Blood Pressure

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

Here's the most telling fact about high blood pressure, a quintessentially modern disease—in remote regions of the world, there is almost no incidence of high blood pressure. It is not until people emigrate to more "civilized" areas that their blood pressure tends to increase. It may be that the change in their diet or the increased stress of a technological society is to blame, or it may be a combination of both.

Exactly why certain people get high blood pressure is not clear, except for the relatively few cases that obviously result from another disease. What we do know is that this condition, if it is not controlled, increases your chances of dying from a stroke or heart attack.

You are more prone to high blood pressure if you have problems with your kidneys, adrenal glands or blood vessels, eat lots of salt, are overweight or do not exercise regularly. The jury is still out on the long-term effects of caffeine on high blood pressure, but it is well documented that nicotine contributes to it. Stress also plays a big role—have you ever heard that just being nervous about a visit to the doctor can make your blood pressure jump? Actually, stress and nicotine work in a similar fashion. They both increase the release of adrenaline, which in turn raises blood pressure.

High blood pressure is nothing to fool around with—you should have your blood pressure checked regularly by a doctor, who will tell you what your reading means. Doctors in North America generally prescribe pharmaceutical drugs to treat high blood pressure. In Europe and Asia, where herbalism is generally more accepted than in the United States, physicians often prescribe herbs before turning to drugs.

If your blood pressure is only borderline high, like my neighbor Frederick's, you might try herbs and see if they work for you. I will admit that Frederick's doctor considered him one difficult patient—he kept asking about remedies called Baldrian and Weissdorn that he remembered from his native Germany. His doctor insisted that these drugs were not available in the United States and that it was unlikely that they had no side effects, as Frederick stubbornly claimed. So Frederick left the office without a prescription and called his brother in Germany. He discovered that his brother's doctor had indeed prescribed these remedies for his high blood pressure, but they were not drugs—they were the herbs known as valerian and hawthorn in English. Frederick easily found them in the local natural food store and wasted no time in starting an herbal and dietary program.

A month later, when Frederick went back to his doctor, his blood pressure was indeed lower. As stubborn as ever, he convinced his skeptical doctor to give the herbs a chance. After all, a respectable heart doctor had prescribed them to his brother in Germany. To help keep his blood pressure low, Frederick decided to take more time to relax, and he went back to Germany. He had some great stories to tell, but when the subject of American medicine came up, he always added, "Mein Gott, they do know a lot, but they still have a lot to learn about God's simple gifts of healing: the herbs."

Another way to maintain healthy blood pressure is to make your diet more herbal. Just adding garlic to a meal can keep your blood pressure lower for an entire day. In a 1987 study, the average blood pressure of volunteers dropped significantly when they took a daily dose of garlic oil—the equivalent of one-third of an ounce of fresh garlic—over a four-week period. When onion oil was given to people who had high blood pressure, their blood pressure also fell. As an added benefit, their cholesterol was also reduced.

There are also other dietary changes that can help you. If you drink coffee or black tea and also suffer from high blood pressure, consider switching to green tea. The Japanese neurologist Yoshikazu Sato, M.D., has found that green tea lowers high blood pressure. He believes that this may be why Japanese women who drink green tea experience only half as many deaths from stroke as those who don't, even though their diet contains large quantities of salt. The popularity of green tea in Japan may be one reason why the Japanese have less incidence of high blood pressure and heart disease than North Americans do.

Another way the Japanese are getting heart benefits is from all the kelp they eat. If you visit Japan, you can't help noticing that this plant appears in almost every meal—they even make noodles out of kelp! Japanese researchers, who are highly interested in kelp's health benefits, have done many studies on how kelp and other seaweeds keep blood pressure down. The results of these studies have been reported in various Japanese medical journals. One way to eat your way to a healthy blood pressure is to use powdered kelp and garlic as seasoning in place of salt. Although kelp contains some salt from the ocean waters it lives in, this is only a "sprinkling" compared to straight salt. The transition is simple. Dump the salt out of your saltshaker and replace it with one of the many salt substitutes sold in grocery stores that contain various herbs, including powdered kelp. You will also find recipes for using kelp in chapters 125 through 135. Kelp pills are sold along with other herbal supplements in natural food stores.

Since high blood pressure so often goes hand in hand with tension, the herbal sedatives valerian, skullcap, lemon balm, linden and motherwort hold promise. These herbs reduce stress and muscle tension and may also prove helpful in lowering blood pressure. There is some scientific evidence to support this, especially from studies on motherwort conducted by Italian and Chinese researchers.

Sedative aromas have also been shown to reduce blood pressure temporarily. See chapter 115 to learn how blood pressure can be lowered simply by sniffing a cinnamon-apple blend or orange blossom essential oil (also called neroli). Even sniffing an orange will provide a similar effect, though to a lesser degree. Next time you feel your blood pressure rising, try biting into a fragrant apple or peeling an orange! Also try sniffing rose geranium oil to keep your blood pressure steady. All these scents can also be used in a relaxing, blood pressure­lowering massage or bath oil.

High Blood Pressure Tea

1 quart boiling water

1 teaspoon each hawthorn berries and flowers, ginger rhizome, valerian root and motherwort leaves

Pour boiling water over the herbs and steep for 20 minutes. Strain herbs. Drink at least 2 cups a day. You can also make these herbs into a tincture using the same proportions, or you can look for commercial tinctures with similar herbs in them.

Blood Pressure­Lowering Massage Oil

12 drops each orange and geranium essential oils

2 drops cinnamon essential oil

4 ounces vegetable oil

Combine ingredients. Use as a massage oil or add a teaspoon to your bath, and stir well to disperse it before getting in the tub.

LOW BLOOD PRESSURE

You have probably heard people complain about their blood pressure being too high, but how about the reverse problem? While it is not too common, many people do suffer from symptoms caused by low blood pressure. If you have low blood pressure, you know that sometimes so little blood reaches your brain that simply getting out of a chair may be all it takes to make the room start swimming around you. But it is not just dizziness that results from low blood pressure—fatigue can also be a problem. And what are the causes? Low blood pressure can be caused by infections, fever and anemia, as well as more serious conditions, such as excessive bleeding and certain types of debilitating diseases.

If you have a relatively minor case of chronic low blood pressure—your doctor will tell you whether or not it is serious—that is not the result of an emergency situation, European physicians have an answer for you. Rosemary infused in white wine is a centuries-old European treatment for poor circulation, low blood pressure and the headaches brought on by these conditions. Even today, German pharmacists sell a rosemary ointment that is designed to be rubbed over the heart to increase blood pressure. You can make your own version of this ointment by infusing rosemary leaves in a vegetable oil and using the infusion as a massage oil. For instructions on how to make this herbal oil, see Rosemary Heart Oil on page 72.

Herbalists have found that some of the same herbs that raise blood pressure also help lower it. Because of their complex chemistry, hawthorn, ginger, Siberian ginseng and ginseng apparently "normalize" blood pressure, adjusting it according to your body's needs. Studies have shown that a single compound in ginger can both raise and lower blood pressure. A study conducted in Great Britain in 1984 showed that ginseng works the same way. When given to people experiencing low blood pressure, shock and an irregular heartbeat, it helps increase blood pressure and seems to strengthen heart contractions.

Siberian ginseng has a similar story. As shown in studies conducted through the Soviet Academy of Sciences in the 1960s and 1970s, this herb elevates blood pressure only in persons whose blood pressure is low. The researchers who organized these studies observed that Siberian ginseng regulated blood pressure by tightening the walls of arteries. Both ginsengs have been proven to provide a much needed mental and physical boost in people who have low blood pressure.

Another potential blood pressure balancer is rose geranium. This herb is used in experimental outpatient clinics for the elderly in Azerbaijan. Doctors there write prescriptions for their patients to sit and sniff this fragrant plant twice a day. Just inhaling the scent of rose geranium is said to adjust blood pressure—either to raise or lower it—depending upon what the person needs. The Azerbaijani doctors use the actual plant, which is commonly sold in nurseries, but you can also buy the essential oil, which is usually sold as geranium. To take advantage of this essential oil's powers, add a few drops to your bath water or simply put a drop on a cotton ball and sniff it.

One interesting herbal compound that has been proved to lower blood pressure is forskolin. This compound is considered a prototype of a new kind of drug to treat low blood pressure, congestive heart failure, blood clotting and asthma and to reduce the pressure in the eye in people with glaucoma. This compound comes from the plant Coleus forskohli and was discovered because a closely related coleus is used in the traditional Ayurvedic and Unani healing systems in India. Eventually, this compound will probably be offered both as a drug and as an herbal product.

Rosemary Heart Oil

½ cup olive oil

¼ cup dried rosemary leaves

Pour oil over leaves in a clean jar. Place in a warm location (in the sun or on a radiator, for instance) for 2 days. Strain out the leaves. Use this infusion as a massage oil to rub on the chest.

Low Blood Pressure Tincture

½ teaspoon each tinctures of hawthorn berries and flowers, ginger rhizome, rosemary leaves and Siberian ginseng root

Combine ingredients. Take half a dropperful 2 to 4 times a day.