High Blood Pressure and Herbs

About High Blood Pressure and Herbs

Drug intervention need not be the only option to help lower your moderately high blood pressure. Herbal remedies such as garlic, arjuna, sarpagandha, and olive can help too.

Hypertension or high blood pressure is no doubt a lifestyle disorder except for minority cases in which the cause could be renal artery stenosis, chronic kidney disease, thyroid disorder, sleep disorders or coarctation of the aorta. These minority cases (less than 1%) form the secondary hypertension whereas the common form of high blood pressure is known as primary hypertension. Primary hypertension or the common high blood pressure may not be deadly in itself but it raises the risk of heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease that is the leading cause of death worldwide.

This 'silent killer' disease is linked with 70 percent of strokes and 60.5 percent of kidney disease. Statistics show that as many as one billion people worldwide are affected by high blood pressure and the number is growing by the day. Many health organizations including the American Society of Hypertension, Asian Hypertension League, World Stroke Organization, International Diabetes Federation, and others have endorsed the global call to action for recognizing high blood pressure as a major public health priority.

Fortunately, in most instances drug intervention may not be necessarily required, just a change in lifestyle can be sufficient to control or prevent mild or moderately high blood pressure. Stat shedding those extra pounds if you are overweight, include plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, restrict salty food, give up tobacco, and exercise regularly - these measures can help keep your blood pressure at target levels.

An additional effort through herbal remedies can not only help you lower high blood pressure but also reduce stress and enhance metabolic health.

Among the many herbs that can serve the purpose, four herbs namely garlic, arjuna, sarpagandha, and olive are discussed here. It must, however, be noted that none of these herbs are substitute for medical attention.

References:

1. Khayyal MT, el-Ghazaly MA, Abdallah DM, Nassar NN, Okpanyi SN, Kreuter MH. Blood pressure lowering effect of an olive leaf extract (Olea europaea) in L-NAME induced hypertension in rats. Arzneimittelforschung. 2002;52(11):797-802.
2. Nammi S, Gudavalli R, Babu BS, Lodagala DS, Boini KM. Possible mechanisms of hypotension produced 70% alcoholic extract of Terminalia arjuna (L.) in anaesthetized dogs. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2003 Oct 16;3:5.
3. Parmar HS, Panda S, Jatwa R, Kar A. Cardio/protective role of Terminalia arjuna bark extract is possibly mediated through alterations in thyroid hormones. Pharmazie. 2006 Sep;61(9):793/5.
4. Ried K, Frank OR, Stocks NP, Fakler P, Sullivan T. Effect of garlic on blood pressure: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Cardiovasc Disord. 2008 Jun 16;8:13.
5. Shamon SD, Perez MI. Blood pressure lowering efficacy of reserpine for primary hypertension. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD007655. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD007655.pub2.
6. Somova LI, Shode FO, Ramnanan P, Nadar A. Antihypertensive, antiatherosclerotic and antioxidant activity of triterpenoids isolated from Olea europaea, subspecies africana leaves. J Ethnopharmacol. 2003 Feb;84(2-3):299-305.
7. Turner B, M�lgaard C, Marckmann P. Effect of garlic (Allium sativum) powder tablets on serum lipids, blood pressure and arterial stiffness in normo-lipidaemic volunteers: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Br J Nutr. 2004 Oct;92(4):701-6.
8. About High Blood Pressure - (http://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/about.htm)