Natural Ways To Lower Bp

Do you take any of the standard meds Lily? I mean what the drs dish out. I asked my GP about taking a magnesium supplement and she said not to [I take Losartan 50mg] but just stick to a well balanced diet. 

Drs on the other hand are not nutritionists are they and from what I hear get very little training in nutrition.

No, I don't take any meds. I'm a former nurse and know a bit too much about them. I'm not telling people not to take them, and obviously if your BP is very high they're the lesser of two evils. But I think they're best avoided if possible.

When my BP first went to 150/90 in my mid-50s (having been a steady 110/70 all my life till then) my doctor immediately prescribed a calcium-channel blocker. I said nothing, but didn't get the prescription filled, and started myself on magnesium. Six months later, when my BP was down to 120/80, I told her what I'd done. She immediately threw up her hands in horror, said I'd get all kinds of side-effects (which I never did - and this was in 1999) and magnesium should never be used instead of medication. I think they're just programmed to think that way. Well, that's the charitable interpretation - if I said what I really think my reply would probably get deleted!

Yes, my reaction to the beetroot juice was the same as yours! However, I have heard that it's quite effective for some people. The same person also suggested fresh ginger tea, which sounds much more palatable. I'm about to start a one-month trial of this. If this doesn't work, I'll try increasing my magnesium intake slightly. I've been on 375mg per day till now, but as it doesn't give me diarrhoea I'm going to up the dose by 50%. Magnesium is pretty harmless. Some people advocate taking as much as 1500mg per day but I'd never do that. However, I don't think 500-600mg would do any harm.

Like you, I eat a healthy diet with hardly any salt, am not overweight and exercise regularly.

I wish I'd done a bit more research before starting on meds - just 3 years ago. I had a health check and was found to have BP of 160/90 and subsequently a 24 hr monitor which said I had stage 2 hypertension at 159/84. The dr I spoke to on the phone [who I did not know] said i wouldn't be able to sort it on my own and would need meds and he would recommend a CCB, I felt he was a bully as he had never met me at that time. I did some research and saw that due to age [I was 70] the first med should have been a CCB but I refused as I couldn't eat my beloved breakfast grapefruit. So I took Ramipril and after a month the dose was raised and then the cough started so I changed to Losartan where I've been ever since. The BP does seem to go up and down rather more than I think it should, but it's very rarely up in the 160's these days.

I wish I'd had your knowledge and taken magnesium at the start.  The GP I eventually ended up with is a lovely friend of my daughter's and it was when she said that if I was her mother she would be insisting I took the meds that I fell for it.  I've hated doing it but they put the frighteners on you I think. AND they keep moving the goal posts !!

Hi Jane,

Have you thought of trying a small dose of magnesium alongside the Losartan, to see whether it brings your blood pressure down any further or stabilises it a bit ?I'd emphasis only to try a half dose as a) if it proves to be too effective it could take your BP a bit too low; and b) it causes diarrhoea in some people so you don't want to overdo it till you know whether it's going to have this effect on you. I just checked Losartan and as far as I can see, the only mineral you mustn't take with it is potassium. But read the notice inside the pack to be doubly sure.

The Big B (don't think advertising is allowed on this site) sells magnesium oxide over the counter in its vitamins section. It's formulated so that two tablets make up 375mg, which is a very safe daily dose. They recommend you take them separately, at different times of day (to avoid diarrhoea problems I think). I can't advise you but if I were in your shoes I'd take just one tablet per day for a month, as well as the Losartan, to see whether it made any difference, then take it from there. It takes several weeks to kick in, as the effect is very mild, not like medication. There are other preparations of magnesium, but some contain all kinds of other stuff - vitamins etc. - and I prefer to stick to basics. The variety they sell is the oxide, but it comes in other forms. The oxide is actually said to be the least effective form of magnesium. Once when I couldn't get to the UK to stock up I tried the local variety, in the form of the more effective citrate, but it gave me terrible heartburn and I had to stop.

It seems to me that your BP wasn't really all that high at around 160/85, especially for your age. It is above the recommended limit, of course, but mine was already at 150/90 when I was only 55. Magnesium controlled that for 15 years. It's only in the last couple of years that the systolic has gone up to an occasional 160, with the diastolic in the 50-60 range. My GP is a bit concerned, as high systolic combined with abnormally low diastolic can be a sign of atherosclerosis. However, he doesn't want to start me on any meds as they bring both down, and I already suffer dizzy spells. He's not the one who originally disapproved of magnesium, btw - I changed doctor when I moved a few years ago. He knows me very well and says he trusts me to experiment with natural remedies and different doses of magnesium... as long as I document it all and tell him what works!

As I've mentioned before, there's a so-called "natural" product out there called Alistrol that's reckoned to work wonders. (I mistakenly called it Anistrol in my earlier post.) However, I'm not going to try it till I've talked to a few real live people who've taken it - as opposed to those who post fake testimonials on on-line pharmacy sites. Never make the mistake of thinking natural=harmless. That's particularly true of herbal remedies - particularly the ones sold in the form of teas. They've carried off quite a few people over the years.

And, as already mentioned, ubiquinol - which is much more expensive than magnesium - really did the trick for me. But I'd hesitate to recommend it to anyone else, even though I gather most people don't suffer the same drastic side-effects as I did.

Thanks Lily for your interesting reply.  I'm wondering where you are based as you sound as if you don't live in the UK at least permanently. I'm thinking that I will give the magnesium a try as you suggest. Do you think I should inform my dr when next I go for a routine 6 month check up which will be in 3 weeks.

Standard practise is that the BP goes through the roof in the surgery but is OK at home. I take in a sheet of 8 days readings, 2 in the morning and 2 in the evening and an average of the lot. I keep a diary of readings for my own interest and think it is more relevant than the 8 days.

Well, up to you as to whether or not you inform your GP if you do decide to try magnesium. Partly depends on whether or not it works. If you've only got three weeks it probably won't have had any effect by then. It's very mild and takes at least a month to kick in. Also depends on whether you can tolerate it. Some people start getting diarrhoea as soon as they start on magnesium, and have to stop it. That's why I suggested starting low and working up.

I didn't tell my GP when I first started taking it. I just let her prescribe a CCB then quietly tore up the prescription when I got outside. I only told her about the magnesium when I went back six months later, by which time my BP was 120/80. I debated with myself as to whether I'd tell her about it or just go on accepting and tearing up prescriptions, but came down on the side of honesty in the end. Doctors are the same the world over, so she gave me a long lecture on how magnesium was dangerous - which it isn't remotely, especially at the doses you'd take to control BP - while totally ignoring the fact that BP meds can be really dangerous for some people! But she gave in gracefully in the end, especially as my BP never went above 120/80 after that.

When I moved house a couple of years ago I went to a different GP who's very open to dialogue. Now I've got this new problem, he's happy for me to experiment with alternative treatments, as long as I keep charts of everything and report back every six months. He knows me well enough to trust me not to do anything stupid or take risks with my health.

This works in my country, where we have a very efficient NHS, but one which doesn't dictate which GP we can see. I can dump my GP any time and go to another one anywhere in the country. This makes it more of a commercial affair and tends to concentrate doctors' minds wonderfully! However, I realise patients are far more of a captive market in the UK, so GPs sometimes have to be placated. I worked as a nurse in the UK in the 60s and 70s, and my mother lived there till her death 10 years ago, so I have a good grasp of how the British system works.

Where do you live then? Trying to guess, Australia or NZ perhaps?

I wouldn't really want to do anything underhand as far as my GP is concerned. The one I see is a lovely dr and I know and trust her implicitely. She has also been marvellous with my husband who has had countless problems of late.  However I do think the GPs today don't have the time to keep abreast of the alternatives and they are very much under the thumb  of the NHS who in my opinion seem to make patients out of well people and like to have their patients on medication - never to come off it again.  Unfortunately this dr is leaving our practice shortly and I'm unsure what to do. I'm told you can move drs if they will have you and if it isn't too far away [it will be 11 miles]. This is a new concept and the downside is all to do with home visits should they ever be necessary.  I can only ask.

Re. the magnesium I will find out all I can about it and tell her what I intend doing and see her reaction. The Losartan dose is only small [50mg] but I do sometimes think that one of the other sorts might keep the BP on a more even keel, i wouldn't fancy a CCb as there are too many potential side effects. Trouble is I've never been totally sure how much it should fluctuate throughout the day.

Hi Jane, I don't think there are too many rules about how much BP should fluctuate during the day. I think it depends on the individual, and also what you've been doing just before taking it. Do UK doctors still do house calls? Ours don't - which is one downside to the system. We have to call out the emergency doctor.

Hope you can find a doctor who's prepared to let you talk, and will listen instead of just pontificating. I always think that's half the battle.

Yes, despite what people say to the contrary drs do still make house calls but obviously they prefer you to go to the surgery.  Perhaps we are just lucky where we live but the problems we read of elsewhere don't seem to apply around here.  The NHS is in crisis though.

 

Lily you are very wise.  I read your post twice and totally agree with you.  Each of our circumstances are different but sometimes when it comes to blood pressure the treatment is the same.  When I was first diagnosed with HBP, it was 162/120 , being very dangerous.  Was put on meds and was told to lose weight and stay away from the salt shaker.  I was 22 at the time.  Back to the doctor 1 month later and the blood pressure was great and only lost 4 pounds.  He asked what I did and I said I am no longer holding everything in and speaking my mind.  I remained on medication for years until I got pregnant with my son and was taken off.  The blood pressure was doing okay and was recommended calcium and magnesium supplements..  I still take those supplements to this day  Over the last 13 years I have had 4 small strokes and today on top of those supplements I take 50 miligrams of losartan. You mentioned ubiquinol earlier.  Well, I added Co Q 10 to my regimen myself so I need the hydralazine they gave a lot less.  My primary just smiled and didn't say a word when I told him.  I live in Florida and I have found that most of the doctors that believe in supplementation instead of medications are usually internists.

Hello Lily65668

Thank you for your post on Ubiquinol, it's just spot on.... I have been suffering from serious diarrhoea that is beyond imagination for over a week now, after about a month of taking Ubiquinol. My husband suspected it might be the cause but I said I should check online for other people's experience. I started taking Ubiquinol because am over 40 and in order to aid with energy for fertility etc. I started for about 2weeks with 50mg and read that the average dosage should be 100mg which I started taking and within that week this uncontrollable diarrhoea started with heavy heartburn. I am going to stop Ubiquinol, before I started taking it I never had this experience. I read its good for the cell.....Mitochondrial function, I reckon you understand what am saying, I read you are a Nurse. I am not bashing Ubiquinol at least my husband is fine and it seems to be a very good supplement considering the health benefit but I think my body can't process it.  I'll seek a natural susbstitute.  Once again Lily thanks for the post, it really gave an insight to the unexplainable diarrhoea....have a good weekend.

Hi Bola,

Just as a follow-up to that old post, I've been re-introducing ubiquinol very cautiously for about four months now.

My capsules are in 100mg format and I initially started taking one per day. I got a bit of diarrhoea in the first week or so but then it cleared up. Because I'd read that for isolated systolic hypertension (my problem) 150mg per day was the optimal dose, I moved up to taking one every day and two on three days a week. I was fine on this dose for three months before the diarrhoea started. Like you, I didn't connect it with the ubiquinol for quite a while as it had had such a delayed effect, so carried on taking the stuff. Yes I know - the diarrhoea truly is catastrophic, isn't it?! Fortunately I didn't have any heartburn. When I finally stopped, it took about three weeks for the diarrhoea to settle down.

I decided to give it another trial as it had really helped my BP when I was on it. Because my reaction, like yours, had been so violent but hadn't happened immediately after starting ubiquinol, I wondered whether it might have been some kind of allergic reaction. In cases like this, it's sometimes possible to desensitise yourself to the irritant. I therefore re-started on just one 100mg capsule per week. After two months, I upped that to two capsules per week. Still no reaction (or improvement in my BP either at that dose). It's now been almost two months since then, so I'm going to three as of next month. I'm hoping to be able to build up to a dose that's therapeutic and that I can tolerate.

Obviously, if you do want to try reintroducing it you'll have to go very slowly indeed, given the time it takes for the adverse reaction to start. And also give your digestive system a couple of months' rest before trying again.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'd looked all over and couldn't find a single person who'd had such severe diarrhoea after taking ubiquinol. I'm still convinced it's good stuff, but clearly needs to be handled with care by a minority of us!

HI Lily

Yeah very few people seems to react this way...... I'll take a break for now and recuperate, hopefully I'll go back. Having diarrhoea is not the best when trying to conceive lol??. Thanks so much.....

Wishing you every success!