Beans, Beans They’re Good for Your Heart….

Beans, beans they’re good for your heart the more you eat the more you….. , well you know how the rest of it goes.  Turns out this little rhyme has some truth to it.  The rotten egg odor in really smelly, uh, breaking wind, um, passing gas, flatulence, ok…farts, comes from hydrogen sulfide.  According to new research, cells that line the blood vessels of mice produce hydrogen sulfide and it helps to prevent high blood pressure by relaxing the blood vessels of the mice.  And the hydrogen sulfide may have the same benefits for humans.

“Now that we know hydrogen sulfide’s role in regulating blood pressure, it may be possible to design drug therapies that enhance its formation as an alternative to the current methods of treatment for hypertension,” said Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Solomon H. Snyder, M.D., a co-author of the study detailed in the Oct. 24th issue of the journal Science.

I’m not so sure I like where this is going.  Do you get a free can of air freshener with each prescription?

However, you can reap the benefits by including sulfur rich foods, such as garlic and onions in your diet.

P.S. By the way, beans are good for your heart.  They’re loaded with soluble fiber and flavanoids, helping to reduce cholesterol and inhibiting adhesion in blood platelets which lowers the risk of a heart attack or stroke.

Source: MSNBC Health

Chiropractic Treatment for Hypertension

A special chiropractic adjustment, known as the Atlas Adjustment, is showing promise as a therapy for lowering high blood pressure.  An initial  placebo-controlled study of fifty patients with early stage high blood pressure was begun by George Bakris, MD after a colleague told him that he had been sending  patients (some of whom had hypertension)  to a chiropractor for un-related treatments, and after seeing the chiropractor, their blood pressure had normalized.

The adjustment is applied to the Atlas vertebra (the C-1 vertebra) located at the very top of the spinal column.  It is thought that injury or mis-alignment of the Atlas vertebra may affect blood flow through the arteries that pass through the vertebra at the base of the skull.

25 patients in the study received the proper treatment while the other half received a placebo adjustment (that did not affect the C-1 vertebra).  Those who received the proper treatment averaged a 14 point drop in their systolic and 8 point drop in their diastolic blood pressure.  None of the participants received medication during the eight week study.  

Because of the encouraging results of this initial study, Dr. Bakris, director of the University of Chicago Hypertension Center is conducting a much bigger clinical trial.

Guided Relaxation Helps Reduce Hypertension

 A small study of elderly people with high blood pressure compared the use of guided relaxation methods against listening to classical music.  Both methods lowered blood pressure.  However, the guided relaxation methods with it’s deep breathing instructions lowered systolic pressure more.  Diastolic pressure, the second number in blood pressure readings, improved comparably.
 Source:   Medicine Net.com