Alternative High Blood Pressure Treatment is Better than Disparaging Dr. Consults

by Pauline Washington-Diggs
(Fort Washington, MD)

I have hypertension - from time to time. The one thing about a high blood pressure reading that I have noted is that it doesn't stay all day, all week or forever. It doesn't even stay for 30 minutes, and often times even less than that. So, it's puzzling to me to accept a final diagnosis as "you're hypertensive and there's nothing to be done about it except to take a pill for the rest of your life . . . a pill that has side affects that you will deal with later." Considering an alternative treatment for hypertension makes more sense especially when many of the alternative treatments including foods and herbs add additional benefits to your overall health.

Here's my plan which you may find helpful as well:
(1) Include a variety of foods in my diet that are rich in nutrients that aide in my hypertension ailment.
(2) Get daily (yes daily, at least 60 minutes) exercise. Shopping in the grocery store is over 30 minutes for me, going to the mall and looking for an item of clothing is easily 2 hours of motion, and basically that's what exercise is -movement. But, do include some resistance and aerobic exercise each week to get and keep the heart muscles strengthened.
(3) Monitor your blood pressure at home with the use of a personalized BP machine. That way you are not blind to which direction the overall summary of your readings are taking. You need to know if you have to increase exercise, add more nutrients to your diet, and/or include a breathing technique. You may find that you are most often right at the target level for normal blood pressure. Don?t get discouraged if you find a high reading from time to time. Understand that this is normal in the realm of daily living. There are stresses, hurts, binges on the wrong foods, and other over or under indulgences that can temporarily change the status quo of your blood pressure. As long as a high blood pressure reading does not linger around for the day without changing in the right (lower) direction, then you may still be in a good position; that is not being considered a chronic hypertensive patient.

Alternative treatments to hypertension should include a knowledge base of where your numbers/readings on a BP machine are, and what they mean. Know what a normal blood pressure range is and make an affirmation and commitment to reach that goal by sticking with an alternative treatment for your soon-to-be post hypertensive state. The first step is to set your mind to the task to be done. Alternative treatments like regular medical treatments also require consistency (key word). Am I right? So, put aside the excuses. Set the goal and write the plan down. Gage (or gauge) what`s happening. Are you most often successful in reaching your goal? If not, make modifications. If so, keep up the good effort.