Lowering Blood Pressure - herbs or other alternatives?

[BabaRa]

I know diet and exercise are key.

Does anyone (Seikou-Kishi?) know of any herbs, etc? . . .

[ronin]

I know diet and exercise are key.

Does anyone (Seikou-Kishi?) know of any herbs, etc? . . .

yup...
i think the green machine helps in all aspects of mental,physical and general well being.
as long as it taken responsibly.

i know it works but cannot partake for fear of whitey,s.

a whitey is in slang(one who goes pale,wobbles and wants to poo a lot).

;)

[Seikou-Kishi]

Hi Barbara, lemon oil is absolutely fantastic for lowering blood pressure, and because of its wide availability, familiar taste and common use, it's the least daunting to those who don't routinely deal with essential oils. You're right that exercise is key, as frequent exercise boosts the efficiency of the body's circulatory system. However, exercise, particularly of a stenuous nature, can increase the risk of heart attacks and those with high blood pressure are most at risk of this side effect. This seems like a bit of a catch 22, that the treatment for high blood pressure increases the risks that come with high blood pressure.

However, the best way to exercise from a point of physical unfitness is to start with light, brief exercise of multiple repetitions. Instead of doing an intensive work-out an hour a day, which those in a less-than-peak physical condition might find not only dauntingly difficult (if not out-right impossible), but also dangerous, consider doing three or four work-outs a day of five to ten minutes at a time. Frequent exercise, rather than intensive exercise, is the best way to move towards greater health for many reasons. One such reason is the strain it places on a body is much less. Another is that it helps keep the body's metabolism high through-out the day, rather than giving it a sharp spike part way through. Also, timing a work-out session before bed leads to restful sleep and is something I advise for those trying to lose weight, as the heightened metabolism causes the body to burn off fat even when sleeping.

But there are several good plant remedies for hypertension. Among them is lemon oil, as I've already mentioned. It is good not only because it is effective, but because the method of taking it is delicious (lol... it sounds stupid, but the pleasantness of any remedy is helpful). Even the best quality lemon oil is very cheap because lemons are so widely produced and the oil is produced not from the fruit but from the zest. To make use of this remedy, take a bottle of good water (good water... we should not even have to say this, should we? Oy vey) and add a number of drops of the oil and shake to form an emulsion. The water will turn slightly cloudy, and at this point you know the emulsion has formed.

The dosage is not all that high. Ten drops per day is sufficient, but twenty is better. Ten drops would be sufficient for a pint to a litre of water, but whenever I use it, I make up two litres and sip it through the day. The way this stuff tastes, it probably won't last an entire day anyway. You'll never drink pop again. You can add a few drops of lime or orange oil too for added flavour, if you wish, but the lemon alone is very refreshing. It has many uses other than blood pressure and it's good as a general blood tonic and also cleanses the digestive system, easing pain and discomfort caused by gastrointestinal infections.

Other oils good for this include lavender, frankincense and ylang ylang. Lavender is a brilliant heart tonic (and of course, blood pressure is a measure of the strain under which the heart operates). In mild concentrations, lavender has been used to flavour foods, but the oil itself is not suitable in this way. You might add it to water, and in that concentration it would be fine, but the water would taste like soapy water, because lavender has been used to scent soaps so extensively and for so long that to most people lavender smells and tastes of soap. (In fact, it's name is related to the Latin "lavo" meaning "I wash/bathe".) You can add the essential oil of lavender to gelatin capsules and take in the oil that way, and while you could fill the capsule to the top, 5-7 drops would be sufficient. Frankincense can be used in the same way, and can be added to the same capsule.

Oils that can be used include Melissa (Lemon balm; Melissa officinalis), Lemon (Citrus limonum), Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), Frankincense (Boswellia Carteri), Ylang ylang (Cananga odorata), Marjoram (also called Sweet Oregano; Origanum marjorana otherwise called Origanum hortensis), Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens), Clary sage (Salvia sclarea) and Helichrysum (Helichrysum angustifolium otherwise called Helichrysum italicum).

Small amounts of cypress and helichrysum together will work wonders. No more than three drops each per day. You can also make a massage oil containing frankincense, ylang ylang and lavender and apply these over the heart and pulse points. High blood pressure as a result of emotional discomfort (through depression or anxiety) would best be met with lavender and melissa combined.

My recommendations for essential oils would come in this order:

1. A combination of cypress and helichrysum, no more than three drops each, to be take in a capsule once a day.
2. Lemon oil, no less than ten drops, to be taken in water each day.
3. A massage oil of frankincense, ylang ylang and lavender, in any suitable carrier oil, to be massaged over the heart and pulse points as frequently as desired.

Though I would recommend cypress and helichrysum together first, lemon oil is so easily come by even some supermarkets and health food shops sell it, so you might not have to order it online. So in those ways, it might be the one you could get your hands on first while you wait for the others to arrive (if you choose to use them; lemon oil alone is quite up to the task). There's nothing to stop you combining all three remedies, though any one alone is sufficient.

Clary sage is one of my wonder oils. I find it a great oil to have around as it has many uses. Not only does it lower blood pressure, it promotes restful sleep which is doubly useful if high blood pressure is a result of stress. (It also promotes lucidity in dreaming, though, so if this is not something you'd like to experience, avoid it. If it is something you'd like to experience, PM me and I will share with you how to make use of this and expand its usefulness in this regard). Clary sage can be used externally or taken internally, though its taste is unpleasant and so encapsulation would probably be required.

In terms of foods which can be incorporated into the diet, there is no finer food for lowering blood pressure than garlic. Avoid cayenne pepper and all chili spices as these have an excitatory effect (avoid excessive consumption of thyme and sage too). Garlic can be eaten raw or incorporated into food. Nettles are a blood cleanser par excellence and a soup made with nettle, onion and garlic is a tasty way to get the benefit of both. Whole garlic bulbs can also be roasted by wrapping them in foil with a little olive oil drizzled on the top. The resulting garlic, which is absolutely delicious, by the way, is almost a purée and is much milder in flavour than the raw garlic. It's great on unbuttered toast, too.

Chickpeas are excellent for blood pressure, and they can be made into many tasty dishes. Pure cocoa is helpful too. This doesn't mean chocolate, although small amounts of the bitterest chocolate will help. Any benefit chocolate as the prepared confection has at milk-chocolate concentrations will almost certainly be swamped out by the high sugar levels, unless the chocolate is made with xylitol (which has a glycaemic index rating of 7, compared with glucose's 100), which is unfortunately not very likely. Chocolate made for people with diabetes is usually made with mannitol, a relative of xylitol, but it's not to be used by those with heart failure. The best is to use cocoa powder or cacao nibs. Don't use the ready-mixed drinking chocolate powder that some people call cocoa for some reason, because it's not cocoa and it has no health benefits. Both cocoa or cacao nibs can be added to smoothies or with a little yoghurt. If you don't have congestive heart failure and have no trouble with micturation, diabetic chocolate wouldn't be a bad choice if you absolutely had to have milk chocolate, but I'm hoping the following is a recipe that you may like...

A good, nice tasting dessert item (all the kids here love it), which also helps lower blood pressure, is the following:

— 500g (about 1lb) of Greek yoghurt.
— 2-3 bananas (at least ever so slightly overripe) (you can use more, but 2-3 large bananas is a good balance with the yoghurt)
— 1 tablespoon cocoa powder or 1 heaped tablespoon cacao/cocoa nibs

If using cocoa powder, simply add all the ingredients to a blender and blend, then freeze. If using cacao nibs, you can grind them first in a coffee grinder or with a pestle and mortar, or add them whole to the mixture like chocolate chips. Or, you can grind half and leave half whole. When the cacao nibs are left whole, they add texture to the dessert and are little nuggets of bitterness in it. They have a texture quite like nuts, and this recipe works well with a handful of almonds* tossed in too. Over all, the dessert is not a sweet one, with the only sweetness added by the bananas that have been left to go a little overripe. It's a very tasty and very chocolaty dessert, though.

*Almonds lower cholesterol and protect the heart. The fats in almonds are very healthy fats and avoidance of healthy fats by overzealous dieters with the crude "fat = bad" belief is at least as dangerous as consuming unhealthy fats. In fact, almonds work synergistically with the health benefits of cocoa and bananas, making their inclusion in a dessert of this type a good thing. The fact that all the items in this dessert are healthy almost makes me want to stop calling it a dessert lol :D. Almonds, like bananas, contain potassium in high amounts, and magnesium too, and these are elements essential to good heart health. They're also high in vitamin E, a natural anti-oxidant. My nonagenerian grandmother's doctor told her she has the body and fitness of somebody in her sixties, and she puts this down to her love of almonds (a love I share... they're awesome and you're welcome to join us in this weird club lol). Other nuts that are good for the heart and also good in this dessert are walnuts and hazelnuts.

Another food, great for snacking on during the day, can be found in the fruit of the hawthorn tree, called haws. I have planted hawthorns just for their fruit, though most people seem to think they're poisonous. Anyway, take a saucepan and half fill with haws and cover with just enough water to allow them to boil. You could also use apple juice, or a mixture of half water and half apple juice. The reason for diluting the apple juice is the water will be boiled away eventually. Let the haws boil in the water or apple juice until they become very soft. At this point, mash the pulp and pass through a sieve to remove the stones. If there is still an excess of fluid (which makes sieving easier), you can return the pulp to the saucepan and allow it to reduce on a low heat. Either way, pour the pulp onto as large a baking tray as will fit into your oven, using more than one if necessary. The pulp will spread as it sits and the thinner the layer of pulp the better. Put the tray or trays into the oven set to the lowest possible heat and leave for a couple of hours. This will depend on how thick the layer of pulp is, but should be no less than two hours.

The point is not to cook the pulp, but to let it dehydrate. Anise, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg all go really well with apple and haws, so you can add one or two to the pulp just before placing it on the baking tray. Once the pulp has become solid, remove it from the oven and let it cool. It will have a leathery texture (this kind of food is called fruit leather) and it is how I imagine beef jerky is, though I've never actually seen any jerky so I can't say for sure. It doesn't sound very appealing, but it's very easy to get hooked on it. It is somewhat like tough liquorice in texture, and if flavoured with anise, it makes a good substitute for it (liquorice itself lowers the blood pressure, and both liquorice and the anise that is commonly used to flavour it are both responsible for this effect, though of course most liquorice you will buy has a high sugar content, except for readers on the continent, where the high salt content is equally unhelpful for blood pressure).

So in summary, good foods would be nettle, onion and garlic soup, roasted garlic bulbs, frozen banana and cacao yoghurt and haw leather. Good oils would be lemon as a water flavouring, cypress and helichrysum as supplements taken in small dosages, and frankincense, ylang ylang and lavender in a massage oil. I hope this helps BabaRa

Edit: if you choose to make the yoghurt dessert, whatever you do, avoid low-fat yoghurt. Such yoghurts are made with sweeteners and artificial gelling agents. "Fat-free" is a codeword for a mad scientist's concoction and you're no lab rat. About the only fat-free stuff you should bother consuming is water lol :D. The yoghurt need not be Greek yoghurt, but it's by far the best. The essential thing is to avoid yoghurts with artificial ingredients or added sugar. Yoghurts that have live cultures are very good, too, and live-culture Greek yoghurt is the ideal. Also, you can add as many bananas as you like (2-3 is just a guide). All you need is enough yohurt relative to the bananas to help it move in the blender.

[Sooz]

SK, I find it so hard to believe you are as young as you are.

You are a fount of information. And I love that you spend so much time giving that to us here on this forum.

Thank you.

Sooz:tiphat:
x

[Calabash]

Hi BaBara

I would recommend a daily dose of home-made kombucha (morning and evening). And a brisk half-hour walk every day as well - forty five minutes if you can. Some people swear by getting a dog to walk, but the only ones I know want to be picked up . . . :(

[Frances]

Thank you for the information SK the lemon oil water sounds good and handy for throughout the day.
Frances.

[BabaRa]

Thanks to all for your help, especially SK.

I have always had low-blood pressure, runs in my family, but as I've gotten older (older, who me?) it came up to normal. I've been 120/70 for at least 10 yrs, so was shocked at this change. I had some oral surgery last week, which I think contributed and might even be the complete culprit.

Although I must admit, (confess?), I have been spending waaaay too much time sitting at the computer lately. I just put a timer by my keyboard. Hence forth every 45 minutes will have to get up and dance around for 15 minutes. Thanks again to all, Barbara

[ronin]

Thanks to all for your help, especially SK.

I have always had low-blood pressure, runs in my family, but as I've gotten older (older, who me?) it came up to normal. I've been 120/70 for at least 10 yrs, so was shocked at this change. I had some oral surgery last week, which I think contributed and might even be the complete culprit.

Although I must admit, (confess?), I have been spending waaaay too much time sitting at the computer lately. I just put a timer by my keyboard. Hence forth every 45 minutes will have to get up and dance around for 15 minutes. Thanks again to all, Barbara

well Babara i only know of two ways to raise your blood pressure.
first one would probably get me a whack around the ear.
second one is as you said .
dance it away.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P99p6l8v0FQ

[BabaRa]

well Babara i only know of two ways to raise your blood pressure.
first one would probably get me a whack around the ear.
second one is as you said .
dance it away.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P99p6l8v0FQ

What fun! - I danced along with them - but where oh where is my cute, young (why not?) partner.

[ronin]

What fun! - I danced along with them - but where or where is my cute, young (why not?) partner.

he,s waiting for you in the new land at the top of the far away tree:D

the land where dance and magic come alive.

[Seikou-Kishi]

Thanks to all for your help, especially SK.

I have always had low-blood pressure, runs in my family, but as I've gotten older (older, who me?) it came up to normal. I've been 120/70 for at least 10 yrs, so was shocked at this change. I had some oral surgery last week, which I think contributed and might even be the complete culprit.

Although I must admit, (confess?), I have been spending waaaay too much time sitting at the computer lately. I just put a timer by my keyboard. Hence forth every 45 minutes will have to get up and dance around for 15 minutes. Thanks again to all, Barbara

Hi BabaRa, 120/70 is still within a good range. 120 for systolic blood pressure (the pressure in the circulatory system when the heart beats) is on the borderline between the ideal range and the pre-high range. 70 is excellent for diastolic pressure (the pressure in the system between heart beats), as 80 is where diastolic blood pressure passes from the ideal into pre-high. Pre-high isn't really anything to worry about, though, it's just that it's the section of the healthy blood pressure range nearest high, as the name suggests.

I think what you said about the surgery is spot on. It's well known that many people have sharp spikes in their blood pressure and pulse rates whenever they feel anxious or uncomfortable — the fact that for many people, this happens to coincide with visits to doctors' surgeries and dentists' offices is an inescapable consequence of the situation. The irony of course is that this is the only time that blood pressure is monitored for most people, so they can get a wildly inaccurate impression of their own blood pressure. If you think that this might be the case for you, you can get a home blood pressure monitor and take your blood pressure twice a day for a week or so, once in the morning and once at night. I have a GP-style blood pressure monitor in my gym — just don't use it shortly after a work-out, because it won't be representative. If you're anything like most people, you'll notice that your blood pressure drops markedly in the day or so after any such visit to a medical centre. Your blood pressure will rise and fall throughout the week as a natural fluctuation, but for most people, the greatest peaks will coincide with visits to their doctors and dentists (and therapists, etc., and any meeting of a serious nature).

The main thing is not to believe that the doctor's reading of your blood pressure is gospel. Blood pressure can vary wildly based on mood and anxiety (and whether you've eaten or not, exercised recently or even had a warm bath), and anxiety is in general above baseline when the doctor is taking your blood pressure, so it's a bit of a skewing of results. That's not to say that high blood pressure caused by anxiety is to be dismissed, it's not; high blood pressure is dangerous whatever the cause, but for most people anxiety is transitory and for this reason nothing to be worried about. If you were anxious 24/7, or very frequently, as with an anxiety disorder, your blood pressure would be increased frequently or persistently enough to be a concern.

Even if you acknowledge high blood pressure and seek to do something about it, the best thing is not to worry about it. Don't worry that it's not dropping fast enough or that it fluctuates more than you'd like. Worry itself will hamper the process. To illustrate what I mean about anxiety driving up blood pressure, my usual blood pressure is 100/65 with a variance of only about 5/3 points either way, but during a recent trip to see my GP, my blood pressure was 140/90. That's a huge increase, and if my blood pressure was like that ordinarily, I would be very concerned. However, I measure my blood pressure quite frequently (I'm a bit of a health nut) and plot the systolic and diastolic pressures as two lines on a line graph, and seeing how my blood pressure spikes before a doctor's appointment is startling.

Because I take my blood pressure regularly, whenever I have to make an appointment with my GP (which thankfully isn't often lol), I print off a chart plotting my twice-a-day blood pressure for a week or two and take it in, and my doctors have all told me that my blood pressure is fantastic and they all acknowledge that this phenomenon is real. They actually said I'm in perfect physical condition which, you know, is always nice lol. It's the same with most people in my family, as we have something of an antipathy towards the established medical profession. I do not view doctors other than I would view my mechanic. I will accept their advice if it is not inimical to my own understanding, and I acknowledge that they are not impartial, but the primary responsibility for my health is my own. A car mechanic might try to persuade you to buy something for your car that you don't really need because the person giving the advice is the person profiting when you take that advice. It's the same with doctors and the pharmaceutical industry; they have incentives to prescribe, so don't assume that their advice is purely for your own benefit.

If on an icy winter's night you were pulled over by the police who said you had bald tires on your car, would complaining that your mechanic hadn't mentioned anything exculpate you? Of course not. The person with primary responsibility for ensuring your car is road-worthy is you yourself. It is exactly the same with your body and doctors. Go to them when you need parts lol.

Here's a link to a discussion of this phenomenon on patient.co.uk (http://www.patient.co.uk/forums/discuss/high-blood-pressure-only-when-visiting-our-doctor-any-one--21561)

I include this handy reference chart from bloodpressureuk.org (http://www.bloodpressureuk.org/Home) as a way of seeing at a glance where your blood pressure lies. There is of course a great difference between systolic and diastolic pressure, because the pressure in the circulatory system is always going to be higher when the heart is pumping than when it's not, so what constitutes a healthy range in systolic blood pressure (top number) and what constitutes a healthy range in diastolic blood pressure (bottom number) are pretty much independent of each other. It's possible to have high blood pressure only in one and not the other.

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/6357/cf9r.gif





Systolic XXX/

Diastolic /XX


Low
<90
<60


Ideal
>90 & <120
>60 & <80


Pre-High*
>120 & <140
>80 & <90


High
>140
>90



*Pre-high is basically a buffer zone between the ideal and high blood pressure ranges at which action should be taken to lower the blood pressure but which doesn't itself pose any danger. It is a signal to try to lower blood pressure before symptoms of high blood pressure begin to manifest. You could basically consider Ideal + Pre-High = Acceptable.

As you can see from this table, my blood pressure of 100/65 means I'm well within the healthy blood pressure range, and if anything I have to watch out for low blood pressure. Though really that's never a concern, as, like I said, my blood pressure variance is uncommonly small. 140/90, the blood pressure when I was recently at my GP's surgery, is on the very threshold between pre-high and high blood pressure.

So if your recent blood pressure shock was in a clinical setting, at least be open to the possibility that it's not representative. If you've avoided doctors for years, suddenly being in their surgery might not be a comfortable position to be in.

[Starrover]

Dark chocolate is not just the food of the soul but also clinically proven to lower blood pressure, whoopeee

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100628075746.htm

[Woody]

Hi Seikou-Kishi,
I've had a look on amazon for lemon oil as i too have high blood pressure, all i can find is the aromatherapy grade oil.
Is this ok to consume? Or can you or anyone else point me to where i can buy some please?

Kind regards,

Woody

[Frances]

http://www.sustainablebabysteps.com/lemon-essential-oil.html

Link to an article giving lots of information on the use of Lemon essential oil.
Frances.