Fasting in the Treatment of Diabetes and High Blood Pressure

Submitted on May 30, 2010 - 4:16pm

Summary: High blood pressure (HBP) is the most common contributing cause of death and disability in populations of industrialized countries. The majority of patients that suffer morbidity and mortality as a consequence of hypertension have blood pressure (BP) in the high-normal range, with systolic BP between 120 mm Hg. and 140 mm Hg. No medication options are available for these patients because the risks of HBP medication clearly outweigh any potential benefit for most patients with BP in this range. 

Fortunately, there are numerous complementary and alternative strategies that have been demonstrated to be safe and effective for treating HBP. One such approach was reported in the October 2002 issue of JACM (Goldhamer et al., 2002). In this study, 68 patients with high-normal blood pressure who underwent a period of water-only fasting (average 14 days of fasting) experienced average blood pressure reductions of more than 20/7 mm Hg. 

Click on the attached file below to read the full letter. [original publication unknown].