You may have heard that grape juice can seriously interfere with various medications – including many blood pressure medications. A new study, published in the Journal of Food and Drug Analysis, takes this knowledge a step further by proving that another common juice is even deadlier when used with blood pressure medications. It has already claimed several lives.
As if that wasn’t enough, two more juices were found to completely neutralize the blood pressure medications, causing false security. In a 2016 article that gave practical advice to clinicians in the Natural Medicine Journal, researchers explained that many drugs, upon ingestion, were first processed in your small intestine by a chemical called cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4) before they started to circulate through your body. This is true for approximately 50% of all drugs. Under normal conditions, these chemicals ensure that these drugs are available in only small amounts, letting them do their work before your liver finally disposes of them and prepares them for excretion.
The big problem with grapefruit juice is that the furanocoumarins and flavonoids in it reduce the activity of
CYP3A4. This, in turn, means that the drugs are not first processed by it, and will appear in your body in insanely high and toxic amounts. The consequences of this could include extremely low blood pressure, dangerously irregular heartbeats, unconsciousness, and difficulty breathing. Blood pressure and cholesterol drugs are right at the top of the list of drugs that are processed by CYP3A4, and these can be made toxic through the consumption of grapefruit juice. A small, 200 mL glass of grapefruit juice, or even an entire grapefruit, can make these drugs toxic for anywhere between 24 hours to three days.
Since the first batch of studies, some researchers have found that pmelo, pomegranate, cranberry, and even apple and orange juice can have similar effects. This finding prompted Chinese scientists to do a systematic review of the literature recently, in order to find out just how dangerous blood pressure and cholesterol drugs can be when taken with juice or any fruit other than grapefruit.
They analyzed 46 medical trials.
It was found that the calcium channel antagonist felodipine could become toxic when taken with seville orange juice (also called bitter or sour orange). This popular drug for high blood pressure has even been found to have caused some deaths when taken on the same day as the consumption of this juice. Normal orange juice, in turn, rendered most blood pressure drugs useless by causing them to be excreted before they could be able to do anything. This was true for direct renin inhibitors, like aliskiren, and for beta-blockers, like atenolol and celiprolol. Beta-blockers block the effects of epinephrine (adrenaline) and are often prescribed for cases such as irregular heartbeats, chest pain, and other heart conditions.
Apple juice neutralizes some beta-blockers, and pomelo juice was found to neutralize the drug for high blood pressure, (vasodilator) sildenafil, thereby rendering the drug ineffective. What this new study tells us is that doctors really have no idea as to what interferes with the drugs you’re using.
If something as innocent as apple juice can render your drugs useless, what else could interfere with it?
That is why I always recommend to try to manage your blood pressure naturally as much as possible and to get off medications if you’re already taking them.
Here is the simplest, easiest, and most effective natural method to bring you blood pressure below 120/80 in as little as nine minutes…
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For decades we’ve been experiencing the hype and hoopla about the “dangers” of sodium. The so-called nutritional specialists and the medical world keep trying to convince us that salt is a common denominator of high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases. However, studies have failed to prove any health benefits of a low sodium diet. In fact, multiple researches revealed that the famous DASH diet (low-salt) was linked to an increased heart disease risk.
Often, doctors recommend people who are at heightened risk of stroke get some rest, better sleep, and not to overwork. This may, however, be faulty advice according to a new study from the University of Cambridge. In fact, getting more rest may actually increase your stroke risk 46%. But it’s a specific kind of rest that should be avoided.
If your blood pressure is elevated but you think you’re still in the safe range, the nation’s top heart organizations want you to think again. New guidelines released by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology lowered the diagnostic threshold for stage 1 high blood pressure to 130/80, down from 140/90. Evidence shows that this much lower threshold can help reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke in more people.
Swedish scientists have just published a study in Scientific Reports that shows that dog owners have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and overall risk of death than those who don’t have dogs. Surprisingly, one type of dog provided their owners with the best health benefits, which gives us a strong indication of why owning a dog helps prevent stroke, heart attack and other causes of death. In Sweden, it is compulsory to register yourself as a dog owner, and you also get a registration number when you visit a hospital.
This function is essential to your health. Without it, a simple flu would kill you and a splinter would bring you to the emergency room. But according to a study published in the journal, Immunity, this essential cell function is also responsible for deadly high blood pressure. Scientists from IRCCS Neuromed have discovered recently that T-cells, immune cells produced mostly by the spleen, play a major role in raising blood pressure. This sounds a little strange since the T-cells are an essential part of the immune system, but they also drive inflammation in the arteries, which causes damage to cardiovascular health.
but any kind of long-lasting stress puts your immune system in high gear to build up any damage done as soon as possible. This study was remarkable, and it revealed some of the physical processes your body goes through to raise blood pressure once it’s under stress. Your brain sends out PlGF, which produces T-cells and raises blood pressure when your body is experiencing long-lasting stress of some kind. Even after the stress is no longer present, the brain becomes somewhat stuck in the process of releasing PlGF. Therefore, the inflammation response (T-cells) and high blood pressure are stuck in ‘high gear,’ which again, causes stress throughout your body. The solution is to break this vicious circle. My approach is to apply something I call a Focused Break. It reboots your system, causing it to evaluate the need for increasing blood pressure or not. The typical result is that BP drops down to a normal level.
Anybody diagnosed with high blood pressure will find a volley of ideas and thoughts on what factors and organs are responsible for the spike. But there is one organ that nobody ever talks about, not even mentions, when discussing high blood pressure. This organ secretly narrows your arteries and raises your blood pressure. The good news is, when you shed light on this organ, it’s very easy to tackle it and permanently cure high blood pressure – without medication.
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