by Dr.Harald Wiesendanger– Klartext
What the mainstream media is hiding
High blood pressure is considered a “silent killer”: often without realizing it, almost one in three adults in industrialized countries is said to live with it. It damages the heart and arteries, leading to heart attacks, strokes, and premature death. That is why it must be aggressively lowered with medication—at least according to conventional wisdom. But behind this apparent certainty lie questionable thresholds, financial interests, and a fatal confusion of cause and effect. It is high time to question this dogma.
How can you become ill overnight without the slightest change in your physical condition? By exceeding lowered thresholds. Over decades, the threshold at which a person is considered “hypertensive” has been continuously lowered. While in 1977 only values above 160/95 mmHg were considered to require treatment, this threshold fell to 130/80 mmHg in 2017. With every stroke of the pen that experts make on paper, millions of new patients are created – and an expanded billion-dollar market for blood pressure medication. With the 2017 US guidelines, the proportion of adults whose values are considered “too high” in the US rose abruptly from about one-third to almost half. Worldwide, high blood pressure has officially become the most common chronic disease. According to the WHO, 1.4 billion people in the 30 to 80 age group have cause for concern – allegedly.
Conventional medicine follows the same classic pattern of medicalization when it comes to cholesterol: as soon as a laboratory value can be lowered quite effectively with medication, the acceptable upper limit moves south – and the market grows.
The measurement trap: when a white coat drives up blood pressure
Are the findings even accurate? According to estimates, at least one in four high blood pressure diagnoses is incorrect because they are based on unreliable measurements. “White coat hypertension” is particularly common: the stress of visiting the doctor causes blood pressure to skyrocket temporarily, whereas at home it would be completely normal. Technical errors, such as a blood pressure cuff that is too small for a strong arm, also regularly lead to artificially elevated readings. In addition, patients often have significantly different blood pressure readings in their left and right arms. Measurements taken in the morning and evening, before or after coffee, before or after a walk, lying down or sitting also cause fluctuations. Up to 65% of people who are diagnosed as “hypertensive” during a doctor’s visit are within the normal range when the measurement is repeated or taken outside the doctor’s office.
Added to this is a physiological misunderstanding: the “peripheral” blood pressure measured on the arm does not always reliably indicate how high the pressure is centrally in the aorta; however, aortic pressure correlates much more strongly with the likelihood of cardiovascular disease.
Nevertheless, many patients leave the doctor’s office unsuspectingly with a prescription that turns them into pill poppers—often for the rest of their lives.
Cause or effect? A paradigm shift
Conventional cardiology considers high blood pressure to be the cause of vascular damage. New explanatory approaches such as the “clotting model” developed by Scottish physician Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
(1) reverse this logic: the body reacts to existing damage to the vessel walls with increased blood pressure – a compensatory mechanism to ensure that enough blood still reaches where it is needed despite stiff, narrowed, or inflamed vessels. If you lower the pressure at all costs, you may worsenthe blood circulation – especially in older people with arteriosclerotic “calcified” vessels, where the brain is dependent on higher pressure.
This is not an invitation to self-medicate in the sense of “no more pills,” but a warning: the dogma “the lower, the better” can open a trap door.
Let’s imagine a pipe system in which deposits have formed. In order to push the same amount of water through the narrowed areas, the pump must increase the pressure. If the pressure is now artificially lowered without removing the narrowing, not enough water—or in our case, blood and oxygen—will reach the organs. The body therefore often raises blood pressure out of necessity to ensure blood flow. Aggressively lowering blood pressure is like trying to extinguish a fire by turning off the smoke alarm.
Does this mean that chronically high blood pressure should be left untreated because it is “needed”? Of course not. Rather, it is important to consistently address its main cause: a lifestyle that has been unhealthy for years (or decades), which dangerously stiffens and narrows the blood vessels. (See KLARTEXT “The big cholesterol lie.”) Educating patients about this and motivating them sufficiently takes a doctor considerably more time and effort than simply reaching for the prescription pad. Financially rewarding “soft factors” such as care, empathy, patience, and detailed explanations is hardly provided for in the fee schedule—consultations bring in a maximum of 45 euros (GOÄ 4, maximum rate), with a maximum of 50 to 100 euros per patient per quarter.
The nasty downside of blood pressure medication
There is no such thing as “the” blood pressure medication. Five main groups are used, each with different modes of action and side effect profiles:
· ACE inhibitors, e.g., ramipril and lisinopril, block an enzyme that forms a vasoconstricting hormone, angiotensin II. This causes the blood vessels to relax.
· Sartans (ARBs) such as candesartan, losartan, and valsartan directly block the receptors for angiotensin II.
· Alpha and beta blockers, e.g., doxazosin and bisoprolol, protect the heart against stress hormones such as adrenaline and noradrenaline.
· Calcium antagonists such as amlodipine and verapamil prevent calcium from flowing into the vascular muscle cells. The arteries dilate.
· Diuretics, e.g., HCT and furosemide, promote the excretion of salt and water via the kidneys. The blood volume decreases.
But no matter which pill you swallow, none of them have an address on them. A drug never acts solely on the target organ, but systemically. This also applies to blood pressure medication—they are anything but harmless. For a supposedly harmless laboratory value of a surrogate marker on paper, many people labeled as “patients” accept real risks and side effects, with limited or no benefit. ACE inhibitors cause persistent dry coughs and even asthma attacks. Sartans make you tired and dizzy. Beta blockers do the same, but also make your hands and feet cold and cause erectile dysfunction. Calcium antagonists lead to water retention (edema), especially in the throat and mucous membranes, sudden facial redness (“flush”) and headaches. Diuretics cause frequent urination and muscle cramps. And these are only the most common unpleasant side effects.
But it doesn’t stop at these rather acute complaints. The following research results also give an idea of how deeply blood pressure-lowering drugs interfere with the body’s biochemistry:
· Women who take ACE inhibitors have a significantly higher risk of suffering a relapse after breast cancer. These drugs influence inflammatory pathways that can promote the spread of tumor cells. (2)
· Certain ACE inhibitors are associated with a 19% increased risk of lung cancer.
· The risk of macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in older people, increases significantly with some blood pressure medications.
· ACE inhibitors and sartans inhibit potassium excretion in the kidneys, especially in patients with impaired kidney function. This leads to hyperkalemia, an electrolyte imbalance with elevated potassium levels in the blood serum. It often causes muscle weakness, paresthesia (tingling), nausea, or cardiac arrhythmias, including life-threatening arrhythmias.
· Artificially lowered blood pressure can lead to chronic undersupply of the brain and kidneys, which promotes cognitive decline and kidney failure.
Which medications are the best? Comparisons financed primarily by the industry suspiciously often favor the newest and most expensive ones. The independent ALLHAT study, the largest hypertension study ever conducted with over 33,000 patients, paints a different picture: it proved that the cheapest of the four medications tested, a diuretic, to be the best. The ALLHAT study leader estimated the additional costs for the expensive calcium channel blockers and ACE inhibitors at over eight to ten billion dollars, without any benefit to patients. Inferior products that were up to 20 times more expensive led to heart failure in 40,000 Americans.
Treating severe high blood pressure with medication can save lives, there’s no question about that; in such cases, side effects are less serious and are accepted as a necessary evil. However, patients whose blood pressure is only slightly elevated and cannot be controlled without medication also suffer from the same side effects. In this case, the harm outweighs the benefits.
Manufacturers will use just about any means necessary to cover this up. Danish medical professor Peter Gøtzsche, who himself worked for the pharmaceutical industry for eight years, recalls a woman who approached him after a lecture: “She used to work for a pharmaceutical company. Her boss had asked her to travel to Scandinavia with a stack of brown envelopes and hand them over to doctors participating in a study on high blood pressure. She thought this was strange, so she asked what the envelopes contained. Dollar bills. She then asked why the company didn’t just transfer the money online. She was told that if she continued to ask questions, she could resign. She refused to hand over the envelopes and left the company. “ (3) ”A well-known scientist,“ Gøtzsche continues, ”was offered $30,000 a year in consulting fees by (pharmaceutical giant) Sandoz to persuade him to interpret a study in a favorable light, even though the company’s drug, a calcium channel blocker for high blood pressure, caused more complications than the comparator drug.” (4)
According to Gøtzsche’s research, such scandalous incidents are merely the tiny tip of the most monstrous iceberg of all time: “The pharmaceutical industry increases its profits by selling drugs to healthy people who do not need them and would be better off without them. This practice has been spreading like a cancer in society for many years. It is kept going by organized crime, scientific dishonesty, outright lies, and bribery. We must put an end to this.” (5)
Do blood pressure medications really save lives?
Remarkably, there is still a lack of convincing scientific evidence that the probability of death is actually significantly reduced when moderately elevated blood pressure values fall below the specified thresholds. The proof was already put to the test in 1973 in the form of a large-scale public study that lasted around five and a half years. 17,354 patients from family doctors’ practices—aged between 35 and 64, with diastolic blood pressure between 90 and 109 mmHg—took a beta blocker, a diuretic, or a placebo. What was the result? The treatment had little effect on the probability of a coronary event such as a heart attack: the rate only fell from 5.9 to 5.8 per 1000 patient years. Nor was there any difference in the mortality rate: 253 versus 248 deaths corresponds to a reduction in the probability of death of just 0.0288%. (6)
Is it really worth accepting a notoriously wide range of nasty side effects, possibly for the rest of your life, for such statistical trivialities – especially considering the natural alternatives for normalizing high blood pressure?
On the other hand, aggressive treatment can actually increase the risk of death because it prevents the body from supplying vital organs with sufficient blood.
Pharmaceutical euthanasia for seniors
Of the 153 million packages of blood pressure medication prescribed in 2020, the majority went to seniors. Three-quarters of them live with a diagnosis of “high blood pressure.” Just as many take medication for it.
The consequences? Cases of balance disorders and fainting are particularly common among seniors, indicating “poor perfusion,” i.e., insufficient blood flow to organs, tissues, or body regions. A study of 4,961 people over the age of 70 shows that more intensive antihypertensive therapy can be associated with more frequent serious fall injuries. With the start of medication, the risk of hip fractures increases by 43%; one in four of those affected dies within a year. (7)
Very low blood pressure in older people is associated with higher mortality.
Medications as blood pressure drivers
A large proportion of “high blood pressure” is iatrogenic, i.e., caused in part by other medications. One in five patients takes medications that also raise blood pressure, especially with long-term use or higher dosages. These include:
· Painkillers (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen
· Glucocorticoids such as cortisone, prescribed for asthma, rheumatism, severe allergies, or skin rashes
· Decongestant nasal sprays
· In younger women, the birth control pill is a common, often overlooked cause of rising blood pressure.
If the accompanying medications that raise blood pressure were simply discontinued, between 0.56 and 2.2 million US patients could return to a “healthy” range without additional antihypertensive drugs. This is the conclusion reached by US internist Dr. John Vitarello based on an analysis of data from 27,599 patients.
Instead, a lucrative vicious circle ensues: one drug causes a symptom, which is then treated with another drug—the blood pressure medication. This, in turn, causes symptoms, which are then treated with additional drugs, and so on and so forth. Some things that look like “therapy” are actually the management of a cascade of side effects.
Immature, lazy-minded, intellectually overwhelmed patients accept such polypharmacy without question, instead of rebelling. Not even half of all seniors can say why they are taking their medication in the first place. (8) The doctor will know.
Cellular medicine: Getting to the root of the causes
Cellular medicine according to Dr. Matthias Rath takes a completely different approach to conventional cardiology. It does not regard high blood pressure as fate or a defect in a “control loop,” but rather as being significantly influenced by a chronic micronutrient deficiency in the cells of the vessel walls. These consist of muscle cells that need to relax in order to facilitate blood flow. For this to function smoothly, the body needs specific “cell vital substances”:
• Vitamin C: Essential for collagen production, which gives the vessels stability and elasticity.
• Arginine: This amino acid promotes the production of nitric oxide (NO) – the signaling molecule that causes the arteries to relax and widen.
• Magnesium, potassium, and vitamin B6: Important regulators of the tension in the vascular muscles.
Studies by the Dr. Rath Research Institute show that a targeted combination of these and other micronutrients can significantly increase NO production in aortic cells, thereby helping to normalize blood pressure. (9)
Over-the-counter: How to become your own blood pressure reducer
Many people take antihypertensive drugs because a poorly informed, irresponsible doctor has assured them that this is the only way to lower their blood pressure. Before resorting to chemical drugs, your own lifestyle offers powerful levers.
A natural, plant-based diet—rich in potassium, magnesium, and calcium, often referred to as the DASH diet—often works wonders. It focuses on lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts: all foods that our body metabolizes in an alkaline way. (10)
Regular consumption of yogurt alone, which contributes at least 2% to daily calorie intake, can reduce the risk of high blood pressure by almost a third. Beetroot provides plenty of nitrates, which the body converts into vasodilating nitric oxide; one glass of juice a day can reduce systolic blood pressure by approximately 5 to 10 mmHg. Three cups of hibiscus tea have a similar effect to mild diuretics. Thanks to their alpha-linolenic acid, 30 grams of ground flaxseed per day also significantly lower blood pressure. The flavanols in dark chocolate, with at least 70% cocoa content, make arteries more elastic. Garlic has a slight vasodilatory effect, but only in higher doses; extract is more effective and odorless. Omega-3 fatty acids, walnuts/walnut oil, pomegranate juice, and green tea also help.
Physical activity improves heart function and reduces mechanical pressure on the arteries. The German Hypertension League and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) consider it the most effective non-medicinal measure against high blood pressure – as proven by a huge meta-analysis of 270 studies with a total of over 15,000 participants. Current guidelines recommend endurance sports: Walking briskly, cycling, or swimming for half an hour on five days a week reduces systolic pressure by approximately 5 to 8 mmHg. Moderate weight training 2 to 3 times a week reduces it by 4 to 5 mmHg. (11) Static isometric exercises are particularly effective: strength training in which you tense your muscles without moving, such as in the ski squat or wall sit.
It is important to reduce stress—one of the main factors in chronically high blood pressure. Whenever we are stressed, the brain switches to the sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight).
Hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol are released. This causes the blood vessels to constrict and the heartbeat to accelerate as the heart pumps more blood against the higher resistance. By reducing stress, we activate the counterpart, the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest). Nitric oxide is released, which relaxes the vascular muscles and lowers resistance. Studies show that relaxation techniques such as mindfulness meditation, yoga, tai chi, progressive muscle relaxation, and biofeedback can reduce systolic blood pressure by 5 to 10 mmHg. Just five minutes of deep, conscious breathing per day lowers it by about 9 mmHg after six weeks.
Getting enough sleep is also important. A single night of partial sleep deprivation can increase systolic blood pressure by 4.5 to 6 mmHg. (12)
A wide range of other measures can help normalize blood pressure, from abstaining from alcohol to “deacidification” to Kneipp’s contrast showers. For weight loss, the rule of thumb is that every kilo lost lowers blood pressure by about 1 to 2 mmHg.
The blanket recommendation for people with hypertension to avoid salt is controversial. In reality, it is much easier and more dangerous to consume too little salt than too much. Too low a sodium level can not only lead to fatigue and insomnia, headaches and muscle pain, concentration problems and confusion – it also increases the risk of insulin resistance, heart attacks, and strokes.
The crux of the matter
So what is the “great blood pressure hoax”? It reduces a complex biological adaptation response of the body to a mere number that needs to be corrected with pills. Instead, we must learn to understand high blood pressure as a warning signal—like the oil lamp in a car. The problem is not solved by dimming the warning light, but by refilling the oil – in the form of a healthy lifestyle, more exercise, stress reduction, and an optimal supply of micronutrients to the cells.
Strong sexual arousal causes systolic blood pressure to skyrocket to 170 mmHg, and in rare cases even to a critical 200 mmHg or more. Managers of pharmaceutical companies that manufacture blood pressure medication live dangerously, at least if they have a history of heart problems: anyone who sees the breathtaking sales figures with their own eyes is likely to enjoy multiple orgasms every day. Can sex be better? In 2025, blood pressure medication generated global sales of between 26 and 30 billion US dollars.
In 2021 alone, 50 to 70 billion daily doses of these blockbuster drugs were sold worldwide. (13) Market researchers predict sales of close to $40 billion by 2035. (14)
Concocted by marketing professionals, infamous “preventive care” propaganda serves to persistently expand this gold mine. Those who are not yet ill should at least be very afraid of becoming so at some point—and it is best to seek preventive treatment today, just to be on the safe side. To this end, pharmaceutical-sponsored conferences on “pre-hypertension” or “high-normal blood pressure” (15) take place, which begins when diastolic blood pressure rises above 80 mmHg and systolic blood pressure above 120. The American Heart Association (AHA) seriously recommends that even children as young as three be screened for hypertension (16) – even though analyses have long proven that preventive screening for high blood pressure at any age is much less effective than claimed. (17)
“Do you seriously believe that the pharmaceutical industry wants to cure you?” asks former pharmaceutical manager John Virapen rhetorically in his exposé Side Effects: Death (2008). (18) “Forget it. Only a sick customer is a good customer.”
Notes
(1) In his brilliant book The Clot Thickens: The Enduring Mystery of Heart Disease (2021), Dr. Kendrick debunks the orthodox doctrine that cholesterol causes disease by depositing itself on the inner walls of blood vessels. The plaques are in fact repair layers formed after repeated endothelial damage.
(2) PA Ganz PA et al.: “Examining the influence of beta blockers and ACE inhibitors on the risk for breast cancer recurrence,” Breast Cancer Research and Treatment 2011; G. Zheng et al.: “Beta-Blockers Use and Risk of Breast Cancer in Women with Hypertension,” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention 2021,
(3) Peter C. Gøtzsche: Deadly Medicine and Organized Crime: How the Pharmaceutical Industry Corrupts Our Healthcare System. Munich 2014, p. 122.
(4) John Abramson: Overdo$ed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine (2008); William B. Applegate/Curt D. Furberg/Robert P. Byington: “The Multicenter Isradipine Diuretic Atherosclerosis Study (MIDAS),” JAMA 277 (4) 1997, doi:10.1001/jama.1997.03540280035025.
(5) Peter C. Gøtzsche: Deadly Medicine and Organized Crime, op. cit., pp. 388, 391. (Order from your local bookstore—they need your business more than Jeff Bezos does.)
(6) In contrast, strokes were actually slightly less common in the drug group: 60, compared to 109 in the placebo group. (The “old-fashioned” diuretic provided slightly better protection than the “modern” beta blocker.) Per year, this would correspond to 1.4 strokes among 1,000 patients treated, compared to 2.6 strokes among 1,000 placebo users. To prevent a single stroke, around 150 people would have to be treated for 5-6 years.
(7) Abramson: Overdo$ed America, op. cit.
(8) See “Auswege Infos” No. 57 / December 2018, report “Not even half of seniors know what they are taking their medication for.”
(9) Dr. Rath Health Foundation: Micronutrients for High Blood Pressure (2024); V. Ivanov et al.: “Bioflavonoids Effectively Inhibit Smooth Muscle Cell-Mediated Contraction,” Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology 2005;46(5):570-576; JC Cha et al.: “Nutritional improvement of metabolic syndrome parameters in immature fructose-fed wild-type mice,” Molecular Medicine Reports 2011; 4(6):1053-1059. doi:10.3892/mmr.2011.562; M. Rath et al.: “Cellular Nutrients in High Blood Pressure,” Cellular Health Communications 2001 (PDF)
(10) https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/education/dash-eating-plan, https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199704173361601; https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1832195
(11) https://www.herzstiftung.de/ihre-herzgesundheit/gesund-bleiben/bluthochdruck/sport; https://www.stiftung-gesundheitswissen.de/hypertonie/sport-bei-bluthochdruck; https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/ high-blood-pressure/in-depth/high-blood-pressure/art-20045204
(12) https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/01.HYP.27.6.1318, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8641742/
(13) This estimate is based on previous WHO data (approx. 2010–2020) and extrapolations from market sales (USD 25–30 billion annually). It is based on approximately 1.3 billion people with hypertension, of whom 30–40% (approximately 400–500 million) are treated with medication, with an average of 300–400 daily doses per patient per year.
(14) https://www.researchnester.com/de/reports/anti-hypertensive-drugs-market/7280, https://www.imarcgroup.com/antihypertensive-drugs-market, https://www.precedenceresearch.com/antihypertensive-drugs-market
(15) http://www.prehypertension.org/; https://www.eshonline.org/, https://ish-world.com/, https://www.hochdruckliga.de/
(16) Ray Moynihan/Alan Cassels: Selling Sickness – How the World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies are turning us all into Patients(2005)
(17)
Lasse T Krogsbøll/Karsten Juhl Jørgensen/Christian Grønhøj Larsen/Peter C. Gøtzsche: “General health checks in adults for reducing morbidity and mortality from disease”, Cochrane Database Systematic Reviews October 17, 2012, doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD009009.pub2 (18) Order from your local bookstore—they need your business more than Jeff Bezos does.