I brought my home BP monitor to the doctors office for the follow up visit. It was reassuring to me to see that it matched the office  results - knowing that it's accurate.

No doubt some one is making big bucks off high blood pressure meds. We are also a fat nation. The extra 15 pounds I was carrying were nobody's fault but my own, just the result of stuffing my face and deciding "it wasn't that bad". Real fat, real effect on my blood pressure. I had a very strong emotional reaction to facing that fact. It's not at all easy or comfortable, and very tempting to dismiss as not important. As much as the drug companies want to make money, studies have shown that even moderately high numbers can negatively impact your health...and even a modest weight loss can reap huge benefits.

I've  gained back three pounds of my original weight loss over the holidays. Up til the last week or so, I've been doing a fair job of pretending it's water weight. ...sigh... no more tv snacking for me.

 We as adults must educate ourselves in a variety of things to learn what works for us. I have been in emergency medicine for 14 years(EMT)and I have read a lot about holistic medicine as well and it is a lot common sense, we need to learn to eat better and I must say my father passed away 3 years ago at the young age of 90, and he believed a lot in "the old remedies" Myself had surgery in November for a shoulder injury received at work and was given a large dose of IV antibiotics in surgery as a prevention, came home and took 2 weeks to get all my personal plumbing(haha) to work correctely. From my training I know it nearly shut my kidneys down. I have taken a lot of vitamins and probiotics and added a lot of foods to the diet to help this 45 yr old body help itself. A web site you might like is www.holisticmeds.com. It is just good natural healthful info., so enjoy

Doctors seem to have missed some good healers when they turned their backs on folk medicine. The drug companies search for it now, but only to be able to exploit it into an expensive drug. If they put it into a pill or capsule they can sell it for hundreds of dollars more than an herb grown in the garden. My medical group warns against any and all herbal teas, and herbs in general, other than what is commonly used for seasoning food. For myself I try to educate myself on possible interactions and make my own judgments on what is good. E

DH's GGparents were firm believers in Garlic pills for High Blood Pressure,and took pills for years for it,and lived into their eightys. DH had HBP for years before we married in 1971. To the degree that one time when we went to the hospital for his back pain the Dr in the emergency room wanted to hospitalize him for HBP, and wasn't even concerned about his pain. When we moved away from his folks, just 7 miles but away, His BP went to normal and has stayed that way for over 25 years. I think his HBP was caused by stress, the stress from living too close to his domineering folks. JMHO tho.

He has to take a BP med now, but not for HBP, but for his enlarged heart and is is the lowest dose he can get. He has tried to get off of it, but his heart beats so hard when he isn't taking it, that it will actually shake the bed when his heart beats every beat. So.. he takes his meds, at least that one for sure.

I too have the Foxfire books all 11 of them without the cookbooks, they are next on my booklist. I find a lot of good wholesome info in them and re-read them often to keep on gleaning info about herbs etc, from them. I also have a couple of books about herbs, how to grow them and what they are good for too. A good purchase if you use them. Which I do daily.

I make a lot of herbal teas for myself to drink and enjoy doing it. I save money from the price of tea, as I "Wild Craft" these, which means to pick them in the wild.

I only have a few of the Foxfire books, do have one cookbook . I love it and use if a lot. I think that it appeals to me because my DF family grew up in the mountains of Ga and NC. So many of the things in the Foxfire books, I heard about as a child. Babs 

Gingerbread:

digitalis, which was derived from hawthorn berry,

 Miserly, when I Google digitalis is says that it is from purple foxglove plant. Babs

 From: http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?ID=898

 " Since the late 19th century, hawthorn has been used successfully for various diseases of the cardiovascular system, inluding angina pectoris, functional heart disease, arhythmia, early manifestations of circulatory insufficiency of advanced age, and as a heart tonic to regulate circulation.

One of hawthorn's primary applications is to support the effect of digitalis and to serve as a substitute where digitalis cannot be tolerated or where side effects need to be avoided (Madaus)."

 My husband has high blood pressure and we have found that doing reflexology on his feet helps tremendously.  I found a reflexology how-to video at the Goodwill store and learned how to do it.  It isn't difficult to do.  You may be able to find a video on it through the library. 

There is also something called resperate that you can buy.  It helps you do a certain breathing technique which lowers your blood pressure and reduces your stress.  It isn't cheap, though.  I think it costs around $300, but if you start taking BP medication you'll spend that amount pretty quickly.  One of our friends uses it and he said it took 3 or 4 weeks to bring his BP down where he wanted it, but he doesn't even have to use it everyday anymore.  Best of all, he isn't on any medication that fixes one thing but "breaks" 3 other things.

 I've read about Resperate (I think I mentioned it here) and wondered how effective it really is. Thanks for the input. Even if the initial cost seems high, it would save money over time. Prescription drugs don't come free.