Posted by Russ

I believe that most primary hypertension can be traced back to high
levels of the stress hormone cortisol. There are dozens, maybe hundreds of
things that raise cortisol levels, so there is not going to be any one cure
for hypertension. Out of the 40,000+ citations in PubMed that mention
cortisol, 1323 also mention hypertension.

One of the most interesting articles I have found on this topic is a
piece by GS Kelly. The abstract is below. If you go to this abstract in
PubMed you can link to the journal and get the entire article. It is well
worth the five minutes it takes.

Russ
===================
Altern Med Rev 1999 Aug;4(4):249-65
Nutritional and botanical interventions to assist with the adaptation to
stress.
Kelly GS

Prolonged stress, whether a result of mental/emotional upset or due to
physical factors such as malnutrition, surgery, chemical exposure, excessive
exercise, sleep deprivation, or a host of other environmental causes,
results in predictable systemic effects. The systemic effects of stress
include increased levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, a decline in
certain aspects of immune system function such as natural killer cell
cytotoxicity or secretory-IgA levels, and a disruption of gastrointestinal
microflora balance. These systemic changes might be a substantial
contributor to many of the stress-associated declines in health. Based on
human and animal research, it appears a variety of nutritional and botanical
substances - such as adaptogenic herbs, specific vitamins including ascorbic
acid, vitamins B1 and B6, the coenzyme forms of vitamin B5 (pantethine) and
B12 (methylcobalamin), the amino acid tyrosine, and other nutrients such as
lipoic acid, phosphatidylserine, and plant sterol/sterolin combinations -
may allow individuals to sustain an adaptive response and minimize some of
the systemic effects of stress.

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