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Hypertension: Is It Time to Replace Drugs with Nutrition? (2014)

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Re: Hypertension: Is It Time to Replace Drugs with Nutrition? (2014)

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

canned 'This message brought to you, in part, by Pfizer'

honestly I don't think there's much money to be made out of those drugs. I'm on drugs for hypertension and they cost me less than 10 euros a month and that's if I go buy them at the pharmacy, if my doctor makes me a prescription they are free for me and I'm sure the government pay them a lot less than a private citizen. They also fall into the category of generic drugs, most of the time they are manufactured in my co…

This is where American drug pricing does a lot of work. I used to work for a Canadian Internet pharmacy selling prescription drugs to Americans, splitting the difference between wholesale and US retail prices.

A 30-day supply of Lipitor - I think, the most-prescribed drug in America? - is something like $150–200. Our cost was something like a dollar and we'd sell it for something like ten.

Re: Hypertension: Is It Time to Replace Drugs with Nutrition? (2014)

#23
post #9

This shoots up so many red flags. "Dr. Houston also cautioned that the role of supplements in hypertension has not yet been tested in clinical outcomes trials in the manner that conventional drugs have been assessed . So while there is an apparent role for supplements in treating hypertension, their ability to improve cardiovascular outcomes remains to be proven." "Many natural compounds in food, as well as certain n…

No post body was provided.

Re: Hypertension: Is It Time to Replace Drugs with Nutrition? (2014)

#24
post #12

The science is settled, pharmaceuticals are the only way.

I'm pretty sure this comment is sarcasm, but regardless, it should be pretty obvious that diet and exercise adjustment will fix hypertension in most (not all!) cases, but that: * Lots of people aren't prepared to make the level of change required and so medication can be a better option; and * Medication will probably reduce risk a lot faster than lifestyle adjustment if things are already dire.

> will fix hypertension in most (not all!)

fix I'm not so sure, but help, that is true.

I have hypertension myself, it's been in my family for generations, it's a moderate hypertension, but no kind of diet could lower it.

Drugs did in a very short amount of time and they are both cheap and had no consequences whatsoever.

Re: Hypertension: Is It Time to Replace Drugs with Nutrition? (2014)

#25
According to the FDA, ONLY A DRUG can treat disease: "The disclaimer must also state that this product is not intended to "diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease," because only a drug can legally make such a claim." (https://www.fda.gov/food/information-consumers-using-dietary...).

Natural supplements can't be patented, so how could they treat disease? /s

Re: Hypertension: Is It Time to Replace Drugs with Nutrition? (2014)

#27

Isn't the idea to avoid it heart conditions with nutrition and exercise, but offer drugs to people who can't or won't comply? My plan is to avoid this stuff until I'm old with a healthy lifestyle, but you can't just tell other people to do that.

No post body was provided.

Re: Hypertension: Is It Time to Replace Drugs with Nutrition? (2014)

#28
post #6

Just give people magnesium, it's incredibly effective and deficiency is very common (big part of it is because of soil mineral depletion). In fact, a lot of hypertension is just magnesium deficiency.

This is a nice idea but unfortunately doesn't translate to significant decreases in blood pressure for most people. 4g of IV magnesium sulphate barely affects the blood pressure.

But I'd still recommend more broccoli for everyone.

Re: Hypertension: Is It Time to Replace Drugs with Nutrition? (2014)

#29
post #9

This shoots up so many red flags. "Dr. Houston also cautioned that the role of supplements in hypertension has not yet been tested in clinical outcomes trials in the manner that conventional drugs have been assessed . So while there is an apparent role for supplements in treating hypertension, their ability to improve cardiovascular outcomes remains to be proven." "Many natural compounds in food, as well as certain n…

> There's no inherent reason to prefer more "natural" solutions to medical issues. It just sounds good. Put up clinical trials to give your hypothesis real standing.

Part oft he problem with clinical trials of nutrition is that they do not stratify for genetics. Take Riboflavin for example. For a long time there were studies saying it worked and then studies saying it did not. But when they looked at MTHFR variants in people the result became more consistent that for these people with the minor allele Riboflavin worked.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01675...

https://jmhg.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s43042-022-00...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03009...

So in this case, if someone was deficient in Riboflavin, supplementing Riboflavin is much more preferable since the deficiency is the root cause of the hypertension and correcting the deficiency might resolve a variety of issues, not just the hypertension.

Re: Hypertension: Is It Time to Replace Drugs with Nutrition? (2014)

#30
post #9

This shoots up so many red flags. "Dr. Houston also cautioned that the role of supplements in hypertension has not yet been tested in clinical outcomes trials in the manner that conventional drugs have been assessed . So while there is an apparent role for supplements in treating hypertension, their ability to improve cardiovascular outcomes remains to be proven." "Many natural compounds in food, as well as certain n…

> There's no inherent reason to prefer more "natural" solutions to medical issues

Yes there is:

1) Treatment just treats the issue, unlike a healthy lifestyle which helps people avoid them in the first place.

2) Good health has various benefits beyond just fixing one particular health problem.

But the role of medicine is to treat the diseased and maybe offer some guidance along the way. Being healthy is up to the individual and maybe public health campaigns.

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