Control Your Blood Pressure

An enlarged heart can either be a  disease or a reaction to how you use your body. Yesterday I mentioned that serious and prolonged endurance exercise will ‘strengthen’ your heart…. as we’ve been told for a few decades now. But you might as well call it an ‘enlarged’ heart. Why not? Does the heart know the difference? Recent attention has been paid to highly trained athletes dropping dead at a young age. We may be in for a surprise in the very near future. In addition, our ancestors couldn’t afford to burn such vast amounts of calories without paying for it not even in the long run. Extreme endurance training is perhaps a modern condition of opportunity: that of the ‘overly full larder.’ I know that some African tribes stalk an animal for hours on end, but they don’t suffer from a full larder.

In the early stages symptoms are not easily noticed, or in some people symptoms do not necessarily appear. Usually, at the start only the lower chambers of the heart are affected. Wait too long though and the upper chambers will go too. By then you’ll know because the heart won’t be able to pump the necessary amount of blood to fulfill the demands of your body. Shortness of breath is the most obvious first sign you notice yourself – while you’re walking; waking up short of breath at night, and eventually, your ankles will be swollen. This is because fluid can build up behind the heart and store in the rest of the body, causing weight gain. The fluid also builds up in the lungs, causing wheezing, which is the mechanism of shortness of breath.

Shortness of breath being the most obvious symptom, there are other signs to watch out for. As mentioned above, weight gain is to be watched. It may be called obesity but if you are prescribed diuretics, you’ll notice you weren’t fat at all. You flush out all the fluids stored up in your body. For a while you stop wheezing, which will come as a great relief to you. Sleeping will be somewhat improved, but I am getting ahead of myself. Accompanied by ‘obesity’ is sleep apnea, where you suddenly stop breathing and wake up with a horrible startle because your body needs oxygen and your lungs need to fill up with vital air!

High blood pressure is, of course, a major culprit for an enlarged heart. With it come palpitations, chest pain, coughing and heart racing, or what I call ‘tripping’ – an uncomfortable feeling of going helter-skelter for want of a better expression. When that happens, don’t add panic to fear – breathe easy! Keep going. Calm yourself. Last but not least is coronary artery disease, the No. 1 killer in America and the Western world. Plaque builds up in the arteries and obstruct or even block efficient blood flow. Tomorrow I’ll be looking at what you can do about the condition before it becomes a disease – controlling your blood pressure aggressively, naturally is one way. Yes we can!

Yes regardless, naturally! First we need to ask ourselves why we have high blood pressure. Whenever we make that dreaded visit to the doctor’s office, the physician’s

first command is to tell you to ‘relax’ in order to take your blood pressure. You sit there and may well sweat with anxiety, a common affliction for so many people. Your physician looks concerned and may tell you  ‘It’s a bit high today. Let’s wait 10 minutes and take it again.’ (It may well be your anxiety levels that are to blame, but that is another story). Some time later the test is performed again – and probably at other times, too, if you’re lucky -and what you finally hear is s/he tells you that you do have primary or essential hypertension!

What does that mean, you ask yourself? Nothing much except your physician doesn’t quite know the cause of your high blood pressure. Vexed as you are, you’ll not ask for any additional tests (nor will you be offered) to find out what the underlying cause may be: no stress test, no run on the treadmill to discover your fitness level, your body fat is not measured, nor will you have a blood test to ascertain that you’re not missing out on certain vitamins and minerals. Further more, have your levels of protein been checked and last but not least, your homocysteine levels? You’ll find out that an elevated level of this amino acid is a sure indicator of an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.

To start with the last question, why are your levels of this amino acid raised? The MAYO Clinic www.mayoclinic.com/health/heart-disease/HB00016 will be happy to inform you that your precious specimen of blood you supplied ‘offers many clues about your heart health.’ To cut it short, one reason amongst many for your raised levels of homocysteine suggests you eat too much red meat or worse yet, processed meats. Another reason could simply be that you’re getting older. One situation you can change, unfortunately the latter you can’t. Now here is one simple solution to your problem: lower high blood pressure naturally by cutting down or out the offending substances: your beloved burger and hot dog! Now tick that off your list of heart healthy things to do for yourself. Easy!

Is there anybody still out there who during dark winter months remembers coughing, spluttering, sniffing and sneezing, heaving feverishly, unable to get out of bed and there was no relief? No pill to take except chicken soup, Grandma’s old stand by? I do, but then again, I grew up in the old world where medication was not available for your every little ache and pain – your ailments were just that – insignificant, and you got over it in due time. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. And I’m still here.

Those Halcyon days, however, are over by a long shot where you felt victorious for fighting your inner demons without any intervention from Big Pharma. I am not saying I miss all those times, but when it comes to pain relief, the pain is in the taking what you take. Aspirin was all we had, the universal panacea since Hippocratic’ times, and it delivered what it promised. It gave us relief of pain, fever, headaches, etc. and even I can appreciate the slogan Bayer coined for it ‘The wonder drug that does wonders.’ Millions of people now take Aspirin every day to prevent heart attacks and doctor’s order to ‘take 2 Aspirins and call me in the morning’ suggests that you have survived another night and are fit enough to tell your doctor all about it.

But I get carried away with the virtues of this little pill. Because for every virtue, there’s the opposite, and that is vice. An aspirin is an aspirin is an aspirin. In the body of the wrong person, it can wreak havoc as badly as any other pill. Bayer would like you believe that their brand is superior, and they’ll charge you for it royally – or big bucks as they say over the pond. After all, somebody has to pay for all those flashy ads. The rise of choices of pills for every different ache and pain has been phenomenal. There’s big money in them there pills. So we come to one of them, the NSAIDs, anti-inflammatory drugs.

I remember arriving in California in 1980, getting a prescription for ‘xxxxxx,’ a nifty, oval-shaped little capsule that truly took pain away; you know, that inconvenient time of the month when doctors tell you that you could well be temporarily insane. Well, I had been with the pain of it all in the old world at least, and I lurved that drug! And in no time this wonderful drug became available OTC – over the counter. First you had to ask your pharmacist to hand it over to you. Now the shelves of your local drug store are groaning under the weight of that plentiful choice. Have been taking them faithfully over the years, treating myself to pain relief from minor pains to major injuries. Now what do I end up with? High blood pressure! Or drug induced hypertension, as the professionals call it. This ain’t no way to lower your blood pressure naturally!

So let me figure out what it exactly does to my body so I can appreciate the danger of taking these little puppies over a life time. Us women out there hate suffering from (yes!) fluid retention, the water in our bodies or mere certain places of our bodies (we all know where!)where it just sticks and wobbles like Jello or Blancmange for you discerning Brits. I have seen plenty of ‘water relief pills/tablets’ on offer at the local drug store/pharmacy so this is an issue. So here you are: holding a pack of ibuprofen and a pack of water relief pills to take your monthly misery away. ‘You don’t want to do that!’ your friendly check-out person warns you? No! Highly unlikely! Ibuprofen causes fluid retention, decreasing the function of your kidneys, therefore raising your blood pressure which of course puts greater stress on your poor heart and kidneys. This ain’t no way to treat a lady….or high blood pressure naturally!

There have been plenty of studies in women who had no high blood pressure to begin with, but after prolonged use of ibuprofen/NSAIDs ended up with hypertension. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9074128/ns/health-heart_health/t/are-painkillers-risks-worth-benefits/ Of course sometimes the risk doesn’t outweigh the benefit. Think of yourself with such  conditions that are truly painful: arthritis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, gout, or even psioritic arthritis. Pain is the name of the game, and I don’t know if that kind of prolonged, debilitating pain can be borne without accepting the risks of taking pain relief. Of course not, so you accept hypertension as the necessary evil for the benefit of pain relief. And you’ll have to accept taking medication for your drug induced hypertension. Not an easy road to take, but here you’re sitting stranded anyway. The consensus is: if your pain is bearable (and that is certainly pain in the eye of the beholder) hold off on those pain killers. Use them infrequently so you get the best benefit from them. Or better, try to lower high blood pressure naturally. Not just high blood pressure, but other normal, everyday ailments, aches and pains. Chicken soup will do…

You have the silent disease, but you don’t need to suffer in silence, your doctor tells you. Here you are sitting in his, or her office, and you’re told that you have joined the majority of humanity that suffers from hypertension – but relax! There are plenty of drugs on the market that will alleviate that pesky little problem. After all, did you even know you had hypertension? It’s the silent disease, with no symptoms really, until maybe years later when, finally, the damage has been done and you’re beyond hope. Now you just may feel the pressure of stress on you – your poor heart races, you sweat, you may have palpitations, you’re breathless! But you don’t relate that to high blood pressure, no! You’re in the prime of your life!

However, now you’ve been told! It’s official. You’re now the perfect candidate for Big Pharma! Go make ‘em happy and take your pick of a wide choice of drugs. After all, that’s human progress, isn’t it? Your doctor will be more than happy to get you on the right path to health again. So you start out on say diuretics. Take them in the morning your doc tells you or you’ll be up all night going to the bathroom. The accompanying fatigue that your sleeplessness might bring on is simply doubled because fatigue is already a know and common side effect. When driving anywhere, make sure you have  that empty bottle under your seat. Sooner than later you’ll have to make use of it and you’ll be glad I told you. Trust me, David was on diuretics, and the inconvenience of it certainly didn’t have us in stitches. More like in ditches.

So in desperation, you may try beta blockers. Not so bad, I said at the beginning. Being a little hyper, it can calm your heart rate and the loudness of it all; indeed you may feel positively relieved that your heart is not thumping! However, if your doctor tells you that changes in life style also do the trick, then you’ll find out that beta blockers don’t like life style changes. Go for a run, go for a jog or a fast paced walk. You’ll feel like lead. In your legs and in the pit of your stomach. Cold hands and feet? Yes, like prickly ice caps your fingernails will feel, if you feel anything. Oh, and erection problems for you wonderful men out there. But we don’t want to mention that, do we? That’s just a side effect, and who cares when your life and well being  is at stake.

So what more choices do we have out there? ACE inhibitors, yes! Your blood vessels relax because the ACE inhibitor blocks the formation of the hormone that causes them to narrow in the first place. However, you won’t relax for long because you’ll be plagued by a dry hacking cough, and believe me, it had me wretching like when I had the dreaded whooping cough in my Halcyon years. It felt like the coughing canceled out any beneficial effect the drug had on my vessels. I was busting my ears with the pain of that hacking cough. But for your own good, this you won’t really have in large print from your beloved pill provider. Big Pharma only loves your money. And lovingly serenades your doctor. After all he’s the middle man. More dollar for dollar is spent on advertising to get you, dearest (potential) patient, than on research for instance. Yes. Investors have to be fed, clothed and housed in grand style first and foremost. Hospitals and clinics and great health care are incidentals. But I digress. http://www.alternet.org/story/155331/ask_your_doctor_if_this_big_pharma_scam_is_right_for_you:_the_dangers_of_a_drugged_up_america/

So do I want you scared? Yes, scared of easy answers as this pill popping solution suggests. It isn’t. I know, there are plenty of patients who’re sadly well beyond any natural intervention, and I don’t want them getting off the wagon. Life is hard enough, and choices become limited when the going gets tough and your heart and health has already suffered beyond repair. But repair itself your heart can, your precious big, warm and so far beating heart. Life style choices we hear about every day. Nothing new. Diet, tick that off: no fat, low fat; the DASH diet! High in calcium, potassium and magnesium. You can buy that stuff anywhere. Or eat a banana. Don’t smoke, duh. Exercise. I’d go further and do like I do: I ditched the car when David died and started walking for my supper and all other victuals. Has done my blood pressure enormously good. And the inconvenience of it all: imagine, you can’t or won’t want to carry more than you can eat and drink for a couple of days. Not being able to drive for that last bit of treat I might fancy late at night! Not on foot, dear Abby! That’ll lower your blood pressure naturally, I might say!

The last bit of wonderful experience I can pass on, and this is no advice – after all, I’m a long shot away from being a doctor, is this: Music! Listen to music, but not just any old music. Slow breathing with music. It’ll make you breathe in and out, slower and longer, calmer and more relaxed. Slow breathing with music will lower your blood pressure naturally. 15 minutes a day and that is enough it’ll scare the vampires from your door (thank you, Frankie goes to Hollywood, I’ve even tried it with his music) or rather the scary stuff that hardens your arteries, the unknown and known causes of high blood pressure. Get on the ball when you reach that certain age, whenever that’ll be and get your daily dose of je ne sais quoi, whatever that means! Go for it before Big Pharma has you by the proverbial balls. Happy and healthy breathing, I say!