The temptation with herbal medicines is to think that because they are natural substances they must therefore be safe. It is easy to forget that plants can do harm. Some herbal remedies may raise blood pressure or may interfere with the effect of conventional drugs. Liquorice and other herbal remedies used as diuretics promote sodium and water retention and thus raise blood pressure. Lily of the valley resembles digitalis – too high a dose can cause heart failure. Horse chestnut taken together with anticoagulant drugs may cause bleeding. As well as often unidentifiable plant alkaloids, traditional oriental herbal remedies often contain heavy metal salts, which may be very dangerous when taken over long periods.
Obviously, no reputable herbalist is going to offer you treatments which they know will do you harm, but the risks can be considerable if you consult someone who is inadequately trained or if you try to treat yourself after gleaning some basic information from a book. You should remember that the drug industry is extremely efficient at exploiting any active substances found inn plants and in synthesizing and testing them for use as drugs. As with other alternative therapies, there is little published scientific evidence proving that herbal treatments are effective. If you have borderline high blood pressure, where the need for active medication is arguable either way, some of the simpler herbal infusions (drinks made in a similar way to ordinary tea, but probably not tasting as pleasant) suggested by herbalists will probably not do you any harm (although if your doctor has prescribed blood pressure lowering agents for you, you should continue to take them). Herbs which can be used in this way include hawthorn, guilder rose, linden and yarrow.
Two other famous aspect of alternative medicine are homeopathy and acupuncture, which are both reputed to help in high blood pressure.
Homeopathy is completely safe, because the remedies are so dilute. It is based on the principle that ‘like can be cured by like’. The word homeopathy comes from two Greek words that mean ‘similar’ and ‘suffering’. The remedies contain very dilute amounts of a substance, which in larger quantities would produce similar symptoms of the illness being treated. The problem here is that no scientific explanation for what is going on. There is no specific homeopathic remedies recommended for high blood pressure – the treatments a practitioner would suggest would simply be those thought to have general strengthening effect on your constitution. Homeopathic doctors are all trained in orthodox medicine and so usually reserve their alternative treatments for minor, self-limiting, or emotional illnesses.
Acupuncture, which involves inserting needles into the skin at particular sites on the body, has been a standard form of medical treatment in China for 5000 years. In the past 20 years it has become more widely used in the United States, usually for conditions such as a painful back where orthodox medicine often fails to help. We should know fairly soon whether or not it is effective as a treatment for high blood pressure, as a properly controlled trial is currently being carried out and the results are due to be published anytime soon. In the meantime, a course of acupuncture treatments will certainly do you no harm and you may find it helpful to aid relaxation.
