Lower Blood Pressure Naturally with Garlic
You can lower high blood pressure and cholesterol with tasty garlic and other natural remedies.
October/November 1997
By Christopher Nyerges
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Garlic and other alliums have been shown to help lower high blood pressure and improve cholesterol.
BARI GOODMAN LLOYD
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Is there a good natural remedy for high blood pressure? I spoke with several doctors and consulted my many books and files to come up with a meaningful response. Dr. Wayne Flicker from Sierra Madre sent me a thick wad of data from various sources, mostly medical journals. He pointed out that high blood pressure — referred to as hypertension — is a complex topic and that innumerable books have been written about lowering blood pressure. Dr. Flicker pointed out that the causes are many, and doctors simply don't always know what they are. Not a particularly encouraging finding, since high blood pressure (and the heart disease which inevitably proceeds from it) is given credit for killing more people each year than virtually all other natural causes of death (save cancer) combined. Its specific cause is ascertained in about 1 in 20 cases. Doctors refer to hypertension as "essential," which is medical jargon for "we don't know the cause."
Despite this, there is some concrete advice to be found, some dietary, some herbal.
For starters, if you are overweight, lose the excess weight. If you smoke, stop. Excessive alcohol consumption may elevate the blood pressure. Hypertensives should limit alcohol consumption to less than one ounce of ethanol daily. That means less than 8 ounces of wine or less than 24 ounces of beer. Even better is to eliminate alcohol from your life altogether.
In at least half of the cases of hypertension, the reduction of salt in the diet proved to be helpful. The elderly and African Americans are the most likely to benefit from restricted salt intake. Read the labels of foods, since you might be surprised to find out which foods are high in salt/sodium. A food is considered high in sodium if it contains over 250 milligrams of sodium per serving, and this includes most cheeses, sausage, Danish pastry, many salad dressings, many olives, bouillon, etc. Read those labels.
Though the above recommendations are considered some of the best ways to reduce high blood pressure, there has also been some consideration of including calcium, magnesium, potassium and fish oil in the diet.
Garlic and Onions for High Blood Pressure
In a variety of tests, garlic and onions (members of the allium family) have been shown to reduce cholesterol, high blood pressure and the incidence of flu.
For example, Alan Tsai, Ph.D. with the Michigan School of Health, has tested rats and humans for the effects of garlic on cholesterol levels. He fed test groups high cholesterol diets, with one group receiving garlic. Those who consumed garlic had cholesterol levels that rose about 4 percent, as opposed to those without garlic whose cholesterol levels rose 23 percent. Dr. Tsai noted that the incidence of cardiovascular and other diseases is lower in countries whose populations consume large amounts of garlic, though he was reluctant to attribute this effect solely to garlic.
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