Can I lower my blood pressure without taking medication?

Posted June 28, 2013, 2:00 am

My blood pressure medication has side effects that are difficult to tolerate. What else can I do to lower my BP?

If you’re a regular reader of this column, you’ve heard me say more than once that diet and exercise sometimes can eliminate the need for medications for a variety of conditions. That’s true — and it surely is true for high blood pressure.

However, sometimes diet, exercise and stress management lower blood pressure only part of the way. Medications may still be necessary. Every medicine ever invented can cause side effects in some people. But the other side of that coin is that medicines often do not cause side effects. And just because one medicine causes side effects does not mean that another will.

Fortunately, there are many different medicines to treat high blood pressure. In my experience, you can usually find a blood pressure medication that is both effective and free of side effects. But even when that’s true, it’s still important to get back to basics: a healthy lifestyle.

A healthy lifestyle is the cornerstone for preventing and treating hypertension. It may allow you to lower your medication dose or stop taking medication altogether. At the very least, you’ll feel better:

First and foremost, if you smoke, quit. Your blood pressure will start to decrease within hours after your last cigarette. Your doctor can recommend resources to help you quit.Another important step is to reach and maintain a healthy body weight. Being overweight or obese itself raises your blood pressure.Even if you don’t need to lose weight, eating the right foods can make a difference. The key features of a blood-pressure-friendly diet include plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains; several servings daily of low-fat dairy products; some fish, poultry, dried beans, nuts and seeds; and minimal red meat, sweets and sugar-laden beverages. Also try to limit your sodium intake to less than 1.5 grams of sodium per day. You can find the sodium content of prepared foods on the Nutrition Facts label.Limiting alcohol can help. Have no more than two drinks per day if you’re male, or one drink per day if you’re female. That’s drinking in moderation. Drinking in moderation may even help lower blood pressure, while drinking more can definitely raise blood pressure.Regular exercise lowers high blood pressure. Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise on all or most days of the week. Examples include walking or riding a stationary bike. Regular exercise is a potent tonic for lowering your blood pressure — even if you don’t lose weight.Finally, relax. Ongoing stress raises your blood pressure. Learn relaxation techniques, such as meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, deep breathing or yoga. I have a patient who took up tai chi several years ago and does it daily. I can’t prove there’s a connection, but I can tell you that her blood pressure has never been so low, and she says she feels great. window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({appId: "199616670120169", status: true, cookie: true, xfbml: true});}; (function() { var e = document.createElement("script"); e.async = true; e.src = document.location.protocol + "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js"; document.getElementById("fb-root").appendChild(e);}());

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Gaining weight from medication changes

Has anyone had experience with gaining weight from medication changes? As of last fall, I weighed around 125lb on a 5'4 frame. My insurance company messed with my birth control prescription (I was on Yaz with no weight gain) and my weight sky-rocketed to almost 15 lbs more. Summer clothes that used to be a bit loose are now on the much snugger, should-I-even-be-wearing-this, side. 

I'm in graduate school and work full time, so I have a regretfully sedentary lifestyle with the exception of hitting the gym a few times a week, which I've always done. I've been eating even healthier and more low-cal than ever before for the last two months to combat the weight gain, and it's still there. I've also recently been diagnosed with Crohns and have a hard time keeping my body from rejecting what I eat. Yet the weight is still there! I just can't get rid of it, let alone keep it from rapidly gaining. I've been off the medication for a week now. I knew not to expect instant results, but I still feel incredibly hopeless. 

Has anyone else had a similar experience with birth control weight gain? How long did it take for it come off naturally? I can't cut my calories much more without being super unhealthy and there just aren't enough hours in a week for me to double my gym visits. 

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Health Tip: Before You Take This Heartburn Medication...

Title: Health Tip: Before You Take This Heartburn Medication...
Category: Health News
Created: 4/5/2013 8:35:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/5/2013 12:00:00 AM

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Parents Will Push for Medication, Even If Doc Says Not Needed

Title: Parents Will Push for Medication, Even If Doc Says Not Needed
Category: Health News
Created: 4/1/2013 10:35:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/1/2013 12:00:00 AM

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Parents Will Push for Medication, Even If Doc Says Not Needed

Survey dealt with hypothetical diagnosis of digestive disorder in young child

By Alan Mozes

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, April 1 (HealthDay News) -- When doctors use quick-and-easy disease labels to sum up symptoms of concern in an otherwise healthy infant, parents are more apt to want to treat their child with some type of medication, even if they're told that drugs won't help, new research says.

The finding was gleaned from the results of a survey administered in a general pediatric clinic setting. The poll had asked parents how they would react to being told that their child's excessive crying and spitting amounted to a diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), rather than being given no specific disease label at all.

The study highlights the powerful impact that a physician's choice of words can have on parental decision-making, while emphasizing the importance of good doctor-patient/parent communication.

"The disease label seems to send the message that there is an illness that requires medical treatment," explained study lead author Laura Scherer, an assistant professor in the department of psychological sciences at the University of Missouri. "But, depending on the situation, medical treatments may be necessary, or not. In the case of GERD, an otherwise healthy infant probably will not benefit from medication. So in this case [that] label can be misleading."

Scherer and her colleagues published their findings in the May issue of Pediatrics.

Though the survey results speak to the potential impact of disease-labeling as a whole, the authors noted that the issue is of specific interest with respect to GERD. A growing concern is that this particular condition is both overdiagnosed and overtreated among basically healthy children.

Between 2011 and 2012, the investigators surveyed 175 parents (whose average age was about 35) either while in a pediatric clinic waiting room or an examination room. Most participants were mothers and described as highly educated. The average age of their sons and daughters was 4.5 years. About one-fifth of these children had been previously diagnosed with GERD.

Parents were randomly given one of four hypothetical scenarios: Their infant had GERD and existing drugs were ineffective; their infant had GERD without any comment on medications; no disease label was offered in the context of drugs being ineffective; or no disease label or drug information was offered.

The result: Those parents who were given a GERD diagnosis ended up being interested in treating their infant with drugs despite being specifically cautioned that drugs wouldn't work.

By contrast, parents who were not offered a single disease label to describe their infant's crying and spitting symptoms only expressed an interest in drug treatment if the physician did not raise the issue of the drug's ineffectiveness. This left parents to assume that the relevant drugs worked.

When medicinal ineffectiveness was discussed, these parents expressed no eagerness to launch a drug treatment.

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Is it safe to take heartburn medication on a long-term basis?

Posted May 31, 2013, 2:00 am

I’ve been taking Prilosec for years to prevent heartburn. My wife doesn’t think it’s safe to take any drug for that long. What do you think?

I’ve said it before, but I think it bears repeating: No drug is 100 percent safe. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take one if you need it. But you should continually weigh the risks and benefits.

Prilosec is a proton pump inhibitor (PPI), a drug that reduces stomach acid. We need stomach acid to help digest food, but in excess or in the wrong place, it’s a menace. It can inflame and irritate the esophagus, causing heartburn. (Recurring heartburn is called gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD.) It can also contribute to ulcers in the stomach and small intestine.

PPIs are the most commonly prescribed drugs for acid reflux and heartburn. PPIs include lansoprazole (Prevacid), omeprazole (Prilosec) and esomeprazole (Nexium).

Like you, people often take PPIs every day for years. This makes sense if you have a chronic problem with stomach acid, but the occasional case of mild heartburn does not need to be treated with a PPI. For that kind of spot duty, antacid medicines such as Tums, Rolaids and Maalox will likely do the trick. They directly counteract acid in your stomach. So will drugs like cimetidine (Tagamet), famotidine (Pepcid) and ranitidine (Zantac). Like the PPIs, these drugs cause your stomach to make less acid, but they work faster than PPIs.

You can also tackle your heartburn with changes that don’t involve taking anything. Eat smaller meals and cut back on alcohol. If you’re heavy, lose weight. Raising the head of your bed should also help.

As a long-term PPI user, you should also consider the possible drug interactions and side effects of PPIs. They may decrease the effectiveness of clopidogrel (Plavix, others), a medication that helps prevent artery-clogging blood clots. (This is controversial, and irrelevant if you’re not taking clopidogrel.)

In addition, people taking PPIs seem to be more likely to get pneumonia than those who aren’t. Why would a medicine that reduces stomach acid make you vulnerable to pneumonia — a lung infection usually caused by bacteria? Because some cases of pneumonia come from regurgitating stomach contents up into the throat and having some of these contents drop down into the lungs. Since acid kills bacteria, stomach contents that are low in acid are more likely to contain bacteria.

Stomach acid also helps you absorb calcium in your diet. Theoretically, that might mean that long-term use of PPIs would make you vulnerable to thin bones (osteopenia or osteoporosis). However, the evidence for that is weak. Experts do not recommend, for example, that people taking long-term PPIs get bone density tests, or take calcium pills.

Even if you have a prescription for a PPI, you and your doctor should review the reasons for it periodically to make sure they’re still valid. If you do need that prescription — and many people do — it should be for the lowest effective dose.

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Study: Electronic Prescribing Cuts Medication Errors

Title: Study: Electronic Prescribing Cuts Medication Errors
Category: Health News
Created: 2/21/2013 12:35:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 2/22/2013 12:00:00 AM

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A guide to beating nasal allergies, from medication to self-care.

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Track your way to weight loss success Manage your family's vaccinations Join the conversation See more benefits Sign Up Why WebMD? My WebMD Show Menu My Tools My WebMD Pages My Account Sign Out FacebookTwitterPinterest WebMD Home Allergies Health Center Help for Sinus Pain Email a FriendPrint Article Help for Sinus Pain and Pressure Next Article: Skip to Article Content Help for Sinus Pain and Pressure Is Your Cold Causing Sinus Problems? What happens to your sinuses when you have a cold, and what to do about it. Sinus Problems From Allergies What's the best way to treat a stuffy nose caused by allergies? Dealing With Sinus Pressure Don't let sinus congestion and pressure get you down. Here's how to cope. Sinus Headache Relief How do you know if it's really a sinus headache? What's Causing Your Sinus Problems? What to do when your sinuses misbehave. Home Remedies for Sinus Problems Creating a sinus-friendly environment at home. Your Sinus Action Plan 6 tips for relieving sinus pain and pressure. Sinus Terms to Know Check out this glossary of sinus terms. Using a Neti Pot for Congestion Can flushing out your nasal passages help? Natural Sinus Relief See 6 things you can do at home in this slideshow. False Allergies and Your Sinuses: Fighting Allergic Rhinitis A guide to the best stuff for stuffy noses, from prescription treatments to self-care. WebMD Feature

By R. Morgan Griffin

Reviewed By Laura J. Martin, MD

One in five adults in the U.S. has nasal allergies, or allergic rhinitis. Yet as common as it is, experts say that allergic rhinitis is terribly underdiagnosed, undertreated, and underestimated.

“Allergic rhinitis is a trivialized disease,” says Jonathan A. Bernstein, MD, an allergist at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. “Obviously, nobody dies from it. But it does cause a tremendous amount of sickness and suffering.”

All that sneezing, congestion, and teary-eyed misery takes a toll. Allergic rhinitis can cause missed workdays, and it can detract from your performance at school or on the job. Because of this, allergic rhinitis costs the country billions of dollars every year.

Nasal allergies can also lead to other conditions such as sinus problems. But they don’t have to.

“Allergic rhinitis is a treatable problem,” Bernstein says, “and when people get diagnosed and treated properly, they do very well.” If you’ve been limping through life with nasal allergies, it’s time to get the best of them.

Nasal Allergies and Sinus Problems

Allergy symptoms are miserable enough on their own. But in many people, allergic rhinitis can cause -- or aggravate -- other complications or conditions.

What’s the connection between allergies and sinus problems?

Sinuses are hollow pockets in the skull that are connected to the nasal passages. When allergies trigger swelling in the mucous membranes, the inflamed tissue can block off the sinuses. The sinuses can’t drain, trapping mucus and air inside. That leads to pain and pressure.

Take Allergy Symptoms Seriously

Despite the misery of allergies and their complications, many people don’t take the symptoms very seriously.

They don’t realize the impact that their allergies are having on their lives, especially when added up over years and decades, says Leonard Bielory, MD, director of the division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology at New Jersey Medical School in Newark.

They get used to the congestion, chronic sinus problems, and mouth breathing. They get used to disturbed sleep and fatigue. After a while, they just don’t remember what life was like before allergies.

When symptoms get bad, they make do. They grab over-the-counter medicines at random at the drugstore. They make guesses at the cause of their allergies and half-hearted attempts to control their exposure, but never get a diagnosis.

That’s not the way to go about it, experts say. Given the impact that nasal allergies can have on your life, you really need to get proper medical evaluation and treatment.

Allergic Rhinitis Treatments: Over-the-Counter Medicine

For mild allergic rhinitis -- or symptoms that only strike for a few weeks a year -- over-the-counter medicines may be enough. OTC treatments for allergic rhinitis include:

Antihistamines. These drugs work by blocking histamine, a chemical that causes many allergy symptoms. They help relieve itching and sneezing. Examples include certirizine (Zyrtec), chlorpheniramine (Ahist, Chlor-Trimeton), diphenhydramine (Benadryl, Genahist), fexofenadine (Allegra), and loratadine (Agistam, Alavert, Claritin).

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A guide to beating nasal allergies, from medication to self-care.

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Track your way to weight loss success Manage your family's vaccinations Join the conversation See more benefits Sign Up Why WebMD? My WebMD Show Menu My Tools My WebMD Pages My Account Sign Out FacebookTwitterPinterest WebMD Home Allergies Health Center Help for Sinus Pain Email a FriendPrint Article Help for Sinus Pain and Pressure Next Article: Skip to Article Content Help for Sinus Pain and Pressure Is Your Cold Causing Sinus Problems? What happens to your sinuses when you have a cold, and what to do about it. Sinus Problems From Allergies What's the best way to treat a stuffy nose caused by allergies? Dealing With Sinus Pressure Don't let sinus congestion and pressure get you down. Here's how to cope. Sinus Headache Relief How do you know if it's really a sinus headache? What's Causing Your Sinus Problems? What to do when your sinuses misbehave. Home Remedies for Sinus Problems Creating a sinus-friendly environment at home. Your Sinus Action Plan 6 tips for relieving sinus pain and pressure. Sinus Terms to Know Check out this glossary of sinus terms. Using a Neti Pot for Congestion Can flushing out your nasal passages help? Natural Sinus Relief See 6 things you can do at home in this slideshow. False Allergies and Your Sinuses: Fighting Allergic Rhinitis A guide to the best stuff for stuffy noses, from prescription treatments to self-care. WebMD Feature

By R. Morgan Griffin

Reviewed By Laura J. Martin, MD

One in five adults in the U.S. has nasal allergies, or allergic rhinitis. Yet as common as it is, experts say that allergic rhinitis is terribly underdiagnosed, undertreated, and underestimated.

“Allergic rhinitis is a trivialized disease,” says Jonathan A. Bernstein, MD, an allergist at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. “Obviously, nobody dies from it. But it does cause a tremendous amount of sickness and suffering.”

All that sneezing, congestion, and teary-eyed misery takes a toll. Allergic rhinitis can cause missed workdays, and it can detract from your performance at school or on the job. Because of this, allergic rhinitis costs the country billions of dollars every year.

Nasal allergies can also lead to other conditions such as sinus problems. But they don’t have to.

“Allergic rhinitis is a treatable problem,” Bernstein says, “and when people get diagnosed and treated properly, they do very well.” If you’ve been limping through life with nasal allergies, it’s time to get the best of them.

Nasal Allergies and Sinus Problems

Allergy symptoms are miserable enough on their own. But in many people, allergic rhinitis can cause -- or aggravate -- other complications or conditions.

What’s the connection between allergies and sinus problems?

Sinuses are hollow pockets in the skull that are connected to the nasal passages. When allergies trigger swelling in the mucous membranes, the inflamed tissue can block off the sinuses. The sinuses can’t drain, trapping mucus and air inside. That leads to pain and pressure.

Take Allergy Symptoms Seriously

Despite the misery of allergies and their complications, many people don’t take the symptoms very seriously.

They don’t realize the impact that their allergies are having on their lives, especially when added up over years and decades, says Leonard Bielory, MD, director of the division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology at New Jersey Medical School in Newark.

They get used to the congestion, chronic sinus problems, and mouth breathing. They get used to disturbed sleep and fatigue. After a while, they just don’t remember what life was like before allergies.

When symptoms get bad, they make do. They grab over-the-counter medicines at random at the drugstore. They make guesses at the cause of their allergies and half-hearted attempts to control their exposure, but never get a diagnosis.

That’s not the way to go about it, experts say. Given the impact that nasal allergies can have on your life, you really need to get proper medical evaluation and treatment.

Allergic Rhinitis Treatments: Over-the-Counter Medicine

For mild allergic rhinitis -- or symptoms that only strike for a few weeks a year -- over-the-counter medicines may be enough. OTC treatments for allergic rhinitis include:

Antihistamines. These drugs work by blocking histamine, a chemical that causes many allergy symptoms. They help relieve itching and sneezing. Examples include certirizine (Zyrtec), chlorpheniramine (Ahist, Chlor-Trimeton), diphenhydramine (Benadryl, Genahist), fexofenadine (Allegra), and loratadine (Agistam, Alavert, Claritin).

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WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information.

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