Customer Reviews

Good News About High Blood Pressure: How to Take Control of Hypertension---and Your Life

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first reviewer's comment that "The only thing that kept me from giving him a five-star rating is his negative reaction to alternative treatments" convinced me to buy this book. I was looking for a book that explains what medical science actually knows about high blood pressure, and instead ran into a slew of "Smile your way out of hypertension!" pseudo-scientific nonsensicals. Fie on so-called "alternative" treatments: I wanted to read solid knowledge. I was relieved and pleased to find this book. Pickering presents what is known, describes tested treatments, is realistic about weight, exercise, and gender/race/age without being discouraging or fatalistic, and does it in a readable way. I highly recommend this book.

Dr. Pickering does a good job of explaining how your body works and its relationship to high blood pressure. He does a great job of interpreting conflicting studies. The only thing that kept me from giving him a five star rating is his negative reaction to alternative treatments.

After reading many of the popular books on high blood pressure, I must rank this one the best. I was particularly happy with the chapter on "white coat hypertension" and blood pressuure measurement and the many related studies that he comments on. Many books tend to have just a paragraph on this subject and gloss over such an important issue. The chapter on the "work-up" was also very useful to me. Now I will feel much more comfortable about asking my own doctor about a renin-sodium profile and an echo-cardiogram to be included for me. I would have liked to see a discussion of the "uric-acid" debate. Perhaps the publication of the book predated this debate. I was also happy that he chose to have a separate chapter about high blood pressure in seniors. With a hyperensive 70 year-old mum to worry about, this chapter was a wonderful source of information. Like another reviewer, I felt the section on "Alternative Medicine" was relatively small and brusque. But in earlier sections Dr Pickering did consider the mineral supplement issues in depth - what he doesn't consider is whether one should be taking natural herb supplements. His discussion of meditation could be improved significantly. But a weak discussion of alternative medicine should not detract from an otherwise very useful and authoritative book. I hope Dr Pickering will give us an updated version of this book - and allow Dr Andrew Weil to write the section on alternative treatments

The standards for HBP Dr Pickering quoted when this book was published should be adhered to today (i.e. Normal BP <140/90, Borderline 140/90-160/100, and high >160/100) and treatment should not be prescribed for patients > 160/100 until all other techniques have been tried such as diet, exercise, and herbal treatments. Medicine should not be prescribed for BP between 140/90-160/100 because BP in this range it is not as dangerous as claimed. Most blood pressure medicines are more dangerous and do more harm to the body than the HBP.

The lower numbers published in 2003 by the American Heart Association are an effort pushed by pharmaceutical companies and aggressive doctors to make patients out of persons who are actually healthy. Pharmaceutical companies provide doctors with free trips to seminars and dinners to promote their high powered BP medicines which after years of use do more damage to the patient than the high blood pressure. Doctors will prescribe pills for people with mild HBP (140/90-160/100) or with normal BP between 130/80-139/89 to obtain the incentives.
BP medicines cause memory loss, weight gain, fluid retention, depression, and a host of undesirable symptoms.

The advice Dr. Pickering provides about all alternatives besides medication is excellent. The only change needed for a new addition is the publication date and emphasis to stay away from medication.

This book was published in 1996, not 2007 as shown by Amazon. It is outdated. A great deal has changed since this was written. At its time, it was good.

This book is clear and easy to read. It presents an authoritavie overview of high blood pressure and what to do about it. The author seems to know what he is talking about and gives sound advice. Recommended.