In Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the building up of a person’s health is the most fundamental aim. One of the ways this is achieved is through Chinese nutritional therapy. According to a TCM physician that lived during the Ch’in Dynasty, nutritional therapy, is always and easily accessible, with the foods recommended for good health oftentimes enjoyable, and the therapy leaving no side effects whatsoever.
As stated in the Manual of Internal Medicine of the Yellow Emperor, high blood pressure has a very close relationship with the liver. The lack of inner energy and irrational eating is also believed to be the cause of this high blood pressure. Statistics indicate that this disease affects 8.1% of the people who frequently eat fatty food, and just 2.4% of people who often eat light food. Manual workers are less prone to high blood pressure than mental workers.
A Few Healthy Advices
The following are three health advices that one should observe in order to maintain a healthy diet to prevent the onset of high blood pressure.
1. Eat light food and cut down on salt – According to the Manual of Internal Medicine of The Yellow Emperor, high salt intake in your diet slows down blood flow in your body and even changes the color of blood. Suggested foods for people with high blood pressure include low calorie, low cholesterol, and low fat foods. Eating less salt is very important. Compared to people with low salt intake, those eating too much salt have higher incidences of hypertension (high blood pressure). Eating animal fat can result in buildup of plaque deposits inside the blood vessel walls, which makes the heart work harder, which causes blood pressure to elevate.
2. More tea, less liquor – Tea has an ingredient known as tannin which has the effect of vitamin E and makes the capillary walls stronger. This, in effect, helps lower high blood pressure. Drinking tea on a regular basis lessens blood lipoids as well as body weight. However, strong tea may over-stimulate and cause the heart to beat faster. Overconsumption of alcohol reduces the heart’s systolic function, which, in turn, increases the internal organs blood vessels’ systole, which causes blood pressure to rise.
3. Eat protein foods, vegetable oils, and vegetables. Bean products, lean pork, and egg white are rich in protein that’s essential for good health. Eat in moderation and don’t get fat. Vegetable oil increases the efficiency of the oxidization of cholesterol into cholic acid that’s eliminated from the body. This lowers cholesterol and boosts the resiliency of the capillaries.
To help prevent the rise of high blood pressure, the following are foods recommended for eating:
1. Fruit
a. Persimmon – Eating this fruit is a good way to reduce blood pressure. Ripe persimmon can be cooked into a heavy mixture and eaten three times a day with rice water or milk.
b. Haw – Haw is a fruit that’s known to help reduce high blood pressure. To eat it as gruel, boil slowly 7 gm of haw flowers or 12 gm of haw and drink it.
c. Bananas – This fruit is known to lessen chronic dysfunction of the internal organs. People with high blood pressure may consume up to five bananas every day.
d. Watermelon – The rind and juice of watermelon possess diuretic properties and can help reduce high blood pressure. You can slowly boil 10 gm of cassia tora with 12 gm of watermelon rind and drink the mixture as tea. It can help lower high blood pressure but it should be taken less by people with weak abdomen and loose bowels.
2. Staple foods
a. Celery porridge – Clean the celery with water and cut it into sections. To eat the celery as gruel, cook 50 gm of polished rice and when the rice is almost cooked, put sections of celery into the rice and keep on cooking till the celery becomes soft. You can eat this gruel or porridge for breakfast. Results from lab tests reveal that celery has a tranquilizing function and can help decrease high blood pressure. For high blood pressure people who have headaches, celery can address both their high blood pressure and their headache. For overexcited people, eating celery can help them calm down.
b. Lotus leaf porridge – Fifty grams of polished rice is cooked and turned into porridge. When the porridge is almost done, place a lotus leaf over the porridge, lower the fire and continue cooking for a few moments more. During a hot summer, lotus leaf porridge is especially recommended as it enhances the secretion of body fluid and saliva. It can benefit fat, old, and weak people suffering from high blood pressure as well as patients suffering from apoplexy.
c. Corn porridge – Corn porridge helps eliminate cholic acid which reduces the level of cholesterol in your blood and prevents constipation. Cook corn and rice into a gruel or steam 100 gm of crushed corn and eat.
3. Honey
a. Mix the honey in lukewarm water and drink half a cup two times a day. Better results are achieved when this is done regularly.
4. Aquatic products
a. Mussels – Cook 30 gm of celery or shepherd’s purse and 10 gm mussels then drink regularly.
b. Jellyfish – Wash 600 gm water chestnuts with skins and 200 gm of jellyfish. Boil them in a liter of water. The broth is ready to eat when the water goes down to about 250 gm. Eat the broth before or after meals. Reduce the number of times you eat the broth when the symptoms disappear and blood pressure goes down to normal levels.
c. Kelp – Kelp contains high amounts of ammonia acid which can help reduce blood pressure. Boil 15 gm of Cassia tora and 20 gm of kelp and eat the kelp or drink the soup.
d. Lotus seed pistil – Take out the plumule from the lotus and dry. Create 7 gm of broth with the seed and drink it each day.
5. Meal dishes
a. Spinach mixed with sesame oil – Wash 250 gm spinach. For three minutes, boil spinach in water and sprinkle a little pinch of salt in. Serve the spinach mixed with sesame oil.
b. Steamed eggplant – Sprinkle little salt and add a little vegetable oil on two washed eggplants. Steam the eggplant and serve.
c. Stewed beef mixed with tomatoes. Slice 250 gm of washed tomatoes into even pieces. Cut a hundred grams of beef. Stew both with sugar, salt, and vegetable and serve.
6. Instant drinks
a. Cassia tora and chrysanthemum – Place 15 gm of Cassia tora, 15 gm slices of raw haw, and 3 gm dry, clean chrysanthemum flower into a thermos bottle. Pour boiling water in and cover to steep for 39 minutes. Drink many times each day.
b. Blue dogbane – After washing 500 gm of blue dogbane leaves, boil in water for 20 minutes and stain off juice. Then add more water and boil once more. Repeat the procedure three times. Take out the dregs. Combine the juice at different times and boil slowly over a low fire till it’s concentrated. Allow it to cool and then to take up remaining water, add half a kg of powdered sugar. Stir, allow to dry and crush, putting crystals in a bottle. Dissolve 10 gm each time in boiling water and take it as tea.
c. Corn Tassel – Boil 1 kg of clean corn tassel for an hour in water and remove the dregs. Keep boiling on low fire till the broth becomes concentrated. Kill the fire and allow the broth to cool. To take up the remaining water add ½ kg of powdered sugar. Stir then, dry it. Break into small pieces then place it in bottles for use. Dissolve in water 10 gm of the solidified broth and drink three times a day. Corn tassel can help lower blood pressure and is a diuretic.
7. Tea
a. Black fungus tea – A fragrant but sour tasting tea. Sweeten by adding sugar and adding more water. Three times a day drink 150 ml of the tea. Drink only after meals if you have stomach problems.
b. Chrysanthemum tea – In a cup put 3 gm Dragon Well tea and 10 gm dried petals of chrysanthemum petals. Put boiling water in cup and cover to steep. Drink it after a minute or so till the tea is cool enough to drink.
8. Soup
a. Vinegar soup and crystal sugar – Into a bottle place ½ kg of crystal sugar and 100 ml of vinegar. Shake till sugar is dissolved. After each meal, take a spoonful. For people with high blood pressure who suffer from blood stagnancy or deficient body fluid this remedy can be quite useful. If you have stomach trouble, do not take this.
9. Others
a. Peanuts – The skin of peanuts can help reduce cholesterol level and blood pressure. Boil the skins into a broth and in the morning and night, drink 150 gm of it as tea. The peanut plant’s tender leaves can be used as an alternative for the peanut skins. The raw peanuts can also be soaked in vinegar and 20 of them can be eaten in the morning and evening. Blood pressure can actually be lowered by also eating the peanuts themselves.
b. Garlic – You can eat one or two cloves of garlic soaked in vinegar in the morning before breakfast. The vinegar that has been used can also be drunk. After doing this for two weeks a reduction of blood pressure can be seen.
Amy-SuiQun Lui, L.Ac.
Asian Health Center
27059 Grand Army of the Republic Hwy
Cleveland, OH 44143
Tel: (440) 833-0983
http://www.clevelandacupunctureclinic.com/