Posted on 01/09/2020 6:20:28 AM PST by ConservativeMind
The October, November, and December 2013 issues of the Journal of Clinical Hypertension (a conservative journal) each included a section of a major research review article on a topic that hard-science, data-driven clinicians might not have taken seriously until recently. The topic under consideration: replacing antihypertensive medications with appropriate nutrition and nutraceutical supplements.
“People’s eyes have been opened,” he said. There has been amazement at how much science is in the literature to back up such strategies, he added, and surprise about the extent to which hypertension patients are clamoring to know more about ways to avoid or reduce the polypharmacy offered by conventional practitioners.
Functional medicine practitioners, aware of the increase in complex, chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, cancer, mental illness, and autoimmune disorders, focus on identifying the underlying causes of disease and look for interactions between genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. They seek to promote health and vitality by integrating conventional practices with prevention through combinations of drugs and/or botanical medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification, exercise, and stress management rather than emphasizing acute symptom relief, urgent care, and elimination of illness and disease.
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The new treatment approach, Dr. Houston said, views hypertension as a disease in which the vascular biology is altered and the arteries need to be treated appropriately through nonpharmacological mechanisms: nutrition, nutraceutical supplements, antioxidants, weight loss, exercise, meditation, and sleep. Then the pharmacological approach can be integrated to achieve the maximum reduction and protection of the cardiovascular system. The preferred drugs are angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs), and calcium-channel blockers (CCBs). Dr. Houston, in general, does not recommend beta blockers, diuretics, central alpha agonists, or alpha blockers. “But if you change the lifestyle and give it some time, eventually you probably can get [patients] off many of the drugs.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ...
Isometric exercise works to lower blood pressure. Either squeeze a tennis ball or purchase a Zona-Plus machine.
Absolutely works. Takes as much as 15 points off your blood pressure.
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