Natural Remedies for High Blood Pressure

Over twenty-five percent of Americans have hypertension (high blood pressure). Over 50% of Americans over 65 have high blood pressure. In countries where they do not consume lots of salt and protein, hypertension is rare. See more on this on home page, Healthy Diet. Many people do not know that they have it. Many are not on medications (drugs) for it since they do not like the side effects. Many are taking 3 or 4 drugs for it.
Some people are able to cure it with a supplement like taking garlic or mangosteen  juice. Others are able to bring it under control with a change in diet and exercise.  If you have a back or neck problem, that can cause it, so see the page on that. Make sure to see the chapter below comparing natural remedies for high blood pressure with medications used to treat high blood pressure.

Cure for High Blood Pressure and Angina (Chest Pain)

Here is something that works on almost everyone plus natural remedies for high blood pressure. This method involves changing the diet but the powerful method that reverses the damage is fasting. Read the webpage about fasting on this website with quotes from 19 MDs. So first a person fasts for 2 or 3 weeks, then changes their diet to one with no animal products and no or little salt.
These natural remedies for high blood pressure comes from an MD (Joel Fuhrman) who has spent 30 years treating people with fasting and a change of diet. It is a diet of little or no salt, no animal products, fruits, vegetables (plenty of greens), nuts, seeds, beans and whole grains. This is explained in detail by the book below and someone can have their fast supervised by Dr Fuhrman or another fasting professional. He can also take you off drugs during the fast like he did with one guy who was on 2 medications for hypertension and yet his blood pressure was still too high. After the fast it was normal without drugs.
Natural remedies for high blood pressure comes from a book by Dr Fuhrman mentioned at the bottom. There are testimonials in it by other MDs. It says "Those suffering from the ravages of heart disease must be told that there is a safe, less invasive way to get relief and prolong their lives. A plant-based diet in conjunction with a properly conducted fast most often leads to a total recovery or a vast improvement in hypertension and angina." 
This book is loaded with lots of recent studies. During the fast, a person's blood  pressure goes down. People with angina (chest pain caused by atherosclerosis [hardening] of coronary arteries) can get a complete recovery from fasting and a change of diet. See chapter below about pomegranate juice.

The blood pressure medicines are the biggest sellers. Many do not take them due to the varied bad side effects. People who take the medications for hypertension do not get less heart attacks than those who do not take them for their high blood pressure.
Dr Fuhrman graduated U of Penn medical school (one of 8 Ivy League colleges). His mother was fasted by Dr Shelton who had fasted 40,000 people. Dr Fuhrman was an Olympic skater who injured his foot and fasted for 40 days to heal it. His book tells about diet to get rid of headaches and migraines that is much more strict than the above diet. His book also covers using fasting and/or change of diet to cure diabetes (type 2), rheumatoid arthritis, acne, lupus, psoriasis, osteoporosis, tinnitus, vertigo and glaucoma.

Cholesterol

The total cholesterol (TC) levels is totally outdated since the more good cholesterol (HDL) you have the better. Then they came out with another formula where your TC over HDL should be less than 4.5 which is somewhat better. But Dr Barry Sears, author of The Zone books, used the latest research that found out that there is harmful and harmless bad cholesterol (LDL). So he took the harmless LDL out of the equation. His formula is triglycerides over HDL. If it is around 1, it is very good. If it is over 4, then that is not good.
He says that this formula is much better at predicting your chance of heart attacks and strokes. I just read where one guy's number was 25. Then he tried a diet and it went up to 42. But then he tried The Zone diet and in 8 weeks it went down to 2.2. Dr Sears' diet emphasizes getting enough omega-3 essential fatty acids which Americans do not get enough of. This alone can make a big difference. It is in highly polluted fish but the best vegetarian source is flaxseeds or chia seeds. 
There is now proof that the above formula is the one that matters. This means that lowering cholesterol with drugs does not help and is a scam. First only 50% of the people who get heart attacks have high LDL (bad) cholesterol. LDL is not in the equation above. This means that you have the same chance of a heart attack whether you have high LDL or not. Read this next chapter for more proof.

Heart Attacks, Strokes and Leg Pain

Doctors have found a new way of identifying your chances of having a heart attack or stroke. If you have 3 of the 5 core problems then you have metabolic syndrome. According to Framingham Heart Study at Boston University School of Medicine, women with this syndrome have more than double their risk of stroke than those that do not have it. Men with it have a 78% higher chance of strokes than men who do not have it.

The five components of it are elevated (high) blood pressure, large waist circumference, elevated triglycerides, low HDL (good) cholesterol count and elevated blood sugar level. Note that this ignores LDL (bad) cholesterol. If you want to lower cholesterol then take the dietary supplement of red rice extract. The FDA made it illegal to sell, in 1998, since it lowered cholesterol like Statin drugs. But in 1999 a federal judge made it legal again.

To lower chance of strokes eat a healthy diet (see home page), get exercise, lower stress, lower blood pressure, quit smoking and take a supplement to keep homocysteine levels low. The nutrients needed for this are vitamins B-12, B-6 and folic acid. The American Heart Association (number one listing for a Google search for 'cholesterol') says that to raise HDL cholesterol avoid tobacco smoke, maintain a healthy diet and 30-60 minutes of physical activity 4 days a week.

What causes the hardening and narrowing of the arteries is not too much cholesterol in the blood. It is caused by things being used to help heal the arteries. What attacks the arteries is fluorine and chlorine in the water, refined sugar, corn syrup, homogenized milk, cigarette smoke and bad diet like fried foods.

A guy near me was having problems with his legs. None of the MDs could tell him what was wrong with him. They put him on drugs for pain and water retention. Two years later, he died of a heart attack. It is called intermittent claudication. It can feel worse while walking and better after resting. Note that this site is for educational purposes only and not to diagnose or treat you. I believe in educating instead of medicating.

The cause of HBP, heart attacks, angina, strokes and intermittent claudication is gradual clogging, hardening and damage done to the interior walls of our blood vessels. It can even cause senile dementia and erectile impotence. Dr Fuhrman's book says the above is due to diet of high-fat [like fried foods], high protein and a highly refined diet. He says that the above can be reversed.

The book says "The accumulation of fatty plaque on the inner walls of our blood vessels begins in early in childhood and progresses gradually through life due to modern-day dietary practices. High blood pressure is the result of blood vessels that are relatively inelastic due to deposits of plaque."

Here is more from his book on leg pain (page 123). "For many years, Kevin had been suffering from erectile impotence and excruciating pain in his legs whenever he walked. This type of pain is called intermittent claudication. It is caused by blockages in the blood vessels that supply blood to the legs.... Recently, even mild exertion such as walking 100 yards on a flat surface would generate acute pain in both legs and hips and numbness in the left foot.

Kevin consulted numerous physicians and underwent an angiogram, which documented severe atherosclerosis of the iliac arteries (major blood vessels in the leg)." He was told he needed immediate angioplasty of the arteries in the legs. He was told that there were no alternatives. "He fasted for only 12 days. During the fast he suffered from the above symptoms. After the fast he was first fed a small quantity of fresh fruit and vegetable juice.

He progressed to melon by the end of the first day and was then fed raw salad and vegetables. On the 4th day of refeeding he began exercising on a stationary bike. By the 7th day of refeeding Kevin was able to walk 20 minutes without any discomfort in the legs, calves or feet." He followed a strict diet and 4 weeks later he could walk long distances without any symptoms. The condition did not return.

More Natural Remedies for High Blood Pressure

See the page SUPERIOR NUTRITION FOR OPTIMUM HEALTH for more on omega-3s and greens drinks which help hypertension or high blood pressure. It tells how some of them contain lecithin. This has been promoted for cardiovascular health for decades. It comes from soybeans but is also in cabbage, cauliflower, green beans, chickpeas, lentils, corn, split peas and grains. It is dirt cheap, like a pound of it for $20. Make sure to get the non GMO (genetically modified) lecithin which works the best. I just came across this. A guy had high blood pressure.

The doctor said that he needed surgery to have the plaque stripped from the arteries in his neck. It would cost $10,000 but the machine was down and he had to wait. At a health food store they told him to try lecithin. He took 2 tablespoons a day. When he returned to the doctor, the nurse re-examined him and said that he did not need the surgery since the plaque in his arteries was gone. A side effect of consuming lecithin is that it makes you smarter.
What causes heart attacks and strokes is plaque on your artery walls. They make the walls hard and can block the blood flow. The plaque contains oxidized cholesterol. Reducing cholesterol does not remove the plaque. Cholesterol contains lecithin. The good cholesterol (HDL) contains more lecithin than the bad cholesterol (LDL). The more good cholesterol, the better. When enough lecithin is in the cholesterol, it becomes soluble and it dissolves back into your blood and washes away. Although the plaque forms to protect the artery walls. Things that attack the artery walls are the chlorine and fluoride in tap water and homogenized milk. See the web page on pure water to learn how to purify your tap water.
The webpage, Natural Healing, tells about a group that uses flaxseeds for their omega-3s. This flaxseed oil is a more concentrated source but I use the ground flaxseeds since it provides an extremely good fiber for the colon and also contains lignans which are also beneficial. Dr Barry Sears suggests using pharmaceutical grade fish oil since this has the pollutants removed. But then you are dealing with having to kill many animals to keep you healthy.
Here is information from the home page on healthy diet. I put it there since high blood pressure is such a big problem. Forty percent of Americans over age 40 have hypertension. They desperately need natural remedies for High blood pressure. Americans eat much more protein than they need which is why most of them get myocardial infarctions or cerebrovascular accidents (AKA heart attacks or strokes) according to Joel Fuhrman, M.D. In other places in the world these are not common problems.
Americans consume 5 times the protein they need causing 50% of them, over 65, to have hypertension (according to Joel Fuhrman, M.D.). Yet in some places in the world, hypertension is rare. The American Heart Association says not to eat more than 6 ounces a day of meat, fish or poultry. The saturated fat in meat is also bad for you (increases cholesterol levels). So in studies, they had people switch from beef to a leaner meat like chicken. But they got more protein bite-for-bite and so had no improvement in cardiovascular health. Over 4,000 studies show that fruits and vegetables prevent cancer.
Also on my home page: LATEST NEWS: In an effort to reduce hypertension (high blood pressure) and cardiovascular disease, the American Medical Association is urging "the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to revoke the 'generally recognized as safe' (GRAS) status of salt and to develop regulatory measures to limit sodium in processed and restaurant foods." I was just reading about a study showing that getting a lot of sunshine lowers blood pressure. They think it has to do with the kind of vitamin D created by sunlight on the skin.
People are supposed to have a very high ratio of potassium to sodium in their diet. Salt has huge amounts of sodium and throws that off (see losing water weight on home page). Jane Brody's Nutrition Book says "Hypertension is practically nonexistent in cultures that exist in New Guinea, the Amazon Basin, the Kalahari Desert, and elsewhere, where little or no salt is added to foods." The FDA has on their webpage, Healthier Eating (May-June 2005 Issue [most recent]) a chapter called "Lower Sodium and Increase Potassium" (www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2005/305_eat.html).
An avocado has 1,200 mg of potassium and 25 mg of sodium. A can of chicken noodle soup has over 2,000 mg of sodium. Since a banana has about 400 mg of potassium it is good to eat at least one a day on an empty stomach (see home page to learn why). Also eat avocados which have lots of potassium (1,200 mg) and have a very healthy fat. Michael Roizon, author of You: The Owners Manual, says that it has the healthiest fat for middle aged men and prevents prostate cancer. Foods high in potassium include potatoes (800 mg for medium size potato), avocados, raisins and figs. A cup of coconut milk has over 600 mg of potassium. As far as whole grains, 3 ounces of quinoa has over 600 mg of potassium. It takes 15 minutes to cook these small grains.
See home page for information on how Celtic sea salt (not other sea salt) is better for you. It is even better to put granulated kelp on your food instead of salt. First ,this seaweed or sea vegetable is very salty since it comes from the ocean.  But the salt or sodium in it is organic unlike the inorganic sodium in salt. This is like getting organic iron from spinach instead of getting inorganic iron from a nail. Kelp is much higher in trace minerals, including organic iodine, than land plants plus the fiber in it is sold as a supplement since it helps remove toxic metals from the body. They add inorganic iodine to salt since people do not get enough trace minerals like iodine. Kelp is a food whereas salt is not a food.
A nurse says that grapefruits lower blood pressure. So it is one of the natural remedies for high blood pressure. A scientist that studies the phytochemicals in berries says that strawberries reduce blood pressure and blueberries minimize brain damage after a stroke. A stupid thing in our society is that when a doctor prescribes a medicine like Vioxx, people have no questions, even though Vioxx killed more Americans than the terrorists on 9/11. Mention what bananas and strawberries can do and now he has to ask his doctor if he can eat these fruits, even though they were OK to eat before he heard about these benefits.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) has a website by the leading botanist in the world, Dr James Duke, which lists plants that have antihypertensive phytochemicals in them. The first 2 have the highest concentration of these chemicals and the others have the most different ones: alfalfa plant with 5 antihypertensive chemicals in it, guava fruit 8, garlic 11, tomato 11, banana 11, onion 10, eggplant 10, beets 9, cabbage 9, endive 9, orange 9, grapefruit 9 and sweet potato with 9.
Celery was not on the list but many consider it one of the healthiest foods and it is a natural remedy for high blood pressure. Research has shown that the phytochemical, 3-n-butyl phthalide, that is in celery, can lower blood pressure in lab mice by 12% to 14%. They found that people eating 4 stalks a day can lower blood pressure by 14%. Try to get the organically grown since celery is one of the produce with the highest amounts of pesticides. Now is it better to eat the conventional than none at all? Well if you think that your level of toxins is not too high than maybe it is better to eat the conventional than none at all.
I just read that blackstrap molasses has so much potassium, that it can instantly lower blood pressure in some people. A tablespoon of blackstrap molasses has 300 mg of potassium. A tablespoon of organic blackstrap molasses has 730 mg of potassium. It is very high in lots of nutrients that were in the sugarcane. This is sold in the health food store and the part that is left over is the sugar with no nutrients. Sweet potatoes or yams do not have as much potassium as potatoes, but this molasses tastes good when put on top of sweet potatoes. Then it will have as much potassium as potatoes.

How to Compare Different Blood Pressures

Say that the blood pressure reading changes and both numbers go down. It is easy to see that that is better. But what if it was 150 over 90 and it changes to 155 over 85. Has it improved or got worse. The doctors use 1 number to make it simple. The arteries are at the lower number (diastolic) for twice as long as they are at the higher number (systolic). So they multiply the lower number by 2 and add the higher number and divide by 3. So with the first one, it is 110. With the 2nd reading, it is 108 so the 2nd reading is better. So a reading of 160 over 80 is slightly better than the last one since it is 107.

Comparing Natural Remedies for High Blood Pressure with Medications

This shows the average number of points that the systolic blood pressure drops from these natural remedies for high blood pressure. Weight loss resulted in an average drop of 1.6 points. A vegetarian high-fiber diet resulted in an average drop of 2.8 points. Alcohol reduction showed a drop of 4.8 points. Exercise produced a drop of 7 -- 8 points. Drugs showed an average drop of 12 points. Sodium Restriction resulted in an average drop of 16 points in systolic blood pressure. A combination of vegan, low-fat, low salt diet and exercise showed a drop of 17 points. Note that studies show that adding olive oil to your food (use cold pressed extra virgin olive oil) reduces blood pressure and helps people to lose weight.

Water-only fasting with supervised re-feeding produced an average drop of 37 points. There was a 12 year study  done with 174 patients with mild to severe high blood pressure at True-North Health with the above. It had an average of water-only fasting for 10.6 days followed by supervised re-feeding for one week. For people with severe high blood pressure there was an average drop of 60 points from an average of 194 to an average of 134 after fasting. Below 140 is normal blood pressure.

For people with moderate high blood pressure, there was an average drop of 40 points from 166 to 126. For people with mild high blood pressure, there was a drop of 30 points from 146 to 116 after fasting. This article says to not try unsupervised fasting.

Pomegranate and Other Juices Can Help

"Dr. Michael Aviram, with the Lipid Research Laboratory at Rambam, thinks it's possible that many high-risk cardiovascular patients can be spared both bypass and carotid surgery by simply drinking pomegranate juice" according to this webpage. They did a study with 19 patients and 10 got pomegranate juice daily and 9 got a placebo (fake juice).

"While the blood pressures of those on the placebo didn't change, the systolic pressure (top number) of those on pomegranate juice went from an average of 174 to 162 mm Hg in just a month. And it reduced even further, to an average of 152 mm Hg at twelve months." This also helped with clearing blockages.

I do not like the taste of pomegranate juice but some love the taste. But I will drink juices that contain it. Other juices high in anti-oxidants that may help this (but have not been studied yet) include acai juice, mangosteen juice, goji juice and yumberry juice. I have heard of stories of blood pressure dropping a great deal with mangosteen juice but could be the placebo effect.

Chia Seeds

For many years I and others have consumed flaxseeds since it is high in omega-3 fatty acids. This helps lubricate the brain and arteries helping to prevent depression, heart attacks and strokes. But now there is a better source of omega-3 fatty acids. Chia seeds have more omega-3 fatty acids than flaxseeds. Green tea has been shown to lower hypertension and it is very healthy for you. They have decaf green tea.

Flaxseeds cannot be digested unless they are milled. But once this is done then they are subject to going rancid soon. This is not the case with chia seeds. You can add chia seeds to foods (like you do with flaxseed meal) or you can put 2 teaspoons of chia seeds in a glass of water and let sit for 20 minutes. You can add juice from a lemon or lime to it. Literature says that it helps slow the aging of the brain and arteries, prevents long term memory loss, and increases cardiovascular health.

It was a major food of the Aztecs. Also it is being called a superfood due to other high amounts of nutrition. It has a lot of fiber (fish has omega-3s but no fiber), 5 times the calcium in whole milk, 3 times the antioxidants in blueberries, 15 times the magnesium in broccoli, more potassium than bananas and more iron than spinach. Do not look for them in the fat and sick food store. Look for chia seeds or chia seed meal (AKA Salba) in the health food store, as seeds or milled.

Also I have read about a device that helps with high blood pressure. It was used with air force pilots that would pass out when they flew a jet that would put a lot of gravitational pressure on their body. They found that a side effect of using it was lowering of blood pressure.

The Kuna Indians of the San Blas islands of Panama have no high blood pressure. When they moved to the mainland, it soared to typical levels. They drink 5 cups of hot chocolate (cacao) per day. Dr. Norman Hollenberg (M.D. and researcher of Harvard medical school) learned the above and did a study with chocolate and found that it reduces blood pressure by producing nitric oxide which relaxes the artery walls. This is referring to the pure chocolate (100% cacao). Do not add sugar or milk. You can add agave, maple syrup, dried cane juice or stevia. The worst things for the arteries are smoking, refined sugar, corn syrup, homogenized milk, chlorine and fluoride.

According to the Framingham study, the defining study on blood pressure with over 50 years of data from 10,000 patients, the pulse pressure is the most important number. This is the bottom number subtracted from the top number. The higher the number, the stiffer your arteries are. Forty or lower is fine. Higher than that means stiffness in the arteries.

This comes from The People's Pharmacy®

"The newest candidate for natural blood pressure control is beet juice. A study in the journal Hypertension (online Feb. 4, 2008) showed that two cups (500 ml) of beet juice lowered blood pressure by approximately 10 points. That is better than many prescription drugs. The effect lasts up to 24 hours.

Beets are high in dietary nitrate and increase the amount of nitric oxide in the body. Nitric oxide (NO) helps blood vessels relax, lowering blood pressure. NO has anti-inflammatory activity and discourages blood clot formation." One guy puts red beet crystals (a quick Google search shows where to buy it) in his hot chocolate (cacao). He says that it has made a big difference. I do know that beets are great for health.

Dr. Louis Ignarro, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology, says to eat more foods that are rich in L-Arginine and L-Citrulline like almonds, dark chocolate, garbanzo beans, melons, peanuts, soy and walnuts. L-arginine and L-citrulline will clean the arteries out.

In a study entitled The Effect of Sour Tea (hibiscus flower tea) on Essential Hypertension, the authors show that a heaping tablespoon of the dried hibiscus flower steeped in a quart of boiling water is sufficient to achieve this blood pressure lowering effect (2-3 tea bags of hibiscus tea). Details of the study were summed up in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Volume 65, Issue 3, pp. 231 - 236, June, 1999.

Hibiscus Tea

A study showed that people with mild hypertension who drank 3 cups of hibiscus tea daily had a reduction of 7.2-mm Hg in systolic pressure and a reduction of 3.1 of diastolic pressure. In half the people it lowered the systolic pressure by 13.2.

The Journal of Food Agriculture says that hibiscus tea lowered blood pressure and cholesterol. Also Phytomedicine (2004;11:37-82) says that hibiscus tea lowers blood pressure. A team from the Chung Shan Medical University in Taiwan says the hibiscus flower contains antioxidants that help control cholesterol.

The Lemonade Diet

Here is an actual story that took place August 2008. A 39 year old woman was on medication for high blood pressure. She got on the lemonade diet or lemonade fast after seeing my webpage on it. She monitored her blood pressure and reduced her medication until she was off of it completely. By the 15th day of the fast, with no medication, her blood pressure was 106/79. That is a pulse pressure of 27!

Very Latest News- January, 22, 2009

They have just done a huge amount of studies on ecklonia cava extract (ECE). It is an extract of a brown seaweed by that name. It dissolves blood clots and lowers blood pressure better than drugs. In a controlled scientific study, it cut blood pressure levels by 40 points in 12 days-- from 200 mmHg to 160.

It improves memory by increasing the activity of neurotransmitters responsible for learning and memory. It scours out amyloid plaques linked to Alzheimer's. It reduces cholesterol better than green tea. In one study it scored higher than Viagra� in improving orgasmic function. It improves circulation by regenerating cells that make up the critical inner lining of your blood vessels keeping the arterial wall dilated and relaxed. It helps people get off diabetic meds.

It stimulates your body to burn more fat by increasing muscle mass. Dr. Haengwoo Lee and his team of M.D.'s and Ph.D.'s have spent over thirty million dollars on research, from in vitro to animal and human studies on ECE (ecklonia cava extract). Much of the work was done in Korea, and some at the University of Washington. See this site for more on this.

Swanson Health Products have the absolute lowest prices anywhere. They sell other company's products for much less than they sell them for also. ECE is not in the Swanson catalog yet since they just got it due to customer demand. Just type in ecklonia cava or NCL011 (last 3 characters are numbers) into the search box of upper left of Swanson site below. Get the Nutricology FibroBoost. It has 75 vegicaps of 400mg per capsule of pure ecklonia cava extract for $30.19. The normal retail price elsewhere is $49.95.

Garlic

Garlic has been shown to lower blood pressure. An N.D. says that you can cure high blood pressure by eating a healthy vegan diet (which means no cholesterol), eating most of it raw and by taking 3 cloves of garlic a day. He suggests cutting the garlic into pill size, coating them with olive oil and swallowing.

But this is not the best method for digestion. You have teeth so you can chew your food well and mix it with saliva before it enters the stomach. So you can use a garlic crusher and put the crushed garlic into your food. Also I love the taste of garlic. Of course the above diet is the healthiest but if you only take the garlic cloves that will help to lower your cholesterol. Many people eat an all raw food diet and swear by it. Of course that is how all the animals eat except for pets.

Watermelon

There are new studies that show that eating watermelon lowers blood pressure. A website says "Watermelon juice has also been named a novel source of the essential amino acid, arginine that is known to help to lower blood pressure as well, according to new research. Arginine is a precursor for nitric oxide, which has been shown to lower blood pressure, reduce blood clotting and protect against myocardial infarction and strokes. Researchers from the ARS, Texas A&M University, the University of Nevada, and Oklahoma State University, have reported that blood arginine levels increased by 22 per cent after three weeks of drinking watermelon juice with every meal." Watermelon contains citrulline that is converted into arginine.

Make sure to eat fruit first on an empty stomach and wait 15 minutes before eating other food that is not fruit. Fruit passes through the stomach and does not need to digested like other foods.