always the culprit.

Too little sodium is also a hypertension risk…

Of course, balanced levels of minerals – including sodium – are essential to good health and normal blood pressure. Which means that severely salt-restricted diets and/or the use of salt “substitutes” are almost never called for. But the same processed food manufacturers lacing their products with unhealhy amounts of sodium are now stoking the flames of hysteria in order to sell their equally dangerous “antidotes”!

What about “healthy” salt alternatives?

You may have heard about ”salt alternatives” such as sea salt and Himalayan salt that claim to be unrefined and healthier. Such products that are free from chemical additives are attractive but you do have to read the labels carefully. The labels of some sea salts and others with health claims expose them as little better than their cheap tabletop cousins.

Not everyone can afford the lofty heights of pure Himalayan salt, an unrefined, "healthy" salt alternative.

Others are terribly expensive and you have to wonder how much of it is a clever ruse just to capture those “healthier than thou” food dollars! It’s still healthier – and certainly cheaper – just to get your sodium naturally from a healthy diet.

A balanced and varied diet rich in whole, natural foods will provide all the minerals and other nutriets you need in the right balance to maintain healthy blood pressure. Avoid processed foods which, as previously mentioned, tend to contain high levels of sodium (not to mention sugar, preservatives and artificial additives) .

Whole, unprocessed foods contain nutrients in their natural form and balance…

Milk is a perfect example of the difference between processed and natural foods. Low and non-fat milk products are processed. (To be completely accurate, all Pasteurized milk is processed, even so-called whole milk! Raw milk is an ideal whole food… but that’s another debate.)

Coming back to low and non-fat milk; most of their minerals and other nutrients are removed during processing. These are then artificially replaced, a process that is promoted as a health benefit, i.e. as in “calcium-fortified”! Whole milk, by contrast, does retain much of its original nutrient profile, critically its mineral levels.

A healthy diet does not have to be complicated…

And you can forget about expensive “superfoods”. Every natural food is a superfood. Following a simple diet of whole, natural foods will almost always result in better health and lower blood pressure due to balanced blood chemistry.

Of course your body does need sodium and a diet like this will provide all you need in a natural balance. Some foods are naturally higher in sodium than others, which is why it’s important to have a varied diet. But whatever you eat, it’s never necessary to add extra salt… so get that shaker off your table!

Just say no…

I mentioned briefly above that salt is mildly addictive (another way, incidentally, that food producers are able to exploit it). When I first started rejecting extra salt in my food I could actually feel withdrawal symptoms. For a short time everything tasted bland… where did the pleasure go?

But it doesn’t take long to adjust and it’s definitely worth it. Now when I taste too much salt in a dish I recoil from a harsh, almost stinging, metallic sensation. And I wonder how I could ever have tolerated such extremes…

Extremes… that brings up the common-sense solution to the salt debate… just avoid extremes:

 - Salt shakers are usually extreme…

 - So are expensive, reduced-salt foods and freakish salt “substitutes”…

 - And so are overpriced, “healthy” alternatives like Himalayan Salt.

A final thought… don’t feel bad about a rare indulgence, be it in salt, sugar, fat or any other temptation because that’s part of a healthy balance too. Like Benjamin Franklin said: “Moderation in all things, including moderation.”

Top doctor claims most prescription drugs are useless and over-marketed

High-level medical expert claims that “5 out of 6 new prescription drugs don’t work”…

Professor Donald Light of the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey announced recently that drugs offer “few if any new benefits” in a presentation to the American Sociology Association.

Furthermore, he claimed that pharmaceutical companies spend vast amounts of money hyping and marketing new drugs to get doctors to prescribe them. At the same time they downplay side effects and health risks associated with these drugs.

Such accusations against the drug industry are not at all new… but here we have a top expert condemning others in his own field. Straight from the horses mouth, some would say.

How do the charges apply to common blood pressure medications?

You will surely wonder how much of this applies to hypertension drugs, especially ones you may be taking or fear you will have to take in future if you don’t get your blood pressure under control.

Well, blood pressure drugs are among the most frequently prescribed medications with several of them regularly in the top 10. The professor, in fact, specifically criticizes the dilemma with statins, America’s most frequently prescribed group of drugs after painkillers. And even though statins are already taken by millions of unsuspecting people, every man and woman from the age of forty would be taking them if some doctors had their way!

Professor Light says that the drugs industry has oversold statins as a wonder-pill to prevent heart disease, despite growing evidence that they do more harm than good. Recent findings published in medical journals confirm that serious side effects from statins are widely under-reported. What’s more, the “benefits” are achieved through complex manipulation of predictive statistics… in other words: they’re not real!

The medical/pharmaceutical industry has gone so far as to create an entire pseudo-science around cholesterol and heart disease to lend scientific support to the actions and benefits of the drugs they design. The true relationships between foods, fats, and the heart are in fact far more complex than their simplistic cholesterol models.

The potential dangers lying hidden in your blood pressure medications…

Statins are increasingly prescribed, both alone and in combination with other drugs, to lower blood pressure. As noted previously, many doctors have called for statins to be prescribed as prevention to perfectly healthy people! Yet the most frequent side effect of these drugs are extremely painful muscle cramps that can make life hell for the user.

The benefits of statins have been hyped while their risks are under-reported

Side effects are not the only issue; most drugs have long-term health risks which are often not evident until after many years of regular use… by which time it’s too late for many. In the case of statins we’re talking about liver and kidney disease, both of which, incidentally, cause severe and chronic high blood pressure!

Will statins follow in the footsteps of the previous generation’s blood pressure wonderdrug?

Beta-blockers were hailed as “miracle drugs” when they first started being used extensively in the 60s. In the decades since, they became the world’s front-line weapon in the fight against high blood pressure, prescribed in their countless millions.

But that’s how long it takes to acquire long-term, real-life data on a drug or medical treatment and slowly but surely a different picture of beta-blockers gradually emerged. Researchers discovered that using beta-blockers actually increases the risk of diabetes, stroke and heart attack by up to 50% (when compared with other blood pressure meds).

They also learned that the side effects of using these drugs were under-reported. What’s more, decades of use by millions of patients revealed that beta-blockers were simply not as effective at lowering blood pressure as once believed.

Since these findings, many countries such as the United Kingdom have withdrawn beta-blockers for high blood pressure treatment (although the drugs are still useful for treating other heart conditions). Doctors in some countries, namely the United States, carry on prescribing beta-blockers as if they were still in the 60s.

The picture of statins that is emerging is just too similar to that of beta-blockers to neglect.

Whatever happened to “do no harm”?

The Hippocratic Oath of “do no harm” is a mantra of medicine. So why do so many doctors work in league with the devil by prescribing these dangerous drugs?

The answer is, largely, that the pharmaceutical industry has hoodwinked them as well. As mentioned above, they spend huge amounts of money on marketing, specifically to the medical profession. And since their “hired guns” are often scientists or even medical doctors themselves they have enormous credibility among their peers in healthcare.

Too bad their credibility is used to such poor ends! Professor Light explains:

They spend two to three times more on marketing than on research to persuade doctors to prescribe these new drugs. Doctors may get misleading information and then misinform patients about the risks of a new drug. It’s really a two-tier market for lemons.

When do the benefits outweigh the risks?

There will always be a point where the potential risks of high blood pressure justify the side effects/risks of a medication to treat it. I’m only here to discuss the general theme; that actual point is an issue for each individual and his/her doctor.

But to identify that point requires accurate knowledge of both the condition and the treatment. When doctors are given excessively favorable or optimistic outcomes of a medication the result is over-prescribing and subjecting patients to unnecessary pain and sufferering.

The evidence against over-medication is mounting and it’s become clear that prescribing drugs to treat high blood pressure should be a last resort only, not the routine treatment that is so frequently is. Professor Light claims that the drugs market is the “most dangerous market for lemons in modern society”. He concludes by saying that the toxic side effects and misuse of prescription drugs is a significant cause of death in the United States… “neither wars nor car injuries come close”.

In a similar vein, Dr. John Lee, in a column for the Virginia Hopkins Health Watch writes:

I believe—and there is plenty of research to support me—that these drugs have just as good a chance of killing you as the high blood pressure does, especially if you don’t really need them.

Does your blood pressure problem justify the use of powerful drugs? Is even your doctor fully informed about the side effects and risks of these medications? Are there any safer alternatives you could try?

If these are questions that disturb you why not consult your doctor about it? (But never stop or modify your blood pressure medication without medical supervision. Sudden changes in medication can be dangerous.)

Chinese food is loved in every corner of the world. But is it as healthy as many people claim?

Glorious Chinese cooking… it’s hard to imagine anyone not liking it. I could easily live off Chinese food for lunch every day (provided that I could alternate with Indian food for dinner)!

Usually cheap and always cheerful, Chinese restaurants have proliferated to every street corner of the world. Of course it’s always a treat to eat but concerns for a healthy diet have certainly helped its massive expansion.

We often hear how healthy Chinese cuisine is: low in meat and saturated fat and rich in fresh, crunchy vegetables and healthier types of oil such as sesame and peanut oil.

But does Chinese food really deserve its healthy reputation?

In particular, does it contribute to lower blood pressure and a healthy heart?

Leaving aside the issue of enjoyment for the moment (as hard as that is to do!) let’s look at the facts both for and against Chinese as a health food…

First, there are definitely some important elements in its favor; let’s look at some common Chinese ingredients:

Ginger: This fragrant tuber/herb is ubiquitous in Chinese food, one of the 3 or 4 cornerstones of this style of cooking. Ginger has long been known as a general tonic and stimulant. It offers a long list of medicinal benefits including acting as a digestive aid and anti-inflammatory.

Ginger, the "horned root", has been used for its medicinal benefits as well as its wonderful flavor for centuries.

More importantly, recent research reveals that ginger contains  powerful compounds called “gingerols” that act to relax the walls of blood vessels. This in turn allows blood vessels to dilate and the improved blood flow lowers blood pressure. In this way, ginger acts directly to influence our blood pressure.

Garlic: Another cornerstone ingredient of Chinese cooking with many effects that are similar to ginger. Volatile garlic compounds also act to relax and open blood vessels. In fact, garlic has such a positive effect on circulation that it has long been offered in supplements to improve cardiovascular health.

Like most foods, however, garlic is most effective in its natural and whole state in cooking. And eating Chinese food is often a great way to consume garlic in abundance.

Chilli Peppers: Growing numbers of people are learning to enjoy peppers… the hotter the better! Now we know that spicy food is not just a sensual delight but also extremely good for the health.

Chilli peppers are not just stimulating to eat; they also provide important health benefits such as lower blood pressure.

Despite the sensation of tensing up that some people experience eating peppers, their internal effect is just the opposite. Capsicum, the active ingredient that makes peppers hot, is able to relax blood vessels and thus lower blood pressure. Other compounds in peppers are known to thin the blood and reduce its “stickiness”, further contributing to improved blood flow.

Chilli peppers pack a double-barreled punch in both taste and sensation as well as in health effects; the hotter, the healthier! Regional Chinese dishes such as those from Szhechuan and Hunan styles are rich in chilli peppers, not to mention garlic and ginger.

Chinese cooking often contains other healthy ingredients that are often missing from the rest of our diet including fresh vegetables and unusual spices. What’s more, the fast and furious style of Chinese cooking can be healthier as it tends to lock in flavors and nutrients.

So Chinese food really does score many top marks for healthy eating… but it also has a lot of pitfalls that its promoters tend to minimize or outright ignore…

In fact, too much of certain types of Chinese food can easily become a recipe for high blood pressure or worse!

That’s because those healthy herbs, spices and vegetables are often accompanied by heaps of sugar, salt and, surprisingly, fat. Some people also react badly to the MSG used as a flavor enhancer in many Chinese restaurants, although the effects tend to be only temporary.

Many people are not aware of the huge differences between an “everyday” Chinese diet and the dishes served in most Chinese restaurants. If you go to an establishment where “real” Chinese people eat you will typically see them eating large bowls of soup, often with noodles. These soups tend to be loaded with vegetables and are in most respects a very healthy way to eat. You rarely see overweight people on this type of Chinese diet.

High blood pressure Hong Kong Style

The dishes served in a typical Chinese restaurant, however, are a totally different kettle of fish. These tend to be what the Chinese consider “banquet” food, which is only served for special occasions. These are your sweet and sour dishes, lemon and orange, kung pao… all our favorites!

All of these wonderfully sweet, sticky, sour or pungent sauces are made that way through loads of sugar, salt and fat… the three major fast-food groups. And many of them, including all those scrumptious starters, are deep-fried. It’s enough to give you a heart attack (but what a way to go!).

With the new prosperity in Asia this type of eating – as well as its health consequences – is becoming more common. Obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease, once rare, are becoming much more frequent. In particular, the Chinese health authorities are becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of salt in the Chinese diet.

Now I want to return to the issue of enjoyment I had to leave aside earlier. This is an artificial distinction because you can’t separate enjoyment from food (or if you do you end up with something like the current healthy food hysteria!). Chinese food would surely lose its appeal if you tried to neuter it by removing the sugar, fat and salt.

Most would say “enjoy it in moderation”. But if that means shunning the “sinful” dishes in favor of vegetable soups I’m not for it. That’s not moderation but punishment!

If you’re going to indulge in Chinese food (or any other, for that matter) do it with gusto and enjoy it. Most of us just can’t tolerate it every day without our blood pressure going through the roof…

So as usual, it’s a case of caveat emptor. Chinese food is about as healthy as a piece of organic, wholewheat bread layered with half an inch of goose fat and strawberry marmalade.

Calcium is an essential mineral but using supplements has more risks than benefits

The shock health news of the week is that taking calcium supplements has been shown to increase the risk of heart attack by up to a third! What’s more, the risk is greatest among those most likely to have been advised to take calcium: older people and, in particular, post-menopausal women.

Calcium has long been considered a virtual panacea for better health. Calcium supplements have been advised for every purpose from calming the nerves to protecting the heart to preventing colon cancer. More than anything else, older people, especially women, have been urged to take calcium to maintain bone density and prevent osteoporosis.

But the cruelest blow of all is that while calcium supplements may increase bone density they fail to reduce the risks of fracture or death. Now, in a further ironic twist, it’s been discovered that, far from strengthening the heart, calcium supplementation significantly increases the risk of heart failure.

So what’s the link between calcium and high blood pressure?

High levels of calcium in the blood, largely due to supplements, leads to atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries. The technical term for this process of hardening of the arteries should in itself be a tip-off: calcification!

Of course atherosclerosis is a major factor behind high blood pressure. The heart has to work much harder to pump blood through tight, inflexible and clogged arteries. The result is exactly as discovered in the recent studies: hypertension along with an increased risk of heart attack.

As if this topic needs any more irony… calcium supplements are often recommended as a remedy to lower blood pressure.

The right way to get lower blood pressure and other benefits from calcium…

It’s well known that calcium is an essential mineral for good health. A proper balance of calcium and other minerals in the body plays a major role in regulating healthy blood pressure.

So what’s going on here? How come calcium is suddenly dangerous?

What’s going on is that nutritional supplements don’t behave in the same way in the body as they do when occuring naturally as part of your diet. This is why so much supplement promotion is sheer hokum. (There are exceptions to everything… in my last post I wrote about a combination of supplements with good scientific support for lowering blood pressure.)

As I mentioned briefly, free-ranging calcium in the blood can be a menace while naturally-occuring calcium in food is something else entirely, at least in effect. The obvious solution is a healthy, balanced diet of whole, natural foods. There is no evidence that dietary calcium has any ill effects; in fact, it’s entirely beneficial. And you can get all the calcium you need from your diet.

Enough of the whole-dairy hysteria: enjoy a little fat with your calcium…

One of the easiest, and most enjoyable, ways to get abundant calcium is through dairy foods. And please don’t follow the misguided mantra of avoiding whole dairy products with low-fat or skim versions. I saw a doctor on TV just this morning spouting this very same party line and claiming that these low or non-fat alternatives have even more calcium than whole-dairy products…

They only have calcium at all because it’s had to be added after processing has stripped the milk of nearly all its nutrients! These are calcium supplements… low-fat and skim-milk products are processed foods!

Eat real food. If you’re concerned about calories just eat less (while enjoying it more!).

Supplements are rarely necessary. A good diet can provide all the calcium you need.

And dairy products are not the only way to get calcium (just the easiest). Other calcium-rich foods include salmon, spinach, tofu, beans, almonds, oranges and broccoli. Just google it and you’ll find a long list of foods that will suit any taste.

What other dangers to your blood pressure and wider health are lurking in our absurd dietary beliefs?

The bad news about calcium supplements is by no means conclusive. For example, most supplements combine calcium with Vitamin D and this combination was not studied.

Nevertheless, this should serve as a wake-up call to the whole notion of what I can only call “health engineering” through supplements, superfoods and micro-nutrition.

The evidence is growing that the more we engineer our diet and lifestyles the further we get from good, natural health.

New research shows surprising benefits of antioxidant supplements for both blood pressure and cardiovascular health

Those who have followed my blog will know that I’ve taken a pretty hard line on using supplements for lower blood pressure. That’s because much of the research as well as personal anecdotes from people fighting high blood pressure simply didn’t support the claims.

But you have to keep an open mind and when new evidence appears – quality evidence – you have to acknowledge it. And new research from Israel shows that there may be something to the benefits of antioxidants after all.

Improved arterial elasticity and lower blood pressure = better cardiovascular health

One study tested a combination of antioxidant supplements including Vitamin C (1000mg), Vitamin E (400mg), Coenzyme Q-10 (120mg), and Selenium (200mcg) taken daily.

Subjects were followed up for six months and the results were clear: improved flexibility of blood vessels, increase in HDL (the “good” cholesterol) and “significantly lower blood pressure”.

A second study focused on the effects of the amino acid, L-Arginine. This supplement has long been touted as a blood pressure remedy but evidence was inconclusive. L-Arginine is a component in producing nitric oxide, a major regulator of blood pressure. However, it’s value when taken as a supplement has been debateable.

Tests show that long-held claims for L-Arginine as a reducer of blood pressure may be justified

But a second new study from Israel lends strong support to L-Arginine as a blood pressure reducer. Their tests showed major improvements in cardiovascular health including significant reductions in systolic blood pressure after 6 months taking L-Arginine supplements.

The studies come from the Wolfson Medical Center in Israel and are published in medical journals accessible on the website of the National Institutes of Medicine. Israel is no slouch when it comes to medical research and their studies were of the rigorous double-blind format respected by scientists.

As usual, there are some caveats to apply to these findings. How much blood pressure reduction is “significant”?

As is typical, the publicly available results of these studies do not provide specific figures.  In medical jargon “signigicant” means anything more than what could be accounted for by statistical fluctuation. I’ve seen 3 point reductions in blood pressure termed “significant”.

So we could actually be talking about relatively minor drops in blood pressure from antioxidants and L-Arginine (relative to when you require truly significant reductions of 20 points or more!).

Another weakness of these studies is the small number of people taking part: fewer than 100 in both cases. Although the methodology was rigorously scientific, only larger-scale studies can be considered applicable to the general population.

So do these supplements represent a bona-fide blood pressure remedy? No, they’re very unlikely to help you overcome serious hypertension on their own. On the other hand, the research does show genuine value and benefit in using these supplements. They surely contribute to better cardiovascular health.

Even if antioxidants and L-Arginine are not enough to beat high blood pressure, their effect of increasing arterial elasticity is especially valuable in counteracting its damages. And that alone is probably worth the price of admission.

A sensible supplement plan like this one combined with slow breathing, a powerful and clinically-proven method of controlling blood pressure is an extremely effective and totally natural strategy. Click here for more details on the BreatheEasy System of slow breathing with music.

Health risks of blood pressure medications have been under-reported

The evidence keeps coming in… and it’s not good:

The health dangers of common blood pressure medications have been regularly underestimated and swept under the rug by the healthcare profession. The argument that the “benefits outweigh the risks” appears so reasonable yet it may be time to reconsider this question.

A recent study published in the Lancet Oncology (July 2010) concludes that drugs like Atacand, Diovan and Micardis “are associated with a modestly increased risk of new cancer occurrence.”

Other new research finds that the side effects and health risks of popular statins have been widely under-reported. I suspect that the situation is even worse and the full damage assessment from the wholesale use of statins is yet to emerge.

You may be aware that doctors and health professionals everywhere have hailed statins as near miracle drugs, a breakthrough solution to heart disease. Statins are now routinely prescribed not only to reduce cholesterol levels but also for lower blood pressure. And despite the questions raised about their safety, doctors continue in their mad campaign to ensure that every man, woman and child becomes dependent on these largely useless drugs.

Does anyone remember beta-blockers for lower blood pressure?

Of course! Millions of unsuspecting Americans are still prescribed beta-blockers such as Atenolol at the first sign of rising blood pressure, despite the fact that the United Kingdom and many other European countries withdrew beta-blockers for high blood pressure treatment years ago.

This was after years of studies showed that beta-blockers actually increase the risk of heart attack, stroke and diabetes compared to newer types of drugs. (Beta-blockers are still useful for treating heart failure.)

It begs the question: when do the benefits outweigh the risks? Clearly there is a point where drug treatment is called for. But that point clearly comes only when safer, natural alternatives have failed and the severity of the high blood pressure poses an imminent threat to one’s health.

High blood pressure medication should never be routine treatment.

Discover a method of natural blood pressure control that’s helping literally thousands of people to avoid, reduce or eliminate dangerous blood pressure medications.

Effective blood pressure control requires neither high-tech equipment nor time-consuming regimes like meditation

Blood pressure remedies don’t work.

I’m talking specifically about the types of things you “take” such as herbs, supplements, “superfoods” and specific blood pressure “formulas”.

Oh sure, there may be a few things that have a minimal impact on your system. Dark chocolate has recently been shown to drop blood pressure by up to 3 points systolic. That’s with practical amounts that you could live with.

A 3 point reduction is welcome but is by no means the result of an effective blood pressure remedy.

Most other natural “remedies” don’t stand up to investigation at all. They’re usually the result of fads that get brief publicity through the placebo effect. And because such remedies are red herrings that waste your time, money and nerves they are not harmless.

Hypertension medications are only slightly more effective…

We have a false impression of blood pressure medications as well. We tend to think they are very effective – it’s just the side effects that make them hard to take. But the truth may surprise you…

Any doctor will tell you that determining the right drug(s) and dosage for each patient is often a long and frustrating process of trial and error. And any patient will confirm that it can be a horrible ordeal. And that’s before you even get to the side effects!

It may still be worth it if the drugs do what they’re designed to do, but they often fall short. In a landmark study by the Office of Veterans’ Affairs, still used as a basic reference, the most effective blood pressure drug, diltiazem, showed a response rate of just 63%. That’s why effective blood pressure control often requires multiple drugs, compounding the side effects and health risks.

Isn’t lifestyle the key to healthy blood pressure?

If you listen to the media you would think that lifestyle is the key to all good health! Of course lifestyle is important but its effects on our blood pressure may be exaggerated. A recent study produced shocking results that cast new light on the issue. A massive medical review showed that obesity is not linked to any health risks, at least based on medications used. These and other new findings will hopefully lead to an end of the demonization of overweight people.

We also know that high blood pressure does not discriminate and it can afflict people with extremely healthy lifestyles. And there are just as many cases where even major lifestyle changes have no effect on ones’ hypertension. For many people the cause of high blood pressure remains a mystery but it’s clear that it’s not all lifestyle-related.

What exactly is natural blood pressure control and why is it more promising?

Remedies and drugs are things you take… they’re an “outside-in” approach. Blood pressure control allows you to use your body’s own resources to regulate your blood pressure; it works from the inside-out.

The mind is a surprisingly powerful tool you can use to help regulate internal processes. We’ve all heard tales of gurus, yogis and martial arts masters who can nearly stop their heartbeat and accomplish amazing physical feats using mind  control.

The placebo effect is another very common example of the mind influencing our health. But the placebo effect is only temporary and is beyond our control. And other forms of mind control require intensive training and devotion.

But we have another tool at our disposal, a mechanism that’s one of our body’s most powerful regulators of blood pressure. And it’s something we can all learn to use relatively quickly and easily…

It’s our breathing.

This time I’m not talking about yoga or any ancient practices we associate with breathing. Doctors have developed a modern method called slow breathing that’s tested and proven specifically to reduce high blood pressure.

Slow breathing has been clinically tested by the same rigorous methods used for testing drugs and the results have been published in peer-reviewed medical journals around the world.

Slow breathing does some pretty amazing things. Using just 15 minutes a day has been shown to:

• Reduce blood pressure by significant amounts: Top reductions average 36 points systolic over 20 points diastolic. Overall average reductions come out at 14 points systolic and 8 points diastolic.
• Produce cumulative effects: Both intensity and duration of results build over time. In most cases, blood pressure reductions start to last around the clock within a few weeks. Some people respond even faster.
• Produce an extremly high response rate: one study achieved an 82% response rate in resistant hypertensives, people who had failed to respond to other forms of treatment, incuding drugs.

Another great thing about slow breathing is that it affects much more than just your blood pressure. It’s extremely effective stress and aniety relief, it strengthens the respiratory system, improves sleep and much more. In fact, our breathing affects just about every aspect of our health.

Try a unique method of slow breathing with music for lower blood pressure yourself on my website. Some people get great results from just the demo online.

Are natural blood pressure remedies like supplements and superfoods really effective?

Search the Internet for natural blood pressure treatments and I dare you not to get overwhelmed or confused!

The cornucopia of so-called superfoods claiming to reduce blood pressure include garlic, beetroot, chocolate, celery root, bananas, apple cider vinegar and many many more. What a menu!

And these are just the food group… Supplements follow close behind: magnesium, potassium, omega-3, Q-10 and Hawthorne berry to name just a few.

And let’s not forget drugs… not quite natural but definitely remedies!

These are all what I call “outside-in” remedies and the problem with all of them is their unpredictability. You take something with the hope that they will act on you in a certain way internally. Yet reality often does not correspond with theory.

Lowering blood pressure with “outside-in” remedies is about as effective as taking shots in the dark!

Are any of these remedies really very effective? Rarely. Most of the remedies that make the rounds of the Internet do so under the influence of the placebo effect. Somebody gets lucky with great results from something and it spreads like wildfire. Remedies like apple cider vinegar and celery root are still circulating in this way.

But talk to the same person a couple months later and it’s likely they’ve already given up on this particular remedy and moved on to another. But no matter… like the proverbial bus, there’s always another natural remedy coming along any minute.

By the way, the placebo effect is also why product testimonials are often acquired from new customers. (By the time it wears off they’re usually too embarrassed to demand withdrawal of their testimony!)

What about hypertension medication?

As I already mentioned, blood pressure drugs are remedies for the purpose of this discussion. But in contrast, drugs are widely held to be extremely effective; it’s just their side effects that you have to watch out for.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Any doctor will tell you that treating high blood pressure with drugs is often a long and frustrating process of trial and error. And any hypertension patient will confirm that finding the right drug and dosage for their condition is a painful ordeal.

What’s more, blood pressure drugs are so ineffective that many cases require multiple prescriptions to control. In a landmark study by the Office of Veterans’ Affairs, still used as a basic reference today, the most effective blood pressure medication, diltiazem, had a response rate of only 63%.

Another common problem with drug treatment for hypertesion is, of course, side effects. Sometimes the only option left is to prescribe additional drugs to counteract the side effects of the primary medications!

Sadly, some people will always require medication to control their blood pressure but you can see plenty of reason that these should clearly be a last resort rather than the routine treatment that they are.

Lifestyle modification is surely the answer to high blood pressure… isn’t it?

If you were to believe the media you might think that a healthy lifestyle is the answer to high blood pressure… to all disease and unwellness, in fact!

Many medical experts claim that up to 95% of hypertension cases could be resolved with lifestyle changes.

Of course lifestyle is important. But is it the be-all and end-all it’s made out to be?

Genetics, for example, is clearly a factor. High blood pressure tends to run in families and is more prevalent in some races than in others.

A healthy lifestyle has many benefits... but don't count on it to always drop your blood pressure

And what about the fit and healthy people who are routinely afflicted with blood pressure problems? Hypertension doesn’t discriminate by picking just the old, fat and infirm. And speaking of obesity, a recent study has exposed the myth of the link between being overweight and high blood pressure. Lots more study is needed but it seems that obesity is not the health risk we’ve been led to believe it is.

Read the full story about these surprising findings in my article: Struggling To Lose Weight For Lower Blood Pressure? Don’t Worry About it!

Finally, I can also tell you from my own experience and that of many other hypertension sufferers that improving your lifestyle is no guarantee of beating hypertension. It’s clear that by no means is all or even 95% of high blood pressure lifestyle-related.

Again, lifestyle is surely important. But lifestyle modification specifically as a blood pressure remedy is unpredictable.

The most effective approach to hypertension is control, not remedies!

The effects of “outside-in” remedies, whether drugs or dandelions, are unpredictable at best. Lifestyle modication can be difficult to nearly impossible depending on your condition and personal circumstances. It’s effects are also unpredictable.

The best approach to healthy blood pressure is through something we don’t often hear about - control – i.e. from the inside out! You have various mechanisms to do this at your disposal… without getting into mysterious realms of mind control and other more esoteric practices.

One of the most powerful natural regulators of blood pressure – and surely the easiest to learn – is your breathing. Breathing has a direct and nearly instant effect on our blood pressure. Just 15 minutes a day using a modern method of slow breathing developed by doctors is more than enough to make significant and lasting changes in your blood pressure.

More of that in the next post… see you there!

Click here for details on the BreatheEasy System, a clinically-proven method of natural blood pressure control that works together with (or even regardless of) lifestyle.

How much does lifestyle really affect our health?

To question the importance of lifestyle to our health seems almost blasphemous in today’s world. The effects of our weight, diet, fitness levels, drinking habits and, increasingly, virtually everything we do are endlessly analyzed. Large groups of people – those who are overweight, for example - have become stigmatized for what they are supposedly doing to themselves.

More specifically in my field of interest, if you’re stuggling with high blood pressure you’ve probably become convinced that your lifestyle is the number one culprit (you degenerate!).

Top of the list of common hypertension dangers are a bad diet and being overweight. That extra 15 pounds and your fondness for rich foods has got to go if you’re ever going to reduce your blood pressure!

Or do they? Shocking new findings from a massive medical review show that obesity may have very little to do with high blood pressure, at least according to the number and amounts of medications prescribed. In fact, the figures indicate that obese people are at no greater risk of any major health problems and this holds true throughout their lives!

You can read the entire story in my recent article: Struggling To Lose Weight For Lower Blood Pressure? Don’t Worry About It!

Other studies have indicated that genetics along with factors such as birth weight play a big role in future blood pressure problems. And there are plenty of people who can attest to the fact that even the healthiest lifestyle is not a guarantee of healthy blood pressure. In other words, not all high blood pressure is lifestyle-related.

Stigmatized: Many people believe that even moderately obese people are unhealthy.

So where does this massive anti-fat hysteria and prejudice come from? To be sure, human weaknesses such as the need to feel superior and tell others what to do plays a part. And these tendencies are fed and reinforced by a steady drip-feed of misleading research “findings” promoted by the media… myths in the making.

As always, more research is needed. Lifestyle surely does affect us in countless ways. Nobody could argue that smoking has no effect on our health or that idleness is good for the heart.

But we’ve got it way out of balance! Fretting over every morsel we eat and stressing out about being 5 pounds over our “ideal” weight (whatever that is!) may be doing more damage to our health than our occasional indulgences.

I’m afraid the natural health movement has done more than its share in promoting this ”lifestyle insecurity”. As The Natural Skeptic I say we need to relax and get a grip…

I’d like to give the lead researcher of the obesity and blood pressure study the final word:

Don’t worry if you are overweight. What is all that stress and dieting doing to your body? Probably more damage than the extra 15 pounds.

Slow breathing is a unique lifestyle technique with the ability to reduce blood pressure both predictably and significantly. Click here for details on the BreatheEasy System of slow breathing with music: 100% safe and natural.

The Natural Skeptic

Lower Blood Pressure Naturally… and Scientifically!

Welcome to my natural health blog! News, features, opinions and articles on natural health and blood pressure control with a difference…

My name is David O’Hara. I’m the creator of the BreatheEasy System for lower blood pressure. And I’m the “Natural Health Skeptic”.

Why a skeptic? Especially since I myself promote a totally natural method of blood pressure control and caution against the excessive role of the pharmaceutical industry in health care?

A very good point, but first and foremost I’m a skeptic. I find the gullibility, anti-scientific mumbo-jumbo and even outright charlatanism of much of the natural health movement as disturbing as the manipulations of the drugs and medical industries.

Natural methods need scientific testing…

It’s not enough that some natural method has been practised for thousands of years and has a logical-sounding theory behind it. Many of our health myths in the West have thankfully been exposed but among certain people any ancient practice from the East – the more mysterious, the better – gets instant credibility and slavish promotion.

And it’s not enough that thousands or even millions of people swear by the effectiveness of some remedy. I don’t think there’s any one among us who has not been fooled by the placebo effect.

Health claims must be tested and proved scientifically! I would never have been compelled to try slow breathing (and would never have beaten my high blood pressure) were it not for the method’s impressive results in rigorous, scientific testing.

The Natural Skeptic Difference…

What you’ll find here is the latest news and discussion of natural health topics with a critic’s eye. That means no gullible acceptance and furthering of every misguided theory and trend making the rounds of natural health circles…

And no sales or promotion of expensive supplements and other products of uncertain value to your health. I make full disclosure: I produce and market the BreatheEasy System. That’s all I do of a commercial nature and the main website is the place for it.

The Natural Skeptic blog is the place for quality and balanced information affecting your health and blood pressure. I hope you enjoy it!