Guest guest Posted September 16, 2009 Report Share Posted September 16, 2009 Good afternoon! Al, if I may, I have a question for you...my 36yo brother was just diagnosed with " borderline high blood pressure " . His numbers are approx. 140/90. His doctor put him on a low dosage of,(Cardezem),medication, to lower it and he'll check it again in about a month. However, he has concerns about being on blood pressure medication...mainly because of all of the horror stories he's heard about possible long term side effects, (of any drug), and he's also lost faith in Western Medicine. Frankly he would rather go a safer and natural route. I talked to him about exercise and diet, limiting his drinking and smoking, etc. He seems pretty scared and is ready to make some adjustments to his life. I'd like to refer him to see my TCM practitioner. Can TCM help him to lower his blood pressure? Also, if he opts to do so, can he take the high blood pressure medication (cardezem) while taking the TCM teas? Thanks so much for your guidance! Jai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 17, 2009 Report Share Posted September 17, 2009 Hi Jai, I am actually quite enthusiastic about using TCM for these low grade drug presentations. In other words, if a problem is only low-grade, we can do for him what the drugs are doing or supposed to do. Acupuncture is very relaxing to the nervous system, this can rapidly lead to a (healthy) drop in blood pressure. Herbs can do much the same thing, though I would think that it would take a little bit longer to kick in. Just like there are a few different kinds of drugs that lower blood pressure, so are there a variety of treatment principles in herbal medicine as well. Your brother for instance is on a calcium channel blocker which is essentially a chill pill for the heart's function so it beats slower and more gently. There are also drugs that cause one to urinate to lower the amount of fluid volume in the body to lower the blood pressure. There are also beta blockers and ace inhibitors that affect other structures to cause blood vessels to dilate, etc. Same thing with Chinese medicine. We might look to clearing heat from the Liver and Heart to achieve a similar goal as his calcium channel blocker. We have formulas that are diuretic that help lower blood pressure just like the drug based diuretics, etc. Now just because his doctor chose the calcium channel blocker doesn't mean that a TCM herbalist will necessarily choose to clear heat from the Liver and Heart or whatever. In most cases, the TCMer will just treat what he sees, as long as it could conceivably cause hypertension. In a way, that makes this an integrated approach. Some TCM docs will just ignore the whole blood pressure issue and treat whatever they see sticking out. In many cases, this is going to help him anyway. Fortunately, blood pressure is easy to monitor with an at-home thingy that can cost less than $50. So, to answer your question about taking his drug along with acupuncture and/or herbs, they're fine to use together. The only thing he has to watch out for is an additive effect. If we're all doing the same thing, that thing may over react. Bottom line is, if he starts getting dizzy when he stands up, or if his at-home blood pressure monitor says his BP is getting low, then he can lower the dosage on the drug (after discussing with prescribing physician) and probably not have to go back to that drug. Of course, blood pressure has a high degree of correlation to lifestyle choices. So, he gets to start exercising if he isn't already, and eating right, etc... Hope it works out for ya'll. -al. On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 3:20 PM, JO <capisces7 wrote: > > > Good afternoon! > > Al, if I may, I have a question for you...my 36yo brother was just > diagnosed with " borderline high blood pressure " . His numbers are approx. > 140/90. His doctor put him on a low dosage of,(Cardezem),medication, to > lower it and he'll check it again in about a month. However, he has concerns > about being on blood pressure medication...mainly because of all of the > horror stories he's heard about possible long term side effects, (of any > drug), and he's also lost faith in Western Medicine. Frankly he would rather > go a safer and natural route. I talked to him about exercise and diet, > limiting his drinking and smoking, etc. > > He seems pretty scared and is ready to make some adjustments to his life. > I'd like to refer him to see my TCM practitioner. Can TCM help him to lower > his blood pressure? Also, if he opts to do so, can he take the high blood > pressure medication (cardezem) while taking the TCM teas? > > Thanks so much for your guidance! > Jai > > > -- , DAOM Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. http://twitter.com/algancao Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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