For Your Health

[Past and present]

*******Blood pressure drugs increase risk of breast cancer..

...(NaturalHealth365) Hypertension and pre-hypertension have become out-of-hand in the U.S., and the number of people developing the disease is increasing all the time. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 2 in 3 adults are either hypertensive or pre-hypertensive – many of them women. The risk of high blood pressure increases with age, affecting approximately half of all post-menopausal women over age 55.

It comes as no surprise that Western medicine’s approach to high blood pressure comes in the form of pills. When all of the different types of anti-hypertensive drugs are accounted for, these medications account for the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States. Unfortunately, blood pressure medications are not without their risks. One class of drugs in particular – calcium channel blockers (CCBs) – has been linked to very serious health consequences for post-menopausal women.

Study finds link between calcium channel blockers and breast cancer

....In 2013, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in which researchers theorized that calcium channel blockers may cause breast cancer in some women. The study followed more than 1,700 women between the ages of 55 and 74. They were divided into three groups: a control group that was cancer-free and two other groups that included women who had either been diagnosed with invasive lobular cancer or invasive ductal breast cancer.

...After interviewing all of the women about their medical histories and history of medication usage, the researchers discovered something startling. Women who had been taking calcium channel blockers to treat high blood pressure for a period of 10 years increased their risk of developing lobular and ductal breast cancer by 2.5 times.

Millions of women could be at risk with long-time use of blood pressure medication

...This is not the first time a link has been found between CCB and breast cancer. In fact, data can be traced back to the mid-1990s, when two studies hypothesized the anti-hypertensive drugs could cause breast cancer.

However, little research had been since that time – at least not on a large scale. Despite the current findings supporting a link between the two, no formal recommendations have been made for changing the way physicians treat women with high blood pressure.

...More than a hundred million blood pressure medication prescriptions for calcium channel blockers are prescribed and filled every year. Once a woman is on one of these drugs, she is usually on it for life, potentially increasing her risk of eventually developing breast cancer. It comes as no surprise – any drug that interferes with natural biological processes within the body (in this case, calcium metabolism) could easily lead to other adverse effects, even if they are not yet understood by conventional science.

A ‘radical’ concept revealed for every conventionally-trained physician

...Instead of shoving pills in the faces of women with high blood pressure and treating symptoms of a disease, perhaps it is time to approach the human body as a whole entity capable of healing itself when given the proper tools to do so. Experts agree that lifestyle changes help us to avoid high blood pressure by simply maintaining a healthy weight, eating a balanced diet plus eliminating processed salts and sugars. Of course, regular amounts of moderate physical activity can’t hurt, as well.

...Not only can these changes eliminate hypertension, but none of them carry dangerous side effects, and most will lower – not increase – the risk of breast cancer. Finally, a message for every doctor, remember the true definition of a doctor is to be a “teacher”. By offering natural therapies and effective lifestyle counseling – you will be rewarded on so many different levels.
***References:
http://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/facts.htm
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/264446.php
http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23921840
http://www.healthline.com/…/aging-calcium-channel-blockers-…
http://www.healthline.com/…/consumer-reports-calcium-channe…