Before our Puglia trip, a nurse at mum’s hospital told her: ‘Go on holiday. Don’t worry about your blood pressure. Eat whatever you want’ We all hoped she was right. Mum had a fantastic time eating carefree (gelato, rum babas, pasta, panini, salty prosciutto, potatoes cooked in dripping etc). But the moment we got home to the UK and mum took her blood pressure, it was through the roof (over 210 for the systolic) and her ankles had started to swell with edema. Evidently diet matters. Two weeks of sun, sea and relaxation just weren’t enough to reverse her escalating health issues. Mum was hugely disappointed.
So starting on Monday, we resorted to our usual anti-hypertension routine – diet and a few alternative tricks. First mum cut out all sugar (except fruit) and pulled back on eating white carbs (which convert to sugar in the body). So potatoes only once a week, organic wholewheat pitta bread (rather than other breads), brown short grain rice (instead of white rice) and minimal other grains (less porridge for breakfast and occasional eggs or yoghurt instead). Also more beans, lentils, nuts, veggies and some homemade treats like hazelnut muffins (hazelnut flour, raisins, coconut oil, bananas and eggs). We also went on daily country walks. Mum’s legally partially blind (since her stroke 2 years ago), so she walks quite slowly now and needs help navigating rough ground. When it rained we got out the exercise bike for 15 minutes of freewheeling instead.
And today, after 20 minutes using the Resperate machine (a deep breathing device, which lowers blood pressure more effectively and safely than any drugs) mum’s blood pressure was an impressive 129 (systolic) over 74 (diastolic). Success..!! Well almost. This is just the start.
Soul Love Forever 
Congrats!
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Wonderful! Thanks be to God!. You are all in our thoughts and prayers.
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My mum (85 years old now and back on her bike in Germany) lowered her hypertension with natural remedies. She is convinced that garlic supplements (she took the capsules) helped to lower her high blood pressure. Adding fresh garlic to meals seems better to me, but she didn’t like that. Among the nuts, cashews are known to be the best; pumpkin seeds are excellent too. As far as vegetables go, brokkoli, kale and spinach are the top healthy veggies. Beet juice has proven to be very good.
All the best for your mum.
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Thanks magnolia. I’ve just been reading about how powerful beets are for blood pressure. And you are right about the nuts and green veggies (disappointingly kale is hard to find in the UK supermarkets). mum takes kyolic (garlic pills) every day and more fresh garlic than I can cope with. She also takes 200 mg ubiquinol (coq10), vitamin C, fish oil, b vitamins, kelp pills (for regulating her thyroid) and vitamins D3 and K2. The great thing is that tiny tweaks to diet and simple exercise make such a huge difference.
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Great to hear all that. You and your mom for sure know a lot about healthy living. And that Laura and you went through the Gerson Therapy speaks for itself how health-conscious you are. I grew up and was raised in Germany in a very health-oriented family. My parents (85 and 91 now) are amazingly well for their ages, but they take their vitamin and mineral supplements, they exercise and eat organic food. I had adapted this mentality and took it along with me when I immigrated to Canada. After I had this horrible accident in 2012, and being on high dose morphine for over a month and on 72 other heavy drugs over that year, ( I could not believe the number in my medical chart), the doctors were amazed that my liver and kidneys are still healthy. I attribute my recovery to my lifelong healthy lifestyle. I was actually deemed dead by the doctors after the accident. I was in a coma for four days and due to the severity of injuries and blood loss, I was not supposed to come back to life. Well, I proved them all wrong. But that’s another story.
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Wow. what happened to you? (forgive me if you’ve already said elsewhere – I have a hard time remembering things at the moment). Do you have any memories from the coma time or did you have a near death experience? so glad you’ve stayed well inspite of all the drugs. That would have finished me off. the morphine and anti nausea drugs helped numb out laura’s escalating pain and sickness, but I believe they also hastened her end. conventional, drug-based, medicine gives with one hand and takes with the other. For me personally, if there is an alternative/plant/exercise/mind-body solution i will try that first.
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Yes, I do remember details from my coma time. You are the first person who asks me this question and I have no problem talking about it. All I can speak, though, is from my personal experience only.
I was out of my body, saw my own body laying there in blood at the accident scene; the police, the paramedics and people around, their horror-struck faces and noises. I could hear every word amplified. Later in the hospital, I saw the nurses and doctors rushing around and other patients in the ER. I was spinning in the air, everywhere; to me, it was a tremendously scary, frightening experience. All of a sudden, I was in a tunnel with thick white-yellowish fog. I felt totally trapped. I call it the “yellow zone”, the in-between life and death. I must say, I am not a religious person and never thought about or believed in such things like life after death before I had the accident, but when I was trapped in this tunnel, I KNEW that there was something beyond that, something peaceful, lovely and beautiful, and I was strongly drawn to it. I remember shouting out something like a prayer, PLEASE PLEASE deliver me from THIS (the space I was in) and take me into the vastness of peace and love. I could not see or hear anybody on the “other side” because the fog was too thick. But I KNEW it existed and was there. And alternately, I saw my body again and the hospital staff. I did NOT want to go back into this shattered body. I saw the doctors amputating my legs and felt horrified and helpless beyond words, I screamed out NO NO don’t do this. But nobody heard me. I rather wanted to die than having my legs cut off. But I had no choice. The last thing I remember from my coma time is, when two nurses were standing next to me in the ICU room, looking at this machine where I was connected to. I heard so loudly and clearly the beeping and saw the lines on the monitor and one nurse said to the other one: “It’s over soon. She won’t survive this night.” My mind was totally awake and alert and I was waiting to die. I remember hoping that it would happen soon. I was not afraid. I started to count down the seconds 1,2,3,4,…….nothing happened. It seemed a long, long time and then I felt a harsh push and pain, so much pain in my body and I woke up and found myself in the hospital bed. There are more details I remember but I see this response is already so long and I hope I didn’t scare you by telling you these things. One thing I can tell you for sure: Laura IS in a beautiful, peaceful place now and she loves you more than ever before.
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Magnolia that is an amazing experience. Has it changed your life? Do you live differently because of your new knowledge that there is a beautiful peaceful beyond. Lucie
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It has completely changed my life perspective. It has made me more compassionate towards others. I understand now what the spiritual teachers like Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, etc. really mean when they talk about the essence, consciousness and awareness. When we face death, either besides a loved one (like yourself) or ourselves (like me) we dive into a deeper dimension of life than just the form level. And even what we see or experience in our daily lives, we perceive in a different light and more profoundly. One of my favourite authors, (and I can say, she is my hero) is Marianne Williamson. Have you heard of her or read anything by her?
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