High blood pressure is a common problem in America. The solution offered is drugs. These drugs have many side effects. Modern medicine believes that high blood pressure makes one more at risk for heart disease and strokes.

There are other solutions which I will discuss, but first let’s look at the side effects of medicines that are prescribed. The major drugs prescribed are diuretics, beta blockers, ace inhibitors and calcium channel blockers. Each have their own side effects which are too numerous to list but here are a few.


Diuretics deplete important minerals from the body which can cause edema, low blood sugar, kidney problems and impotence.

Beta blockers can lead to serious heart problems.

Ace inhibitors block a chemical that raises the blood pressure.

Calcium channel blockers can make you more susceptible to infections, cause kidney and serious heart complications.

The medical approach is often targeted to stop something happening in the body that is a natural process. If the blood pressure is high, there is a reason that it is happening. It is more important to understand and treat why this is happening.

Modern medicine keeps dropping the levels of blood pressure that is considered too high. In the past it was understood that it was natural to have a higher blood pressure when one was older. That is not what is professed today. Lowering blood pressure without understanding the cause is like turning your car radio louder when you hear a noise from the engine. That noise, the blood pressure sign, will eventually cause a problem if not addressed.

There are some natural health practitioners and doctors that believe high blood pressure is not a disease. From their view, high blood pressure is an adjustment in the body for an underlying health issue. Doing nothing may be an option from this view point. This is a personal decision.

It is possible to lower the blood pressure if you address the underlying cause. If you try any of these suggestions on your own while you are taking blood pressure medication, be sure to check your blood pressure regularly as the blood pressure may drop and cause symptoms of low blood pressure. At this time, it is important to address lowering your dosage with your doctor. I’ve seen people be able to stop blood pressure medications through natural means under their doctors supervision.

These issues can create high blood pressure from a natural view point:

1. The kidneys are getting weaker.
2. The body is in a stress mode.
3. The arteries are either contracting or hardening from inflammation.  

In my Full Spectrum Macrobiotic Approach Consultations, I have specific ways to diagnose each of these conditions.

Here are some ways to address these  to get started. For people with serious concerns, I recommend counseling with me first.

For kidney health, eat natural saturated fats such as coconut oil and butter, adequate proteins but not excessive proteins from natural animal foods or non-soy protein powders for vegans (about 40-60 grams per day), limit refined sugars and be sure to eat a well-balanced diet centered around grains and vegetables.

Blood pressure naturally goes up with stress and some people are more susceptible to stress. A diet that is missing any nutrient including adequate calories, fats, proteins and other nutrients such as B12 with vegans or carbs with Paleo eaters will induce stress. Dieting, skipping meals, not getting enough sleep, too much or too little exercise are other stressors. Modern diets with high amounts of sugars, poor quality fats and poorly balanced meals, alcohol and medicines contribute.

Although the cause needs to be eliminated and a better diet such as a Full Spectrum Macrobiotic Approach to your way of eating adopted, certain supplements such as vitamin C and the herb Reishi mushroom can lower stress levels. Slow moving exercises with breathing such as qigong have been found to be effective to lower the blood pressure.

Arteries will contract when the body is in the stress mode causing high blood pressure. Inflammation is caused from excessive amounts of refined sugars, poor quality vegetable oil such as soybean oil, pesticides and chemicals in foods, excessive amounts of raw fruits and raw salads, medications, recreational drugs and alcohol. Inflammation will cause scarring and calcium to harden the arteries which raises the blood pressure.   

Besides avoiding and limiting certain foods, a diet centered on grains and vegetables with natural animal foods or supplements to replace them, natural fats and sugars, fruit and other natural foods counter inflammation. Specific foods and remedies that counter inflammation are vitamin C, kuzu thickener, turmeric and ginger.  There is a protocol with vitamin C and other nutrients that has been found to reverse hardening of the arteries.

People with high blood pressure from all causes can benefit from calcium and magnesium rich foods. These include grass fed high calcium dairy products such as raw cheese, raw or pasteurized whole milk, yogurt, leafy greens, and small amounts of nuts. For those who don’t eat dairy products, a calcium supplement along with vitamin K2 can be substituted. K 2 is important to take with calcium as it prevents calcium from entering the wrong parts of the body, the arteries and joints. All grass-fed dairy products have vitamin K2.

Blood Pressure Medication and Mortality Risk  JAMA  Rhonda M. Cooper-DeHoff; Yan Gong; Eileen M. Handberg; Anthony A. Bavry; Scott J. Denardo; George L. Bakris; Carl J. Pepine
The Full Spectrum Macrobiotic Approach to Eating: https://www.macrobiotic.com/macrobiotic-diet.html

Millions suffer from a B12 deficiency but few patients are diagnosed. The symptoms of B12 deficiency can look like Alzheimer’s disease, depression, dementia, multiple sclerosis, and other serious diseases. Because of this, it is routinely misdiagnosed. A B12 deficiency can occur at any time of our life. If untreated, a B12 deficiency can cause permanent, crippling nerve damage. Many do not get treatment until it is too late.

B12 is only available in foods that are either fortified with it or in animal products. Vegans are most at risk but they are not the only ones.

Natto: https://www.eatthismuch.com/food/nutrition/natto,3608/
Has -0- B12 despite what some say to the contrary.
Tempeh: http://www.dietandfitnesstoday.com/vitamin-b12-in-tempeh.php
Has a very low amount of B12 at 1 - 2% of the government recommended daily amount.
https://veganhealth.org/vitamin-b12/ A more complete article.

Many people who eat meat are being found to be B12 deficient. Tuft University researchers, analyzing data from the large-scale Framingham Offspring Study, found that nearly 40 % of the participants aged twenty-six to eighty-three had plasma B12 levels in the “Low normal” range- a level at which many people begin to experience neurological problems.1 Smaller studies report that 15-20 percent of seniors have a vitamin B12 deficiency.2 A recent study found that 40 percent of hospitalized elderly patients had low or borderline serum B12 levels.3

Over 80 percent of long-term vegans who do not adequately supplement their diet with B12 and over 50 percent of long-term vegetarians, show evidence suggestive of B12 deficiency.4

The CDC reported that B12 deficiency is present in every 1 out of 31 people over the age of 50 but this is underreported because the baseline level used is too low.

Here are some symptoms of B12 deficiency: Early signs are unusual fatigue, faulty digestion, no appetite, nausea and loss of menstruation. Later signs include numbness and tingling of the hands and feet, nervousness and diarrhea.

There are two common tests, a blood test for B12 and a urine test. The urine test, while not completely accurate is better. You can have a false high B12 reading if you eat leafy greens, drink green drinks or take folic acid. High homocysteine levels in the blood may indicate a B12 deficiency as does enlarged red blood cells.

B12 is only present in animal products and is highest in organ meats and sardines. If you are deficient or are vegan or vegetarian, you can take a 5000-microgram sublingual tablet of the methyl cobalamin B12 under your tongue daily or get shots. When food is fortified with B12 or is in supplements, it is not well absorbed if you are B12 deficient because adequate stomach acid is necessary for absorbing B12 through the digestive tract. Adequate stomach acid requires B12. Some people don’t respond to the B12 under the tongue and need to get shots. If you need shots, ask the doctor for shots that don’t have as many preservatives.

People eating meat who are B12 deficient may have poor digestion from eating a too rich modern diet. They are not absorbing the B12 from food.

There are no vegan sources of B12 in foods. The B12 in shots and pills is appropriate for vegans because it has no animal products.

A good idea is for everyone over 60 is to take B12 weekly or daily even if you eat natural meats.

1 Judy McBride, Agricultural Research Service website, U. S Department of Agriculture, August 2, 2000. http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2000/000802.htm
2 Shahar, A., Feiglin, L., Shahar D, R., Levy, S., and Seligsohn, U. Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging (2001)       5:124-7
3 Could It Be B12 by Sally Pacholok and Jeffery Stuart. You can find more information about B12 in this excellent book, 
4 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2933506/ This study shows that many people including non-vegetarians are at very low levels of B12 because what they think is sufficient is not.   
https://www.nature.com/articles/ejcn201446 more information

​​In recent years I have discovered that a major cause of disease is stress. When people think of stress, what comes to mind is emotional stress. While emotions are one of the causes of stress, there are definite physical stresses that play a huge roll in the effects of stress on the body and mind.  

These include dietary stresses even from so-called healthy diets that leave out major nutrients. Irregular lifestyles, too little or too much exercise, not enough natural light, noise, pollution, electromagnetic field stress plus many others wreak havoc on our health.

Body work pioneers such as Thomas Hanna and Thomas Griner discovered that stress creates muscle tension and continuous spasms that cut off the circulation to bones, joints, organs and glands. This leads to diseases as diverse as back pain, allergies, chronic fatigue and even cancer and heart disease.

Here is why this happens. There are many types of muscles including cardiac, skeletal and smooth muscle walls of internal organs and many parts of the body. Skeletal muscles make up the bulk of your muscles at 50 percent of your body mass. Many muscles are involuntary, or not under conscious control. Skeletal muscles are both voluntary and involuntary.
 
Skeletal muscles naturally contract when you stand or are sitting upright. But in order to stay healthy, skeletal muscle needs to relax after every contraction.
 
The capillaries deliver fresh arterial blood containing oxygen and nutrients to the muscle and exchange them in the cells for carbon dioxide and metabolic waste, hence becoming venous blood. Because many skeletal muscles close like fists around their tiny blood vessels during contraction, waste products can be removed only when these muscles relax. Each contraction should be immediately followed by a full relaxation in order to clear the muscle of waste.
 
Things start to go wrong in the muscles when this doesn’t happen, and this is partly what doctors don’t understand. Doctors are typically not trained to know how muscle malfunctions, or even acknowledge that it can and usually does malfunction, by permanently automatically contracting to the point that it impinges on nerves, squeezes joints together, cuts off circulation, and even disturbs body chemistry.
 
There is evidence according to Thomas Hanna’s brilliant work that muscles contract under any kind of physical, mental or emotional stress.  A normal response to any kind of stress is for the muscles to contract whether it be for the beneficial effect of learning something new, physical exercise or emotional strain.
 
If the stress, whether good or bad occurs often enough, the body muscles can be locked in contraction. At first, the back of the body is affected. If the stress occurs too often or too long, the front of the body starts to contract. Traumas can throw off the balance of the right and left sides of the body by creating excess contraction on one side.
 
When the muscles are contracted, lactic acid builds up in the muscle. Lactic acid is toxic waste produced during your body’s energy combustion of glucose and oxygen; it must be removed through the veins to the liver. If the lactic acid is not removed, it sends a signal to the brain to keep contracting. Pain may or may not be felt because the body produces natural pain killers called endorphins. Contracted muscles are muscles that are in continual spasms.
 
The buildup of lactic acid occurs through any physical, mental or emotional stress. On a physical level, that’s exactly what happens when muscles are overstretched and/or held in static stretch, injured, overused  (i.e. too many repetitions of any contraction with not enough rest time between contractions - running long distances), or underused (yes, couch potatoes get spastic too).
 
Something must be done to release the muscle tension before it impacts the joints or organs to create damage and disease. If there is already damage to the joints or organs that is creating disease, it is important to physically correct these muscle contractions.

I discovered that one must release the muscle tension by the right kind of exercise and/ or massage. Some forms of massage and stretching can actually create more muscle tension.

There are several ways that I’m teaching people to release the muscle tension. Here are a few:

1. Avoid long periods of exercising that create layers of contraction in the muscles such as heavy weight training and long distance running and bicycling. Moderate practices of these exercises are fine as long as you release the tension in the muscles after.  The bulging muscles of body builders are muscles in chronic contract. Could there be a connection with the severe heart disease that several well-known body builders have suffered?
2. Avoid overstretching muscles. Gentle stretches that are held for short periods are more effective.
3. Learn chi gung exercise sets. These sets include gently dynamic stretching that releases the muscles.
4. Study Somatic movements. These movements work by getting your brain to release the muscle tension.
5. Gentle massages are helpful, but avoid deep massage. Deep massage can create more muscle tension.

 
I teach chi gung and somatic movements, and give somatic acupressure bodywork. All these methods help release muscle contractions and spasms as part of restoring and maintaining health.
 
Cutting out stress by correcting one’s diet, lifestyle and thinking is important to stop the causes of stress.

Incorporating exercises that release the muscle tension caused by stress is important.

Stress can be considered light wet cement. If the original tension is not corrected, the wet cement becomes hardened. Over time this hardened cement or muscle tension starts to cut off the circulation to our organs and systems, making us feel bad emotionally, mentally and physically.

Somatics: Reawakening the Mind's Control of Movement, Flexibility, And Health by Thomas Hanna
Somatic Yoga by Eleanor Criswell