Re: Natural Foods and Supplements That Quickly Help Lower Your Blood Pressure

I'm going to take just a little different direction to what you have posted.  Each individual is unique, and our bodies will each react differently.

I too am a Type II diabetic which I've been able to control through diet alone.  I have also had difficulties maintaining decent blood pressure levels - even since before the Type II and I've tried all sorts of things.

Hawthorn berries have never done anything for my hypertension and I took them in the form of tea for a long time.  I have also brewed hibiscus tea and consumed it for months with no benefits - same with rooibos tea, both of which are claimed to lower blood pressure.

I've seen the claims for celery and ate much more than has been recommended for reducing blood pressure and it never did a thing for me.  Just a quick note on that - celery contains a lot of sodium yet only about 10% of hypertension is salt related and I once cut out all sodium for at least two months with no hypertension benefits whatsoever.

I'm one of the biggest raw garlic freaks on the planet.  Consume a minimum of 4 raw cloves a day and use it in cooking.  Has never helped my BP.  If you do a little research you will find that they have never been able to duplicate earlier studies that said that it assisted hypertension.  I promote it for all sorts of other things though - it removes heavy metals from the body and it wipes out parasites, both intestinal and in other parts of the body.  Saw a study one time where they were testing the use of garlic in animals to see if it cured malaria which is caused by a parasite in the blood stream.  Saw that it held promise.  So I'm in no way anti-garlic.

I began adding turmeric to my foods in the form of curry powder which is primarily turmeric, and also turmeric supplements on a daily basis several months ago.  Never expected hypertensive benefits and surely can't say that I got any, I take it primarily for arthritis (which I think helps) and cancer protections.

Have never tried the almonds so can't comment about that.

What I have found to be beneficial for my hypertension is - proper breathing.  In our fast-paced Western society we have forgotten how to breath and part of that is because we are taught to suppress our emotions which hinders our breathing or causes us to breath shallow instead of deep.  More than a year ago I bought a device that helps retrain your breathing habits - Resperate, and found that by using it and also practicing better breathing when not using it, my blood pressure came down from about 165/75 to 125/55 and lower.  It took time, but I got it down - until I had major surgery about six months ago and am still trying to recover my hypertension from that episode and am slowly getting there.  Don't go out and buy Resperate - it is way too expensive for what it does and you can find instructions on-line for slow breathing which are every bit as good as using Resperate.  By practicing slow, deep breathing I can lower my blood pressure every time.  Keeping it down is the biggest problem.

Caffeine was another big lesson for me.  It can raise my BP when I'm having difficulty with hypertension.  I cut out all caffeine for a long time until I was able to get it under control prior to my surgery and have had to cut it out again.  Caffeine can be in several carbonated beverages besides colas and Mountain Dew is a good example so you have to read labels.

The lower my body weight, the better I'm able to control my hypertension.  I have gained too much weight since the surgery - am now 5 pounds overweight and that may not seem like a lot, but it's 20 pounds greater than before but I think I have it under control and am headed back to my lower weight.

Finally - exercise lowers my blood pressure.  My BP is significantly lower after an hour of walking or 30 - 40 minutes of light weight lifting than it is otherwise.  I am devoted to walking, need to get back to weight lifting.

Relative to breath work, what I've found to help are those exercises that slow down the breathing, and breathing out longer than breathing in.  You can do your own search for techniques, including what is called Yoga breathing, but here are some links and comments related to breathing:

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART00521/three-breathing-exercises.html

I've found that the 4-7-8 Exercise 2 listed at the above link will lower my blood pressure.  You can also find that Dr. Mercola promotes this method at http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/07/07/The-Most-Powerf... but be aware that you have to have an account to log-in, otherwise a pop up obliterates a lot of the article.

From:

http://health.discovery.com/centers/althealth/deepbreath/deepbreathe.html

"Breathing incorrectly can produce tension, exhaustion and vocal strain, interfere with athletic activity and encourage aches and illnesses," says Nancy Zi, a Glendale, Calif.-based breathing expert and author of the book and video set, "The Art of Breathing." Breathe correctly, however, and you can "melt away tension and stress, improve energy or simply relax and unwind."

Dennis Lewis, who leads breathing awareness workshops and is the author of "The Tao of Natural Breathing," observes: "Most of us take our breathing for granted. The great Taoist sage Chuang Tzu says that most of us breathe from our throats, and that real human beings breathe from their heels."

Here's what happens: Breathing oxygenates every cell of your body, from your brain to your vital organs. Without sufficient oxygen, your body becomes more susceptible to health problems. For example, in a study published in The Lancet, cardiac patients who took 12 to 14 shallow breaths per minute (six breaths per minute is considered optimal) were more likely to have low levels of blood oxygen, which "may impair skeletal muscle and metabolic function, and lead to muscle atrophy and exercise intolerance."

In contrast, deep breathing raises levels of blood oxygen, promoting health in many ways — from stimulating the digestive process to improving fitness and mental performance. Even alternative health icon Dr. Andrew Weil says: "If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip, it would be simply to learn how to breathe correctly."