5 Great Ways to Lower Blood Pressure Using 1 Great Fruit
Have you had your lycopene today? If you ate a green salad with fresh chopped tomatoes, then you not only got a healthy dose of this powerful antioxidant, but you have also taken significant action toward lowering your blood pressure. A recent double-blind study conducted in Israel has confirmed what hearth-healthy Italians have enjoyed for centuries – tomatoes (and tomato sauce) lower blood pressure and the risk of heart disease.
The Israeli study was led up by Dr. Esther Paran, head of the hypertension division of Soroka Medical Center. It involved patients who were already being treated for hypertension, but were not responding well to the medications. Dr. Paran had patients take a supplement of tomato extract. The results were a significant drop in blood pressure after just four weeks.
Tomatoes are so effective at lowering blood pressure because they contain lycopene. This potent antioxidant is even the focus of some hybrid tomatoes grown by the Israeli company, Lycomato, in order to have higher concentrations of lycopene in each piece of fruit. Other antioxidants found in tomatoes make this one super-food in the prevention of heart disease. It can even help keep LDL cholesterol from oxidizing which makes it stick to the arteries and narrow the passage way causing blood pressure to increase.
Even during the peak growing season it can be difficult to consume four whole tomatoes each day, which is the recommended amount for having a positive impact on blood pressure. Here are some ways to get the benefits of tomatoes without having to eat them straight off the vine.
- Make Chili. Using tomato puree, which is a concentrated form of tomatoes, as the base for your chili utilizes the antioxidants without the bulk of a whole tomato. Add some ultra-lean and high protein ground bison and kidney beans with minced garlic and onions, and cayenne pepper and you have a heart-healthy main course and a full day’s allowance of tomato.
- Since using olive oil with the tomatoes enhances the curative quality, make your pasta sauce red with tomatoes, tomato paste and olive oil to sauté the garlic and onion. Tomato paste used in making sauce contains more than 10 times the nutrients of a single tomato.
- Have a fresh salad as a side dish to either of these entrees and cut one whole tomato on top. You’ll get one-quarter of you tomato intake right there.
- Drink tomato juice. It is better to make your own fresh juice so that you can control the sodium. Store bought juices can be high in sugar and sodium-based preservatives. If you have a juicer, you can make some incredible veggie juices to suit your own tastes by adding carrots, celery and some low-sodium seasonings.
- Take a tomato supplement. If you just can’t stomach tomatoes, then a 200 mg supplement provides the equivalent of more than the recommended four tomatoes.
Adding tomatoes to your diet can reduce systolic blood pressure by 10 points and diastolic pressure by 4 points as was evident in the Israel study. Whatever way you slice it, tomatoes will keep strengthen your immune system and lower blood pressure.
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Blood Pressure Medicine Can INCREASE Your Risk of DEATH
About half of Americans with high blood pressure are put on drugs. It's a standard medical practice. In this case, it's more like standard MAL-practice!
Several studies comparing blood-pressure medication to no treatment at all revealed this shocking truth:
You'll die faster if you take the drugs!
One of these landmark studies is called the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial. Almost 13,000 men between the ages of 35 and 57 participated and every one was at high risk for heart disease.
The treatment group received the traditional blood-pressure lowering drugs.
These drug included diuretics, which actually raised serum triglyceride levels. (Serum triglycerides, by the way, create stored body fat. Research has already proven your risk of a heart attack goes through the roof when serum triglyceride levels are high.)
The control group, on the other hand, received no DRUGS. They were simply counseled to quit smoking and improve their diets. The results?
At the completion of the trial, the drug treated group experienced no significant increase in health. They did, however, complain of the common side effects associated with blood-pressure medications: fatigue, drowsiness... low libido, weight gain… irritability... and nausea.
BUT here is the real shocker…
This drug group actually INCREASED their risk of death by 20%.
On the other hand, the control (non-drug group) reported:
Sound, restful sleep at night… more energy throughout the day… no midday slumps… feeling mentally sharp and better focused on tasks… less of a desire to smoke… and ABSOLUTELY no negative side effects!
Studies like these consistently prove that drugs are the WRONG course of treatment for high blood pressure... and most everything else.
But you don't have to buy into this medical madness. You can take charge of your health and reduce your high blood pressure naturally-beginning right NOW!
The fool proof way to lower your blood pressure…
The secret is not in diuretic drugs such as Diamox, Diuril or Edecrin…which yank essential minerals out of your body and overburden your kidneys…or beta blockers which slow your heartbeat to a crawl...or even calcium channel blockers that can cause heart attacks, stroke and cancer.
The key is controlling your blood pressure is so amazingly simple, it's embarrassing that doctors still don't know about it.
It's a simple treatment involving two essential minerals found in your body.
The secret, my friend, is to balance your body's natural levels of potassium and magnesium. Let me explain,
Potassium is Nature's diuretic. It helps you eliminate excess sodium without draining essential minerals from your body.
Magnesium, on the other hand, relaxes your arteries to ease blood flow. It also regulates the movement of both calcium and sodium into heart cells.
Together, potassium and magnesium are a major defensive force for controlling your blood pressure. They keep your calcium and sodium levels in check.
But diuretic drugs are designed to drain potassium and magnesium out of your body. So what happens when you take them?
Well, without a strong defense, the opponents-in this case calcium and sodium-take control and squeeze the daylights out of your arteries.
Now your heart is working harder than ever to pump blood into these narrow arteries. Your blood pressure shoots up. Without emergency help from magnesium, your heart can quickly give out and you experience a massive coronary heart attack!
But this does not have to happen. Here's how you can immediately and naturally control your blood pressure.
Nature's Safer, Healthier Prescription
Just follow a few of the natural therapies.
To increase potassium levels: Eat two oranges and one banana a day. You will get a healthy and tasty dose of a whopping 950 mg of potassium.
For a therapeutic dose of magnesium: Eat two or three servings a day of deep-green vegetables, such as kale, collard greens, spinach, broccoli, or remain lettuce.
Simple? You bet! Does it work? You bet!
And to make it even easier use an all-in-one liquid supplement and get potassium, magnesium plus all the other minerals and vitamins your body needs.
Here's The real Culprit of High Blood Pressure and How To Lower It Naturally
By, Frank Mangano
According to recent estimates, high blood pressure affects one in three U.S. adults. Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure or kidney failure. What's even more frightening about this condition is that most people don't even know they have it, as there are no symptoms. This is why high blood pressure is often called the "silent killer." Having your blood pressure checked on a regular basis is really the only way to tell if you have high blood pressure.
High blood pressure or hypertension occurs when there is a high pressure or tension of blood flow in the arteries. The arteries transport blood from a pumping heart to the rest of the body. Normal blood pressure is below 120/80. Blood pressure between 120/80 and 139/89 is called "pre-hypertension", and blood pressure of 140/90 or above is considered high blood pressure. The top number is called systolic blood pressure. This number represents the pressure in the arteries as the heart contracts and pumps blood into them. The bottom number is called diastolic pressure, which represents the pressure in the arteries as the heart relaxes following the contraction.
An elevation of either systolic or diastolic blood pressure increases the risk of developing heart disease, kidney disease, hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis or arteriosclerosis), eye damage, and stroke (brain damage).
Many people seem to think that salt or sodium is the primary cause of high blood pressure but truth be told, this has only been shown to be relevant in "salt sensitive" people which is equal to about 10% of the population being affected by the condition.
So what is causing the elevation in the other 90%? Well, mineral deficiencies elevate blood pressure more than anything else. So logically, the first step one should take in an attempt to lower or regulate blood pressure is to prevent deficiencies. The most effective way to do so is by supplementing.
Studies have shown both magnesium and calcium to lower high blood pressure. I recommend taking a combination of 500 mg of calcium and 250 mg of magnesium twice daily.
Since the middle ages, hawthorn berries have been used to support the heart and normalize cardiovascular functions. Taking 250 mg of hawthorn three times daily is another great alternative for lowering high blood pressure because it is rich in bioflavonoids, which relax and dilate the arteries. These compounds contain powerful antioxidants, which help increase the flow of blood and oxygen to the heart. The result is that when it comes to circulating the blood, the heart has less work. This in-turn reduces blood pressure and stress to the heart muscle. The bioflavonoid substances also improve blood flow to other areas of the body and strengthen the walls of blood vessels.
Components in hawthorn have also been shown to lower cholesterol, and the amount of plaque in arteries.
I also recommend taking 2-3 grams of vitamin c daily. Vitamin C aids the body in the production of a basic component of connective tissues called collagen. Collagen is a key structural component in gums, bones and most importantly blood vessel walls. Aside from that, Vitamin C also acts as an antioxidant, which helps rid the body of free radicals.
As always, a proper diet and cardiovascular exercise doesn’t hurt either.
High Blood Pressure - Is this medication for you? Caduet, read before taking!
This is taken word for word from their hand out information.
IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION
Caduet is a prescription drug that combines two medicines. Norvasc and Lipitor.
Norvasc is used to treat high blood pressure (hypertension), chest pain (angina) or blocked arteries of the heart (coronary artery disease)
Lipitor is used along with diet and exercise to lower high cholesterol. It is also used to lower the risk of heart attack and stroke in people with multiple risk factors for heart disease. Such as family history, high blood pressure, age, low HDL-C, or smoking.
Caduet is not for everyone. It is not for those with liver problems. It is not for women who are nursing, are pregnant, or may become pregnant. If you
take Caduet, tell your doctor if you feel any new muscle pain or weakness. This could be a sign of rare but serious muscle side effects. Tell your doctor about all the meds you take. This may help avoid serious drug interactions.
Your doctor should do blood test to check your liver function before and during treatment and may adjust your dose. If you have any heart problems, be sure to tell your doctor.
The most common side effects are edema, headaches and dizziness. They tend to be mild and often go away.
Caduet is one of many options for treating high blood pressure and high cholesterol, in addition to diet and exercise, that you and your doctor can consider.
The health information contained herein is provided for educations purposes only and is not intended to replace your health care provider.
Comment from Margie. It also does not list all the other side effects so please always read all the small print that comes with all prescriptions. You might then re-consider getting help through alternative medicine.
High Blood Pressure? Don't be fooled by the new "guidelines"
You have probably seen in the news the new "guidelines" for determining a healthy level of blood pressure. It used to be that 120/80 was considered optimal, 120 - 129/80-84 was normal and 130 - 139/85-89 was high normal. If your readings were over 140/90 you were considered to be at Stage 1 which was referred to as mild hypertension. Stages 2, 3 and 4 went up in various increments and they reflected increasing degrees of severity of hypertension.
But, this is no longer the case! Based on new USA guidelines if your blood pressure is in the "normal" range with a systolic pressure anything above 120 you are now considered to be prehypertensive and should according to the new guidelines be taking "two or more hypertensive medications to achieve goal pressure".
So if you were previously healthy before this recent announcement with a systolic blood pressure between 120 and 140 I am sorry to say that you along with 45 million other Americans are no longer considered to be healthy! In fact you will be pressured to take a drug to "restore your health".
(On a personal note) My last mandated visit to my doctor, I have to go every 3 months whether I want to or not…. My blood pressure was 120 over 80. A little high for me. It is usually 110 over 80. In fact my doctor said to me on my first visit that he has patients who would die to have your blood pressure… This same doctor on this visit said your pressure is getting a little high. I will give you a prescription to help that.
I said no, you know I don't take ANY medication. He just gave me a funny look. Last time he tried to give me some drugs for a urinary infection he said I had and I did not have. Wouldn't take that either.
My daughter keeps telling me to get another doctor. I have found them all in the past 6 years to be like this so what is the point.
(Back to article)
Frankly, I think that the new recommendations are nothing short of scandalous! Hypertension is NOT a disease to be treated by drugs... it is a SYMPTOM of an underlying problem. Treating it without determining the cause is dangerous and is akin to giving drugs to reduce a high temperature whilst ignoring the cause of the high temperature.
In fact just like treating the symptoms of high temperatures which can be fatal in some people so can the potential flow on effects from treating high blood pressure! If you have high blood pressure you have it for a reason. That reason is because parts of your body are lacking in blood and the extra pressure is needed to get it there. If you artificially suppress that pressure with drugs whilst ignoring the underlying cause of it you are on the start of a slippery slide down to permanent ill health.
You may be thinking "But, if these recommendations for blood pressure are supported by the government then it must be desirable to keep within them. After all the government independently reviews all the information before endorsing new health guidelines... doesn't it?"
The short answer is yes it should, but no, it doesn't… at least not in this case! I'll explain.
This will make you furious!
The new guidelines for hypertension are referred to as JCN-7. JCN stands for the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. The report that they issued was their seventh, thus the reference number JCN 7.
All sounds pretty official and impressive, and given that the report was presented by government spokespersons at government press conferences as the latest government guidelines then it must have been well reviewed and debated... at least that is what you would think!
In fact that is what you should reasonably expect and indeed the law provides for this to safeguard the interests of the public! I quote the following excerpt from a paper by Paul Rosch, MD, FACP who is a clinical professor of medicine and psychiatry at New York Medical College.
"The law requires that all important Federal rules, including guidelines that affect the public must be written and promulgated according to the Government Code. This code mandates formal selection of a committee, pre-announcement of all meetings, open meetings that encourage testimony from all interested parties as well as written records, all of which must be preserved in a special docket. Everything is then reviewed in order to provide a written discussion of all the relevant evidence leading to the final rules or guidelines that must be published in the Federal Register. In addition, if the published guidelines are not consonant with a logical review of the evidence presented, the recommendations may be overturned by legal action."
Rosch researched the JNC-7 report which is now the "official" government guideline for hypertension and which has been issued to physicians and found that it is NOT on the Federal register and that in essence the legal system has been bypassed. Officials at the NIH (National Institute of Health) have admitted that the new guidelines were written by a non-government committee of "experts" that they had selected and were therefore not subject to the Federal Register regulations!
The guide lines were published in JAMA the Journal of the American Medical Association, NOT the Federal Register. The committee established these new guidelines with NO public meetings, NO meetings were open to the public, NO public input was solicited and NO detailed records of committee meetings were kept!
I am sure you get the picture! Now, back to the issue of hypertension!
As I mentioned earlier, hypertension is a symptom not an ailment. By treating the symptom it is likely to exacerbate the cause. There are currently over 100 drugs being used to "treat" hypertension and most of them are given to patients on a trial and error basis. How many people do you know that have been given multiple drugs to reduce their blood pressure... and how many have had adverse side effects?
If you have been diagnosed with "high" blood pressure you owe it to yourself to learn as much as you can about it and also to TRULY determine if you do have high blood pressure. Most people are not aware just how much their blood pressure can vary. Temporary increases of 50% are not uncommon. These increases can come about just from a bit of tension combined with talking. It has been clearly documented that people who are considered to be hypertensive are really not although their readings are high.
When you go into a doctor's waiting room and you know your blood pressure is going to be taken and you are concerned about it that in it self can be sufficient to raise it enough to be considered hypertensive. Then when you start taking medication and go back for another check you will be even more concerned and the reading will be even less accurate often resulting in a higher dose rate... and so on it goes.
So, be careful out there and question all recommendations when it comes to blood pressure medication AND do not ignore the CAUSE of the symptoms.
Blood Pressure Articles