Posted by Greg - National College of Naturopathic Medicine

In Reply to: the hypertensives i communicate with, and i, do not share these views posted by jwwright

Of course, I believe HT to be an extremely complex problem. The potential
sources are endless in a body where most everything is either directly or
indirectly tied to everything else.

Finding the source of HT in any given individual is a tedious and sometimes
fruitless process. Finding a successful treatment is the same. Disease
happens to individuals, not populations or study cohorts. Every case should
be addressed differently. This is why I find Medline studies to be of limited
value, regardless of their finding: they apply one therapy to everyone. Some
result will happen, but it certainly won't be as effective as an individual
treatment plan would be.

> ..the only response i have found is due to an allergy to wheat. i don't
> eat wheat anymore. i reduced the req't for meds, BUT i didn't cure the
> HTN.

I congratulate you on pursuing your condition with enough persistence to find
an allergic component. One possibility is that you removed the only possible
cause of the HT (wheat) and it still didn't go away completely. Another
possibility is that there is something else you are chronically exposed to
which is continuing to contribute to your condition.

Of course I don't *know* which of those is true. But an MD certainly wouldn't
* typically* suggest testing for food intolerance. Thus, if you hadn't been
so persistent you might easily have been a case of HT due to unknown cause.
Now you know wheat was a component of it, you removed the wheat, and your
condition got better. I would encourage you to continue looking. Maybe you
never find anything else. But maybe you do.

> acupuncture, meditation, et al, maybe reduces the meds req'd in some
> people for a short time but those "cures" are fleeting. they DON'T cure
> HTN.

Not all HT is the same. The study I cited on meditation showed that a
substantial number had benefits which lasted long term. I suspect that, for
those individuals who are thankful they have found that meditation relieves
their HT, they don't care if meditation is called a cure for HT or not. It
works for them.

How fleeting the results are waits to be seen. Non-patentable therapies have
never received much research attention, so I don't anticipate a host of
follow- ups to these studies, but maybe I'm just being jaded.

> weight reduction, salt restriction works in some people to lower
> BP, but not in me.... then
> i'll work on the cal blocker.

Remember that not all HT is sodium dependent. Some portion of it is sodium
independent and is actually dependent on cellular calcium levels. Your calcium
blocker may be a trojan horse in your HT "control." Just a possibility.

Calcium metabolism in the pathophysiology and treatment of clinical
hypertension.
Resnick LM
Am J Hypertens 1989 Jun 2:6 Pt 2 179S-185S

Abstract Two parallel lines of research increasingly implicate calcium in the
pathophysiology of hypertension. Studies at the molecular-cellular level
reveal that, as part of a second messenger system, calcium plays a critical
role in cellular responses that are of special relevance to blood pressure
homeostasis. Investigations at the epidemiological and clinical levels have
also increasingly involved calcium in hypertension, although the data
produced are often contradictory, suggesting alternately that hypertension
involves excess calcium and that the disorder is associated with a calcium
deficiency. In our own research, which emphasizes both the biochemical and
the clinical heterogeneity of the hypertensive process, we have found that
divalent cation metabolism may be shifted in both directions away from
average normotensive values among different types of hypertension. In
addition, these calcium metabolic shifts appear to mediate the pressor
effects of salt in both human and experimental forms of hypertension and may
help identify individuals for whom different therapeutic regimens would be
appropriate. We have developed a working cellular hypothesis in which all
forms of hypertension are seen as calcium-dependent. One form is more
critically dependent on extracellular calcium and is characterized by low
plasma renin activity, dietary salt sensitivity, and therapeutic
responsiveness to oral calcium supplementation and to calcium-channel
blockade. At the opposite extreme, the intracellular calcium-dependent,
angiotensin II-mediated form is characterized by high renin, lack of salt
sensitivity, and preferential response to beta-blockade and converting-enzyme
inhibition.

Perhaps you are not a sodium-sensitive HT patient, and thus calcium blockers
are of little value.

> remember, doc, if ANYTHING worked, HTN wouldn't be a problem.

I would never suggest that there is any *thing* that will work for HT. It is
very complex. The kidney is predominantly responsible for blood pressure
regulation, so I (were I a practicing physician, which I am not) would begin
there. I personally think that you are doing all the right things, far more
than the "average" HT patient.

Best of luck to you. And if I come across the quick fix for HT in my studies,
I'll certainly pass it along.

Regards,

Greg

Follow Ups:

• Re: Not all Hypertension is the same bernice
• Re: Not all Hypertension is the same WILL

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