High Blood Pressure

High Blood Pressure

Several years ago I spent three very long days filming what I hoped would be my first video about health food. But as fate would have it, the time was wasted because an equipment malfunction ruined the tape.

Correction: The time wasn't really wasted, because I got to know the cameraman. He had high blood pressure (hypertension), and I suggested some natural therapies. After we parted company, I didn't hear from him for quite a while, but later he wrote me: "I have been practicing what you preached for over a year now. I eliminated alcohol, pork and beef, now eat more plant foods and herbs and take supplements: beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, B complex. A recent physical was very revealing. My diastolic blood pressure was down almost 30 percent. My cholesterol dropped from 192 to 159."

Hearts Working Too Hard

Hypertension is generally defined as a blood pressure greater than 140/90. The first number (systolic) is the force that blood exerts on the artery walls when the heart is pumping. The second number (diastolic) is the residual force that remains when the heart relaxes between beats. Any blood pressure reading below "high"--say, a borderline 138/88--is safer, but you should still try getting it down closer to what's considered normal, 120/80. That's because any elevation in blood pressure raises your risk for heart attack and stroke.

About 50 million Americans have high blood pressure, which is often called the silent killer. While the condition itself causes no symptoms, it sets the stage for a heart attack or stroke. In the past few decades, doctors and other health professionals have made a big push to detect high blood pressure and treat it more aggressively, and the rate of heart attack has indeed gone down. But the problem, in my opinion, is that doctors are too quick to treat this condition with synthetic drugs. About half of the people diagnosed with high blood pressure have borderline to mildly high blood pressure. There's plenty of solid evidence that for them, diet and lifestyle changes, including regular exercise, stress management and self-monitoring with a home blood pressure device, work just as well as drugs, with no side effects.

Diet and lifestyle modifications all tend to provide a sense of control that in itself may be beneficial. But don't expect the pharmaceutical industry to encourage the natural way. It would cut into the $2.5 billion-a-year market for antihypertensive medication.

Green Pharmacy for High Blood Pressure

Eating hearty vegetable soups on a regular basis can do more than help normalize blood pressure and prevent heart disease. It can also help prevent cancer, obesity, diabetes and constipation. Vegetable soup is so good for health that I don't even call it minestrone anymore, but rather Medistrone.

What should you put in your Medistrone Soup? You can use just about any vegetables, especially the ones mentioned in this chapter.

There are also any number of herbs that can help control blood pressure, but you don't have to put those in a soup. They make rather nice teas.

Celery (Apium graveolens). Celery has long been recommended in traditional Chinese medicine for lowering high blood pressure, and experimental evidence bears this out. In one study, injecting laboratory animals with celery extract significantly lowered their blood pressure. In humans, eating as few as four celery stalks has done the same.

Garlic (Allium sativum). This wonder herb not only helps normalize blood pressure, it also reduces cholesterol. In a scientifically rigorous study, people with high blood pressure were given about one clove of garlic a day for 12 weeks. Afterward they exhibited significantly lower diastolic blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

"We now know that garlic can reduce hypertension, even in quantities as small as a half-ounce per week," says Varro Tyler, Ph.D., dean and professor emeritus of pharmacognosy (natural product pharmacy) at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. A half-ounce per week works out to about one clove a day. If you cook with garlic and use it in your salads, getting that much should be a snap. If you haven't yet developed a taste for it, you can take garlic in capsule form. With so many health benefits associated with this herb, I'd recommend finding many ways to enjoy it in your food.

Hawthorn (Crataegus, various species). Hawthorn extract can widen (dilate) blood vessels, especially the coronary arteries, according to a report published in the Lawrence Review of Natural Products, a respected newsletter. Hawthorn has been used as a heart tonic for centuries.

If you'd like to try this powerful heart medicine, discuss it with your doctor. You can try a tea made with one teaspoon of dried herb per cup of boiling water and drink up to two cups a day.

Kudzu (Pueraria lobata). Chinese studies suggest that this weedy vine helps normalize blood pressure. In one study, a tea containing about eight teaspoons of kudzu root was given daily to 52 people for two to eight weeks. In 17 people, blood pressure declined markedly. Thirty others showed some benefit.

Kudzu contains a chemical (puerarin) that has decreased blood pressure by 15 percent in laboratory animals. With 100 times the antioxidant activity of vitamin E, puerarin also helps prevent heart disease and cancer. (antioxidants are substances that neutralize cell-damaging oxygen molecules known as free radicals.)

Onion (Allium cepa). In one study, two to three tablespoons of onion essential oil a day lowered blood pressure in 67 percent of people with moderate hypertension. Their systolic levels fell an average of 25 points and their diastolic readings fell 15 points.

The bad news is that you can't get this oil, and you wouldn't be able to eat enough onions to get this much of an effect. In my case, I'd have to ingest three times my body weight in onions. No thanks. But I do think that onions have enough going for them that you should definitely add more of them to your diet to help lower blood pressure.

Tomato (Lycopersicon lycopersicum). A typical minestrone has a tomato base. That's also perfect for Medistrone Soup, because tomatoes are high in gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA), a compound that can help bring down blood pressure. According to my database, tomatoes also contain six other compounds that do the same thing.

broccoli (Brassica oleracea). This vegetable has at least six chemicals that reduce blood pressure.

Carrot (Daucus carota). According to my database, carrots contain eight compounds that lower blood pressure.

Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) and other foods containing magnesium. Magnesium deficiency has been implicated in high blood pressure. Many Americans are deficient in this mineral and don't know it. A 1994 Gallup poll showed that about 72 percent of those surveyed reported inadequate magnesium intake.

To get magnesium, turn to leafy greens, legumes and whole grains. Purslane, poppy seeds and string beans are the best dietary sources, according to my database. Nutritionists suggest that a daily supplement of 400 milligrams of magnesium may also help, but I generally recommend getting nutrients from foods.

Saffron (Crocus sativus). This expensive herb contains a blood pressure­lowering chemical called crocetin. Some authorities even speculate that the low incidence of heart disease in Spain is due to that nation's high saffron consumption. You can use saffron in your cooking or make a tea with it.

Saffron Saffron is a rare spice produced by the stigma of saffron flowers; the centers of about 75,000 flowers are required to make a pound of spice.

Valerian (Valeriana officinalis). Earlier in this chapter I mentioned that gamma-amino butyric acid helps control blood pressure. Well, the herb valerian contains a chemical called valerenic acid that inhibits an enzyme that breaks down GABA. So ingesting something containing valerenic acid would, in effect, ensure higher levels of GABA and lower blood pressure.

Valerian is also a tranquilizer/sedative, which also helps reduce blood pressure.

Assorted spices. As for spices that you can add to your Medistrone, fennel contains at least ten compounds that lower blood pressure, oregano has seven, and black pepper, basil and tarragon each have six.