Why Healthy Blood Pressure Is All About Flow
High blood pressure is one of the most common medical conditions among Americans, affecting more than 75 million people. When I was in medical school, the definition of high blood pressure was anything higher than 100 plus the patient’s age over a bottom number of 90. Newer guidelines say that for any person, at any age, the blood pressure should be lower than 130/80-85 on a regular basis.
While I am skeptical of the validity of these new guidelines, especially as to the recommendation to use prescription medicines with people who fall into the gray area between the old and new standards, it is also clear that, for most people, a gradual increase in blood pressure as they age is not a welcome sign. The problem is that like many things in medicine, conventional medical theory misunderstands why blood pressure rises.
To understand the disease in which the pressure of the blood circulating within the blood vessels rises to unhealthy levels, it is crucial to have an accurate model of how and why the blood circulates in the body. As I explained in great detail in my book “Human Heart, Cosmic Heart,” an explanation that is supported by numerous articles, the reason the blood circulates is not because the heart pumps, as is commonly assumed. Rather, as anesthesiologist Branko Furst points out, the blood is an autonomous organ that moves out of its own impulse. The heart serves as a regulator and impedance device within the overall circulation. In my book, I explained that it is the interaction of the water in the blood with the lining of the blood vessels that creates a separation of charges in the blood. This separation of charges then creates the flow or movement of the blood.
The pressure of the blood within the vessels is a result of the strength of the flow, which is a direct consequence of the integrity of this system. When the blood vessel lining is healthy, and the forces that structure the water in our blood are robust, we have a healthy blood flow. When this system is compromised, the blood flow is weak, and the body must constrict or “tighten” the blood vessels to maintain flow. This means, and this is the crucial distinction, that an elevation of the blood pressure is not a disease, as modern medicine claims, but a compensation mechanism for a reduced flow. As I often ask my patients, what would you do if you were the body and your flow was weak? The only answer can be, I would increase the pressure in the system to restore flow.
Clearly, we all want the BP to go down. Conventional medicine does it by lessening the pressure; I do it by attempting to restore flow. When you lower the pressure, this means a life of BP-reducing drugs and their myriad side effects. If you restore the flow, the BP lowers of its own accord, and health is restored.
The primary ways I attempt to restore flow is to help structure the fluids in our bodies and to improve the integrity of the vessels. The first we accomplish by a healthy diet, along the lines of “Nourishing Traditions” or the diet I outlined in “Human Heart, Cosmic Heart,” along with increasing the activities that normally keep our water structured. These are regular, vigorous walking — preferably barefoot on the beach or grass — regular exposure to sunshine, regular sweating, especially in a sauna and consumption of structured water. All of these things help structure the water in our bodies and increase blood flow.
To improve the integrity of the blood vessel walls, I start people on a mix of Beet-Root Juice Powder and Hibiscus Extract. Each of these has separately been shown in numerous studies to normalize blood pressure as effectively as first-line hypertension drugs. I use them together, one tablespoon each twice a day in water. With this approach, it is unusual for my patients to need to resort to a life of prescription hypertension medicines.