High Blood Pressure (hypertension)
Pharma’s Quiet Admission: We Often Do Not Know…
Dennis Miller, R.Ph. is a retired chain store pharmacist. His book, The Shocking Truth About Pharmacy: A Pharmacist Reveals All the Disturbing Secrets, can be downloaded in its entirety at Amazon for …
Will Garlic Supplements Lower Your Blood Pressur…
Garlic is a foundational flavor in many cuisines. People around the world also use garlic medicinally. It has long held a reputation for being able to help fight off infections, from colds and flu to …
Blood Pressure Roulette: Is Finding the Right Dr…
Nearly half of all American adults have high blood pressure. That represents roughly 120 million people, and most will eventually be encouraged to take medication. But blood pressure roulette is an un…
The Outdoor Prescription for 17 Minutes a Day
Human beings evolved as outdoor creatures, but nowadays we spend 93% of our time indoors, on average. What is that doing to our health? Training our eyes on screens instead of scanning the horizon can…
Lisinopril and Angioedema: A Life-Threatening Si…
Lisinopril is the most frequently prescribed blood pressure pill in the United States. At last count, over 20 million Americans take this ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) inhibitor daily. Except fo…
Which Diuretic is Best for Hypertension? HCTZ or…
When a patient is diagnosed with high blood pressure that is not controlled by diet, exercise or other lifestyle interventions, doctors start writing prescriptions. One of their first-line drugs is al…
Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) Side Effects, Diabete…
We suspect that hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ or HCT for short) is one of the most prescribed drugs in America on a daily basis. HCTZ is taken regularly by over 15 million people. Many doctors believe tha…
Chocolate and Beets Lower Blood Pressure
Doctors love scientific explanations for how things work. That is why they are quick to prescribe medications for a variety of conditions. FDA approval provides reassuring evidence of effectiveness. U…
When Blood Pressure Treatment Raises the Risk of…
For decades, doctors have emphasized the importance of lowering blood pressure to prevent heart attacks and strokes. With good reason! The CDC estimates that: "More than 843,000 Americans die of heart…
Amlodipine (Norvasc) Side Effects Include Swolle…
For reasons that remain somewhat mysterious to us, amlodipine (Norvasc) is one of the most popular blood pressure medications in the pharmacy. This calcium channel blocker lowers blood pressure in par…
Sauna Bathing, Immune Stimulation and Other Heal…
Finnish researchers have been studying the health benefits of sauna bathing for years. A study published several years ago in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings reviewed the evidence for cardiovascular and o…
Incredible Beet Health Benefits for Brain and Bl…
Red beets are known officially as Beta vulgaris rubra. Researchers generally refer to this vegetable as beetroot. Although this root vegetable is popular in Europe, it doesn't have a lot of fans in th…
Blood Pressure Measurements: Why the Doctor’s …
Health professionals often rely upon blood pressure measurements taken in the clinic to diagnose hypertension. If a patient has a blood pressure (BP) reading greater than 120/80 in a doctor’s office…
How to Sleep During Anxious Times
There is no good time to be an insomniac, but these are terrible times. Headlines are designed to provoke anxiety or fear. Contentious political clashes and war make the nighttime news distressing. Wh…
Blood Pressure Measurement Mistakes and Misdiagn…
A doctor’s appointment can start raising your blood pressure long before you ever reach the exam room. It may begin the moment you wake up. Do you have time for a shower? What should you wear? Can y…
Home Blood Pressure Monitoring: Lifesaving in Th…
For decades, we at The People’s Pharmacy have encouraged readers and listeners to check their blood pressure at home. The advice wasn’t casual and it wasn’t trendy. It was rooted in solid scienc…
Do Antihypertensive Drugs Treat the Symptom, Not…
Dennis Miller, R.Ph. is a retired chain store pharmacist. His book, The Shocking Truth About Pharmacy: A Pharmacist Reveals All the Disturbing Secrets, can be downloaded in its entirety at Amazon for …
Too Many Bad Blood Pressure Readings: How to Fix…
Bad blood pressure readings are far more common than most healthcare professionals will likely admit. Most patients want to be respectful. They do not want to get off to a bad start at a clinic visit …
DASH Diet for High Blood Pressure
For nearly 30 years, nutrition scientists studying dietary outcomes have noted that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy products can help people control their blood pr…
Faulty Blood Pressure Readings Are Shockingly Co…
Blood pressure measurement used to be challenging. It required a doctor or nurse to use a device containing a glass tube with a lot of mercury. An inflatable cuff was attached to the arm of the patien…
Show 1450: Beyond Cholesterol: Rethinking Your R…
Heart disease is still our number one killer, even though 50 million Americans have been prescribed a cholesterol-lowering statin. Cardiologists pay a lot of attention to cholesterol in all its variet…
Light Exposure Overnight Raises Risk of Heart Di…
For thousands of years our human ancestors slept in the dark. There were no lights inside or outside. That meant that when candles or oil lamps were snuffed out at night, people had very little light …
Ever Heard of CKM? Chances Are Good You Have It!
I would be willing to bet a week's salary that you have never heard of CKM. A lot of healthcare professionals probably don't know much about it either. CKM stands for cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic s…
Using Multiple Tactics to Achieve Weight Loss
Excess weight has been linked to a wide range of undesirable health conditions, including hypertension, high cholesterol and prediabetes, which might become type 2 diabetes. Doctors frequently exhort …
Ibuprofen and High Blood Pressure: A Dangerous R…
Use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) has been increasing for several years (Open Heart, April 28, 2017). We're talking about drugs like ibuprofen and naproxen. Such pain relievers are …
What Are the Health Benefits of Cocoa Flavanols?
Do you think of chocolate as a sinful snack or a healthy bite? Chocolate candy itself probably should be considered sinful. It usually contains too much sugar to count as health food. The cocoa flavan…
Can Beet Juice Really Lower High Blood Pressure?
If you have hypertension, your doctor has probably prescribed medicine to lower high blood pressure. You may have gone through quite an extensive period of trial and error to find a drug that works wi…
Should You Be Taking Vitamin Supplements?
Vitamins were among the most exciting discoveries of the early 20th century. Since then, however, doctors have been expressing a lot of skepticism about the value of taking vitamin supplements. A pron…
Beet Juice Was Better Than a Drug for Lowering B…
Some natural products have an impressive ability to affect human physiology. Among these are vegetables naturally high in nitrate, particularly beets (referred to in England as beetroot). Scientists h…
What Happens When Minor Drug Side Effects Turn D…
Health professionals often categorize drug side effects three ways. First come the common complications of medicines. If 20 to 30 percent of patients complain of headaches or diarrhea after taking a m…
Hypertension Heresy: Are We Overtreating High Bl…
Prepare for whiplash. What I am about to share with you will confuse you and is likely to upset your doctor. But I feel obligated to share data on high blood pressure that are seemingly contradictory.…
Serious Side Effects of Voltaren Gel Are Scary: …
Many people, including some health professionals, believe that the skin is a great barrier to topical drugs. They assume that only a little bit of the medicine gets into the blood stream. We have lear…
Rx for Disaster: Why Common Meds Are Silently Ki…
Americans are dying from an invisible killer far faster than their counterparts in rest of the developed world. These deaths are mostly unreported and ignored by the healthcare system. I am referring …
How Clean Indoor Air Could Benefit Your Blood Pr…
For years, public health researchers have been sounding the alarm about air pollution. Scientists have reached a consensus that exposure to air with a lot of fine particulate matter of the sort you mi…
Will a Free Lunch Influence Your Doctor’s …
Ask most physicians whether a free lunch from a drug company would affect their prescribing patterns and the chances are pretty good that they would say no. Some would be highly insulted by the very i…
Cure or Curse? Why Do Medications That Heal Some…
Americans love simple solutions to complex problems. Doctors seem to fall into that trap as well. For decades we were told that if we ate margarine instead of butter, that would be good for our hearts…
How Can You Use Beets for Better Blood Pressure?
With concerns about contaminated antihypertensive medications, many people are interested in ways to lower their blood pressure without drugs. The options are varied: exercise, weight loss, slow breat…
Does Green Tea Interact with Prescription Drugs?
When you sit down to enjoy a beverage, do you think about whether it might affect the medications you take? Years ago, research on grapefruit juice showed that what you drink can indeed affect your pi…
How Are Home Tests and Devices Revolutionizing H…
The FDA announced on March 5, 2024 that it approved "...the first over-the-counter (OTC) continuous glucose monitor (CGM)." Many people with type 2 diabetes already use such devices, but they require …
When Should You Take Your BP Pills? Morning or B…
When do you swallow your pills? If you are like most people, you get into the habit of taking all your medications and supplements at breakfast time. It's a routine that is hard to break. However, bed…