Natural approaches to managing blood pressure

Q. I’ve been having problems with high blood pressure for quite a while, especially since I became a truck driver five years ago. I guess the connection is that I sit and don’t get enough exercise.

I went off my blood pressure medicine about two months ago, and it’s really been a challenge to keep my diastolic pressure in the 80s. I’ve exercised, lost weight and cut down on the beers I drink to a few each week. I still need a little help in keeping the blood pressure down.

You wrote about chocolate to help high blood pressure. Are there other natural remedies? Would meditation help?

A. Congratulations on losing weight! That plus exercise often helps lower blood pressure.

Surprisingly, there is evidence that a little dark chocolate can help with blood pressure control. Too much chocolate, of course, will make managing weight more difficult.

Magnesium supplements and beet juice are a couple of other unexpected natural remedies for hypertension. Meditation also may help, especially accompanied by slow, deliberate breathing. If natural approaches don’t work, drugs are necessary.

We are sending you our Guide to Blood Pressure Treatment for more information on natural approaches and the pros and cons of various anti-hypertensive medications. Anyone who would like a copy, please send $3 in check or money order with a long (No. 10), stamped (59 cents), self-addressed envelope to: Graedons’ People’s Pharmacy, No. B-67, P.O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027. It also can be downloaded for $2 from our Web site: www.peoplespharmacy.com.

Q. I have been drinking a liter or two of tonic water a week for nearly 25 years. Now I’m reading about risks associated with quinine. How much is too much? How much quinine is in tonic? Should I stop drinking tonic water?

A. Quinine has been used medicinally to ward off malaria since the 17th century. The normal dose to treat malaria is 648 mg every eight hours for a week. A glass of tonic has roughly 20 mg, so you can see that there is a big difference.

Some people are so susceptible to serious side effects from quinine that they must avoid even the small amount in tonic water. For them, quinine may cause life-threatening heart-rhythm disturbances, severe skin reactions and several blood-related complications. That is why the Food and Drug Administration banned quinine for treating leg cramps.

Since you have not experienced any complications for 25 years, it is unlikely that you need to give up tonic. A glass or two daily should not cause you problems.

Q. You have occasionally written about plantar warts. I have cured several of them by soaking the area in hot, salted water several times a day.

A. Your remedy may not be as strange as it sounds. As far back as 1962, there was a report in the Cleveland Clinic Quarterly suggesting that soaking a wart in hot water (110 to 113 degrees F) for 30 to 90 minutes per week could eradicate it. One theory is that the wart viruses can’t survive the heat. It could take up to six weeks to work.

Other approaches include painting the wart with iodine or dripping fresh lemon juice on the wart three or four times daily. Covering the wart with duct tape also may work.

XIn their column, Joe and Teresa Graedon answer letters from readers. Write to them in care of The Vindicator or e-mail them via their Web site: www.PeoplesPharmacy.com. Their newest book is “Favorite Home Remedies From The People’s Pharmacy.”

2009 King Features Syndicate Inc.