chiropractic – Page 28

Young Children Pay a High Price for Screen Time

July 17, 2014 oblanderchiropractic

Many parents are occasionally thankful for the television—after all, it can serve as a low-cost, short-term babysitter while they cook or do housework. At the same time, however, many parents are concerned about the amount of television that their children watch—and for good reason. Statistics tell us that in America, children under six watch an average of two hours of TV a day, and children eight to 18 spend an average of four hours in front of a TV and often an additional two hours a day on computers or playing video games.

So what does all of this screen time mean for America’s children? Recent research published in JAMA Pediatrics suggests that it is results in poorer well-being and sleep and that it contributes to childhood obesity.

In the first study, part of a larger research project called IDEFICS (Identification and Prevention of Dietary- and Lifestyle-Induced Health Effects in Children and Infants), researchers examined 3,604 children aged two to six to determine if there was a relationship between their electronic media use and their sense of well-being. They assessed the children based on six standardized indicators of well-being (including emotional problems, peer problems, self-esteem, family functioning, and social interactions) and compared the results to the number of hours they spent in front of a TV, computer, or video game screen. They found that increased media use predicted much poorer senses of well-being. TV was found to be more harmful than computer use, but overall they found that there was a 1.2- to 2.0-fold increase in emotional problems and poorer family functioning for each additional hour of media use.

A second JAMA Pediatrics study involving 1,713 Spanish children found that children who watched more than 1.5 hours of television per day had shorter sleep duration and began to suffer from sleep deprivation. Their sleep duration shortened with every extra hour of television watched over the 1.5-hour baseline. And in a third study, researchers found that increased media exposure resulted in sharply increasing BMI (Body Mass Index) scores, and thus a tendency toward childhood obesity.

So how much TV is too much? Every day more research comes out indicating that exposure to electronic media can have adverse effects on children—effects that can persist into adulthood.

As a result, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children under the age of two not watch any TV, as the first two years of life are a critical time for brain development. Television and other electronic media can prevent exploring, playing, and interacting with parents and others, all of which are critical for social development. In addition, the AAP suggests that children older than two watch no more than one to two hours of electronic media per day.

More Exercise Now Means More Independence in Your Golden Years

June 9, 2014 oblanderchiropractic

We all know that exercise is good for us at any age. What is becoming more apparent, however, is that developing the habits of regular exercise in the present—meaning at whatever age you happen to be right now —will pay off for you in the future.

A recent study discussed in the January edition of the journal Nursing Older People suggests that exercise plays a crucial part in enabling older people to retain their mobility and improve their overall quality of life. The study examined the effects of a three-month, twice-weekly exercise class on people aged 60 and older and found that the participants’ overall strength, fitness, coordination, and balance improved. More importantly, the participants in the class were then motivated to continue exercising after the study ended, partly because the exercise classes helped them to overcome their sense of social isolation.

A similar study published in the American Journal of Medicine provided even more evidence that exercise can provide not only a longer life, but a more meaningful one. Dr. Preethi Srikanthan and his associates at UCLA found that the more muscle mass older people have, the less likely they are to die prematurely. Their studies indicate that the amount of muscle mass is a better predictor of both longevity and the ability to perform normal functions than body mass index (BMI) measurements, because increased muscle mass decreases their metabolic risk.

Combined with other alarming results from studies on the dangers of inactivity and sitting too much (one such study indicates that every hour spent sitting per day after the age of 60 decreases your ability to perform normal activities like dressing, bathing, and walking by 50%), these findings make a strong case for preparing for one’s golden years by exercising more now, while it’s easier. Developing healthy exercise habits can even be seen as preventative, in that it seems to reduce the risk of developing disabling diseases. A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that people who were more fit in their middle age had significantly lower rates of heart disease, kidney disease, stroke, diabetes, colon cancer, lung cancer, obstructive pulmonary conditions, and even Alzheimer’s disease when they reached their forties and fifties. In this study, for every unit of improvement on a standard scale of physical fitness, the subjects experienced a 20% reduction in the incidence of the eight chronic illnesses being tracked. Those with the highest levels of physical fitness when they were young developed the fewest chronic conditions during the last five years of their lives.

So if you’re concerned about living a longer, more productive and satisfying life, one way to achieve it seems clear—start exercising more now and continue to exercise regularly. The stronger and more fit you are today will, to some extent, determine how strong and fit you are when you get older and whether you’ll be able to get around and enjoy your life when you reach your golden years.

Superfoods: Science or Marketing?

June 4, 2014 oblanderchiropractic

There is no medical definition for a “superfood”. Food manufacturers are eager to use the word to promote sales of their products that contain traces of supposed superfoods such as blueberries, pomegranates and chocolate. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a superfood as “a nutrient-rich food considered to be especially beneficial for health and well-being.” However, there are no set criteria about what makes a food nutrient-rich. Most superfoods are high in antioxidants and phytonutrients relative to other foods. However, if you were to eat only one of these superfoods to the exclusion of all else, you would be seriously deficient in many of the nutrients your body needs in order to stay healthy. So what exactly is the science behind the idea of superfoods?

While we would like to believe that if we eat certain foods we can stave off illness and keep aging at bay, the truth is that it’s not so easy. Although there is no doubt that a diet consisting primarily of fruits and vegetables is one of the keys to healthy longevity, it is also what you don’t eat and do that is important. For instance, if you eat a breakfast of blueberries and pomegranates in a bowl of oatmeal, along with a cup of green tea, that does not mean that your health will improve overall if for lunch you have a bucket of fried chicken, French fries and a 64-ounce Coke, followed by a cigarette.

The majority of scientific studies indicating that there may be some positive health effects associated with the nutrients contained in certain foods were conducted in a laboratory. In general, high levels of nutrients are used in these studies—usually far more than what can be consumed in a normal diet. For instance, the compound resveratrol that studies have shown to be heart-healthy and to guard against prostate cancer is found in grape skins only in very small amounts. So although “the French paradox” (why the French have low rates of heart disease despite a rich diet) is often partially attributed to the regular consumption of red wine, in fact, you would have to drink 40 liters of wine a day to get the same amount that was shown to benefit the health of mice in these studies.

The positive results of studies performed in test tubes on a few human cells and studies performed on mice do not necessarily translate into health benefits for the wider population. The effect of a single nutrient on human health is difficult to pinpoint, as we all eat a combination of foods. Some nutritional benefits may only occur in the presence of other nutrients in the same food, or even in a different food eaten at the same time. Iron absorption, for example, is boosted when a food rich in vitamin C is eaten at the same time.

The best nutritional advice someone can follow if they’re interested in maintaining good health is to eat a wide range of whole foods, and (even more importantly) to avoid foods that are bad for you such as processed foods and hydrogenated oils. As the European Food Information Council advises, “A diet based on a variety of nutritious foods, including plenty of fruits and vegetables, remains the best way to ensure a balanced nutrient intake for optimal health.”

Head-to-Head: Chiropractic Adjustments or NSAIDs for Acute Lower Back Pain?

June 2, 2014 oblanderchiropractic

Lower back pain (LBP) is so widespread that it was listed in the 2010 Global Burden of Disease report as being the single leading cause of disability worldwide. Over half of all working Americans have lower back pain symptoms each year, resulting in lost work time and enormous expense – Americans spend over $50 billion each year to treat their back pain.

So it’s not surprising that a great deal of research is being conducted to determine the most effective methods for treating acute LBP. Much of this research has sought to compare the effectiveness of spinal manipulation (the sort of adjustments performed by Doctors of Chiropractic) with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). While these studies have generally not produced definitive findings one way or the other, they have served to highlight potential safety concerns related to NSAIDs. For example, investigators in one study found that diclofenac (an NSAID commonly used to treat LBP) increased the risk of gastrointestinal complications by 54% and posed other risks to the kidneys.

Given the added concern about NSAID side effects, researchers and clinicians have had a renewed interest in learning whether drug-free manual therapies—chiropractic care, in particular—can really be just as effective, but safer. According to a recent study published in the April 2013 edition of the journal Spine, the answer is YES! In fact, the research team that conducted the study found that chiropractic adjustments were both safer and FAR MORE EFFECTIVE.

In this study, investigators divided a total of 101 patients suffering from acute lower back pain into three groups. One group received chiropractic spinal manipulation plus a placebo (sham) version of the NSAID diclofenac (meaning that the only treatment actually being offered was chiropractic care). A second group received sham spinal manipulation and real diclofenac (meaning that the NSAID was the only treatment being employed). And a third group received the same sham spinal manipulation plus placebo diclofenac (meaning that no treatment was actually being offered – this was the “control group”). All treatments were “blinded,” meaning that the patients did not know whether they were receiving real or sham spinal manipulation or real or placebo diclofenac. Outcomes were measured based on a combination of patient self-reporting, physical examination, missed work time, and the amount of rescue medication (paracetamol tablets) participants required over a 12-week period.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, about half of the participants in the “control” group receiving no treatment dropped out of the study because of intolerable pain. Comparing the remaining no-intervention subjects and the two remaining intervention groups, researchers found that the group receiving chiropractic high-velocity low-amplitude (HVLA) manipulation fared significantly better than the group being treated with diclofenac and the control group.

Researchers reported a clear difference between the two intervention groups: “The groups receiving spinal manipulation showed a faster and more distinct reduction in the RMS [root mean square, a standardized test of flexibility and mobility]. Subjects also noted a faster and quantitatively more distinct reduction in their subjective estimation of pain after manipulation.” They also found that the group treated only with the NSAID diclofenac required more rescue medication (paracetamol) than the spinal manipulation group, taking 3 times as many tablets and for twice the number of days. No negative effects were reported from the spinal manipulation group, but several negative effects were reported from the diclofenac group.

So, overall, this study indicates a clear “win” for chiropractic in the treatment of acute lower back pain. Not only does HVLA spinal manipulation avoid the potential safety concerns of NSAID medications such as diclofenac, it has been found to be far more effective. Remember this the next time you experience lower back pain, and consider seeing your chiropractor first. This one simple decision may help you recover more quickly and more completely while also helping you avoid the negative side effects of NSAIDs.

Children and Caffeine: What Parents Should Know

May 29, 2014 oblanderchiropractic

The next time you pass a Starbucks, pause for a moment and imagine that the customers inside drinking their lattes and Grande Espressos are your children. Then imagine them ingesting a drug (caffeine) that is known as a powerful stimulant with a proven history of producing nervousness, restlessness, irritability, high blood pressure, insomnia, headaches and heart palpitations. Finally, consider that this exercise in imagination may not be all that far off the mark.

That is the key finding of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a 2014 study published in the journal Pediatrics. The researchers found that nearly three out of four children and young adults in America (73%) consume some caffeine a day, mostly from soda, tea, and coffee, but also from an alarming number of “energy drinks.”

This study comes as part of an investigation undertaken by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) into the safety of foods and drinks that contain caffeine—especially their effects on children and teens. In response to numerous reports of hospitalizations and even deaths after the consumption of highly caffeinated drinks or “energy shots,” the investigators analyzed health surveys containing data on over 22,000 subjects aged 2 to 22.

Many foods contain caffeine (including chocolate, candy bars, some jelly beans, and marshmallows), but most of the caffeine ingested by small children comes in the form of soda. The rise in the use of energy drinks—although they account for only 6% to 10% of children’s daily caffeine intake—is seen as particularly alarming, because many of these drinks contain even higher amounts of caffeine than soda.

The FDA study found that the average caffeine intake among participants was about 60-70 milligrams—roughly the same amount of caffeine present in a six-ounce cup of coffee or two sodas. However, this finding does not necessarily mean that this level of caffeine consumption is safe for children. In fact, while the FDA has classified caffeine as GRAS (generally recognized as safe), that classification is based solely on its use by adults. There is actually no current body of research analyzing its possible detrimental effects on children. Nakia V. Williams, M.D., a pediatrician at the Henry Ford Health System, says, “There haven’t been a lot of studies of caffeine in young children, but we do know that children suffer from similar side effects as adults, and that on average these side effects can occur at lower doses given the smaller body sizes.” The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends against caffeine consumption for children and teens because of possible harmful stimulant effects as well as the possibility of it worsening anxiety in children already suffering from anxiety disorders. The AAP holds the clear position that “stimulant-containing energy drinks have no place in the diets of children and adolescents.”

So if you have kids, think twice before allowing them to consume soda and other drinks that contain caffeine. Pediatricians are unanimous in suggesting that they would be better off drinking water, reasonable amounts of fruit juices, milk, and other non-caffeinated beverages.

Food as Medicine: Close-Up on Cumin

May 19, 2014 oblanderchiropractic

If “having a pedigree” is an important factor for you when you’re considering the nutritional or medicinal value of food, it’s difficult to find a food with a longer history than cumin. Cumin (also known as comino, cuminum cyminum, cuminum odorum, jeeraka, svetajiraka, and zira) is an herb whose medicinal qualities are mentioned in the Bible (both Old and New Testaments). Cumin was also part of the medical tradition in ancient Egypt, in India (cumin is a staple of Ayurvedic medicine), in the Muslim world, and in ancient Greece.

Although cumin is commonly used in the preparation of foods from each of these areas, it has also been promoted for its medicinal uses—to treat digestive problems, diarrhea, colic, bloating (cumin is a mild diuretic), to reduce inflammation, and even as an aphrodisiac. In terms of modern research, cumin has been found to have strong antioxidant and antimicrobial properties, and a study in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology found that cumin seeds help to regulate blood sugar levels, and thus may be of use not only as an antidiabetic (to prevent diabetes) but to treat those who already have the disease. Similar studies in Nutrition Research found that cumin not only helped to reduce hypoglycemia, but also to reduce body weight.

Cumin is also a known carminative, meaning that it has the ability to reduce the formation of gas and thus improve digestion. This is why it is common in Ayurvedic medicine, where it is both prescribed as a remedy for gas and used in cooking to reduce the flatulence caused by bean-based dishes. Cumin does have some analgesic (pain relieving) qualities, and is used as a tea in some cultures to treat headaches and other minor pains. Some have even recommended the combination of pureed bananas and cumin as a treatment for insomnia.

Today scientists theorize that one of the reasons cumin may have some curative properties is that it contains thymoquinone, a phytochemical also known as TQ that is being studied as a potential treatment for many diseases, including cancer. A 2005 study from India found that black cumin oil was effective in killing 50 out of 54 bacterial strains they tested—despite the fact that these same strains showed evidence of having developed resistance to 20 common antibiotics. In India, black cumin seed has also been proven effective in preventing withdrawal symptoms in patients with opium addiction. Research is currently underway to test the effectiveness of black cumin seed in reducing oxidative stress in the blood, lowering cholesterol, preventing and treating cancers and some forms of seizure, and treating rheumatoid arthritis.

Given all the interest in cumin and its potential health benefits, it’s reasonable to ask whether there might be risks associated with it as well. So far, there doesn’t appear to be a “down side” to adding more cumin to your diet. No serious contraindications have been noted in the medical literature, with one possible exception—you might want to check with your doctor if you are taking certain classes of anti-diabetic medications.

So not only can cumin bring an exotic taste to many of your more common recipes, it may also offer some health benefits along the way!

A Guide to Better Napping

May 8, 2014 oblanderchiropractic

Over the years, our collective human experience has taught us that napping is a good thing. It rejuvenates us and actually makes our brains work better. Need evidence? Some of the greatest creative minds in history have been avid nappers, including Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill and Salvador Dali!

However, not all naps are created equal. And there’s something of a trick to napping so that you receive the most benefit and minimize the potential drawbacks. The timing and duration of a nap can mean the difference between having an energy-filled afternoon and being sluggish for the rest of the day.

Although your boss may not be pleased to find you napping at work, he or she may be well advised to consider what Churchill had to say about napping: “Don’t think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That’s a foolish notion held by people who have no imaginations. You will be able to accomplish more. You get two days in one — well, at least one and a half.” You are likely to be far more productive after a short nap than you would have been by just struggling through the afternoon sleepiness that is natural to our circadian rhythms. We naturally become sleepy in the early afternoon, whether we have had a large lunch or not.

We are a chronically sleep-deprived society, with about a third of the population getting an inadequate amount of sleep on a regular basis. This decreases productivity and increases the risk of mistakes. There is a reason why there is an upsurge in the rate of car accidents the day after we lose an hour of sleep in spring when the clocks move forward. Even an hour less of sleep can make a difference in our cognitive ability. If you find yourself dreaming during a short nap of 20 minutes or less, it’s a sign that you are sleep deprived.

Scientists who study sleep explain what happens in our brain during the three different sleep cycles it goes through: The first two stages are called non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, which lasts for about an hour, followed by rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which lasts for 30 minutes or so (and is when we dream). The second stage of NREM sleep is the deepest sleep, referred to as slow-wave. If you awaken during this stage of sleep you are likely to feel groggy for a while.

Researchers recommend that your nap length should be dependent on what you are trying to accomplish. A nap of 10 to 20 minutes will boost alertness (great for pilots), a 60-minute nap will help to increase cognitive memory processing (a good idea before taking a big exam), and a 90-minute nap helps with emotional and procedural memory (learning to ski, for example) and boosts creativity.

Try to get your nap in between 1 PM and 4 PM, the time when your body is naturally sleepy, and when it won’t cause problems with falling asleep at night. Although the experts have not discovered an “ideal” nap length, Ilene Rosen, a sleep scientist from the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine says a “10-to-20-minute nap is really the optimal time in terms of bang for your buck.”

Make yourself as comfortable as possible before napping, and use a light blanket if it helps you get to sleep. Set a timer so you do not oversleep. Sleeping partially upright and drinking a cup of coffee before your nap will help to ensure that you do not sleep too long and that you wake up perky and refreshed.

Can Chiropractic Care Really Reduce Your Sensitivity to Pain?

April 28, 2014 oblanderchiropractic

Chronic back pain is a worldwide problem. According to the 2010 Global Burden of Disease report, it is the single leading cause of disability worldwide. In America, an estimated $50 billion is spent each year to treat back pain. And that figure doesn’t even take into account broader economic or societal costs that come with lower productivity and wages lost to work absences. As a result, chronic pain (whether it’s located in the back, neck, head or elsewhere in the body) and its treatment is an issue—either directly or indirectly—affects all of our lives.

Over the years, there have been tens of thousands of anecdotal reports from patients who found relief from their chronic pain as the result of chiropractic spinal manipulation therapy (SMT). There have also been a number of research studies that documented pain relief after receiving spinal adjustments, especially with regard to decreased sensitivity to pain. But critics have always been able to suggest that the pain relief experienced in these studies might be due more to the placebo effect and “expecting” relief than to the therapy itself.

New research from the University of Florida, published in the February issue of the Journal of Pain, provides demonstrable proof that the pain relief from spinal manipulation therapy is the result of the therapy itself, and not simply the result of patient expectations. In this study, researchers worked with 110 participants suffering from chronic back pain. They assigned them randomly to four groups. A control group received no intervention at all, the SMT group received real spinal manipulation therapy, a third group received placebo SMT (non-chiropractic manipulations designed to simulate treatment) and the fourth group received “enhanced” placebo SMT accompanied by instructions that said “The manual therapy technique you will receive has been shown to significantly reduce low back pain in some people.” Patients then received their therapies or mock therapies six times over a period of 2 weeks. Pain sensitivity was assessed at the start and the end of the experiment.

The study design was thus intended to determine how much of any pain relief experienced by the test subjects was due to the placebo effect. Patients in the real SMT group experienced much more significant reductions in their sensitivity to pain than the control group (as expected), but also more pain reduction than either of the placebo SMT groups, including the group that had been “implanted” with the expectation that it would relieve their pain. The researchers suggest that real spinal manipulation therapy created changes to central nervous system response or the processing of neural pain input that the placebo treatments did not. They attributed the pain relief to “the modulation of dorsal horn excitability and lessening of central sensitization. This suggests potential for SMT to be a clinically beneficial intervention.”

These results should not surprise either chiropractors or their patients, who have had first-hand experience with spinal manipulation for years and understand its potential to reduce pain sensitivity in patients. But it is useful information to those who still doubt chiropractic’s ability to provide real relief without drugs or surgery. The pain alleviation produced by chiropractic adjustments has been determined to be a real and valuable alternative to other types of treatment than may involve far more risk and expense.

How Much Sleep is Too Much?

April 22, 2014 oblanderchiropractic

We all know how important it is to get a good night’s sleep and the detrimental effect on our health if we get too little of it. However, it is also possible to get too much sleep, and this may be even worse than getting too little. Sleeping too much has been shown to be a possible indication of underlying health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, low thyroid and obstructive sleep apnea, and is liked to an increased risk of early death.

Everyone’s need for sleep differs, and there are good reasons for occasionally having to sleep more, such as during periods of high stress or illness. But on average, experts suggest that the optimum amount of sleep to get on a regular basis is between 7 and 9 hours a day. One study showed that those who slept between 9 and 10 hours per night were 21% more likely to become obese over a period of 6 years than those who slept between 7 and 8 hours a night. Another study of 72,000 women found that those who slept between 9 and 11 hours a night had a 38% greater likelihood of coronary heart disease than those who slept 8 hours.

Depression and low socioeconomic status have also been linked with sleeping too much, so it may be that oversleeping is one of the symptoms of these conditions rather than being a cause of the detrimental health effects associated with oversleeping. People with these conditions are less likely to seek or be able to afford health care, so any underlying health problems may not be discovered and treated.

When underlying health and mental problems have been ruled out, people who still feel a strong need to sleep for 70 hours or more per week have what is called primary hypersomnia. Many with hypersomnia go undiagnosed, as it often develops in the teenage years and can be attributed to typical teenage behavior. A study was performed by researchers at Atlanta’s Emory University on people with this condition. The researchers found that one of the major factors implicated in hypersomnia is the presence of a certain substance in the person’s cerebrospinal fluid that acts much in the same way as a sleeping pill. Emory researcher Andrew Jenkins said, “We know why you’re sleepy—your brain is sedating itself.” It is typical for people with hypersomnia to simultaneously experience low levels of energy, anxiety and memory problems, in addition to extreme sleepiness throughout the day that is generally not relieved by napping.

Obstructive sleep apnea is a condition that causes the sufferer to stop breathing for short periods of time during sleep, keeping them from getting to the stage of restful, restorative sleep that is necessary for proper physical and mental functioning during the day. Some prescription medications and the overuse of alcohol can also lead to oversleeping.

If you find yourself consistently sleeping more than 9 hours a day and are also sleepy throughout the day, it is a good idea to consult with your doctor to rule out any underlying medical conditions that may be contributing to your oversleeping.

Natural Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure

April 16, 2014 oblanderchiropractic

High blood pressure (hypertension) often has no visible symptoms, especially early on. The only way to determine your blood pressure is to have it measured. If you have high blood pressure, lowering it is vitally important to your long-term health and to reducing your risk of cardiovascular disease. Risk factors for high blood pressure include the following:

Being Overweight—If you are overweight, this will put extra pressure on your artery walls
Inactivity—If you don’t exercise, you increase your risk of high blood pressure
Stress—Increased and prolonged stress can raise blood pressure
Alcohol consumption—Overdoing the drinking of alcoholic beverages can increase the risk
Potassium—If your potassium level is too low, cells tend to compensate with more sodium, which places you at greater risk
Sodium—Too muchrefined sodium in your diet leads to fluid retention and higher blood pressure. Be sure to use good natural, unrefined salts.
Age—As you get older, your risk increases
Genetics—Some families have greater risk of high blood pressure than others
Sugar—Excessive sugar intake, especially refined sugar, can lead to diabetes, which is frequently associated with high blood pressure
Inflammation – inflammation can be blamed for a whole host of health complaints and should probably be the first issue addressed. All of the risk factors listed above can be related to or be affected by inflammation. Eating a diet which contains REAL foods and that includes lots of fruits and vegetables is key in helping to reduce inflammation in the body!

While you cannot influence some of these factors (such as genetic disposition and aging), it is possible to manage most of the items on this list. Exercise is one very effective way to reduce high blood pressure. First of all, it increases your general level of activity. Second, it tends to lower your weight. And third, it helps to reduce stress because of the release of endorphins. Yoga and biofeedback have also been found to be beneficial in reducing stress. When it comes to diet and blood pressure, bananas can be a useful addition. Bananas are a rich source of potassium and can help normalize the potassium-sodium balance in your cells. Limiting the sodium content of your food is also important. Eliminate refined sugar from your diet. Relying on fruit and natural 100% fruit juices to sweeten your diet can be one of the best things you can do. Alcohol, like most everything else, should be taken in moderation. If you have too much stress in your life, realize that alcohol is a depressant and cannot help in the long run. Exercise is a much better stress reliever. A few herbs are believed to contribute to high blood pressure risk:

Asian Ginseng
Licorice
Rosemary essential oil
Ephedra

Calcium and magnesium have been found to improve blood pressure. In particular, they’re associated with improving nerve action, calming nervous tension and reducing jitters. These substances also help reducing high blood pressure or its risk:

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10)
Garlic (may interfere with other medications, so check with your doctor)
Hawthorn (a natural herb with no known interactions with medications)
Fish oil
Folic acid

If you have high blood pressure, be sure to consult with your doctor before following any of the above suggestions. But rest assured that there are natural ways for you to manage your blood pressure without resorting to drugs.

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