Lower Blood Pressure Naturally

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.