when, in fact, these people are not sick at all. According to a recent Reuters online article, a Ben Gurion
University study with 500 subjects showed that patients over 70 years old with mild hypertension (by
today’s standards) actually thought more clearly and creatively than those with lower blood pressure.
Both men and women in the study whose blood pressure was deemed high enough to warrant treatment
with prescription drugs—and also those with clinically uncontrolled (untreated) hypertension—performed
significantly better on tests of cognitive function, memory, concentration and visual retention.
Surprisingly, those with “normal” blood pressure, lowered with medication, showed the worst
performance among all three groups in the study. The research clearly implies that senior citizens are
overmedicated, and not just for blood pressure. Just as we have seen with blood cholesterol levels, a
normal blood pressure among the elderly population is naturally higher than it is for the younger
population. Lowering their blood pressure with medications that have harmful side effects is not only
harmful to their brain cells and other parts of the body, but it is highly unethical, too.
While research has established that mortality rates remain uninfluenced by hypertension drugs, their
side effects are often severe and include the collapse of the lungs and heart attacks. In contrast, many
controlled studies have shown that relaxation therapies and a change of diet and lifestyle can lower a
person’s blood pressure faster and more consistently than medication can. Going on a balanced vegetarian
diet alone can normalize blood pressure on a permanent basis. The water therapy described earlier is also
a natural and quick method to restore normal blood pressure. Furthermore, the daily full body oil massage
(especially with sesame oil) greatly benefits blood pressure. If taken internally as a cooking oil or salad
dressing, sesame oil also helps to reduce high blood pressure and lessens one's dependence on medication.
According to a recent study, participants (with an average age of 58) who consumed 35 grams of sesame
oil a day for 60 days lowered their blood pressure from an average of 166/101 mm Hg to 134/84 mm Hg.
All of the other cleansing methods described in this book can significantly improve blood pressure,
too. In most cases, a series of liver cleanses and a kidney cleanse are sufficient to eliminate hypertension
altogether.
Conclusion:
I have used the examples of several diagnostic techniques to highlight the potential disadvantages and
dangers of just having a test. There are many other tests that are as equally risky as the ones mentioned
above, including angiography, bone scans, CAT scans, MRIs, various types of oscopies (such as
colonoscopy) the AFP tumor marker test, and, of course, pap smear tests. (Whereas a pap smear test by
itself is harmless, a positive test result for cancer may prompt you to choose cancer-suppressing
treatments, instead healing it at the causal level, as explained in Chapter 10. The high percentage of false
positive readings with these “objective” methods of diagnosis shows that the diagnosis of disease is not as
clear cut and obvious as it may seem to a layperson.
Today’s methods of clinical diagnosis for chronic problems are mostly symptom-oriented and,
therefore, leave the causes of the symptoms concealed and untreated. The cause-oriented diagnostic skills
of an experienced practitioner of natural medicine, on the other hand, may be able to reveal the true nature
of the imbalance prevalent in the body of a chronically ill patient. The health practitioner would
incorporate in his treatment plan, the elimination of the four major risk factors of disease as outlined in
chapter 3.
However, in the case of an accident, an injury, severe burns, or a number of other acute health
problems, there can hardly be a better option than to place one’s life in the hands of an experienced
practitioner of conventional medicine.