Hypertension (high blood pressure) inevitably leads to a lifetime of prescription drug roulette, where your physician prescribes various medications to control your blood pressure numbers while searching for the least drastic side effects. Often, when blood pressure drugs are started, other drugs are prescribed to control some of the side effects of the original medication. This can cascade into two, three, or four different prescriptions to counter the various problems caused by this type of blood pressure management.
As each new drug is added, the stress and biochemical chaos in your body multiplies. The longer the drugs are used, the more likely you are to suffer long-term and sometimes permanent or deadly side effects. Often the most powerful and effective drugs carry the most deadly side effects. Since suppression of the heart is a core function of most blood pressure drugs, the risk of terminal congestive heart failure (a suppressed heart) looms for most patients who continue this type of therapy long-term.
Most hypertension cases can be resolved or managed with alternative methods as long as the basics are addressed -- losing weight, stopping smoking and drinking, altering the diet to a semblance of the blood type diet, and beginning an exercise program. These are called the basic five.
However, in most cases, this is not enough. A protocol of nutrients to reestablish heart, liver, kidney, and circulatory health is also needed for a period of one to three years. Since each individual has different causes for various types of blood pressure problems, the "shotgun" approach (the same approach for everyone) should be avoided because it carries a high failure rate.
Log in to read the rest of this article adressing what Dr. West of Health Alert prescribes for the different causes of hypertension.
