No More High Blood Pressure

I have taken your advice, though I admit I do not follow it completely. However, I have been drinking water with pH drops added, and taking your pHour salts twice a day. Also, I eat a lot less meat than i used to, and I'm all organic, or at least most of the time. Just these things have resulted in a vast improvement in my health.

My scary angina episodes have completely vanished. My heart palpatations (which was almost every day) have vanished. My blood pressure (without exercising) has dropped from 150/96 to 125/76 (in about three weeks of being on this new diet and salts and pH water), and most importantly, I used to get about thee migraines per week, now it's only about one per month, and where these used to be unhelpable with excedrin, now two excedrins and the pHour salts remove the pain, and now my life is virtually pain free, where it used to be that any day I was without pain, was a unique day in my life, now it is the norm. Also noticeable is the tinnitus I used to have 24/7, very annoying, has subsided to a much less annoying level to where I hardly notice it.

Another thing I noticed. I work as a wedding photographer, and I could never stand on my feet for more than two hours without needing to sit down for a spell because of back pain. Yesterday, I was on my feet for six hours straight before I noticed a mild back pain, so my back is getting better.

I have lost about 20 lbs. Now all I've got to do is start exercising, and I know my health will get even better.

Thank you for giving me my life back.

Patrick Lockwood

Salt Contributes to Resistant High Blood Pressure

(HealthDay News) -- Too much salt can contribute to resistant High blood pressure despite taking several medications to control it, University of Alabama researchers report.

High blood pressure is called resistant hypertension when blood pressure remains above goal despite their taking three medications to lower it. High blood pressure that is under control, but requires four or more medications to treat it, is also considered resistant to treatment.

"High-salt diet contributes importantly to resistant-to-treatment hypertension and high volume and vascular resistance may contribute to resistant hypertension," said lead researcher Dr. Eduardo Pimenta, now at the Department of Hypertension and Nephrology at the Dante Pazzanese Institute of Cardiology in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Details of the study were expected to be presented Friday at the American Heart Association's Fall Conference of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research, in Atlanta.

For the study, Pimenta's team randomly assigned 13 patients with resistant high blood pressure, to a high- or low-salt diet. These patients were all taking at least three blood pressure medications.

The researchers found that patients on the low-salt diet saw their systolic blood pressure drop by 22.6 mmHg, and their diastolic blood pressure dropped by 9.2 mmHg, compared with people on high-salt diet.

In addition, body weight, as well as brain natriuretic peptide levels and thoracic fluid content, two measures indicating fluid reduction, also significantly increased among those on the low-salt type compared with those on the high salt, the researchers found.

"Patients with resistant hypertension, in spite of three or more antihypertensive drugs, are specially salt-sensitive," Pimenta said. "The blood pressure reduction achieved with low-salt diet was higher than some antihypertensive drugs."

Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, agreed that salt could contribute to resistant high blood pressure.

"This small, but interesting, study, shows among patients with medication-resistant hypertension that salt restriction has a substantial impact on lowering blood pressure by reducing intravascular fluid retention and improving vascular function," Fonarow said.

Recent large-scale clinical trials show that blood pressure can be effectively lowered by following the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan and by eating less salt, Fonarow said.

"Excess sodium intake, above 2,300 milligrams daily, should be avoided in all patients with hypertension, and among those patients with medically resistant hypertension, a closely monitored low-salt diet [1,500 milligrams daily] should be considered," Fonarow advised.

More information
For more about high blood pressure and salt, visit the American Heart Association.