Natural Blood Pressure Remedies
Tom Venuto Interviews Frank Mangano About
The Best Natural Ways To Lower Your Blood Pressure, Reduce
Your Waistline And Take Back Your Health,
Part Three
. . .Continued
from Part 2
Discussing Natural Blood Pressure Remedies
Tom Venuto: Now,
when you start talking about “alternative health”
or “natural cures”, there is obviously some great
interest in this subject today because many people want to
avoid taking prescription drugs at all costs. There may be
some real and legitimate alternative or natural solutions
to drugs for helping to control blood pressure. The problem
is, the word “quack” often comes up in the same
breath as the word “alternative medicine” and
the supplement industry is not tightly regulated and the FTC
simply can’t keep up with all the claims being made
on so many products. Maybe there are some real legitimate
natural blood pressure remedies and alternatives to drugs,
but if they’re mixed in with all these bogus products,
what’s a consumer supposed to do?
 Frank Mangano: I
know what you mean, Tom. It can be very overwhelming and confusing.
You need to thoroughly do your homework and look at the list
of ingredients carefully. Learn as much as you possibly can
about the product. Try to find evidence that the product is
as effective as the manufacturer claims. The key to choosing
the right product comes from researching the product and the
company that makes the product to find out which natural blood
pressure remedies products have been tested and what studies
have been conducted.
Also, steer clear of supplements that contain
artificial binders, fillers, sweeteners and preservatives.
Another tip is to purchase supplements in capsule form rather
than tablets. Capsules are a better choice because they don't
include as much filler as tablets do and the nutrients can
be more efficiently absorbed into the body.
Tom Venuto: Okay,
well, just to prove the point of how confusing the marketplace
is, I did a google search on high blood pressure remedies
before this call and just like for obesity or any other health
problem, you are bombarded with advertisements and all kind
of claims. It’s pretty unreal what you come up with
online after a few searches. I’m not an expert on blood
pressure or blood pressure treatments so personally I found
the claims and mass amount of information to be pretty overwhelming
and even I wasn’t sure what to believe at first without
doing some serious homework about natural blood pressure remedies.
So I’m going to tap into your expertise
some more and rattle off really quickly a whole list of blood
pressure remedies that I found online and the claims that
came with them and I’d like you to very quickly give
your opinion along with your thumbs up - it helps, or thumbs
down – its hype, ok?
Researching and verifying the natural blood
pressure remedies found online
Frank Mangano: Okay, fire away Tom
Tom Venuto: Okay first one, pure essential
oils. Lavender, rose, ylang ylang. Rub it on your wrist and
in conjunction with your blood pressure medication your blood
pressure will drop. Pretty cheap, only $14.95 and it says
this will last for 6 months. 
Frank Mangano: This might have some impact
on blood pressure, but not completely from a nutritional standpoint.
For example, lavender is an essential oil with a calming aroma.
This can be used as a stress reliever, which we know lowers
blood pressure. The rose is a good source of vitamin C, but
has to be ingested. There are much better ways to get and
assimilate vitamin C. The ylang ylang works like the lavender
as an aroma therapy.
Tom Venuto: Alright, next one and you can’t
miss this one online. Hyprava. The ad says it will lower your
blood pressure 20, 30 or 50 points without drugs or harmful
side effects. This is a bunch of herbs like hawthorn, garlic,
ginger, ginkgo, valerian and bunch of other stuff, and it’s
$67 a bottle.
Frank Mangano: All of the herbs you mentioned
may help to lower blood pressure. What would be important
about this supplement is to check the reputation of the manufacturer
and the purity of the ingredients. You can make $67 worth
of garlic and ginger go a long way in your cooking and add
flavor and nutrition to your diet that way. The valerian root
helps with stress reduction and the ginkgo improves circulation
so all of these ingredients are good, if they are well formulated
in the supplement.
Tom Venuto: Angioprim. I really couldn’t
find an ingredients list of what this is, just gives a lot
of warnings of what will happen to you if you don’t
take it and that its an alternative to unplug blocked arteries….
$299 for six month supply.
Frank Mangano: Angioprim contains three key
ingredients: Caysine, which is a synthetic blend of amino
acids; Lysine, an essential amino acid and Cystine, a non-essential
amino acid. Amino acids are important to cardiovascular health.
Lystine in particular cannot be manufactured by the body and
must come from food sources such as potatoes, soy products,
fish, and eggs. Cysteine is an unstable amino acid that converts
to L-Cysteine and vice versa and both work as antioxidants
as the body needs them for detoxification purposes. This supplement
is promoted as an alternative to angioplasty surgery, which
opens small arteries and eases the symptoms of angina. I would
not make this decision on my own if I had been told I had
a blocked coronary artery. If your doctor agrees that it is
safe to wait and try this blend of amino acids, then I’d
consider it. You just might be able to non-surgically relieve
symptoms with this and other antioxidants.
Tom Venuto: Okay, this one sounds exotic.
Muktavi. Ayurvedic herbal remedy for hypertension, anxiety
and insomnia. Fast results in 3 to 4 days. It’s a whole
bunch of Indian herbs. 1 month pack, $19.95 British pounds.
Frank Mangano: There are a lot of lesser
known and exotic herbs in the Ayurvdiec remedy. If anyone
is going to take such a supplement, it is important to know
what each herb does and how it interacts with other herbs.
You have to remember, that most modern pharmaceuticals are
based on herbs, so herbs can cause powerful reactions in the
body, just like a drug. I will tell you that there are less
exotic, equally effective ways to get antioxidants and lower
blood pressure.
Tom Venuto: This next one is said to be nature’s
answer to lowering high blood pressure. Hawthorne, coleus
forskolli – I’ve seen coleus in some diet pills
too - olive leaf extract, odorless garlic, and B vitamins.
A year’s supply about a hundred bucks.
Frank Mangano: Hawthorne
is an excellent herb for lowering blood pressure because it
directly works on the blood vessels. It causes them to dilate
much like the Doxazosin, but without the side effects. Hawthorne
also helps restore the heart muscle that has been overworked
if blood pressure has remained high for long periods of time.
Hawthorne contains many B vitamins and Vitamin C. Garlic also
lowers blood pressure by improving circulation by its blood
thinning action. Olive leaf extract is lesser known, but does
improve blood pressure. Just look at the Mediterranean diet.
Most people there eat plenty of garlic and olive oil and have
relatively few problems with blood pressure. Again, much of
the benefits of this supplement can be obtained through diet,
or a single herb supplement.
Obtaining the natural blood pressure remedies
from food
Tom Venuto: I’m glad you keep mentioning
that a lot of this stuff can be obtained from the food you
eat – garlic, ginger, olive oil and so on. Ok, next
one is Hyperexol. It says drops your blood pressure 30 points
in 30 days or it’s FREE. That’s pretty specific
and convincing with the guarantee. It says it’s a doctor
approved formula, all natural ingredients. The ingredients
list is magnesium oxide, calcium carbonate, potassium, alum
sativa, hawthorne berry, vitamin C, cayenne pepper, taurine.
Buy 2 bottles get 1 free $114.
Frank Mangano: It’s correct in its
claims that this supplement contains ingredients proven to
lower blood pressure. The next thing I look at when choosing
a supplement, then, is the reputation of the manufacturer.
Since herbs are not approved or regulated by the FDA, the
industry must regulate itself. In the case of Hyperexol, this
formula was devised by a naturopath who is board certified
by their governing agencies. The website for the product also
gives consumers easy to find and clear contact names and number
– another good sign that this is a reputable company.
While I’m not endorsing a particular brand of supplements,
I can recommend that consumers contact the manufacturer of
whatever supplement they are considering and ask them for
their research information. You can ask such questions of
the manufacturer as, “Where do you obtain your herbs?
How are they processed? What studies have you conducted?”
A good manufacturer will have this information readily available
to send to you.
Tom Venuto: Okay last one, more herbal stuff,
I’ve seen that all over the internet – herbs for
blood pressure. This one is advertised as a natural remedy.
Comes in capsules or liquid $36.95 a bottle. Most of the stuff
in here I’ve never even heard of, then again I’m
no herbalist, but I’ve heard of a few of these ingredients.
Taraxum I’ve heard of – that’s dandelion
- it’s often put into weight loss pills or herbal water
pills or natural diuretics. There’s also olea europea,
agathosma betulina, that’s butchu - also an herbal diuretic
I’ve hear that one too, actually this whole formula
looks to me like an herbal diuretic.
I do know for a fact that some of these natural
herbal diuretics can temporarily remove water retention and
I know about this from bodybuilders who use natural diuretics
because they go into drug tested contests and prescription
diuretics are banned or they just don’t want to mess
with them. In fact, famous pro bodybuilders have died from
taking lasix. But what about in the context of blood pressure,
would an herbal diuretic be of any benefit?
Frank Mangano: Herbal diuretics are beneficial
in controlling blood pressure. What I would caution people
about is that diuretic use can cause severe potassium deficiencies.
In fact, some of the prescription diuretics used to lower
blood pressure are “potassium preserving” so that
this doesn’t happen. A mild diuretic is okay, but I’d
rely more on drinking plenty of water.
Tom Venuto: Let me fire a few quick questions
at you point blank about all these advertised remedies. One,
how do you know this stuff works? Do you take an advertisers
word for it? Two, how do you know which one to choose –
there’s so many – and these were just a few websites
I found inside 10 or 15 minutes. Three, should people be self
prescribing and self medicating after doing a little Internet
research like I just did – is it safe? Is it even necessary
or could healthy nutrition and exercise and losing excess
fat be enough?
Frank Mangano: Those are all good questions,
Tom. A little information can be dangerous, especially when
it comes to health problems. There is little monitoring going
on about what claims are true or false when it comes to herbal
supplements too. Unfortunately the FDA doesn’t get involved
until people start getting seriously injured and complaints
are filed, such as with ephedra usage. Under the FDA’s
Dietary Health and Supplement Education Act of 1994, the manufacturer
is responsible for ensuring their products are safe before
it goes to market. It doesn’t mention the effectiveness
of the claims, but states the manufacturer must make sure
the product label is truthful and not misleading. It leaves
a lot of wiggle room for manufacturers that are not completely
reputable to make unsubstantiated claims. Again, I’ll
caution everyone who is listening that you need to get background
information on a manufacturer before taking that supplement.
The FDA does publish on their website tips for making informed
choices about supplements. It’s found at FDA.org, and
called, “Tips For The Savvy Supplement User: Making
Informed Decisions And Evaluating Information.”
The basic vitamins, minerals and herbs that
you need to maintain healthy blood pressure can be supplied
– for the most part – by the foods you eat. It’s
all about setting up a nutritional plan specific to supporting
good blood pressure. If you do that, little, if any, supplementing
will be need.
Tom Venuto: On the subject of supplements
and natural or non-drug remedies, are there any that the medical
establishment and scientific community give almost unanimous
support for in the treatment of hypertension?
Frank Mangano: The medical community has
really come to embrace fish oil supplements. They recognized
through extensive research the benefits of the essential fatty
acids and that the lack of these nutrients in the American
diet especially is responsible for numerous health problems.
There are a lot of other herbs that have been studied and
the results of these clinical trials are often published by
the National Institutes of Health and other federal health
agencies or in prominent medical journals.
Tom Venuto: In your own personal opinion,
are there any supplements that might fall under the “Alternative
health” umbrella that the medical establishment and
scientific community is hesitant to support or where they
say maybe, but “more research is needed’ but which
you think have potential?
Frank Mangano: There are a lot of supplements
that the medical community just doesn’t want to embrace.
But they haven’t vetoed them yet either. The problem
with mainstream healthcare is that they are looking for ways
to bottle and market a remedy and in doing so lose touch with
what is already available to consumers. I know that they do
this to ensure safety and purity of the remedies, but it is
often at the expense of getting important information to the
consumer. One example of this is with Vitamin C. This vitamin
is known to boost the immune system, yet the medical establishment
won’t necessarily recommend it for that purpose because
more proof is needed – and that proof takes time and
money.
One that has huge potential in lowering blood
pressure but doesn’t have the full support of the medical
community yet is L-Arginine. Herbalists consider arginine
essential to controlling high blood pressure, yet the medical
community believes that most people produce what they need
and doesn’t support taking a supplement. If someone
has a fatty liver and slow healing wounds or hair loss, then
they may need to get more of this amino acid in their system.
The problem is not so much that the medical
community believes these nutrients won’t help, it’s
just they are not prepared to stick their necks out and take
a definitive stand on most natural remedies.
Tom Venuto: And why is it that these potential
solutions are not better known? What is it, some kind of conspiracy?
I see this guy on TV all the time talking about natural cures
“they” don’t want you to know about. Who
is “they?” Is it really possible that the pharmaceutical
industry has so much economic power and influence that they
can suppress a natural remedy because that would cut into
their drug profits, or is that too outrageous to be true.
Frank Mangano: I don’t believe any
legitimate physician or scientist would want to hide the fact
that there is a natural way to get healthy if they believed
it would work. They often just don’t have the facts
themselves, so they can’t pass this information along.
I believe the drug manufacturers do have profits on their
minds, but disguise this with scare tactics about how there
has not been sufficient testing about how safe or effective
natural remedies are – which just isn’t true.
If more consumers demanded natural remedies, more would be
done to test and educate. It’s happening already. There
is a lot more activity in this area than just 5 or 10 years
ago. That is making scientists and doctors more interested
in finding out for themselves. The same thing happened with
organic foods. Once people understood the benefits, there
was a higher demand for them, and they started to be more
readily available and affordable.
Tom Venuto: We’re almost out of time,
but before we wrap this up, I want to ask you a question on
a completely different note that is related to a personal
interest of mine. I’m a natural bodybuilder as you know,
obviously I do a lot of weight training, and a lot of people
really believe that lifting weights raises blood pressure.
My understanding of this is that lifting can cause a temporary
rise in blood pressure during the exercise, especially on
exercises where you do the Valsalva maneuver, which just means
that you temporarily hold your breath through the sticking
point of an exercise which will increase intra abdominal pressure
and help you get through the difficult part of the lift. For
example, you inhale on the way down on a leg press exercise,
then at the bottom you reverse direction, hold your breath
for a split second and then push through the sticking point
and breathe out.
What I have read in the strength and conditioning
literature is that this is only a transient rise in blood
pressure and that if anything, a weight training program does
not increase blood pressure long term, there is either no
change in resting blood pressure or a decrease, depending
on the person and the nature of the weight training program
in question.
Here are my questions for you. Has your research
found the same thing I did? Second, what about people who
are not healthy and who have been diagnosed with high blood
pressure. Should they be doing weight training? If so, how
should they modify their workouts - I mean should they be
doing heavy leg presses, squats and deadlifts and so on? Or
what about higher reps and lighter weights? And last but not
least, have you found any new research that’s just come
out recently on whether weight training could either raise
or lower resting blood pressure long term?
Frank Mangano: My research shows basically
the same as what you found. Yes, there is a short-term raise
in blood pressure during weight lifting, especially for those
maneuvers where the breath is held. For a person who is in
good cardiovascular health this isn’t a problem. For
those who already have high blood pressure, weight training
may even lower it, but the valsalva maneuver should be avoided
until their every day blood pressure is consistently good.
Weight training, as you know, creates lean
muscle mass, which increases metabolism and helps in weight
reduction. Losing weight lowers blood pressure. To use weight
training as a means of losing weight and lowering blood pressure
I recommend the lower weight – higher reps workout.
The circuit training approach is a great way for pre-hypertensive
individuals to get control of their blood pressure before
it becomes a dangerous health problem.
Tom Venuto; Well Frank, we’re just
about out of time, so I want to say thank you, this has been
a great interview and some great information I appreciate
you sharing your time and expertise with my listeners. Even
as a fitness professional myself, I’m learning new things
here in the health field and expanding my perspectives and
my definition of exactly what natural health, natural fitness
and natural bodybuilding mean, because once again it means
a lot more than just muscle, low body fat and looking good
on the outside. Before we go, why don’t you give us
your website address so if anyone listening wants to check
out your e-book, "The
Silent Killer Exposed", they can just go online and read
more about it.
Frank Mangano:
You’re very welcome, Tom, it’s been my pleasure.
You
can find out everything you need to know about my book by
visiting: www.TheSilentKillerExposed.com
Tom Venuto: Awesome, thanks again Frank
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Tom
Venuto is an NSCA-certified strength and conditioning specialist,
lifetime natural bodybuilder, freelance writer, success coach
and author of the
#1 best-selling e-book, Burn The fat, Feed The Muscle (BFFM):
Fat Burning Secrets of the Worlds Best Bodybuilders and Fitness
Models
Tom has written hundreds of articles and has been featured
in IRONMAN magazine, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development,
Muscle-Zine, Olympian's News (in Italian), Exercise for Men
and Men's Exercise. You
can get more information about Tom's fat loss program at www.BurnTheFat.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Frank
Mangano is a health advocate who dedicates his life to finding
solutions for people interested in reducing their risk of
health problems and improving their overall quality of life
naturally without the use prescription medication.
As an active member of his community he works diligently
providing assistance to senior citizens and probing as a health
advocate to discover new and innovative ways to promote well
being. The hard work and persistence that Frank has invested
in recent years is reflected through his writings. He
is the author of The Silent Killer Exposed, The Truth About
Hypertension, which can be found on the web at: www.TheSilentKillerExposed.com
|
