Posted by Camilla Cracchiolo

I don't think herbs should be used as a primary treatment for high
blood pressure. High blood pressure can kill people; it causes
strokes, heart failure and can destroy the kidneys. Accurate
regulation of dosage is very important in high blood pressure
treatment and herbs are too uneven in dose to give this effect. The
existing medications are well studied and highly effective (although
often possessing unpleasant side effects) while herbal treatments
for high blood pressure are not well researched at all.

Taking an herb for high blood pressure is also no more holistic than
taking a drug.

Neither approach attempts to address what is often the underlying
problem causing hypertension: loss of elasticity in the arteries
("hardening of the arteries" or arteriosclerosis). This is caused
by atherosclerosis, where cholesterol accumulates at a site of
injury in the blood vessel and begins building up a plaque. This
plaque in turn becomes hardened as the body deposits calcium in the
site.

Having said that, there IS a natural approach to treating high blood
pressure; it's just not herbal.

About half of people with high blood pressure will respond to
restricting salt (sodium) in the diet.

If a person is overweight, a weight loss of about 10% of total body
weight is often enough to normalize blood pressure.

Aerobic exercise also can help return blood pressure to normal. The
combination of weight loss and exercise can normalize blood pressure
in as much as 70-80% of people with hypertension.

It's important to monitor cholesterol and triglycerides and reduce
fat in order to prevent further damage.

Please don't wait to start treating high blood pressure. See a
physician and get appropriate medication NOW. For one thing, some
cases of high blood pressure are due to other problems such as
kidney disease. You need to know what's going on. You also need to
learn to take your own blood pressure so you can monitor changes.

If you have what's called "essential" hypertension (not due to
another cause), then you need to begin drug treatment while
beginning a diet and exercise program. This will often enable a
person to eventually get off the drugs but it often takes several
months to get this effect. Don't let your blood pressure damage
your body in the meantime.

Please send me an e-mail copy of any replies you post to the
newsgroup.

Thanks.

Follow Ups:

• Re: Herbs for High Blood Pressure Karl Carpenter
• Re: Herbs for High Blood Pressure Guerry

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