I have tried everything, and I can give my perspective. I have used ACV for years and have had a pretty normal bp reading. However, I had sudden onset hypertension in June, and even with 1 tablespoon a day in Evamor water (it's alkaline water you can get in whole foods but it's pricey), it hasn't reduced my bp. I used green tea, nothing. I bought the raw cocoa and had the 4 cups a day as recommended (this is the raw undutched cocoa the Kuna indians use - none of them have hypertension, and the Harvard study showed that when they took away the cocoa, the Kuna's developed high blood pressure), it worked one day and not the next. Hawthorne berry tea gave me such a headache and I felt my brain was opening up as did L-arginine - both of which dilate the vessels. I do have low vit D3 (tested by my dr, and I have read a lot of literature about its effects on lowering bp). You must be tested for your levels first. Areading under 50 is low; however under 23 is considered deficient. I am now taking 4000 units/day as prescribed by my dr. So we'll see if it works. I walk every other day about an hour. I eat healthy and lost 25lbs in 2.5 weeks when the hypertension came on suddenly.
I take COQ10 which is also supposed to lower bp, but no luck with that - i've been on it for years along with other vitamins and supplements.
In the course of a day I was running anywhere from 150's-190's/100-138. It was bad - Now I am running 150's/105 daily. I want to try everything before committing to those dreadful meds. I did notice that when I lie in the sun,my bp immediately drops to the 120's which might have to do with my vit D deficiency.
I have secondary hypertension (I pushed hard for tests and bloodwork as I didn't want to take meds before getting a full picture of what was going on). I have a thickening or blocked renal artery and a small adenoma on my adrenal gland.I had a full workup at an endocrinologist who will watch the adenoma, but my urine and blood work did not indicate that was the cause of the elevated bp. A surgeon down at one of the NYC hospitals is now evaluating whether or not it is truly renal artery stenosis. I don't want to have an angioplasty particularly because i'm allergic to the dyes and it seems to be inoperable because it is looped.
I think the fact that my bp has leveled off at 150/100's is better than it was when it was rising to the 180's and rarely 190's and once at 200. The 3 meds I did try, norvasc, plendil and aldactione all elevated my bp to 250/135 and gave me a crippling headache to the point i had to go to the ER.
I too will do anything natural to avoid the meds!
