A New Look at High Blood Pressure IV

04 Dealing with high blood pressure

In western medicine, we will be told that we have hypertension according to a set of data measured by the sphygmomanometer.

However, if we take a holistic approach, we will examine the evidence and seek the cause of hypertension. Then we will see the essence through the phenomenon.

Elevated blood pressure is originally the body’s anti-disease and regulatory response to eliminate energy and blood circulation disorders. Thus herbal medicine does not try to reduce blood pressure directly. Instead, it will examine the situation to help it to improve.

High blood pressure can be solved by using herbal medicine theory, syndrome differentiation and treatment, and overall conditioning of the body. No sophisticated instruments or high-end drugs are needed.

For thousands of years, herbal medicine has developed a set of theories on the human body, including the organs and the energy flow paths called meridians. The theories will be flexibly used in accordance with the time, place and person in body maintenance and conditioning. They are very useful in grasping and treating diseases, and are more in line with the reality of the human body.

Herbal medicine tries to do body conditioning based on root causes. For example, our extremities are far away from the heart. If our hands and feet are warm, it means that there is no blood clot in our body. If our hands and feet are cold, it means that our body is producing blood clots due to internal cold. Moreover, the cause of internal cold is the deficiency of yang-energy associated with our kidneys.

The power of the heart comes from the kidneys. If the yang-energy of the kidneys is sufficient, various functions of the human body will naturally be restored, the heartbeat will naturally be strong, blood stasis will naturally dissolve, and symptoms will naturally disappear.

Herbal medicine has no need to measure blood pressure. Instead, it focuses on symptom responses such as dizziness, numbness of limbs, coldness of limbs, stiff neck, headache, tinnitus, angina and so on. If blood pressure is measured at this time, the blood pressure is mostly on the high side.

In herbal medicine, it reflects the imbalance of yin-energy and yang-energy in the corresponding parts, often due to insufficient energy and blood performance.

Therefore, high blood pressure is not regarded as the destruction of pathology and the object of treatment. Instead, the symptoms help us to combat the causes that induce the high blood pressure. We should make the best use of the high blood pressure situation to help us to succeed in dealing with the true cause.

Aconite is a frequently used herb in herbal medicine. The heat of aconite is a good medicine for bringing up the yang-energy. If there is a blood stasis inside our body, and if it meets the heat of aconite, the blood stasis will melt naturally like ice meeting fire. It can not only clear the existing arterial blood stasis, but also prevent the human body from recreating blood stasis, treating the symptoms and the root cause.

Therefore, according to herbal medicine, the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases should be based on warming the kidneys and supporting yang-energy, nourishing blood and removing dampness as the fundamental method.

During treatment with this method, blood pressure will mostly increase, and sometimes accompany headaches.

With this herbal treatment, the patient is urged to continue to take the herbal medicine, without being intimidated by the readings from the sphygmomanometer. When the yang-energy associated with the kidneys recovers and the blood stasis melts, the blood pressure will definitely drop.

On the other hand, western medicine will usually prescribe an antihypertensive drug that mainly inhibits the central nervous system of the human body, weakens the function of the heart, and reduces the pump pressure. As a result, the blood pressure seems to have dropped, but the result of the antihypertensive effect is to reduce blood flow to the blood vessels and tissues at the end of the long arteries in our hands and feet. The patients who have cold hands and feet are proof of that effect.

Due to insufficient blood supply, the capillaries will gradually become brittle and blocked. When the patient is over-stimulated, the heart will beat faster and the blood pressure will rise sharply. The capillaries in the brain have lost their elasticity due to long-term ischemia, resulting in rupture and stroke.

The blood pressure index measured by the sphygmomanometer is the blood pressure of the aorta. Many patients with high blood pressure may have capillaries that are brittle, blocked or ischemic, often at low pressure or no pressure. Thus the instrument does not give a true picture of the situation. As practitioners of life cultivation, we do not rely solely on the instrument for our health.

The heart is said to be the monarch of all organs. It is not immune to diseases. However, many diseases are said to be created by western medicine. Long-term use of antihypertensive drugs may lead to weakened heart and kidney functions. It will not eliminate energy and blood circulation disorders. Those medicines and antihypertensive drugs may be the real culprits of cardiovascular disease. As practitioners of life cultivation, we should think twice before we take medicines.

As practitioners of life cultivation, we should understand the limited use of the sphygmomanometer. We should use it correctly to condition our body health. We should understand the truth of high blood pressure, then we will not be confused by the meaningless readings of the sphygmomanometer, and we will be protected from harm. By understanding the healing principles of herbal medicine, we can choose the correct treatment method to achieve the purpose of health maintenance.

End of part four of a four part posting on hypertension.

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If you are interested in learning new ways of taking care of yourself when you have a high blood pressure condition, then read on.

Read more: New Ways of Dealing with High Blood Pressure.