HOW DO ALLOPATHIC HIGH BP CONTROLLING MEDICINES WORK AND THEIR SIDE EFFECTS INCLUDING FIBROMYALGIA, HEART FAILURE, NEUROPAHTY -MUST READ FOR All

Short cuts cannot give long term gains. They bring only long term pains. Exactly the same principle applies when it comes to treating our health issues too. So when we pop a pill and think that our blood pressure issues or diabetes have been taken care off, we are fooling ourselves and getting into a trap of more diseases and more pills. Look around and you will find this to be the case with most of the people relying for long on allopathic medicines. This blog will explain you that how High Blood pressure controlling allopathic medicines work and their dangerous side effects.

****Post this blog, please also read the blog on how Ayurveda can cure your high blood pressure (including a testimonial) issues forever and you would not have to bank upon daily pill/s to control it including Ayurvedic.

Lets begin…

What BP Medicines Do To Our Body? 

Unfortunately, all BP medicines, instead of working on the root cause (i.e. not eating in line with our constitution), mislead the body. You just pop a pill the first day, and wow, you think your high BP problem has been resolved. But they give just momentary and symptomatic relief, and in fact, these medicines are like a slow poison damaging the body painfully (Else think why would you need a medicine forever if it is curing your issue?).. Unfortunately the effects are so slow that we are not able to relate their usage to these symptoms. As such mind becomes so hyperactive due to loss of blood from the brain that it is unable to register and relate.

***This post is an extract from the book THE ROOT CAUSE- Ayurveda, Astrology and beyond for a blissful life”. To pick up a copy of the book, please click the link/s mentioned at the end of this post ⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓

So How Do they Work:–

Allopathy controls high BP through various mechanisms. Accordingly there are various class of drugs which are used by allopathy. However in this article we shall be discussing two class which are Beta blockers and Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB). This is because other classes of drugs like calcium channel blockers (CCB), ACE inhibitors, diuretics have similar side effects as these.

Beta Blockers

Brand names like atenolol, tenolol etc. fall in this category and they work by reducing electrical signals to the heart, thereby reducing its pumping action, and consequently lowering the blood pressure. But visualize that what shall be the damage that will happen with long term use of this medicine. Less blood will reach the peripherals, since our heart is beating with a lesser pace and force, whose job otherwise is to ensure that blood reaches even the farthest parts of the body. This sets an imbalance in the body keeping more blood closer to the heart (meaning settled vata) and lesser away from the heart towards peripherals (meaning more vata). Thus beta blockers provide more nutrition to the heart and area around and make it stronger and may be good for those people whose heart is naturally weak (vata ridden) as compared to the rest of the body and that too for a short while. However in the long run, this class of medicine creates serious imbalances as due to high vata in peripherals and thus high Agni the patient would start getting peripheral vata diseases.

For clarity, please refer to figure one which shows uniform blood flow in a healthy person

Now refer to figure two below that shows change in blood flow (more towards heart and less away from it) due to beta blockers and their several side effects towards peripherals

ARB class of drugs

This class of BP controlling drug, works by blocking angiotensin receptors in the body (medicines of Sartan group belong to this class). So what are Angiotensin receptors? Angiotensin receptor is a mechanism whose job in the body is to constrict/expand our blood vessels as per the need of the body. In simple terms, it is this mechanism that ensures that when we stand up from the sleep the entire blood doesn’t go to legs and when we lie down the entire blood doesn’t go to brain. By blocking this mechanism, the blood vessels dilate permanently. Now just visualize that what if a pipe through which water is flowing is suddenly stretched outwards (means dilated)? The water will stop reaching the far end. Exactly  same thing happens in our body- the blood stops reaching the far end of the body i.e. brain, head, skin etc. and it stays more towards the core and lower body due to gravity again leading to vata imbalance (high vata due to less blood in the upper body and settled vata in the lower body due to more blood).

Figure three below shows how the flow of blood changes vis a vis healthy body as shown in figure one and the health issues associated with it.

So while, ideally, the dominance of doshas in body is kapha, pitta, and vata as we travel from head to genitals, but this group of medicine changes the entire polarity leading to severe imbalances. The medicine also reduces peripheral blood circulation as due to dilated blood vessels, more of blood remains towards the core again leading to fibromyalgia type condition. Those who exercise under the effect of ARB medicines push blood wherever focus of exercises resulting in haywire blood circulation leading to even more complications.

Infact this haywire blood circulation and loss of peripheral blood circulation due to high BP medicines is also the reason for causing heart failure (to understand how please check on blog FIBROMYALGIA- A DISEASE WORSE THAN CANCER CREEPING QUIETLY IN THE WORLD- SURPRISED!! READ ON TO KNOW WHY AND HOW?

****Remember, that all the conditions shown in the figures above are generic in nature, and not everyone will have all the symptoms but many of them depending upon the original state of their blood vessels. A lot will depend upon the genetics of that person, e.g., receding hairline may not mean poor blood flow towards mind as well. The person may be having high vata only towards the hair as part of an inborn trait, and blood may be flowing well towards the brain. Also remember many of these (if not all) symptoms even if very mild, may appear much before the BP starts going high, and therefore, can be corrected in time by understanding our diet patterns. Also while vata minds will exhibit these symptoms earlier (may be after 15-20 yrs of using them), kapha minds would develop these symptoms much later in life but for sure they will.

Lastly, even Ayurveda uses herbs and foods (for curing certain conditions) which have effects similar to these class of drugs however an Ayurveda expert would never recommend such herbs/foods to be used for years together. “Arjun ki chhaal” – the bark of a tree called Arjun, is one such herb which also has an action similar to beta blockers due to presence of alkaloids. The medicine is also astringent in nature and helps to neutralize acidic condition (sourness) in the blood which an allopathic beta blocker can’t.. Since it reduces the number of heart beats (being beta blocker), it is said to be cardio protective but it’s wrong to take this medicine for controlling ones overall BP for too long as it will strengthen heart but also increase peripheral vata in the long run leading to issues like peripheral neuritis/pains,  fibromyalgia, congestive heart failure (remember it is different from heart attack), inability to produce enough Vitamin D by skin due to less of blood reaching the skin which is another triggering factor in cancers. Similarly foods like onion, garlic, tea, coffee, chocolate, alcohol, tobacco, brinjal, capsicum, mint too dilate our blood vessels and have effects similar to ARB drugs and therefore should be totally avoided unless they are taken (for a short time) for curing specific conditions. Apart from this, since these foods and BP meds, reduce blood from the brain, they aggravate prana vata thus triggering diseases associated to high prana vata like cancer, along with chaos due to rajasic minds. This is the reason these foods were rated as tamasic/rajasic in nature. Remember, Ayurvedic texts have clearly mentioned to never to give bitter medicines for too long. This clearly means that consuming onion, garlic, beetroot for controlling on’es BP may create more issues in the long run. Check out this blog ⇓

IMBALANCED PRANA VATA- THE ROOT CAUSE OF MOST OF THE DISEASES/CHAOS AND SATTVIC FOODS/LIFESTYLE -THE ONLY WAY TO PREVENT

*** Vasodilating effect of these foods/herbs along with sweet and astringent tasting herbs (for example bael which has all these three tastes), has been used by Ayurveda for thousands of years for curing vata diseases of the lower body like CKD, ulcerative colitis  and kapha diseases of the upper body. Even allopathy has successfully used ARB group medicines for providing relief to the patients of CKD but since allopathy doesn’t understand the working of six tastes, they don’t add astringent and sweet to this bitter tasting med making it partially effective. Such medicines (ARB) are also good for reducing too much of kapha from one’s mind thereby helping in controlling cholesterol, sluggishness, hypothyroidism (due to highly kapha mind) and high BP arising out of kapha however they are poison for vata minds once again proving the saying that ONE’S NECTAR CAN BE ANOTHER’S POISON. Moreover the principle of using bitter taste remains firm even for kapha minds i.e. they are never to used for a very long time. This also means that even Ayurvedic medicines can have serious side effects if they are not taken in line with the constitution/taken or recommended indiscreetly especially the bitter herbs. Thus its wrong to think that all Ayurvedic medicines are side effect free unless they are prescribed by an experienced ayurvedic physician.

Also recommended to read the following blogs:-

High Blood Pressure? Ayurveda Has A Sure Shot Cure (with testimonial)

HOW HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE MEDS RUINED MY HEALTH AND HOW AYURVEDA/YOGA HELPED ME TO REGAIN LOST HEALTH