A chiropractor managing high blood pressure may sound like a stretch, but there is surprisingly good evidence that your chiropractor SHOULD be involved in lowering your blood pressure.
Chances are, you or a loved one has a diagnosis of high blood pressure or hypertension. It — in fact — is the single most common diagnosis in family medicine, with approximately 25 percent of American adults being affected. A diagnosis is usually settled on when your blood pressure is consistently measured above 140/90, and there is no pathological cause found for the increase in pressure.
Hypertension is almost always a symptom of bad things to come. It’s a major risk factor for stroke and heart attack and contributes to the development of congestive heart failure, retinopathy (eye issues and blindness), and hypertensive kidney disease.
Where does your chiropractor fit in?
Management of hypertension should be a three-pronged approach with nutritional, lifestyle and adjustment/alignment interventions forming the triad. As the only nationally licensed health care discipline with training in nutritional, lifestyle and adjusting interventions, chiropractic stands out as the premier discipline for managing chronic high blood pressure. The research substantiates this approach.
Lifestyle
A study published in a nationally respected journal showed that the combination of improved diet and fasting normalized blood pressure in nearly 90 percent of the hypertensive group in this study. The drop in blood pressure also was greater than a group taking blood pressure lowering medications.
Nutrition
Several nutritional supplements also have been shown to lower blood pressure in the research. These include CoQ10, vitamin D, magnesium, L-carnitine and others.
Adjustments/Manipulation
Finally, chiropractic spinal adjustments have been shown to be effective in lowering blood pressure. The most recent publication in the medical journal, Journal of Human Hypertension, found that neck adjustments lowered blood pressure on average 17/10 mm Hg versus 3/2 in the placebo group. An added bonus to this research is that it changes the way we think about the cause of chronic hypertension, namely that it may be caused in part by compression of the brainstem in the upper neck.
This post summarizes an article by Dr. Alex Vasquez, DC, ND, DO. If you would like to read the full article, go to the link below:
Healing Tip of the Week
Get your vitamin D naturally! Sunbathing a half-hour a day in midday sunlight will give you approximately 10,000 IU’s of Vitamin D, a very healthy dose of this crucial hormone that has been shown to help lower blood pressure.
