High blood pressure (Hypertension) and how Acupuncture can help in Orange County
What is blood pressure?
The “blood pressure” means the amount of pressure applied to blood vessel, this pressure comes from the beat of heart, the tension of blood vessel, and the amount of blood in it. When the heart pumps out the blood, we measure the highest pressure and call it “systolic blood pressure”. When the heart relax, we measure the lowest pressure, and call it “diastolic blood pressure”. The blood pressure is monitored by our body through sensors, and is usually controlled in a stable range. But emotion, body movement and position, lifestyle, temperature, food, energy status….. almost everything could make influence to the blood pressure. Because blood carries almost every supplement that cell needs in order to work and be alive, so it needs to be distribute due to different need of each body parts in different situation.
Why is high blood pressure(Hypertension) bad?
High blood pressure is also called Hypertension, it is considered a bad condition because it increases the load of a lot of body organs, like kidney, heart, and blood vessel it self, it could cause damage to organs over time, and increase risk of internal bleeding.
High blood pressure is classified into 2 types:
Essential Hypertension:
Over 95% of reported high blood pressure patients are said to be “Essential Hypertension” , which means the cause is unknown. To control it with medication is the only way to deal with it in modern medicine. Modern medicine consider the risk brought by high blood pressure is worst then the side effect of medication, so it is like a trad between bad and worse.
Secondary Hypertension:
The rest of patients are having “Secondary Hypertension”, which means the cause is clear, so there is other ways to deal with it other then just to suppress blood pressure itself.
Mechanism of common high blood pressure medication
Blood pressure is the same with water pressure. When you want to reduce the pressure, you either reduce the water in the tank, reduce the power of the pump, or make the tank bigger.
“Diuretics” force kidneys to remove more salt and water from the body, increase urination
— reduce the water in the tank.
These are some examples of diuretics:
- Aldactone (spironolactone)
- Dyrenium (triamterene)
- Esidrix, Hydrodiuril, and Microzide (hydrochlorothiazide or HCTZ)
- Hygroton and Thalitone (chlorthalidone)
- Lasix (furosemide)
- Lozol (indapamide)
- Midamor (amiloride hydrochloride)
- Mykrox and Zaroxolyn (metolazone)
Doctor may ask patient to take one or even two diuretics at once. Here are some examples of combination diuretics:
- Aldactazide (spironolactone and hydrochlorothiazide)
- Dyazide and Maxzide (hydrochlorothiazide and triamterene)
- Moduretic (amiloride hydrochloride and hydrochlorothiazide)
“Beta-Blockers” slows the heart beat and weaken it’s power by blocking nerve signals
— reduce the power of the pump.
These are some examples of beta-blockers:
- Blocadren (timolol)
- Cartrol (carteolol hydrochloride)
- Coreg (carvedilol)
- Corgard (nadolol)
- Inderal (propranolol)
- Kerlone (betaxolol)
- Levatol (penbutolol sulfate)
- Lopressor and Toprol XL (metoprolol)
- Sectral (acebutolol)
- Tenormin (atenolol)
- Visken (pindolol)
- Zebeta (bisoprolol fumarate)
- Normodyne and Trandate (labetolol)
“Alpha-Blockers” loosen the blood vessels by blocking nerve signals
— make the tank bigger.
These are some examples of alpha-blockers:
- Cardura (doxazosin)
- Hytrin (terazosin)
- Minipress (prazosin)
“ACE inhibitors” — angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors — loosen the blood vessels by preventing the body from making angiotensin II, which tighten blood vessels
— make the tank bigger.
These are some examples of alpha-blockers:
- Accupril (quinapril)
- Altace (ramipril)
- Capoten (captopril)
- Mavik (trandolapril)
- Lotensin (benazepril)
- Monopril (fosinopril)
- Prinivil and Zestril (lisinopril)
- Univasc (moexipril)
- Vasotec (enalapril)
Acupuncture and herb can help on almost all type of high blood pressure.
In Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), we classify everything into Yin-Yang and Five Element. For example, foods are classified into cold and warm by it’s effect to human body, emotions are classified into five element by it’s effect to human body. Therefor we are able put all factors into consideration during diagnosis, and deal with the symptoms with personalized prescription of acupuncture and/or herb.
High blood pressure is a phenomenon of Yang rising— over function of active energy that couldn’t rest down— in TCM point of view. It can be the result of various of reason, these are the most common ones:
Emotional or sleep habit related are usually liver, liver meridian and gallbladder meridian’s problem.
Over function of active energy itself (hot, hyper, fast heart beat etc.) is usually stomach meridian and spleen meridian’s problem.
Weak, low energy is usually stomach meridian, liver meridian, bladder meridian, kidney meridian and kidney’s problem.
Every type of high blood pressure are very different, so there are no common points that every patient can use to help themselves. But foot bath with hot water can benefit high blood pressure patients in a certain level.
– – ORANGE ACUPUNCTURE, WINSTON WANG