Natural Approaches for Healthy Blood Pressure

 Are you on hypertension medications? If so you might want to try complimenting them with natural nutritional support. You may even with your doctor’s blessing, be able to reduce your doses. Here are some nutrients and or foods that support the effects of common classes of antihypertensive medications.

Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors:

•       Melatonin

•       Omega-3 fats EPA/DHA

•       Pomegranate

•       Pycnogenol

•       Zinc

•       Hawthorne berry

•       Foods: egg yolk, fish (sardines, tuna), fish sauce, garlic, gelatin, kelp, wakame

Angiotensin receptor blockers:

•       GLA

•       NAC

•       Co Q 10

•       Oleic acid

•       Resveratrol

•       Potassium

•       Taurine

•       Vit C

•       B-6

•       Foods: celery, fiber, garlic, Olive oil

Beta Blockers

•       Hawthorne Berry

Calcium Channel Blockers

•       Alpha Lipoic Acid

•       Calcium

•       Magnesium

•       NAC

•       Oleic acid

•       Omega-3s EPA DHA

•       Taurine

•       B-6

•       Vit C, Vit E, Hawthorne Berry

•       Foods: celery, garlic, Olive oil

Central Alpha Agonists (reduce sympathetic NS activity)

•       CoQ10

•       GLA

•       Potassium ( restrict sodium)

•       Taurine

•       Vit C

•       B-6

•       Zinc

•       Foods: celery, fiber, garlic, protein

All of this will be much more effective if you also walk and exercise regularly. Exercise is one of the best things you can do to lower high blood pressure.

Regular exercise helps make your heart stronger and more efficient at pumping blood, which lowers the pressure in your arteries.

In fact, 150 minutes of moderate exercise, such as walking, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise, such as running, per week can help lower blood pressure and improve your heart health.

You’ll also want to watch your sodium intake. And focus on eating more potassium rich foods which include fresh fruits and vegetables. Limiting alcohol is important. Drinking alcohol in any quantity may raise your blood pressure. Limit your drinking to no more than one drink a day for women, two for men. Also get a handle on stress. Chronic stress can contribute to high blood pressure. Finding ways to manage stress can help.

Get to a healthy weight. Losing weight can significantly lower high blood pressure. This effect is even greater when you exercise.

Cut out sugar and refined carbs. Refined carbs, especially sugar, may raise blood pressure. Some studies have shown that low-carb diets may help reduce your levels.

Take Co-Q-10 and Magnesium. Co-Q-10 is important for normal blood pressure. Take at least 100 mg daily. Magnesium is an important mineral that helps regulate blood pressure. Take a supplement at dinner and another at bedtime for a great nights sleep. Find magnesium in whole foods, such as legumes and whole grains.

And take EPA+DHA Omega-3s. 1000 to 1500 mg daily is the best level to ensure you have ideal blood levels.

Brain saving Tocotrienol: Vitamin E supplement helps 'redirect' blood during stroke.

Strokes are a leading cause of death and long term disability in the US. With the failure of more than 1,000 experimental neuroprotective drugs, one scientist has stopped trying to discover the next new stroke treatment, and instead is trying to prevent strokes from happening in the first place. Dr Cameron Rink thinks he may have found the answer in a little known member of the vitamin E family, which appears to remodel the brain’s circulatory system and provide protection the instant a stroke strikes.

During a stroke part of the brain is not getting blood or oxygen and the cells are dying. There’s not much we can do for a patient at this point and that’s frustrating,” says Rink, a professor of surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

The blood vessel "redirect" is the result of 10 weeks' worth of supplementation with a little-known type of vitamin E called tocotrienol. Tocotrienol appears to stimulate arteriogenesis -- or the remodeling of existing blood vessels that can instantaneously expand in response to a demand for oxygen-rich blood. This collateral blood supply can make a major difference in stroke outcomes.

Tocotrienol, found naturally in palm oil, is a vitamin E variant and currently available in stores as an oral nutritional supplement. Because it doesn't appear to interfere with other stroke therapies like blood thinners, or have any other side effects, Rink thinks that the vitamin could someday become a common stroke prevention strategy, much like low-dose aspirin is currently recommended for cardiac patients.

Women: Walk away your risk of stroke.

Women who walk at least three hours every week are less likely to suffer a stroke than women who walk less or not at all, according to new research from Spain.

Women who walked briskly for 210 minutes or more per week had a lower stroke risk than inactive women but also lower than those who cycled and did other higher-intensity workouts for a shorter amount of time.

The results for women who were regular walkers translated to a 43 percent reduction in stroke risk compared to the inactive group.

Each year in the U.S., about 795,000 people suffer a stroke, according to the American Heart Association. Put another way, one American has a stroke every 40 seconds and dies from one every four minutes.

Despite a recent dip in strokes attributed to better blood pressure control and anti-smoking campaigns, the World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that stroke cases will increase as the global population continues to grow older.

Guidelines set by the WHO and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend at least 150 minutes - or two-and-a-half hours - of moderate exercise such as brisk walking each week.

Source: Physical Activity and Risk of Cerebrovascular Disease in the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition-Spain Study

http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/44/1/111

Foods high in rutin can help prevent blood clots.

Research by investigators at Harvard’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and published in online in The Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI) has led to a strategy for preventing thrombosis (blood clotting) — feeding rutin to patients.

“It’s not always fully appreciated that the majority of Americans will die as the result of a blood clot in either their heart or their brain,” says senior author Robert Flaumenhaft, MD, PhD, an investigator in the Division of Hemostasis and Thrombosis at BIDMC and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Approximately half of all morbidity and mortality in the United States can be attributed to heart attack or stroke.”

Foods high in rutin can help prevent blood clots
Among the more than 5,000 compounds that were screened by researchers,, quercetin-3-rutinoside (rutin) emerged as the most potent agent to prevent blood clots.

“Rutin proved to be the most potently anti-thrombotic compound that we ever tested in this model,” said Flaumenhaft. Rutin was shown to inhibit both platelet accumulation and fibrin generation during thrombus formation.

Foods that are high in rutin include buckwheat, apples and asparagus.

Reduced stroke risk associated with B vitamin supplementation.

This study systematically reviewed the effects of B vitamin supplementation on plasma homocysteine (Hcy), cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in randomized controlled trials. Data from 19 studies including 47,921 participants was analyzed and the results showed a significant protective effect on stroke and a decrease in blood Hcy levels with B vitamin supplementation.

Note, be sure your daily multi-vitamin provides at least 400 iu folic acid and 25 to 50 mg of the B complex vitamins, including at least 1000 mcg B-12.

Huang T, Chen Y, Yang B, Yang J, Wahlqvist ML, Li D. Meta-analysis of B vitamin supplementation on plasma homocysteine, cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. Clin Nutr. 2012 Aug;31(4):448-54.

Depression Boosts Stroke Risk

Being depressed may increase an individual's risk of stroke and stroke death, a meta-analysis found.

Depression was associated with a 45% increased risk of total stroke and a 55% higher risk of fatal stroke. The association was reported in the Sept. 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The analysis included 28 studies involving 317,540 patients. Eight of the studies focused on fatal stroke, three on nonfatal stroke, six on ischemic stroke, and two on hemorrhagic stroke.

While this sounds alarming, the actual numbers of people who have stroke were very small. The absolute risk differences associated with depression were 106 cases for total stroke, 53 cases for ischemic stroke, and 22 cases for fatal stroke per 100,000 patients per year.

Depression may contribute to stroke via a variety of mechanisms, including known neuroendocrine and immunological/inflammatory effects, its association with poor health behaviors that could increase cardiovascular risk, and its correlation with other major comorbidities that raise the risk of stroke, such as diabetes and hypertension.

Fortunately, there are a number of lifestyle factors and nutrient factors that help us to avoid both depression and stroke. Healthy blood vessels depend on a good level of vitamin C for elasticity. Flavonoids like pycnogenol, grape seed extract, resveratrol and Curcumin support healthy blood vessels. Fish oils and vitamin D support the health of the blood vessels, reduce risk of stroke when taken daily, and also support brighter mood.

Source reference:

Pan A, et al "Depression and risk of stroke morbidity and mortality: A meta-analysis and systematic review" JAMA 2011; 306(11): 1241-1249.