High Blood Pressure (Virus?)

Revealed! The secret infection that’s CAUSING your high blood pressure

Here’s how to find it… and knock it out of your system

By Glenn S. Rothfeld, M.D.

There are more than 100 million Americans—maybe even you or someone you love—living with high blood pressure now.

Let e put that into some context for you—that’s nearly TWICE the number of people who voted in the 2016 election.

So you’d think doctors would get a lot of training on high blood pressure in medical school.

Well, prepare to be disappointed.

I remember sitting in class, when a professor told us not to bother looking for the root causes of high blood pressure… that it was a “waste of insurance money.”

And believe me, most doctors are told the same thing. They give you a generic diagnosis of “essential hypertension” and don’t look any further.

They just stick you on risky drugs… with DOZENS of side effects… for life.

But that doesn’t have to happen to you, or anyone you care about.

Because Harvard researchers have discovered a stealth virus that may be causing your high blood pressure.

And finding it… and knocking it out of your system… could help give you your BEST blood pressure readings in YEARS!

The blood pressure breakthrough the media IGNORED

This should have been front-page news—but I didn’t see it covered anywhere.

Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (affiliated with Harvard) found that an infection from a “sneaky” and sometimes dangerous virus called Cytomegalovirus (CMV) was a root cause of high blood pressure!

I bet that would surprise a lot of doctors… but it didn’t surprise me for two reasons.

I’ve been writing for YEARS about how hidden viruses are triggering diseases. In past issues of Nutrition & Healing, I discussed how the herpes virus was connected to Alzheimer’s, and how Epstein Barr can cause everything from chronic fatigue to cancer.

I test for and treat CMV infections all the time. It’s usually part of a panel of testing I order when someone comes to my clinic with chronic fatigue, autoimmune problems, and especially neurological diseases.

Scientists from different specialties at Harvard figured out that the viral CMV infection caused an inflammatory response in the arteries and veins.

This resulted in elevations and changes in blood levels of hormones called angiotensin and ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme).

These hormones can send your blood pressure through the roof—and they’re the same hormones targeted by billion-dollar prescription drugs like ACE inhibitors or Angiotension Receptor Blocking medications.

There have been other studies linking CMV to cardiovascular disease—but this was the first one that showed exactly how it raises your blood pressure.

So just find the CMV infection and destroy it, right? Well, it’s not as easy as it sounds…

Why blood pressure drugs are a LIFE sentence

There’s a very good reason to get a handle on the root causes of high blood pressure, like CMV infections.

Because once you start taking blood pressure drugs, there’s a good chance you’ll NEVER come off of them.

The doctor who writes the prescription might tell you that you can stop taking the meds someday. But the truth is, the doctor is secretly thinking that there is a very small chance of that ever happening.

Most people only come off of blood pressure drugs when they experience serious side effects, like dizziness and especially dizziness upon standing.

Some people lose a lot of weight and their doctors may discontinue the medications as a “reward.” But, again, that’s not very common.

More often that not, these drugs will become a lifelong burden.

The BIG problems with CMV infections

Let’s start with a big question I bet you’re asking yourself now—how did you get a CMV infection in the first place?

Well, that answer isn’t so simple… and it can lead to some BIG problems when you go to your doctor for testing.

We are not talking about a viral infection like the common cold.

A CMV infection and the havoc it wreaks is a lot more like shingles.

What I mean is that you get chicken pox when you are a child—and, much later in life, the virus can reactivate and trigger shingles.

CMV is the same way. You were probably exposed to it when you were younger, and it felt like a flu or a bad cold.

But later in your life, when your immune system is down, the CMV virus can reactivate and cause many different diseases and symptoms… including high blood pressure.

Like I said, I screen for CMV infections and you can order the test from any local lab. But there’s a good chance you’ll run into some resistance from your doctor when asking for a test.

Remember, a lot of people have been exposed to the virus and can test positive for it—and it can be hard to prove that the infection is active.

Your doctor may try to refer you to an infectious disease specialist, but, in my opinion, most infectious disease specialists won’t take it seriously.

But here’s the good news…

The CMV infection, as this recent study proved, will trigger inflammation that can be easily tested.

The exact test used in the research is not easy to get. But here are two other tests you can request:

High-sensitivity C-reactive protein: This measures inflammation in your cardiovascular system. Even a modest elevation in this test bothers me enough to take action.

LP-PLA2: I’ve written about this test before, which is a more sensitive and sophisticated marker looking at inflammation in the arteries. If you want a full “work up,” I would ask or even beg your primary care doctor (or cardiologist) to order this test.

Once you’ve discovered an infection or inflammation, what do you do about it?

Just follow my protocol… and you could be well on your way to your best blood pressure readings in ages.

Get control of CMV… and watch high blood pressure DROP

Let me start with a BIG caveat—I don’t believe that CMV infections are the ONLY cause of high blood pressure.

As an experienced integrative medical doctor, I have been looking for and treating the root cause of hypertension for many years.

Lots of factors can lead to high blood pressure, including sleep apnea, heavy metals (like lead and mercury), and obesity. But now, with this new research, we have to add CMV infections to the list.

But let’s say that testing shows that you have a CMV infection or inflammation in your arteries. What’s next?

The truth is that mainstream medicine has NO approved drugs for handling CMV. Some doctors will use the herpes medication Valtrex (CMV is in the herpes family of viruses) but that is not common and there isn’t much research being done by the drug companies.

So I take a different approach. The three steps to getting a CMV infection under control—and lowering your blood pressure—are:

Strengthen your immune system

Kill the bug… or at least slow it down considerably

Lower your inflammation

If your immune system is strong, the “horse would never leave the barn” and the CMV virus would never reactivate.

The immune-boosting supplements I like are vitamin C, colostrum, transfer factor, mushroom extracts and echinacea.

Second, I do believe that you can kill some of these CMV infections—or at least slow them down considerably. Viruses can be sneaky and tough to kill, but amino acids and herbs can put up a valiant effort.

The best amino acid is lysine and the herbs that I use are garlic, grapefruit seed extract, olive leaf extract and monolaurin.

Last, there are no safe medications that can lower the systemic and arterial inflammation that these infections cause.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen can lower inflammation. But these drugs are clearly double-edged swords that I do not think that are worth the risk when there are natural alternatives.

By far my favorite natural treatment for inflammation is curcumin, but Boswellia, reservatrol and quercitin can work quite well, too.

Get yourself tested, and use these natural remedies to help get CMV and inflammation under control.

By attacking the root cause of your high blood pressure, you can put this problem in your rearview mirror for good. GR

Always take your blood pressure at home (Here’s why)

I always recommend that people take their blood pressure at home.

Why? Because it’s better to be able to show your doctor your readings over a period of time—instead of having him rely on one test during a doctor’s appointment.

Let’s say you’re going through a stressful period in life. Maybe the stress raises your blood pressure… or maybe it weakens your immune system and reactivates your CMV virus.

All that the doctor notices is that your blood pressure is up—and he’s probably not going to look any further. The next thing you know, you may be getting drugs you don’t need, or that don’t treat the underlying condition (like an infection).