A Few Herbs For High Blood Pressure Might Work

But none are classified as effective or even likely effective. There are a few herbs for high blood pressure that are possibly effective. Relying on what doesn’t work is the worst. Read this doctor’s review:

What Is The Best Source Of Information?

You can obtain individual studies and clinical trials and read and evaluate them one by one but that would take forever. The best sources are the legitimate organizations that do that for you. The National Institutes of Health and their many component parts have the manpower and the budgets to evaluate the well-run studies and publish their results.

Other organizations doing work relating to herbs for high blood pressure are the:

• Therapeutic Research Center who publish the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database.

• British Medical Journal Publishing Group who publish Clinical Evidence, a herculean 2700 page book taking a hard unbiased look at most known treatments for many known diseases and conditions.

• American Society of Health-System Pharmacists who publish the well-respected unbiased American Hospital Formulary Service.

• Consumer’s Union which publishes Consumer’s Report provides much good information on health in a special periodical and on their website.

The Rating System For Herbs and Supplements:

This is by the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database:

• Effective
• Likely Effective
• Possibly Effective
• Possibly Ineffective
• Likely Ineffective
• Insufficient Evidence to Rate

The Herbs For High Blood Pressure:

NONE are rated Effective.

NONE are rated Likely Effective.

Sixteen are rated Possibly Effective:

1. Alpha-linolenic acid: Reduces risk of hypertension by about one third.

2. Blond psyllium: Reduces by 8 mm systolic and 2 mm diastolic. Good effect. Do you recognize this? It's Metamucil.

3. Calcium: Very modest reductions. May not be worth the effort.

4. Cod liver oil: Modest effect.

5. Coenzyme Q-10: May get up to 17 mm reduction in systolic and 10 mm in diastolic. 26% reduction in isolated systolic hypertension. Takes about 12 weeks to obtain full benefit. Excellent effect.

6. Fish oil: A modest effect, similar to cod liver oil.

7. Garlic: A 2 to 7% reduction. Modest effect.

8. Green tea and Oolong tea: One half to two cups a day for a year cuts the risk of developing high blood pressure by 46%. 600 ml a day (2 ½ cups) cuts risk by 65%. An excellent preventive effect.

9. Olive or olive leaf extract: Some effect. Worthwhile.

10. Potassium: Reduces systolic 2-4 mm and diastolic 0.5 to 3.5 mm. Modest effect. Not something to meddle with.

11. Pycnogenol (pine bark extract): Affects only systolic, reducing Stage One hypertensives (140-159) to about 133 mm Hg. Good effect.

12. Stevia (stevioside): Reduces systolic by 10-14 mm and diastolic by 6-14 mm. Very good effect.

13. Sweet orange (juice): Rich in potassium so the effect is that of potassium. Drink some.

14. Vitamin C: Works only in conjunction with antihypertensive medication, otherwise has no effect.

15. Wheat bran: Modest effects, but how much bran can you eat?

Doctor’s Practical Guide:

You are almost constantly bombarded by recommendations from many sources on what to do for your health. A good many of these are from people who are trying to sell you something, which makes their claims greatly suspect.

Supplements and herbs for high blood pressure are a very fertile field for all sorts of bogus claims. Don’t listen. Demand good evidence of effectiveness. The above list shows the herbs for high blood pressure that are possibly effective. None are rated effective or likely effective.

I am thinking that surely one could get some effect if one took a group of the bold herbs for high blood pressure listed above.

I am not able to find any one capsule that combines many, or even any two or three in adequate dosage so I am investigating having most of the bold ones above incorporated into one capsule. Keep checking this page periodically.

No matter what you do for your blood pressure the only way you can tell if it works is to take your pressure yourself. See my page on How and Why at HowTo Take Blood Pressure

I have written an ebooklet on how to take your own blood pressure so see the contents at How To Take Blood Pressure Booklet

The main thing is to do something and work from there.

So why not get started?

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