Feel-Good Stories: High Blood Pressure Patients Bounce Back to Health
Patients seeking help for their high blood pressure have also successfully overcome other related health challenges including weight loss, sleep apnea and diabetes – all while eliminating the need for medications. Read on for personal patient stories starting with this story from Ned, who now enjoys lower blood pressure and lost 30 pounds!
Blood Pressure Lower Than When Taking Drugs
Ned, an electrical engineer and computer consultant from Oregon, has always been health conscious. He takes vitamins, exercises, eats a low-fat diet, and is a long-time subscriber of my newsletter, Health & Healing. Yet one problem plagued him for almost 30 years. When he was 40 years old, Ned was diagnosed with hypertension and started on a blood-pressure lowering drug. This was to be the first of a long, long string of prescriptions that not only failed to bring his blood pressure down, but also had many adverse effects. When the side effects of one drug became intolerable, Ned’s doctor switched him to another. He figures he’s tried just about every antihypertensive drug on the market.
Frustrated and fed up with feeling lousy because of his drugs, yet scared to just stop them, Ned came to see us. The first thing he learned at the Whitaker Wellness Institute was that he had insulin resistance. He also learned that when insulin resistance is an underlying factor in hypertension, it often responds very well to nutritional therapies and exercise. So Ned started on a comprehensive program of diet, exercise, and nutritional supplements as his physician slowly weaned him off his drugs. Much to Ned’s delight, his blood pressure was even lower than it had been while he was taking drugs!
I ran into Ned a few months ago at a conference in Las Vegas. He was looking fit and healthy, and he told me hadn’t felt this well in years. During the year after his visit to the clinic, as the diet and exercise program become a part of his daily life, the extra 30 pounds that had sneaked up on him over the years slowly but surely disappeared. He still takes his blood pressure two or three times a week, and for the past two and a half years, it has averaged 125/75—without medications.
— from Health & Healing by Julian Whitaker, MD
Off All Prescription Drugs
Frankie and Myrl Wade from Jacksonville, Alabama, first came to the clinic in September 2003. Both of them were taking multiple drugs to keep their blood pressure under control. We weaned them off their drugs and started them on our blood pressure-lowering regimen. Today, both Frankie and Myrl are off all prescription drugs and their blood pressures are in the normal range. They continue to eat a heart-healthy diet, walk two and a half miles a day, take their supplements, and they’ve never felt better.
— from Health & Healing by Julian Whitaker, MD
Sleep, Snoring, and Hypertension
One of our patients, R.H., had extremely high blood pressure, along with heart failure and other cardiovascular problems. After we discovered he had severe sleep apnea, he borrowed a CPAP machine (continuous positive airway pressure, the gold standard in sleep apnea treatment) and used it while he was at the clinic. The very first night, R.H. slept more soundly than he had in 20 years. After three weeks of treatment with CPAP and other therapies, R.H.’s energy rebounded, his exercise tolerance improved, and his blood pressure fell into the normal range.
— from Health & Healing by Julian Whitaker, MD
Hypertension And Diabetes Under Control
“I have been using alternative procedures and herbs for over 20 years. I used Dr. Whitaker’s book, Reversing Diabetes, in 2006 to beat my diabetes in less than six months. When my blood pressure was out of control it took over year and half before I finally decided to get help from the Whitaker Wellness Institute’s Back to Health Program.
“The doctors from my insurance company group were unable to find out what was wrong with me, but in less than 10 minutes the doctor at Whitaker Wellness told me it sounded like sleep apnea. On the sleep apnea (CPAP) machine the very first night I slept an unbelievable six hours.
“The quality of care given by the doctors, the Whitaker staff, and the technicians was extraordinary. I saw people come in to the program on walkers all bent over and looking dead come back to life, standing tall, walking proud. It’s unbelievable but I saw these miracles with my own eyes!”
— Donald Grayson*
Beat Hypertension—and Metabolic Syndrome
Dennis Detweiler is not the kind of guy who goes to the doctor at the drop of a hat. As a matter of fact, he has always shied away from physicians. In spite of this—or perhaps because of it—he’s been pretty healthy during most of his 66 years.
About three years ago, Dennis did see a doctor for a persistent rash. He left with a prescription for a blood pressure–lowering drug, which the physician had prescribed based on readings taken during that one visit. The medication had so many side effects that Dennis stopped taking it after a week. After that, he didn’t worry too much about his blood pressure—until he began experiencing a throbbing sensation in his head and ringing in his ears. He was also sleeping poorly and his energy level had hit rock bottom, so this long-time Health & Healing subscriber from Texas called the Whitaker Wellness Institute, and he and his wife came to the clinic.
At that time, Dennis’ blood pressure was a very high 175/112, and his blood tests revealed elevated levels of lipids, hemoglobin A1c (indicative of moderately high blood sugar), and C-reactive protein (suggestive of systemic inflammation). He was also 30 pounds overweight, mostly in the abdominal area. In short, Dennis was a poster boy for metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors that dramatically increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart attack, and stroke.
Now, if Dennis had gone back to that conventional physician, he would likely have been scolded for not taking his blood pressure medication and prescribed a statin drug for his lipids, metformin to lower his blood sugar, and additional meds to help him sleep. But that’s just treating symptoms. What Dennis and the 75 million other Americans who have metabolic syndrome really need are therapies to address its underlying cause, which is insulin resistance.
The Protocol Dennis Followed
His first week at the clinic, Dennis started on the mini-fast with exercise (morning exercise, no food before noon, and sensible eating), which turns on fat burning like there’s no tomorrow. His wife, who is an excellent, health-conscious cook, picked up some practical tips for making meals even healthier.
Dennis was prescribed a comprehensive nutritional supplement program that included high doses of vitamin D, fish oil, magnesium, and green tea and other herbal extracts, which all have ameliorating effects on insulin resistance, along with coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), Balance3, and niacin.
He was also treated with acupuncture, hyperbaric oxygen, IV nutrients, and, because we discovered that Dennis had sleep apnea, automatic positive airway pressure (APAP).
Dennis Bounced Back
Dennis lost 15 pounds (and counting). His cholesterol fell from 269 to 168, and his vitamin D level increased to near the optimal range. His blood pressure dropped to textbook perfect at 120/75–80, and his A1c returned to normal. He is sleeping like a baby for the first time in recent memory, and he has energy to burn.
Dennis has reversed his metabolic syndrome, and he couldn’t be happier. “I can’t say enough about my Whitaker Wellness experience. With the changes in my life in just four months, I do believe it was a miracle. It’s impossible to place enough value on good health and being able to function at a normal level. I hope and pray that others are able to get the kind of help I was given.”
— from Health & Healing by Julian Whitaker, MD
*Individual Results May Vary
