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Can anyone recommend the best natural remedy for high blood pressure?
My mother has high blood pressure, sometimes as much about the 200/160 mark. When her blood pressure is high for a while, she has an enlarged right ventricle, which leads also to CHF. Her breath is hard. Your doctor has her Betaloc, plendil, Inhibace, Dosan, Cartia a blood thinner, Lipex for high cholesterol and quinine for nocturnal cramps. She is in her early 70s, and she complains of headache, extreme tiredness and loss of energy. She has dark circles under the eyes increase their eyes, as if she has not slept in months with shortness of breath, as she’s gasping for air. I want to try it, natural remedies, because these synthetic drugs do not seem to do much for her overall health. Can anyone recommend some really good treatment and effective natural remedies for both high blood pressure and CHF? I know celery is good for lowering blood pressure.
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#2 written by Mark M 2 years ago
It’s great that you are concerned for your mother. She has a lot of stuff to be concerned about, and I hope you can take the time to learn about all of the issues.
I feel for you and your mother. It’s hard to believe that they can’t get her BP under control. I’ll give you my best answer on natural means for reducing BP, but I strongly recommend you find a hypertension specialist. The bloodpressureline Yahoo! group is a great resource, as well. It is run by a hypertension specialist who can help you to find someone in your local area.
On the CHF side, you should find a heart failure specialist, as well. (Not just a regular cardiologist!)
Now, as to how to treat it:
1. Do *all* of the obvious things:
a. No smoking
b. Cut out caffeine and alcohol
c. If her BMI isn’t < 25, help her figure out how to get it down there. Obesity, more than anything else, is a huge issue. Check out the DASH diet and the rice diet.
d. Reduce sodium intake and increase potassium intake (fresh fruits such as oranges and bananas can help here). — This is actually a very easy thing to do and might bear fruit, so to speak.
e. Make sure she doesn’t have sleep apnea. It can cause high BP.
f. Get her regular exercise, even if it is just walking around a few times a day or doing water aerobics. Build up her stamina. Create a log for this, if necessary, so that she can visually see her own progress.
2. Take her BP regularly. If she doesn’t have a digital BP cuff, get her one and make sure she knows when and how to use it. (They’re remarkably inexpensive… around $50 for a good one at your local pharmacy.) Have her log BP as well as exercise.
3. Work with the hypertension and heart failure specialists to determine if her medications and their dosages are appropriate. Is Betaloc the right beta blocker? Is a calcium channel blocker such as Plendil indicated? Is her ACE inhibitor (Inhibace) at the right dosage, and does she understand the best times of day to take it? Cartia is a calcium channel blocker. Why is she on two different CCBs? Quinine is not FDA-approved for the treatment of leg cramps. There should be a better way for that, IMO. And if she has shortness of breath at night, why in the world isn’t she on a diuretic to get the fluids out of her lungs?!
4. Check out chfpatients.com for more information on CHF treatment. Start by reading “the manual”. You might also be interested in the “nutrient stew” section.
5. Ask your mother if you can sit in on her doctor appointments. Write out as many questions in advance as possible and send them to the doctor beforehand. You’ll get much more thoughtful responses this way.Please feel free to contact me if you want to chat about any of this…
Good luck!
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#5 written by kt 2 years ago
I’m not speaking as an m.d., but I had a friend visit me 2,000 miles from her home and ran out of her blood pressure medicine, I researched and found the herb gotu kola to be recommended for high blood presure, she tried it and she and another friend were able to maintain their health without some of the unpleasant side affects of the meds they were on. they did so well there physician agreed to use that therapy and they never took the prescription meds after that. I would never tell anyone to do this on this one incident, but if you were out, I would try it until I got to the pharmacy.
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The dash diet, google it. also hawthrone ginko biloba. she still needs bp meds however dash diet takes a few months to work and the hawthrone at least one year to reach full affects.
but the hawthrone strengthens the heart too. sounds like she is taking way to much stuff, ever consider a second opinion? I have read doctors say that congestion heart failure was not as common until beta blockers came along. they actually weaken the heart that is why I stopped mine and got on a calcium channel blocker.
oh by the way the dash diet will help with fluid retention there it will as it will counter the salt in the diet, and over time she should be able to reduce the medications. she seems to be on an aweful lot of medications, she could be having severe side affects from them. please have her see another doctor a natrapath or something. by the way the breathing difficulty might be due to fluid in her lungs due to the weakened heart, and if she is on any type of beta blocker it will make it worse.
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