Garlic is another herbal medication for hypertension. If it is an emergency and you're out of your medicines, garlic can be an option for your medications.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I would like some ideas for controlling hypertension.
I know that some folks are able to control their high blood pressure without medication through diet and/or meditation. Check with a doctor about whether this approach is right for your situation. I know this approach has worked for some people when medication did not.
www.webmd.com/
I had a long struggle with hypertension and over 10 years have gradually figured out what works for me. Medication lowers the BP, but gives side effects I was not willing to live with; especially scary was realizing that thinking and reasoning were becoming difficult, and the urge to fall asleep while driving was totally unacceptable! First step was to begin taking garlic, one 1500mg capsule a day, which brought the systolic pressure down 10 points, so I added, one at a time, two more, which lowered the BP a total of 30 points. Adding more garlic did not make any difference. At this point I consulted a naturopathic doctor and quit the BP medication, except for a diuretic. After a more intensive interview than I ever had from an MD, the ND suspected a wheat sensitivity so I gave up eating wheat and discovered that my abdominal discomfort and gas disappeared, a source of stress gone! She also ordered a potassium supplement because the diuretic was excreting potassium from my system. She also started me on a horse chestnut preparation to strengthen my veins; within a few weeks, the pain in my varicose veins was gone!
Then the ND gave me a copy of a research article on the effects of Vitamin D on blood pressure and started me on 4000 units a day. By this time my blood pressure was down 50 points from where it had started (down to 140's from 190). The next addition was pomegranate capsules, 250 mg. twice a day, which finally brought my systolic BP down to the 120's. My diastolic pressure was still in the 90's; the main event that lowered it to to 70's was deciding to quit a stressful part-time job no matter how frugally I had to live after that. So now, my blood pressure is normal, 120's over 70's and my doctor says I have the blood pressure of a teenager again! I continue to eat a low salt diet and take daily vitamins and fish oil. But the main thing to control the BP is garlic, vitamin D, and pomegranate and that's what works for me. I will never subject myself to blood pressure medications and their nasty side effects again!
Exercise regularly (walking is fine). Lose weight if you need to. Cut radically back on salt, fats and junk food. Eat high fiber (oat bran is about the best thing ever to reduce cholesterol). Eat mostly fresh vegetables and fruit, and cut radically back on red meats, eat mostly fish and chicken and not much of it either.
First, throw out the salt shaker. Yes, we all need salt to live BUT the amount we get in foods in more than enough. Then read all the labels of everything you eat. Take about 6 months and do not eat out, learn to eat and cook.
If we happen to eat out, I order my food salt free. They fix it. Taste is so much better. Right down from the McD fish sandwich to the prized steak.
Know the names that salt goes by in food. Buy fresh or frozen vegies. Canned products have salt. Diet soda has horrible amounts of sodium in it. Know the fact that in the food industry that when something is lower in sugar it is Higher in salt. That is the balance. Had a tour with General Mills as a daycare provider. Very informative.
Just cause you cut out fat, salts, etc. does not mean boring foods.
I am diabetic with high cholesterol. It is not the foods I eat as much as a health condition compounded with meds. I cook with herbs and spices, fat free, salt free, lo-cal. When you crave foods, drink a glass of water. The brain will let you know if that is what you needed.
As a whole, I don't buy reduced this or that, as the balance is usually something else I should not have. I don't use sugar subs, I just eliminate that need of sugar in my things. Making a cake, use applesauce instead of oil AND sugar. Most recipes can reduce sugar by half and the oil/fat as well can be reduced. Making muffins, use yogurt instead of the fat/eggs.
Many ideas. I also do all the good healthy exercise, and other things suggested.
