A Nurse’s Perspective on our Medical Health Care Crisis: Blood Pressure Medication, Western vs. Alternative Medicine Essential Oils and High Blood Pressure

Send this article by email

What is your name?

Please indicate below the emails to which you want to send this article: A Nurse's Perspective on our Medical Health Care Crisis: Blood Pressure Medication, Western vs. Alternative Medicine Essential Oils and High Blood Pressure

Enter one email per line. No more than 5 emails.

Send

I have been a nurse for 30 years. I’ve also worked as an EMT and a Paramedic. All very fulfilling. Helping people to feel better and get well is a very rewarding job. I’m hoping to be able to do that here, on our circle blog as well. My goal is to help you feel empowered, and to know what your options are. Often times, if you are not directly involved in the medical community, you “don’t know what you don’t know” Let me help you to “know”, and become informed. A person’s right to determine what type of healthcare they choose is a valuable freedom that no one has the right to endanger. If you are seeking answers, I urge you to become informed by reading this article, as well as the future series articles I will be writing.

This article will give you my view on taking prescription medicine verses Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils for your medical ailment.

Most of us have some type of underlying health problem, or have a loved one that does. Today lets just talk about a very common one: high blood pressure. High blood pressure (hypertension), can become a very serious health problem if not treated.

According to the AHA (American Heart Association), your blood pressure measures ”force pushing outwards on your arterial walls”. “The organs in your body need oxygen to survive. Oxygen is carried through the body by the blood. When the heart beats, it creates pressure that pushes blood through a network of tube-shaped arteries and veins, also known as blood vessels and capillaries. The pressure — blood pressure — is the result of two forces. The first force occurs as blood pumps out of the heart and into the arteries that are part of the circulatory system. The second force is created as the heart rests between heart beats. (These two forces are each represented by numbers in a blood pressure reading.)

“The problems from too much force: Healthy arteries are made of muscle and a semi-flexible tissue that stretches like elastic when the heart pumps blood through them. The more forcefully that blood pumps, the more the arteries stretch to allow blood to easily flow. Over time, if the force of the blood flow is often high, the tissue that makes up the walls of arteries gets stretched beyond its healthy limit. This creates problems in several ways.”

Vascular weaknesses
First, the overstretching creates weak places in the vessels, making them more prone to rupture. Problems such as strokes and aneurysms are caused by ruptures in the blood vessels.
Vascular scarring
Second, the overstretching can cause tiny tears in the blood vessels that leave scar tissue on the walls of arteries and veins. These tears and the scar tissue are like nets, and can catch debris such as cholesterol, plaque or blood cells traveling in the bloodstream.
Increased risk of blood clots
Trapped blood can form clots that can narrow (and sometimes block) the arteries. These clots sometimes break off and block vessels and the blood supply to different parts of the body. When this happens, heart attacks or strokes are often the result.
Increased plaque build-up
The same principle applies to our blood flow. Cholesterol and plaque build-up in the arteries and veins cause the blood flow to become limited or even cut off altogether. As this happens, pressure is increased on the rest of the system, forcing the heart to work harder to deliver blood to your body. Additionally, if pieces of plaque break off and travel to other parts of the body, or if the build-up completely blocks the vessel, then heart attacks and strokes occur.
Tissue and organ damage from narrowed and blocked arteries
Ultimately, the arteries and veins on the other side of the blockage do not receive enough freshly oxygenated blood, which results in tissue damage.
Increased workload on the circulatory system
Think of it this way: In a home where several faucets are open and running, the water pressure flowing out of any one faucet is lower. But when pipes get clogged and therefore narrow, the pressure is much greater. And if all the household water is flowing through only one faucet, the pressure is higher still.”When the arteries are not as elastic because of the build-up of cholesterol or plaque or because of scarring, the heart pumps harder to get blood into the arteries. Over time, this increased work can result in damage to the heart itself. The muscles and valves in the heart can become damaged and heart failure can result.”"Damage to the vessels that supply blood to your kidneys and brain may negatively affect these organs”.”You may not feel that anything is wrong, but high blood pressure can permanently damage your heart, brain, eyes and kidneys before you feel anything. High blood pressure can often lead to heart attack and heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, and other health consequences.”

I know at least 35 people that take medication for high blood pressure. Let’s remember that every single prescription medication on the market come with a long list of undesirable side effects. Every single one. Every single person I know on these medications complains daily of most of these most common side effects:

Lightheaded and or dizziness
chronic dry cough
dry mouth
Headaches
Vomiting and or nauseated feeling
Anxiety
weight gain
Rash on the skin
Lethargic, fatigue, weak, sleepy and or drowsy
Constipation
Diarrhea
Racing heart
Pain and or discomfort in the chest
Flu symptoms
70% of men will suffer from erectile dysfunction
trigger fatigue and asthma and are not appropriate for people with breathing difficulties
increased blood potassium,
changes in the flavor of foods
swelling of lower legs and feet
back and leg pain,
sinus congestion,
kidney failure,
liver failure,
allergic reaction,
lowered white blood cells,
swelling.
Cold hands,
fatigue, and weakness.
drowsiness,
flushing,
nausea,
rapid pulse,
swelling in the lower legs and feet.
Some calcium channel blockers react with grapefruit and foods that contain grapefruit by blocking the liver from properly removing them from the blood – resulting in dangerous concentrations of your medicine.
impaired thinking,

Did your doctor tell you all of this before prescribing your blood pressure medicine? Did he tell you that , sadly, all anti-hypertensive medications do not cure high blood pressure but mask, or merely regulate it. What this means for you is, you have to take them everyday for the rest of your life. If you don’t, your blood pressure will climb back up to the dangerous level it was at before. Of course, this is assuming the medication worked for you at all. If he did tell you all of the possible side effects, and that you would be on it for life, did it make you uncomfortable? I suspect it did, however, as intimidating as doctors are, you probably felt you had no choice, and you were also probably too afraid to challenge your doctor and ask what your other options were, if any.

Think about this…. when is the last time you heard of someone successfully coming off of blood pressure medicine? Or heart medicine, diabetes medicine, or cholesterol medicine? Is your answer “never”?

I know, because I too used to be caught in that vicious never ending cycle of prescription medication.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked all of my doctors, and I trusted them. The problem here, in my opinion, is that the Pharmaceutical companies and their drug reps have created a situation that does not benefit anyone except them. As they become multi billion dollar profit companies, you go broke paying for their medication without ever curing the underlying problem, thereby staying on the medication forever. Once you get on the hamster wheel and start taking 1 blood pressure medicine, if that 1 medicine doesn’t work, you are switched to another prescription medicine, and so on, and so on. It is a self perpetuating cycle, planned out so that you never come off the prescription medication hamster wheel.

Think about it… does your insurance cover nutritional counceling, healthy appropriate excercise, weight management, emotional balancing and relaxation? Do they tell you about alternative medicine in the form of Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils? No, they do not. If they did, you might get off the prescription hamster wheel, and others may follow you, and they would not be able to afford their new yacht, or trip to Italy. We can’t have that now, can we?

Many natural, alternative choices are out there to help you lower your blood pressure naturally, without having to take these prescription medications and putting up with nasty side effects.

The only catch is that you, and only you, need to make that commitment, and to understand that alternative therapies take time, practice, and trust . It also often requires a change in diet and lifestyle.

I took charge of my life, and my body. I decided to change my own path to wellness, and start taking care of and making my own decisions regarding my body, my health, and you can too. If you don’t like what your doctor offers you as a form of treatment, say “NO”! Tell them that the laundry list of side effects from a certain medicine is unacceptable, and you want to know what your other options are. Don’t be afraid to take charge of your own body.

Young Living Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils offer many people hope where there was none before. Young Living offers you choices that come without negative side effects. They offer you a chance at working on your disease, a chance at peace, a chance to be well, a chance to get off the hamster wheel.

Some of the Young Living Essential Oils people have successfully used when they were diagnosed with hypertension are: Omega Blue Softgels, dried wolfberies, clove, Lavender, marjoram, ylang ylang, cypress, Aroma Life, Peace & Calming, Citrus Fresh, Humility, CardiaCare, ImmuPro, ImmuneTune, S uper B, Mineral Essence, Super Cal, Balance Complete, Mega Cal, CardiaCare, NinxGia Red Wolfberry, potassium, Super C, and magnesium. This is just a sample of the essential oils and supplements Young Living offers for you to consider in place of or in conjunction with prescription high blood pressure (hypertension) medications, there are others. Let’s also remember that not every Essential Oil will work for every person every time, just like prescription medicine, that’s why there is more then 1 choice.

Anyone with hypertension should use caution using oils high in ketones, such as basil, rosemary, sage and tansy oils.

An excerpt from the ESSENTIAL OIL DESK REFERENCE:

Additional essential oil regimens:

For 3 minutes, massage 1-2 drops each of Aroma Life and Ylang Ylang on the heart Vita Flex point and over the heart and carotid arteries along the neck. Blood pressure will begin to drop within 5 to 20 minutes. Monitor the pressure and reapply as required.
Inhalation of Jasmine reduces anxiety in some people and thereby lowers blood pressure.

OTHER DIETARY SUPPLEMENTATION:
CardiaCare, ImmuPro, ImmuneTune, Super B, Mineral Essence, Super Cal, Balance Complete, Mega Cal Supplementation regimen:

Increase intake of magnesium which acts as a smooth-muscle relaxant and acts as a natural calcium channel blocker for the heart, lowering blood pressure and dilating the heart blood vessels. Mineral Essence and Mega Cal are good sources of magnesium.
Take 20 mg daily of vitamin B3 (niacin) an excellent vasodilator (found in Super B).
Use therapeutic-grade Hawthorne berry extracts. Hawthorne berry (contained in HRT tincture) provides powerful cardiovascular support.
Do a colon and liver cleanse.

FIRST ESSENTIAL OIL RECOMMENDATIONS:
Omega Blue Softgels, dried wolfberies, clove Other Single Oils:
Lavender, marjoram, ylang ylang, cypress Other Blends:
Aroma Life, Peace & Calming, Citrus Fresh, Humility

Essential Oil Application Methods:
Topical: DILUTE 20 (essential oil) :80 (carrier oil, such as V-6), full body massage daily
Inhalation: DIFFUSION, 20 minutes, 3 times daily
Ingestion: CAPSULE, 00 size, 1-2 times daily

Do not expect to get positive results from health food store or aromatherapy grade Essential Oils. Those oils are not Therapeutic Grade, they can not be taken internally. They are not pure, they are often made using toxic chemicals, and they are very, very, diluted.

Young Living Pure, organic, Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils can be safely taken internally. They are the purest of the pure, completely unadulterated, toxic chemical free, not diluted at all. They are the real deal.

This article was not written as a way to prescribe, cure, or treat your problem, but only as a way to encourage you to look at and explore all of your options while on your path to wellness. Hopefully this information will help you better your life. Look to your future and decide if 20 years from now, you still want to have the same problem, still taking the same medication, still suffering from the long list of known side effects. I know I don’t.

Our medical community has done some studies on Essential Oils, Fish Oils and hypertension.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17052873
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21157172
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18705755
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17211115
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13852929

Pepping, Joseph. Omega-3 essential fatty acids. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, Vol. 56, April 15, 1999, pp. 719-24
Connor, William E. Importance of n-3 fatty acids in health and disease. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 71 (suppl), January 2000, pp. 171S-75S

Some article excerpts:

Natural Approach to Hypertension

by Farhang Khosh, ND and Mehdi Khosh, ND
Abstract

Hypertension is a common problem facing many Americans today, with two million new cases being diagnosed each year. Although billions of dollars are spent annually in the United States for the treatment and detection of cardiovascular disease, current conventional treatments have done little to reduce the number of patients with hypertension. Alternative medicine offers an effective way to decrease the rising number of people with high blood pressure. Research has found a variety of alternative therapies to be successful in reducing high blood pressure including diet, exercise, stress management, supplements, and herbs.

Fish Oils Recommended for Heart Disease Prevention

DALLAS, TEXAS. The American Heart Association has reviewed the benefits of regular consumption of fish and fish oils. The review concludes that fish and fish oils help prevent cardiovascular disease including fatal and non-fatal heart attacks, strokes, sudden cardiac death, and coronary artery disease (angina). The reviewers believe that the mechanisms by which fish oils exert their protective effect include:

Reduction in susceptibility to ventricular arrhythmia
Decrease in platelet aggregation
Reduction in triglyceride levels
Retardation of atherosclerosis
Lowering of blood pressure
Promotion of nitric oxide induced endothelial relaxation
Anti-inflammatory effects.

2006 Dec;36(7):1123-34.

The effects of the inhalation method using essential oils on blood pressure and stress responses of clients with essential hypertension

Department of Nursing, Geochang Provincial College, Geochang-gun, Gyungnam, Korea.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of aromatherapy on blood pressure and stress responses of clients with essential hypertension.

METHOD: There were fifty-two subjects divided into an essential oil group, placebo group, and control group by random assignment. The application of aromatherapy was the inhalation method of blending oils with lavender, ylangylang, and bergamot once daily for 4 weeks. To evaluate the effects of aromatherapy, blood pressure and pulse were measured two times a week and serum cortisol levels, catecholamine levels, subjective stress, and state anxiety were measured before and after treatment in the three groups. Data was analyzed by repeated measures of ANOVA, one-way ANOVA, and chi(2)-test using the SPSS 10.0 program.

RESULTS: The blood pressure, pulse, subjective stress, state anxiety, and serum cortisol levels among the three groups were significantly statistically different. The differences of catecholamine among the three groups were not significant statistically.

CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the inhalation method using essential oils can be considered an effective nursing intervention that reduces psychological stress responses and serum cortisol levels, as well as the blood pressure of clients with essential hypertension.

Vitamin C May Lower Blood Pressure

The Lancet December 18, 1999;354.
High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease, the leading cause of death in both men and women in the United States. Close to 50 million Americans have high blood pressure. The study of 45 people with high blood pressure (hypertension) had the levels fall by about 9.1% if they consumed a 500-milligram supplement of vitamin C each day for a month.

I hope that my article has enticed you enough that you too will explore alternative treatment for any medical condition you may have. In the end, the only person responsible for your body is YOU, no one else. Take charge of your health, become empowered and educated in whay ails you, and how to get off the prescription wheel. Explore Essential Oils, alternative and natural medicine. See what you can do to fix the problem yourself, without the help of the pharmaceutical industry. Become informed! Make your own choices, or at a minimum contribute to the choices being made for you.