posted April 04, 2000 05:50 PM            

have you thought about zestoretic? it is a blood pressure medicine. it brought my bp from 150/100 down to 130/80. ask your doctor.

posted April 04, 2000 06:30 PM            

IF YOUR DIET IS HIGH IN SODIUM, THIS COULD BE A BIG PART OF THE PROBLEM.

YOU NEED TO EAT LOTS OF POTTASIUM AND MAGNESIUM RICH FOODS WHILE ON CYCLE.

ARE YOU TAKING ANY STIMULANTS- ECA ETC.
IN SOME PEOPLE WHEN STACKED WITH JUICE THE EXACERBATE THE BP PROBLEM ON TWO LEVELS- ONE THER ARE DIURETICS-NOT POTTASIUM SPARING AND THE CNS STIMUALTION AND THE ASSOCIATED HORMONES EPINEPHRINE AND NOREPINEPHRINE RAISE BP.

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MP

posted April 04, 2000 08:36 PM            

Dietary changes that may be helpful: Primitive societies exposed to very little salt suffer from little or no hypertension.1 Salt intake has also been definitively linked to hypertension in western societies.2 Eliminating salt from the diet lowers blood pressure in most people.3 An overview of the best studies found that the more salt is restricted, the greater the blood pressure-lowering effect.4 Individual studies sometimes come to differing conclusions about the relationship between salt intake and blood pressure, in part because blood pressure-lowering effects of salt restriction vary from person to person, and small to moderate reductions in salt intake often have minimal effects on blood pressure. Nonetheless, dramatic reductions in salt intake are generally effective for many people with hypertension.

With the prevalence of salted processed and restaurant food, simply avoiding the salt shaker no longer leads to large decreases in salt intake for most people. Totally eliminating salt is more effective, but is also quite difficult to achieve. Moreover, whereas an overview of the research has reported �There is no evidence that sodium reduction as achieved in these trials presents any safety hazards,�5 reports of short-term paradoxical increases in blood pressure in response to salt restriction have occasionally appeared.6 Therefore, people wishing to use salt restriction to lower their blood pressure should consult with a nutritionally oriented doctor.

Vegetarian diets have been reported to significantly lower blood pressure.7 This occurs partly because fruits and vegetables contain potassium�a known blood pressure-lowering mineral.8 The best way to supplement potassium is with fruit, which contains more of the mineral than amounts found in potassium supplements. However, fruit contains so much potassium that people taking �potassium sparing� drugs (as some hypertensives do) can end up with too much potassium by eating several pieces of fruit per day. Therefore, people taking potassium sparing diuretics should consult the prescribing doctor before increasing fruit intake. The fibre provided by vegetarian diets may also help reduce high blood pressure.9 In the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) trial, increasing intake of fruits and vegetables (and therefore fibre) and reducing cholesterol and dairy fat led to large reductions in blood pressure (in medical terms, 11.4 systolic and 5.5 diastolic) in just eight weeks.10 Even though it did not employ a vegetarian diet itself, the outcome of the DASH trial supports the usefulness of vegetarian diets because diets employed by DASH researchers were related to what many vegetarians eat. The DASH trial also showed that blood pressure can be significantly reduced in hypertensive people (most dramatically in African Americans) with diet alone without weight loss or even restriction of salt.11

Sugar has been reported to increase blood pressure in both animals12 and humans.13 Though the real importance of this experimental effect remains somewhat unclear,14 some nutritionally oriented doctors recommend that people with high blood pressure cut back on their intake of sugar.

Shortly after consuming caffeine, blood pressure increases.15 In a review of eleven trials lasting almost two months on average, coffee drinking led to increased blood pressure, though these increases were typically small to moderate.16 Nonetheless, the effects of long-term avoidance of caffeine (from coffee, tea, chocolate, cola drinks, and some medications) on blood pressure remain unclear. In fact, a few reports claim that long-term coffee drinkers have lower blood pressure than those who avoid coffee.17 On the basis of the two-month intervention trials, many nutritionally oriented doctors tell people with high blood pressure to avoid caffeine-containing food and drink despite the lack of clarity in published research.

Food allergy was reported to contribute to high blood pressure in a study of people who had migraine headaches.18 In that report, all fifteen people who also had high blood pressure experienced a significant drop in blood pressure when put on a hypoallergenic diet. People suspecting food allergies should check with a nutritionally oriented doctor.

Exposure to lead and other heavy metals has also been linked to high blood pressure in some,19 but not all, research.20 If other approaches to high blood pressure prove unsuccessful, it makes sense for people with hypertension to have their body�s burden of lead evaluated by a healthcare professional.

Lifestyle changes that may be helpful: Smoking is particularly injurious for people with hypertension.21 The combination of hypertension and smoking greatly increases the risk of heart disease-related sickness and death. All people with high blood pressure need to quit smoking.

Many studies have found a relationship between alcohol consumption and blood pressure. A recent review of the research reported that above the equivalent of approximately three drinks per day, blood pressure increases in proportion to the amount of alcohol consumed.22 Whether one or two drinks per day meaningfully increases blood pressure remains unclear.

Nutritional supplements that may be helpful: Calcium supplementation�typically 800�1,500 mg per day�lowers blood pressure. However, while an analysis of forty-two trials reported that calcium supplementation led to an average drop in blood pressure that was highly statistically significant, the decrease was not large enough to meaningfully improve health (in medical terms, a drop of 1.4 systolic over 0.8 diastolic pressure).37 Results would likely be better were analysis limited only to studies of hypertensive people, because calcium has little if any effect on those with normal blood pressure. In the analysis of forty-two trials, effects were seen both with dietary calcium and with use of calcium supplements. Although average decreases in blood pressure from calcium are clearly small, each person responds differently. Some evidence suggests that people with hypertension whose blood pressure is affected most by changes in salt intake respond best to calcium supplementation.38 A twelve-week trial of 1,000 mg per day of calcium accompanied by blood pressure monitoring is a reasonable way to assess efficacy in a given individual.

Some,39 but not all,40 studies show that magnesium supplements�typically 350�500 mg per day�lower blood pressure. Magnesium appears to be particularly effective in people who are taking potassium depleting diuretics.41 As so-called �potassium depleting� diuretics also deplete magnesium, the drop in blood pressure resulting from magnesium supplementation in people taking these drugs may result from overcoming a mild magnesium deficiency.

Vitamin C plays an important role in maintaining the health of arteries.42 A review of vitamin C research reported that most studies linked increased blood and dietary levels of the vitamin to reduced blood pressure.43 However, these links might result from diets high in fruit and vegetables rather than from vitamin C itself. The same review reported that blood pressure was reduced in all four double blind trials examining the effects of vitamin C, but the reduction was statistically significant in only two of the four, and in some cases reductions were quite modest. Nonetheless, some nutritionally oriented doctors recommend that people with elevated blood pressure supplement with 1,000 mg vitamin C per day.

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) has been reported to affect blood vessels in a way that should cause a decrease in blood pressure.44 Both uncontrolled45 46 47 and controlled trials have reported that CoQ10 significantly lowers blood pressure in people with hypertension.48 All trials used at least 50 mg of CoQ10 taken twice per day, and most trials lasted for at least ten weeks.

EPA and DHA, the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil, lower blood pressure, according to a meta-analysis of thirty-one trials.49 That analysis found the effect was dependent on the amount of omega-3 oil used, with the best results occurring in studies using extremely high intakes (15 grams per day). To obtain 15 grams of omega-3 typically requires consumption of 50 grams of fish oil�an unsustainably high amount. Although results with lower intakes were not as impressive, studies using over 3 grams of omega-3 (generally requiring at least 10 grams of fish oil, or ten 1,000 mg pills per day) also reported significant reduction in blood pressure.

A deficiency of the amino acid taurine is thought by some researchers to play an important role in elevating blood pressure in people with hypertension.50 Limited taurine research has found that supplementation lowers blood pressure in animals51 and people (at 6 grams per day),52 possibly by reducing levels of the hormone epinephrine (adrenaline).

Animal and preliminary human research has suggested that the fibre-like supplement chitosan may prevent blood pressure-elevating effects of salt, possibly by reducing absorption of chloride. A small study showed that 5 grams of chitosan taken by men with a highly salted meal resulted in no elevation in blood pressure, while the same meal without chitosan significantly elevated systolic blood pressure.53

The amino acid arginine is needed by the body to make nitric oxide, a substance that allows blood vessels to dilate, thus leading to reduced blood pressure. As a result, intravenous administration of arginine has reduced blood pressure in humans in some reports.54 Most research has not used oral arginine, but in one such trial, the combination of arginine (2 grams taken three times per day) plus conventional drugs used to treat hypertension was significantly more effective than placebo alone in patients who previously did not respond to the same drugs taken without arginine.55

Are there any side effects or interactions? Refer to the individual supplement for information about any side effects or interactions.

Herbs that may be helpful: Garlic lowers blood pressure, according to a meta-analysis that included ten double blind studies.56 All of these trials administered garlic for at least four weeks, typically using 600�900 mg of garlic extract per day. In those trials limited to people with hypertension, the average blood pressure-lowering effect was highly clinically significant.

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MP