Q. Your recent column about using probiotics in yogurt to reduce blood pressure in an otherwise healthy young person was way below the standard of care.
I am a physician. Had I treated such a patient with yogurt and he developed a stroke, I would be sued for malpractice. You need to caution your readers to stick with their medicine if they have hypertension.
A. The gentleman in question wanted to try to get his variable blood pressure problem under control with natural remedies before taking medicines. He puts in 20 kilometers a week on his NordicTrack and reports low to normal cholesterol levels.
That said, your point is well taken that hypertension is associated with an increased risk for stroke. Medication can control serious elevations in blood pressure while people use other strategies to bring hypertension under better control.
No one should stop taking blood pressure drugs without medical supervision, and seriously elevated blood pressure deserves medication as well as non-drug approaches. Our Guide to Blood Pressure Treatment discusses the roles of both.
