Did you know that worldwide there are roughly 1.3 billion people that have high blood pressure?

My guess is that all of these people were given some form of high blood pressure medications which include….diuretics, ACE inhibitors, ARBs, calcium channel blockers, beta blockers, alpha blockers, central-acting agents, aldosterone antagonists and the dreaded renin inhibitors.

I would also argue that not many of these people were educated by their doctors why their blood pressure was high or they were not told of any natural remedies to lower high blood pressure.

The natural remedies were being hidden from them while the side effects of these blood pressure medications were not fully disclosed or were marginalized as “minor side effects“.

Here are a couple “side effects” (by the way there are no side effects of medications, just biological effects. The term side effect is meant to downplay their dangers) of two of these drugs.

ACE Inhibitors (e.g., Lisinopril) can cause angioedema which is severe swelling of the face, lips, tongue, or throat, which can be life-threatening if it leads to airway obstruction. Did your doctor tell you about that?

Probably not.

Calcium Channel Blockers (e.g., amlodipine) can lead to heart failure. Uh oh! In some cases, CCBs can exacerbate symptoms of heart failure, especially in patients with existing cardiac conditions.

Imagine going to a doctor to get blood pressure pills to prevent a heart attack and the pills he gave you cause you to die of a heart attack, and they put on your autopsy that you died of a heart attack, when you really died from the medication that caused your heart attack.

See how sinister this is?

We’re going to dive into some natural remedies to lower high blood pressure (hypertension) but I want to look at the causes first.

My belief (as somebody who studies natural medicine and alternative cures to chronic health conditions) is that the cure is in the cause.

Sometimes we don’t need the supplements, if we just stop doing the things that are causing the problem to begin with.

You wouldn’t need the Band-Aid to help a cut heal if you didn’t cut yourself in the first place. No sense in arguing which Band-Aid is the best, why not avoid cutting yourself and you’ll have no need for a Band-Aid.

Make sense?

So let’s dive into some causes of high blood pressure.

What Causes High Blood Pressure?

There are many causes of high blood pressure that range from diet, to environment (nnEMF radiation, blue light, toxins, chemicals etc) to lifestyle. Most times with diseases like this, it’s the body’s natural response to an unhealthy lifestyle.

A few questions I would ask are…

1. What kind of cookware to you cook with? Does it leach heavy metals?
2. What’s your sleep like? Do you track it?
3. Have you been diagnosed with sleep apnea?
4. Does  your diet include more salt (sodium) than potassium?
5. Do you eat a lot of processed carbohydrates?
6. Are you exposed to a high amount of blue light in the evening?
7. Are you overweight and have high stress levels?
8. Do you smoke or drink alcohol?
9. Do you exercise outside regularly?
10. What’s your family history like with hypertension?
11. Do you have thyroid conditions or any autoimmune disorders?
12. How about any kidney issues like chronic kidney disease?
13. Have you ever taken recreational drugs like cocaine?
14. Are you on any NSAIDs?
15. Have you taken decongestants or birth control pills?

How many of those 15 questions did you answer yes to?

My guess would be a lot. All of those can contribute to causing hypertension. There are 3 more causes of hypertension that seem to be a little more prevalent as the “main” culprits.

If you have hypertension you could have one of these issues going on or all of them to a greater or lesser degree. But if you work on healing these causes, the blood pressure will normalize. The body is always seeking homeostasis and it’s raising your blood pressure as a defense mechanism to keep you alive.

Your body has infinite wisdom. High blood pressure is its way of protecting you from a toxic lifestyle.

Consider just for a moment how the body puts on fat. Instead of putting fat onto your heart where it could kill you quickly, it stores fat in areas that are the least important for your immediate survival, like your gut, your hips and your butt.

Your body is wise. It knows how to keep you alive.

If I put you into a sub zero environment you would immediately start shivering in response to the cold. Your body will protect its vital organs first. You’ll notice you may lose feeling in  your hands or feet first. If you lost feeling in your brain or heart first, you’d die. Your body immediately pulls blood from your extremities and brings the blood to your vital organs so you can stay alive longer.

The same is true with high blood pressure. It’s just the body’s way of protecting itself to keep you alive.

Think of it like a good thing.

Diabetes

Elevated blood sugar in your body can lead to diabetes which can raise your blood pressure. When this happens there’s damage to the blood vessels themselves which cause them to thicken, calcify and narrow. As a result your blood must increase its pressure in order to get through more narrow passage ways. If you’re insulin resistant this might also contribute to fluid retention.

Do you ever notice diabetics with puffy extremities? When fluid builds up so does sodium retention which then further exacerbates hypertension.

Insulin resistance and upper-normal glucose levels in hypertension: a review

Heavy Metals

Exposure to heavy metals like lead and cadmium can disrupt your normal function of blood vessels by inducing oxidative stress and inflammation, leading to increased vascular resistance and elevated blood pressure. This is something most people with hypertension never think about.

We’re literally exposed to heavy metals in food, our air and our water. If you’re a hair stylist or a mechanic or just an office worker you’re getting exposed to more than healthy amounts of heavy metals from items around you off gassing.

Doing a good heavy metal cleanse on a regular basis would help with your elevated blood pressure. In my Yearly Cleanse Protocol I include heavy metals in a yearly detoxification routine that also includes parasites, liver health, colon and candida.

Association between phthalate exposure and blood pressure during pregnancy

A study titled “Association between phthalate exposure and blood pressure during pregnancy,” conducted in 2019, observed 300 pregnant women over the course of their pregnancies and found that higher phthalate levels were linked to increased blood pressure, concluding that exposure to these chemicals could contribute to hypertension. – Source.

Blood pressure in relation to concentrations of PCB congeners and chlorinated pesticides

Another study, “Serum concentrations of PCBs and blood pressure in adults,” analyzed data from 2,000 participants over five years (2011) and discovered a strong association between PCB exposure and elevated systolic and diastolic blood pressure, concluding that long-term exposure to these chemicals could significantly heighten hypertension risk. – Source.

Vitamin D

Low vitamin D levels (mostly they only check 25OHD or the storage form) have been linked to higher blood pressure because vitamin D plays a role in regulating the renin-angiotensin system, which controls blood vessel constriction. A 2008 study I read on young women found that those with lower vitamin D levels were more likely to develop hypertension, which tells me there’s a direct relationship between vitamin D deficiency and increased blood pressure risk.

The trick with vitamin D is that I don’t recommend taking it in pill form. It has a lot of downstream metabolites that never get created if you take it in pill form. You should be getting vitamin D from light (ideally the sun or a second best option would be a Vitamin D Lamp), not in a pill.

If you’ve never heard this before, I’ll go ahead and post an interview we did below with Jim Stephenson Jr. where we dive into this idea in great detail.

Effect of vitamin D on blood pressure: a systematic review and meta-analysis

I recently read an interesting study called “Effect of Vitamin D on Blood Pressure: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis” from 2009. It reviewed multiple trials involving vitamin D supplementation to see its effect on lowering blood pressure, though it didn’t detail participant numbers or duration for each trial. The results showed some reduction in blood pressure, suggesting that vitamin D might help manage it. – Source

Vitamin D and high blood pressure: causal association or epiphenomenon?

Another study, “Vitamin D and High Blood Pressure: Causal Association or Epiphenomenon?” from 2014, analyzed data to explore whether low vitamin D levels directly cause high blood pressure. It used Mendelian randomization to assess the genetic relationship, involving a large population but didn’t specify exact participant numbers. The conclusion mentioned a potential causal link. – Source

Dangers of Blood Pressure Medications

One of the main reasons for the dangers of blood pressure medications is that they lower a number, but they do not correct the underlying problem. It’s like a thief that comes into your house and steals all your money, leaving your house in shambles after they leave.

In the case of high blood pressure medications, the thieves make sure to clean up after they steal all your money before they leave. They leave you bankrupt but you never know they were there.

They were tidy thieves. 🙂

This is precicely what happens with high blood pressure medications. They artificially lower an arbitrary number but do nothing to correct the actual issue (high blood pressure).

On top of that you could even make the case that the hypertension isn’t the real issue.

The real issue is diabetes, low vitamin D, heavy metal toxicity or any of the other causes I mentioned above.

This leads to false hope.

You think that because your numbers are lower, you’ve “cured” high blood pressure.

Going back to the thief analogy, you’re sitting at home and you’re being robbed blind by “quiet” robbers that you can’t hear.

The problem is still there and other organs and systems in your body will bear the brunt of having elevated blood pressure but you will not know it.

The real natural remedies to lower high blood pressure are to stop participating in the cause.

Unfortunately that takes work and most people would rather take a pill and continue living a toxic lifestyle.

Sad.

Moving on….

ACE inhibitors can cause a persistent dry cough in up to 20% of users, and in rare cases, they may lead to life-threatening angioedema. – ACE inhibitors

Diuretics, commonly known as water pills, can lead to significant potassium loss, which might result in muscle weakness or heart rhythm issues. – Diuretics,

Meanwhile, beta blockers have been shown to potentially raise the risk of developing type 2 diabetes over long-term use. – Beta blockers.

Because of their dangers, let’s look at some natural remedies to lower high blood pressure that your body will actually recognize.

Imagine that.

3 Natural Remedies to Lower High Blood Pressure

Arginine

Arginine is pretty fascinating when it comes to blood pressure. It acts as a precursor to nitric oxide (which can be a major problem in the body, a very contrarian view in the natural health space…for more info on this read Mark Sloan’s Book on Methylene Blue called The Ultimate Guide to Methylene Blue.), a molecule that helps relax blood vessels, improving blood flow and lowering blood pressure. By boosting nitric oxide production, arginine can make it easier for your heart to pump blood, which is great news if you’re dealing with hypertension.

If I used arginine I would only do so for a short period of time.

I came across two interesting studies about arginine and its impact on lowering blood pressure.

Blood pressure and metabolic changes during dietary L-arginine supplementation in humans

One study from Italy in 2000 involved 16 participants over 4 weeks, showing that dietary L-arginine supplementation significantly reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The conclusion was that L-arginine could be a beneficial supplement for hypertension management. – Source

The Effects of Oral l-Arginine and l-Citrulline Supplementation on Blood Pressure

Another study, conducted in 2019 by a team in Germany, involved a meta-analysis of various trials with several hundred participants, which found that oral L-arginine supplementation led to a noticeable reduction in blood pressure. The study concluded that L-arginine might be an effective treatment for people with mild to moderate hypertension. – Source

Potassium

Now, potassium is a real powerhouse for heart health. It seems to work by balancing out the effects of sodium in your diet, helping your blood vessels relax and lowering blood pressure. When you get enough potassium, your body can better manage its fluid levels, which is in my opinion really important for maintaining healthy blood pressure.

The effect of potassium supplementation on blood pressure in hypertensive subjects: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Here’s a solid study titled “The effect of potassium supplementation on blood pressure in hypertensive subjects: a systematic review and meta-analysis,” done in 2017. It reviewed multiple trials with various durations and participants, showing that potassium supplementation significantly lowered both systolic and diastolic blood pressure in hypertensive patients. The study concluded that adding potassium could be a valuable part of managing hypertension. – Source

Does potassium supplementation lower blood pressure?

Another study called “Does potassium supplementation lower blood pressure? A meta-analysis of published trials” from 1991 involved analyzing several trials to determine potassium’s effect on blood pressure. It confirmed that potassium supplementation helped reduce blood pressure, especially in individuals with high blood pressure, highlighting its importance in hypertension management. – Source

Magnesium

Magnesium, on the other hand, plays a crucial role in keeping blood vessels relaxed. It helps regulate hundreds of enzymatic reactions in the body, including those that control muscle and nerve function. By ensuring your blood vessels stay flexible, magnesium can help prevent the tightening that leads to high blood pressure.

Veins carry blood to the heart while arteries carry blood from the heart after heart pumps (actually vortexes) it. Arteries have muscle around them that expand and contract (based on magnesium and calcium) that squeeze the artery to push the blood. If the muscle cannot relax (expand) because the body is deficient in magnesium, then blood pressure rises. From a mechanical perspective this is what is happening and makes sense.

Effect of magnesium supplementation on blood pressure: a meta-analysis

I found a study called “Effect of magnesium supplementation on blood pressure: a meta-analysis” from 2012, where they reviewed multiple trials with varied participant numbers over different durations. The study concluded that magnesium supplementation could lead to a modest reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. They emphasized magnesium as a helpful supplement for managing high blood pressure. – Source

The effect of magnesium supplementation on blood pressure

Another study, “The effect of magnesium supplementation on blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials” from 2002, analyzed data from several clinical trials involving hundreds of participants. The results showed that magnesium supplementation led to a small but significant drop in blood pressure, supporting its role in hypertension management. The study concluded that magnesium might be a useful non-pharmacological treatment option. – Source

Bottom Line

As you can see there are viable scientifically proven natural remedies to lower high blood pressure. If your doctor doesn’t know about these natural remedies he or she also probably doesn’t know about heavy metals, low vitamin D or how diabetes lead to high blood pressure.

If your doctor just wants to put you on blood pressure lowering medication and shove pills down your throat for a profit, fire them.

Work on removing the causes for you (see list above) and most likely your body will find homeostasis and your blood pressure levels will normalize (both systolic and diastolic).

There are many more things you can do to lower blood pressure naturally without medications that I go into in my Blood Pressure Protocol that include herbs, nutrition and biohacks that your doctor has never heard before. I would highly encourage you to get it so you can stay off blood pressure medications for the rest of your life.

Nobody wants that.

Questions

1. Do you currrently have hypertension?
2. What natural remedies have you tried? Has it worked?
3. Have you told your doctor your plan to tackle it naturally? What was his reply?

Comment below.