High blood pressure? Don't be fooled by the new “guidelines”

You have probably seen in the news the new “guidelines” for determining a healthy level of blood pressure. It used to be that 120/80 was considered optimal, 120 - 129/80-84 was normal and 130 - 139/85-89 was high normal. If your readings were over 140/90 you were considered to be at Stage 1 which was referred to as mild hypertension. Stages 2, 3 and 4 went up in various increments and they reflected increasing degrees of severity of hypertension.

But, this is no longer the case! Based on new USA guidelines if your blood pressure is in the “normal” range with a systolic pressure anything above 120 you are now considered to be prehypertensive and should according to the new guidelines be taking "two or more hypertensive medications to achieve goal pressure".

So if you were previously healthy before this recent announcement with a systolic blood pressure between 120 and 140 I am sorry to say that you along with 45 million other Americans are no longer considered to be healthy! In fact you will be pressured to take a drug to “restore your health”.

My last mandated visit to my doctor, I have to go every 3 months whether I want to or not…. My blood pressure was 120 over 80. A little high for me. It is usually 110 over 80. In fact my doctor said to me on my first visit that he has patients who would die to have your blood pressure… This same doctor on this visit said your pressure is getting a little high. I will give you a prescription to help that.

I said no, you know I don’t take ANY medication. He just gave me a funny look. Last time he tried to give me some drugs for a urinary infection he said I had and I did not have. Wouldn’t take that either.

My daughter keeps telling me to get another doctor. I have found them all in the past 6 years to be like this so what is the point.

Frankly, I think that the new recommendations are nothing short of scandalous! Hypertension is NOT a disease to be treated by drugs... it is a SYMPTOM of an underlying problem. Treating it without determining the cause is dangerous and is akin to giving drugs to reduce a high temperature whilst ignoring the cause of the high temperature.

In fact just like treating the symptoms of high temperatures which can be fatal in some people so can the potential flow on effects from treating high blood pressure! If you have high blood pressure you have it for a reason. That reason is because parts of your body are lacking in blood and the extra pressure is needed to get it there. If you artificially suppress that pressure with drugs whilst ignoring the underlying cause of it you are on the start of a slippery slide down to permanent ill health.

You may be thinking "But, if these recommendations for blood pressure are supported by the government then it must be desirable to keep within them. After all the government independently reviews all the information before endorsing new health guidelines... doesn't it?"

The short answer is yes it should, but no, it doesn't… at least not in this case! I'll explain.

This will make you furious!

The new guidelines for hypertension are referred to as JCN-7. JCN stands for the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. The report that they issued was their seventh, thus the reference number JCN-7.
All sounds pretty official and impressive, and given that the report was presented by government spokespersons at government press conferences as the latest government guidelines then it must have been well reviewed and debated... at least that is what you would think!

In fact that is what you should reasonably expect and indeed the law provides for this to safeguard the interests of the public! I quote the following excerpt from a paper by Paul Rosch, MD, FACP who is a clinical professor of medicine and psychiatry at New York Medical College.

"The law requires that all important Federal rules, including guidelines that affect the public must be written and promulgated according to the Government Code. This code mandates formal selection of a committee, pre-announcement of all meetings, open meetings that encourage testimony from all interested parties as well as written records, all of which must be preserved in a special docket. Everything is then reviewed in order to provide a written discussion of all the relevant evidence leading to the final rules or guidelines that must be published in the Federal Register. In addition, if the published guidelines are not consonant with a logical review of the evidence presented, the recommendations may be overturned by legal action."

Rosch researched the JNC-7 report which is now the “official” government guideline for hypertension and which has been issued to physicians and found that it is NOT on the Federal register and that in essence the legal system has been bypassed. Officials at the NIH (National Institute of Health) have admitted that the new guidelines were written by a non-government committee of “experts” that they had selected and were therefore not subject to the Federal Register regulations!

The guide lines were published in JAMA the Journal of the American Medical Association, NOT the Federal Register. The committee established these new guidelines with NO public meetings, NO meetings were open to the public, NO public input was solicited and NO detailed records of committee meetings were kept!

I am sure you get the picture! Now, back to the issue of hypertension!

As I mentioned earlier, hypertension is a symptom not an ailment.

By treating the symptom it is likely to exacerbate the cause. There are currently over 100 drugs being used to “treat” hypertension and most of them are given to patients on a trial and error basis. How many people do you know that have been given multiple drugs to reduce their blood pressure... and how many have had adverse side effects?

If you have been diagnosed with “high” blood pressure you owe it to yourself to learn as much as you can about it and also to TRULY determine if you do have high blood pressure. Most people are not aware just how much their blood pressure can vary. Temporary increases of 50% are not uncommon. These increases can come about just from a bit of tension combined with talking. It has been clearly documented that people who are considered to be hypertensive are really not although their readings are high.

When you go into a doctor's waiting room and you know your blood pressure is going to be taken and you are concerned about it that in it self can be sufficient to raise it enough to be considered hypertensive. Then when you start taking medication and go back for another check you will be even more concerned and the reading will be even less accurate often resulting in a higher dose rate... and so on it goes.

So, be careful out there and question all recommendations when it comes to blood pressure medication AND do not ignore the CAUSE of the symptoms.

I am here to help you, help yourself, enjoy a Vibrant Life.

Take The FREE Video Tour Now!

Best of Health,

Margie Garrison
arthritislady@yoursuccesslinks.com

Arthritis Cure – Search For Truth

When doctors (specialists of arthritis) condemned her existence to a lifelong suffering of pain and increasing doses of harmful and addictive drugs, saying, "Bear with it, there is no cure for arthritis ...you will be in a wheelchair within five years," Margie did not accept their verdict. She figured out all by herself, "There is a cause for arthritis and if there is a cause, then there must be a remedy . . . . If the doctors did not know anything about it, it did not mean there was no remedy. And with this optimistic rational, she charged into the pathway of "Search for Truth".

Margie tells us the story of her "Painful Odyssey through the Medic-World," and her pleasant adventures into the world of knowledge of nutrition and optimum health. Needless to say, she cured her arthritis..."THE INCURABLE DISEASE." The Medical Establishment will call this "spontaneous remission," yet Margie can turn her arthritis on and off to the tune of a melody. She has learned which foods trigger her arthritic pains and aches.

When Margie first came to my office for Nutrition Consultation, her main concern was her obesity, at 260 pounds for her 5 ft., 5 1/2 inches.

After two hours of questioning, I realized that she did not consider a major problem the fact that she still had about 20% of her arthritic pains and aches. For her having suffered constant pain for almost forty years, having cured herself of 80% of her pains was such a heavenly blessing she could bear slight aches and ignore them.

When I mentioned to her the fact that I could I could not put her on any weight reduction program until her aches were cured 100% and until she felt super-duper, her eyes sparkled with incredulous amazement and pleasure. Apparently, being free of pain 100% of the time had been to her such a "Sweet and unattainable dream" that she embarked on her new program with the enthusiasm of a pioneer. At the time of writing this book, she made a confession that when she first came to my office; she thought nutritionists were mainly concerned with such things as dieting, weight loss, and special diets for diabetes. The conventional "Dietetics" approach to nutrition. She thought...putting it in her words..."I was afraid to tell you; I thought you would pooh-pooh me for telling you I had cured my arthritis by eliminating certain foods from my diet... arthritis is supposed to be an incurable disease."

Naturally, what Margie discovered was that I not only believed in her claims, but encouraged her to complete her self-cure. I can substantiate her claims that she is 100% free of pain. Free of swelling. Although pain is a subjective feeling, and only a "Symptom" and not a "sign" for the skeptical doctor to substantiate or quantify it, pain has a unique characteristic to register itself on the face of the bearer. Margie has become her perky, cheerful self and, despite her busy schedule of working in the family business and extensive traveling, managed to write her book.

She has two important messages in her book. To the layman, her message says, "Annie, get your gun" and start singing "Anything you can do, I can do better." Put your body in your own hands and use the right bullets. Use nutrition, exercise, relaxation and aim at your health, your "optimum health." With some trial and error you, too, will learn to aim correctly. To the doctors, her message simply says, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most knowledgeable of them all?" It is time that doctors and medical students assess the type and amount of knowledge they are receiving from "The Establishment." Are they getting their dollar's worth?

Going to medical school is a very expensive investment and if they are being short-changed and because of this their patients will abandon them and seek self-cure, within the next few decades, a doctor may be an obsolete figure in our society, not because there will not be sick people, but because sick people, distrustful of their doctor's knowledge and abilities, will seek help elsewhere than the doctor's offices. Sick people who become disenchanted with their doctors do not necessarily find another doctor who is knowledgeable in Preventive Medicine, since although the ranks of this new breed of doctors are increasing, it is still difficult for the average person to locate one in his/her neighborhood.

What the sick people have easy access to are: popular books, health food stores, lay nutritionists and various non- conventional outlets. By trial and error, by reading, the determined person does improve his/her health to a degree that most describe as, "I cannot describe how miserable I was and how much money, time I wasted going from one doctor to another. If the cure for my problem was such a simple thing as changing my eating habits and a few vitamins and minerals, how come all these doctors do not know anything about it? I feel like suing the doctor for malpractice. It is a blessing I have come so far and I consider this a great improvement." What the sick person has access to does not necessarily guarantee what he/she really needs. This is the case of many clients who walk into my office for Nutrition Consultation.

Invariably, while their nutrition is along the lines of healthful eating and they have a bag full of bottles to show me what supplements they have tried, I find several major gaps and sometimes in their haphazard trial and error. I do not condemn the lay-nutritionists, nor the efforts of the patients for self-cure. On the contrary, any patient who comes to my office with such a background gets a friendly pat on the back.

The point I want to raise is for the doctors. If there were doctors who were trained in the gold mine of "Nutrition Therapy," then patients would not seek the lay and the non-conventional help. Americans do depend upon their doctors for their health just as they depend upon their cars for transportation. It is part of the American way of life. There is no such thing as an "INCURABLE DISEASE." ALL diseases are curable if we only knew and applied the right measures. For all diseases are preventable by maintaining optimum health through ortho-molecular nutrition and ortho-molecular environment. Correct molecular environment inside and outside of our bodies, guarantees not only a disease-free body, but optimum health. It is a pleasure to present to you Margie Garrison "THE FIRST SELF-CURE SPECIALIST."

Felor Jourdikian, Ph.D.

Dear Reader,

The book that Dr. Jourdikian is referring to is “I Cured My Arthritis You Can Too” that I wrote, self-published and is featured on www.cureyourarthritis.com.

If I can be of any help with your “Search For Truth”, please feel free to contact me at: arthritislady@cureyourarthritis.com .

I am here to help you, help yourself, enjoy a Vibrant Life.

Best of Health,

Margie Garrison
arthritislady@yoursuccesslinks.com