Off All Prescription Drugs

Frankie and Myrl Wade from Jacksonville, Alabama, first came to the clinic in September 2003. Both of them were taking multiple drugs to keep their blood pressure under control. We weaned them off their drugs and started them on our blood pressure-lowering regimen. Today, a year and a half later, both Frankie and Myrl are off all prescription drugs, and their blood pressures are in the normal range. They continue to eat a heart-healthy diet, walk two and a half miles a day, take their supplements, and they’ve never felt better.

— from Health & Healing by Julian Whitaker, MD

Sleep, Snoring, and Hypertension

One of our patients, R.H., had extremely high blood pressure, along with heart failure and other cardiovascular problems. After we discovered he had severe sleep apnea, he borrowed a CPAP machine (continuous positive airway pressure, the gold standard in sleep apnea treatment) and used it while he was at the clinic. The very first night, R.H. slept more soundly than he had in 20 years. After three weeks of treatment with CPAP and other therapies, R.H.’s energy rebounded, his exercise tolerance improved, and his blood pressure fell into the normal range.

— from Health & Healing by Julian Whitaker, MD

Blood Pressure Lower Than When Taking Drugs

Ned, an electrical engineer and computer consultant from Oregon, has always been health conscious. He takes vitamins, exercises, eats a low-fat diet, and is a long-time subscriber of my newsletter, Health & Healing. Yet one problem plagued him for almost 30 years. When he was 40 years old, Ned was diagnosed with hypertension and started on a blood-pressure lowering drug. This was to be the first of a long, long string of prescriptions that not only failed to bring his blood pressure down, but also had many adverse effects. When the side effects of one drug became intolerable, Ned’s doctor switched him to another. He figures he’s tried just about every antihypertensive drug on the market.

Frustrated and fed up with feeling lousy because of his drugs, yet scared to just stop them, Ned came to see us. The first thing he learned at Whitaker Wellness was that he had insulin resistance. He also learned that when insulin resistance is an underlying factor in hypertension, it often responds very well to nutritional therapies and exercise. So Ned started on a comprehensive program of diet, exercise, and nutritional supplements as his physician slowly weaned him off his drugs. Much to Ned’s delight, his blood pressure was even lower than it had been while he was taking drugs!

I ran into Ned at a conference a while back in Las Vegas. He was looking fit and healthy, and he told me hadn’t felt this well in years. During the year after his visit to the clinic, as the diet and exercise program become a part of his daily life, the extra 30 pounds that had sneaked up on him over the years slowly but surely disappeared. He still takes his blood pressure two or three times a week, and for the past two and a half years, it has averaged 125/75—without medications.

— from Health & Healing by Julian Whitaker, MD