By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben
Anti- hypertensive drugs are one of craziest of all medical pharmacological health strategies. Here’s why:
If your blood pressure is high enough that you need a drug then that means either:
- a lot of blood-clogging, sludgy gook is impeding flow, resulting in a build-up of pressure, OR
- blood vessels have narrowed restricting flow and resulting in pressure elevation. The blood vessels narrow (that’s called “stenosis”) from damage or as a manifestation of the stress response; it’s the body’s way of making sure the muscles and nerves have enough oxygen and nutrients to get us out of the jam (it thinks) we’re in.
The body is a pressurized system. Nutriated and oxygenated blood flows through the circulatory system forcefully pushed (pressured) by the rhythmic pumping action of the heart. From the heart, it enters into the large arteries then travels into smaller and smaller vessels until it reaches the tiniest capillaries which are in close contact with cells. And this is the ultimate goal of the “Journey of the Blood”: to reach a cell with nutrients and oxygen and then as it leaves on its return trip back to the heart, to drain away it’s wastes.
Thus, each of the 100 trillion cells that compose the human body depends on the free flowing of liquids for nutrition, detoxification, and oxygenation. Essentially, it is the force of blood flow (pressure) which acts to bathe and nourish cells and rinse away the cellular waste like your garden hose waters and rinses your plants.
A diagnosis of hypertension refers to a resistance to blood flow, i.e. increased pressure in the blood vessel. In other words, it becomes harder and harder for blood to make it to its ultimate destination, the capillaries and the cells. Ironically, the result of this increase in pressure is LOW pressure on the other side of the resistance, the capillaries and cells. At the level of a cell, which is where it counts, high blood pressure is actually LOW blood pressure! If you have a circulatory pressure problem, your problem is in the vessels NOT in the cells. You may have high blood pressure as measured at the level of the blood vessels (where a blood pressure cuff works), but there’s some kind of resistance that’s actually keeping the pressure low at a cell. That’s because the cell is on the other side of the resistance.
If you take a pharmaceutical anti-hypertensive that’s only going to make matters worse. If you take a beta blocker or calcium channel blocker drug that shuts down the pump (the heart), you may lower the pressure but that means even less flow to the already deprived cell. Likewise, if your drug widens the vessels (vasodilators) or reduces the blood’s fluid content (that’s how diuretics work). Ultimately, no matter what kind of drug you use, you’re going to have even lower pressure at the level of a cell, and more cellular starvation suffocation and toxification
In fact not only are these pharmacological interventions not going to make you any healthier, in true drug therapy style, they’re likely to make you even sicker! If cells depend on pressure for their nutrients and oxygen and blood flow, what is going to be the result of further reducing the pressure? Yup, starvation, suffocation, and toxification at the cell level; AND disease and degeneration at the human being level.
So let’s see: the health of the body depends on pressure; it’s entire fluid system (and 60 percent or more of the body is fluid) moves via pressure. Cells are fed nutrients via pressure, they’re delivered oxygen via pressure, and the same pressure that feed and breathes cells is required for rinsing away cells waste and toxicity. And what happens to the pressure when we take an anti-hypertensive. It drops.
Here’s the math: (Lowering blood pressure artificially, pharmacologically, = (Less cellular nutrition, oxygen, and detoxification). Now, who thinks that’s a good idea?
Perhaps we should be thinking about and addressing the causes of pressure building stagnation and stenosis, i.e; stress and digestive system sludge. One of the most important reasons for the stagnation of circulatory fluids that cause high blood pressure in the first place involves the lymphatic vessels, the body’s waste disposal system. The lymph, while often regarded as distinct from the circulatory system, is essentially one and the same. There are just as many miles of lymphatic vessels as there are blood vessels. And they are connected. They are in essence one system. Both branch out from centralized large vessels into teeny tiny capillaries at which point nutrients are dropped into tissues and cells and then picked up again for a return trip. At this point, an uptake between systems takes place and what was in the blood becomes the lymph and what was in the lymph becomes the blood.
The implications of the merging and unification of these two systems for blood pressure health is significant. It means that blood pressure actually depends on the fluidity and movement of two systems, not just one. While both the blood and the lymph are susceptible to sludge, the lymph in particular is vulnerable. It’s the main port of egress for gross gunk that accumulates from bad living and eating.
The good news is it’s real easy to address the health of the lymphatic system. Of course the most important move is to stop putting the toxins in it the first place. The lymph is especially prone to congestion from fat malabsorbtion. In addition to being a route for the elimination of toxins, it’s also a transport system for EFAs, and fatty vitamins and other dietary fats. Eat smaller amounts of fatty foods and make sure you’re getting your fatty nutrients, too.
One of the best ways to move the lymph and improve circulation is to get a rebounder. Lymph movement depends on muscle movement. Sedentary lifestyles all but guarantee lymphatic congestion. And that means poison congestion, not good! Even a brisk walk can get muscles to put enough pressure on the lymphatic vessels to move things around, deep breathing works too. Lungs are heavily muscle-ized. There are large concentrations of lymphatic system plumbing located next to these lung muscles and as they move, so does the lymph. You’ll bump up your pleasure hormones (endorphins) and improve your mental health, all while you’re safely and gently lowering your blood pressure without doctors or drugs.
