High Blood Pressure (hypertension)
Snacking on Almonds Improves Your Blood Vessels
Looking for a healthy snack? Researchers have found that snacking on almonds improves the flexibility of blood vessels and also lowers dangerous LDL cholesterol (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition…
Blood Pressure Measurements Are Too Important to…
We are constantly amazed at how many mistakes health professionals make when they take blood pressure measurements. Readers have shared that technicians don’t often give them time to sit down and re…
Will Blood Pressure Medicines Prevent Alzheimer …
Doctors have been debating the link between high blood pressure (hypertension) and cognitive decline for decades (BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, Nov. 3, 2016). They have been equally divided and uncert…
Did Anal Absorption of Prep H Raise BP?
There are lots of ways to get medicine into your body. Swallowing pills is the most obvious route. Injections are also understandable. Topical seems a bit harder for people to comprehend, though. Even…
Will Blood Pressure Remedy Lead to Kidney Stones…
Hippocrates' warning that the physician should do no harm in the course of treating a condition should also apply to anyone treating themselves with home remedies. An astute reader searching for a blo…
Your Blood Pressure Will Vary Throughout the Day…
What’s your blood pressure? Not in general, but right now, this very minute! Unless you get out your blood pressure monitor and actually measure it as you are reading this article, you won’t have …
Do Ginseng Supplements Raise Blood Pressure?
Ever since the mid-1990s, Americans have been exploring the potential benefits of herbal medicines. Many have been experimenting with ginseng, perhaps because it holds an important place in traditiona…
Can Ginger Reduce Blood Pressure & Soothe A…
As we add additional birthdays to life's scorecard, we frequently start to notice more aches and pains. Arthritis can affect almost any joint in the body, and many people have problems with multiple j…
Using Eggplant to Lower Your Blood Pressure
Several years ago, a reader wrote to tell us about using eggplant water to treat elevated blood pressure. At the time, we were quite surprised, as we were unfamiliar with this home remedy. A search of…
Can You Lower Your Blood Pressure With Cherries?
Half of the adults in the United States have hypertension. The usual solution is blood pressure medicine and that may be necessary in many cases. But there are many ways to get hypertension under cont…
Do You Know How to Take Your Blood Pressure Righ…
Public health experts at the American Heart Association estimate that about half of American adults have high blood pressure, also termed hypertension. As a result, they are at increased risk for stro…
Holiday Blood Pressure Challenges Hard to Manage
Have you taken your blood pressure today? Was it less than 130/80? If not, you are in the danger zone according to the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology (ACC). At…
Should You Take Your Pills at Breakfast or Bedti…
How do you take your pills? If you are like most people you barely give it a moment’s thought. After all, the instructions on your medication bottle may be vague: “Take 1 (one) tablet by mouth eve…
ACE Inhibitors Like Lisinopril and Lung Cancer
Doctors appreciate ACE (angiotensin receptor enzyme) inhibitors for lowering high blood pressure. They have been first-line treatments for hypertension for many years. We used to think drugs such as b…
Losartan and Suicide? Another ARB (Sartan) Conce…
Over the last 15 months, millions of blood pressure pills called ARBs have been recalled due to contamination with nitrosamines. Many people with hypertension worried about a possible increased risk o…
Clonazepam Withdrawal | Safe Sedative or Poison?
Klonopin (clonazepam) was first marketed by the Hoffman La Roche pharmaceutical company in 1975. Roche had already cleaned up with this benzodiazepine class of medications. Librium (chlordiazepoxide) …
How Herbal Medicines Lower Blood Pressure
Scientists at the University of California, Irvine, have made a fascinating discovery (PNAS, Sep. 30, 2019). They have identified the mechanism by which some traditional herbal medicines lower blood p…
Another BP Nitrosamine Drug Recall and Zantac (R…
Are you getting drug contamination fatigue? We would not blame you. There is a new blood pressure nitrosamine drug recall. This time it is from Torrent Pharmaceutical Limited of Ahmedabad, India. The …
Home Blood Pressure May Be Better Than Clinic
Do you take your blood pressure at home? Home blood pressure monitoring can be extremely helpful. Measuring your own blood pressure in the privacy of your home can help sidestep the nerves that lead t…
Does Green Tea Interact with Heart Drugs?
When you sit down to enjoy a beverage, do you think about whether it might affect the medications you take? Years ago, research on grapefruit juice showed that what you drink can indeed affect your pi…
Can Mouthwash Increase Blood Pressure? An Unusua…
If you think about bacteria in the mouth you probably consider bad breath. But oral bacteria are crucial for good health. They are part of your microbiome (the organisms that live in and on your body)…
What Are the Pros and Cons of Drinking?
Doctors strongly debate the pros and cons of drinking. On the one hand, alcohol abuse causes enormous suffering both for the affected individuals and their families. On the other hand, for years resea…
For Seniors, More Blood Pressure Medication Is N…
Elevated blood pressure is a risk factor for heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease. Guidelines from the American Heart Association encourage aggressive antihypertensive treatment, even for older a…
Prescriptions on Demand from Online Doctors
For over a century, patients got their medicines by seeing a doctor, getting a prescription and going to a pharmacy. Of course, that was before the Internet. The web has changed everything. People buy…
The Beta Blocker Blahs Can Be Debilitating
Beta blockers are blood pressure medications that have been around for many decades. They include drugs like atenolol (Tenormin), metoprolol (Toprol) and propranolol (Inderal). In some instances, such…
Will a High Dairy Diet Lower Your Blood Pressure…
For years, cardiologists have warned their patients to be cautious about consuming too many dairy products. They worried that dairy fat would clog arteries. That, in turn, could lead to heart trouble.…
Pomegranate Power Enhances Mitochondria and Cell…
The ancient Chinese believed that Pomegranates had anti-aging properties. They might have been right. Swiss scientists have identified a metabolite of compounds found in pomegranates. It is called uro…
A New Carcinogen DMF Discovered in Valsartan BP …
And now there are FOUR potential carcinogens found in blood pressure medicines called ARBs (angiotensin receptor blockers). For almost a year, Americans have faced repeated recalls of BP pills like ir…
Can Blueberries Combat Metabolic Syndrome?
A cup of blueberries a day could be a tasty way to combat metabolic syndrome. In this condition, extra fat in the abdomen makes the waist larger. Elevated blood pressure, high cholesterol and insulin …
Will L-Arginine Help Your Blood Pressure?
If you've ever browsed the supplement shelves of your local health food store, you may have encountered l-arginine. This amino acid is found in proteins you may consume on a regular basis. Nuts and se…
Can Licorice Lead to a Hypertensive Emergency?
Licorice root is a traditional herbal medicine that may be used to ease ulcers or heartburn. Europeans use it for coughs and colds. Moreover, people around the world often enjoy licorice in foo…
Must You Grind Flaxseed to Get Its Nutritional B…
The humble flaxseed is now being hailed as a superfood because it is a great source of fiber, healthful omega-3 fats and lignans. The fiber content is helpful against constipation. A systematic review…
Another Week Another Losartan Recall | Will It E…
OK, we admit that we are beyond fed up. There have been so many blood pressure drug recalls since last July that we have totally lost count. It was only about a week ago that we wrote about a recall o…
How Can You Overcome the Harms of Sitting Too Mu…
How many hours a day do you sit? Be honest, please. If you work in front of a computer, we’ll bet you spend more than eight hours a day sitting. And that doesn’t count time sitting in your car, si…
What Is the Story on Grapefruit Juice and Meds?
What do you know about the story on grapefruit juice and drug interactions? Some people have heard that it is risky to combine juice but not fruit with certain medications; others insist that the inte…
Show 1160: How Good Is the Evidence for Cutting …
For decades, public health experts have been admonishing Americans to cut the salt in our diets. In fact, the American Heart Association recommends that we limit ourselves to 2,300 mg of sodium daily.…
The Best Way to Lower Your Blood Pressure with E…
High blood pressure (hypertension) increases the risk for heart disease, stroke and kidney damage. While numerous medications can treat hypertension, many people would like to control their blood pres…
Another ARB Recall Translates into Bad BP Contro…
Yup, you guessed it. The FDA has issued another ARB recall. This time it is for losartan…again. On March 15, 2019 and again on March 19, 2019 the FDA announced that Legacy Pharmaceutical Packaging, …
Delayed Cough with Lisinopril Can Lead to Misdia…
Humans are programmed to quickly associate symptoms with exposure to some toxin. This was an incredibly adaptive learning process when our ancestors were hunters and gatherers. If a member of the trib…
Can You Lower Blood Pressure with Nitric Oxide?
Nitric oxide is a gas originally thought to be important to human health only as an air pollutant. In the 1980s, however, scientists began to realize that this molecule plays many important roles in h…