Why you don't need to treat your blood pressure

Back in 2002, I shocked the medical world by telling my readers that they didn't need to treat their blood pressure. In that report, I said that there was no medical evidence that treating blood pressure less than 160 systolic would help you live longer. People called me a quack and said I was going to kill people. Well, it turns out, I was right.

Now, years later, there's more research to confirm what I told you. There is just no benefit in medically lowering blood pressure below 140/100. The researchers were quick to point out that those with natural blood pressure 115/70 have fewer heart attacks. But medically treating to get your blood pressure that low doesn't help. Now the big question is why.

Medicine is based on treating symptoms, not causes. High blood pressure is merely a symptom of an underlying cause. Just treating the blood pressure leaves the cause untreated. For example, lead toxicity or potassium deficiency can cause high blood pressure. Yes, you can drug the pressure down. But you don't fix the problem.

Medicine hasn't learned yet that suppressing symptoms with toxic drugs may not only do no good, but it might also cause harm. I prefer to look at high blood pressure as a symptom of a risk factor, and not a risk factor itself. So you don't need to treat blood pressure. You need to treat the cause of it.

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Action to take: If you have high blood pressure, have an integrative physician find the underlying cause. If you don't have access to one, you can call my office for a telephone "education" consultation. I've found that diet and lifestyle changes work wonders. And for chronically high blood pressure, a water fast can lower your pressure very quickly and safely (you can read about how to do this treatment safely on my website).

Two warnings: First, I never tell patients to stop their blood pressure drugs for safety and legal reasons. Stopping the drugs cold turkey can cause severe reactions. However, I find that with diet and lifestyle changes, you can lower your blood pressure naturally. Once your blood pressure is in a good range, like 130/90 or less, your doctor can SLOWLY wean you off of them.

Second, if your BP is more than 160, you are at increased risk of stroke (blood vessels can break at high pressure). There is a clear place for medical intervention — to prevent a vessel from blowing out. So if you have extremely high blood pressure, you need medication until you can find the cause.

Yours for better health and medical freedom,

Ref: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, July 8, 2009.