Hypertension 'Diet'

[JTA Mom]

x-posted in health & healing

My mom has had issues with hypertension for a while. This past week, we forced her to go to the hospital after she became dizzy, nauseous, and couldn't keep anything down. Her bp was 160/105. It was scary.

She does not have insurance. She also has not made any dietary changes before. All the doctor told her to do was cut out salt.

I know MDC has incredibly smart members who know more than most doctors, and could help me with this issue. My mom is ready for a change. Since then, she has cut out caffeine and salt, completely. She is also monitoring her blood pressure.

The question is, what is a good diet for hypertension? "Diet" in this case being a new way of eating.

I know dandelion root is awesome (helped me with my pregnancy-induced hypertension), so I will be getting some of that for her.

Is there anything she should avoid? Anything that should be an important part of her diet? Food/supplements/exercises recommendations all appreciated!

Thanks!

Ami

[sophiesgrandma]

I just heard recently that a glass of orange juice a day will lower bp. I'll be watching to see the other tips on this thread.

[Otto]

There's DASH, but if 160/105 is a representative figure, I'd be looking for an affordable path to getting it down pharmaceutically in the short term as well.

[Edit.--Link changed to avoid book-hawking.]

[tanyalynn]

DH was able to get his down supplementing magnesium 2x/day (not 1x/day, we did that for ages with no change)--it was quite a bit, I think around 800 mg/day.  Later, we started fiddling with his diet and for him, a low carb diet reduces his blood pressure about 20 points, both systolic and diastolic, within about 3 weeks--that was into the normal range, he was almost in the high BP zone before, his diastolic may have qualified him for high BP.  I've seen food intolerances in the kids deplete their magnesium, and in DH I'm not sure it's that straightforward (though I think he is intolerant of gluten, but we've been off that for a few years now), but somehow I think the low carb is reducing inflammation, and that fairly high amount of magnesium was a band-aid.  We're using the low carb approach on marksdailyapple.com, I like the overlap with Weston Price nutrition. 

[newcastlemama]

Nettles infusions (ala Susan Weed) seem to lower BP as well. I tried them and my blood pressure is already low so it was a bad fit for me but may help your mom.