Minutus

How high was it, at age 18? (I gather there is some difference of opinion about just how high is "too high"; still, I am certainly not denying that it can be a problem.)

Were you given any advice about eating more fruits and veggies, also garlic, peppers, vitamin E? My understanding (perhaps clinical experience would alter that) is that usually high blood pressure is actually pretty easy to control by eating lots more fruits and veggies (potassium), and or some people limiting salt is important (for others it isn't necessary).

Re your children, I would think any time they are in to a "regular" doctor for any reason whatever, they should be happy to check the kids' BP? (Do the kids like fruits and veggies?)

Shannon
Hypertension is a symptom, and nothing but a symptom, with the additional problem that it can be undetected for many years and cause all the problems you mention.
Once the BP has been measured and it is realised that there is a symptom (although without a complaint), then the full homeopathic work can start.
Do I make any sense here??
 
Dr. J. Rozencwajg, NMD.
"The greatest enemy of any science is a closed mind"
Visit my new website www.naturamedica.webs.com

It depends. My understanding has been that *most* people don't have trouble with salt of any kind (tho yes, sea salt is better, and refined salt is, well, a refined food, has been robbed of its minerals). Some people *need* salt (but the first sign of that, i I understand right, would be *low* blood pressure). But I would think that restricting salt ought to have been tried before putting you onto drugs...

The protocols I have read for reducing blood pressure through diet have involved eating LOTS of veggies--mostly veggies, in fact--and fruits as well. The idea is to significantly increase the potassium content (and/or its ratio with sodium intake), and it might take more than a few servings to do that... Melons, bananas, oranges are the highest in potassium, tho all will have some.

I googled "reduce high blood pressure diet" and came up with a lot of hits! There are different approaches, but here's one link with a pretty comprehensive description: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/hbp/prevent/h_ ... eating.htm

I don't agree with everything they say--for e.g. they're still into the myth that eggs are bad for one's cholesterol level, which is NOT TRUE--the fact is that *powdered* eggs will mess up your blood levels, but real, fresh eggs--the type that most of us eat anyway--are actually *healthy* for the cholesterol levels. (I won't do that rant here tho; ask privately if you want to hear more on that.) Also my choices of fats would be different than theirs--but this looks like a possible starting point if you want to compare what you *are* doing, with what is recommended specifically for reducing blood pressure through diet.

But google about it--there's lots of good information out there!

Shannon
Hypertension is a symptom, and nothing but a symptom, with the additional problem that it can be undetected for many years and cause all the problems you mention.
Once the BP has been measured and it is realised that there is a symptom (although without a complaint), then the full homeopathic work can start.
Do I make any sense here??
 
Dr. J. Rozencwajg, NMD.
"The greatest enemy of any science is a closed mind"
Visit my new website www.naturamedica.webs.com

John wrote: "It's almost impossible to have a sodium deficiency in your diet; adding table salt is certainly no necessity for health"
Hi John,
Some years back I'd become convinced of the truth of this, so I stopped using salt. I stayed salt-free for about a year, if I remember right, maybe a little less. During this time I was living in a rural area, seldom eating out, and never using canned or prepared foods. At first my cooking seemed tasteless, then my taste buds adjusted, and after the first couple of weeks I didn't miss the taste of salt at all. It was interesting, on the rare occasions when I ate at a restaurant, or anything packaged, the taste of the salt seemed just *shocking*, really horrible, even at times upset my stomach, which seemed to reinforce that the change had been a good one.
But some months on (at the start of the summer, but not a time of any particularly excessive heat), I found that, instead of being energized for the great weather and freedom of summer, I was becoming more and more exhausted, no matter how long I slept. Felt (if I'm remembering right--it was many years back) physically weak, exhausted, everything felt heavy, body and mind. Then I noticed I was constantly thirsty, got to the point where I was continuously thirsty, no matter how much I drank.
Suddenly it hit me--ah, this is the sort of state that athletes take salt tablets for! So I thought, well, I'll try using a little salt and see if it helps.
Whew, it helped like magic.
Again my taste buds needed time to readjust; at first I used little bits as a "lick" from my hand, but did not like the taste of it in my food. Then I readjusted more fully, and am now a happy salt-eater.
I have since read, over the years here and there, that in fact anyone with "weak adrenals"--i.e. anyone who is and/or feels "stressed", anxious, tired, etc.--is apt to *need* salt (tho I agree probably NOT in the amounts common eaten today!!), because the recycling of sodium is done by the adrenals (and kidneys?), and when they are struggling, other functions may take precedence over the sodium-recycling, so sodium is lost too quickly, and added intake is needed.
If salt were truly unnecessary, why would the taste of salt be one of *only four* (sweet, sour, bitter, and salt) that we come equipped with? (Some now add a fifth, "savory".)
And why, in the wild, would animals (some animals, in some times and places, and what circumstances) travel for *miles* to reach "salt licks"? And why would salt lick blocks be "de rigeur" for cattle, horses, and etc.? (The "impurities" you mention are nutritionally necessary trace minerals, of course...)
So--"almost impossible to have a sodium deficiency"? If one eats at restaurants and eats prepared foods, then yes; if one home-cooks and adds no salt, then I have to vigorously disagree!
Best,
Shannon
Hypertension is a symptom, and nothing but a symptom, with the additional problem that it can be undetected for many years and cause all the problems you mention.
Once the BP has been measured and it is realised that there is a symptom (although without a complaint), then the full homeopathic work can start.
Do I make any sense here??
 
Dr. J. Rozencwajg, NMD.
"The greatest enemy of any science is a closed mind"
Visit my new website www.naturamedica.webs.com

I think you address a real concept: our body directs us to what we need if we pay attention.
I stopped cooking with salt 40 yrs ago. Never missed it. And, as you, hated the saltiness of restaurant or
processed food--and still do. However, I realized that I used soy sauce regularly in my cooking--lots of salt.
On other occasions I really enjoyed plain steamed veggies--which have their own natural salt content.
In the past year I have begun to keep celtic or indian sea salt in the house. Sometimes i like the starkness of
straight salt in my food, but rarely, and I let myself indulge.
We need the minerals in the salts but, once again, have been caught up in much of the mythologizing about
salt as well as the marketing spin that sells iodized salt (as if iodine was the only natural mineral in unprocessed
salt).
tanya
Hypertension is a symptom, and nothing but a symptom, with the additional problem that it can be undetected for many years and cause all the problems you mention.
Once the BP has been measured and it is realised that there is a symptom (although without a complaint), then the full homeopathic work can start.
Do I make any sense here??
??? ???
Dr. J. Rozencwajg, NMD.
"The greatest enemy of any science is a closed mind"
Visit my new website www.naturamedica.webs.com