I am a 68-year-old man and in good health except for my blood pressure, which is not where I want it to be. There’s a lot of literature out there about possible options. I value your opinion and would appreciate your insight regarding causes of less-than-optimal blood pressure levels and tips on natural alternatives to achieve healthier levels.

—Martin J.

Dear Martin,

One factor that affects blood pressure is an unbalanced inflammatory response in the body. Unfortunately, low-grade inflammation in your body may also affect your blood vessels. And when certain factors impact blood flow in your blood vessels, your heart has to exert more pressure to move the blood along.

Other possible causes of unbalanced blood pressure levels are…

• Too much table salt in your diet. Excessive table salt may cause too much fluid to collect in your vessels, which can affect the amount of pressure needed to push your blood through.
• Stress, worry or anxiety. The thoughts and emotions you carry may affect your blood pressure levels. If you are constantly worried or anxious, your blood pressure may gradually increase and over time, can become more difficult to address.

But there are natural alternatives you can try to help promote healthier blood pressure levels. Remove foods from your diet that are low in nutrient content—including packaged, greasy, sugary and highly preserved foods such as fast food and soda. Replace them with nutrient-rich whole foods such as fruits and dark-colored, leafy vegetables and cut back on starchy types of vegetables (potatoes, corn and beans).

Other tips that may help keep your blood pressure in check include consuming at least 50 percent of your diet in raw-food form… changing from processed table salt to natural sea salt… and including herbal supplements in your daily regimen. Many of these can be found at your local health food store:

• Ginkgo biloba
• Hawthorne berry
• Dandelion leaf tea
• Fresh ginger tea
• Krill or fish oil
• Niacin

All the best!
Michael Cutler, M.D.

I have read so much about the ill effects sugar has on a person’s health but I love a sweet taste in food and am not willing to give it up entirely. So I switched to artificial sweeteners only to find out that they might even be worse. I’ve read about natural sugar replacements that are safe to use. Are you in agreement with that? If so, would you please tell me more?

—Rae M.

Dear Rae,

I recommend you use turbinado, rapadura or sucanat to replace brown sugar, white sugar and powdered sugar. You can pick your favorite from the bulk section of a health food store and store it in an airtight container for an increased shelf life.

If you’re unfamiliar with sugar substitutes let me explain that…

• Turbinado is evaporated cane sugar juice that has been crystallized.
• Rapadura is essentially pure-dried sugarcane juice.
• Sucanat is non-refined cane sugar that has not had the molasses removed from it.

Plus, other safe and natural sweeteners and their extracts that I also recommend are stevia (an herb), xylitol (wood sugar or birch sugar), agave nectar (cactus-like plant in Mexico) and Grade B maple syrup.

All the best!
Michael Cutler, M.D.

In my last blood test to check my kidneys, my creatinine level was within the normal range, I believe, at 1.1 mg/dL. But an additional test called the BUN test was also done, and my level was 59 but should have been near 70. I’m afraid my kidneys might not be filtering as well as they should. Along with drinking plenty of water, could you recommend any supplement that I could take to help support the health of my kidneys?

—Irene P.

Dear Irene,

First, be sure to discuss any problems and concerns with your personal physician as I am unable to provide you with that service. But I can tell you that since creatinine is a waste molecule produced by muscle metabolism and filtered out by the kidneys, the kidneys basically keep the blood creatinine in the normal range. Creatinine is a fairly reliable indicator of kidney function since the level in the blood will rise due to poor clearance by the kidneys if the kidneys are impaired or malfunctioning. Your level of 1.1 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) is within the normal range.

The blood urea nitrogen (BUN) test is also used as a measurement of renal function. It reflects the urea nitrogen balance in the blood, and urea nitrogen is a waste product of protein metabolism by the liver, which is removed from the blood by the kidneys. Your level suggests perhaps you are low on protein intake, but it’s not at a level that you should worry about. This level fluctuates according to what you ate last, and the amount of time between when you last ate and when you had your blood drawn for the test.

As for supplements to promote good kidney health, you might try dandelion and olive leaf extracts, which are known to assist kidney filtration.  

All the best!
Michael Cutler, M.D.

My husband has been told his abdominal muscles are weak and this can impact his health. I wanted to know if there is anything my husband can do to improve his situation.

—Pat H.

Dear Pat,

A weak abdominal wall definitely requires support to maintain the health of the organs inside the abdominal cavity. There are natural products to enhance connective tissue strength. Some of these include…

• Testosterone hormone (check your level first)
• Krill oil, vitamins B6, B12, E and C
• Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM), collagen, chondroitin sulfate and hyaluronic acid

Your husband should also include daily exercise and nutrient-rich foods to help maintain a healthy weight, if this is a factor.

All the best!
Michael Cutler, M.D.

I suffer from irritable bowels and constipation and have seen your list of foods that can cause flare-ups. I’ve had an endless variety of tests and have avoided the foods on your list, but I still can’t determine what is causing my problems. These episodes are quite painful, and any suggestions you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

—Brad B.

Dear Brad,

It sounds as if your symptoms may be triggered by allergies, but your immune system can be triggered by causes other than foods alone. Unfortunately, these triggers are much more difficult to discover without specialized testing of your blood and urine. These immune system triggers include…

• Vitamins, drugs and food additives
• Pollens, perfumes, dust or other manufactured chemicals
• Viruses, bacteria, fungi or parasites
• Bites, stings, injected drugs, immunizations
• Painful memories from the past or present

However, there is an alternative to standard blood and skin tests through bio-energy science. Its science stems from acupuncture in which your body is known to have subtle bio-electric pathways. And when there are blockages in these pathways, your body gets out of balance which results in allergy symptoms. I have personally witnessed many patients experience dramatic symptom reversal when the allergic triggers to the immune system were identified and removed.

All the best!
Michael Cutler, M.D.

Recently, I’ve read online that fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome are similar, but that chronic fatigue doesn’t produce much pain. The treatment protocol the article suggested was guaifenesin. I’ve had my heart, thyroid and testosterone checked and all three are normal, but I’m afraid I possibly have chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia symptoms. For the last several months, I’ve been taking a CoQ10 supplement to boost my energy. However, my symptoms seem to be getting worse. Do you have any suggestions for me?

—Herbert M.

Dear Herbert,

Although I’m not your primary physician, I can tell you that fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) has multiple possible causes and usually several causes at once—all contributing to the symptoms of pain. In my experience, there is a nutritional component, an allergy component—this may be to foods, environmental allergens or industry-produced chemicals—and an emotional component. Your immune system gets "inflamed" in reaction to these causes, but there are no tests to prove you have a problem.

While coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) does promote improved energy and muscle strength, it’s a poor solution for FMS when used alone. Some folks respond to the safe medication guaifenesin, yet most do not. And there is a long list of viable options with not one of them being an absolute answer. Make an appointment to sit down and talk with your family doctor about possibilities and decide together what may be best for you.

All the best!
Michael Cutler, M.D.

I’m a 60-year-old woman who is plagued with recurring episodes of pancreatitis. Is there anything I can do to minimize the abdominal pain and help prevent being hospitalized for pain control and I.V. fluids?

—Lulu M.

Dear Lulu,

First, you should always seek the advice of your personal physician concerning your pancreatitis. But I can tell you this: for acute pancreatitis, you should immediately begin a diet of only clear liquids and then advance to juicing, along with pain control measures as needed. In general, recurring chronic pancreatitis often improves with cleaning up your diet, which means eating foods that require less of the pancreatic enzymes to digest it.

So what should you eat? You’ll need to cut out fatty and spicy foods, as well as heavy meals. Also, stop refined sugary baked goods with hydrogenated oils and replace them with high fiber (like cooked veggies). And be sure to include omega-3 oils such as cold-pressed fish oil and flax oil.

Next, identify major sources of stress and eliminate them. While you are making these lifestyle modifications, the following supplements can be very useful as a basic regimen for chronic recurring pancreatitis:

• Digestive enzymes with food for four months minimum.
• Vitamin B complex twice daily for six months or more. You can find these at your health food store.
• Lecithin (phosphatidylcholine) taken in a high dose twice daily for four weeks minimum to emulsify fats. You can also find these at your health food store.
• Probiotic blend after meals for two months minimum.

All the best!
Michael Cutler, M.D.

—James L.

Dear James,

Although I cannot be your treating physician in this, I can tell you that the International Normalization Ratio (INR) and the protime (PT) will not change with nattokinase or with vitamin E (also a blood thinner) because these products do not affect the intrinsic pathway of blood coagulation. Therefore, by going off your warfarin—an anticoagulant such as Coumadin^® used to prevent heart attacks, strokes and blood clots in veins and arteries—your INR will drop to 1 but your blood will still be thinning from  the effects of the nattokinase. The challenge is that with nattokinase, you will not be able to do a blood test to give you the assurance that your blood has thinned appropriately.

I urge you to discuss with your family physician any questions or concerns, but I can tell you I have seen the effects clinically from my patients with nattokinase. Plus I have read the studies on mice and humans and I know what I would choose—along with a nutrient-rich, plant-based diet and stress reduction—for any cardiovascular disease condition. It’s your decision.

All the best!
Michael Cutler, M.D.

Dear Dr. Cutler,

I am having a great deal of trouble with gastritis. Can you give me any suggestions about natural ways to help combat the problem without prescription drugs? I’d appreciate any help you could give me.

—Dany D.

Dear Dany,

Please follow your doctor’s recommendations for treatment. But the trick to getting off prescriptions is to first clean up your food choices by eliminating sugary foods, carbonated drinks and greasy fried foods. Your next step would be to find emotional peace by minimizing the stress in your life. And finally, you should add digestive enzymes along with betaine hydrochloric acid (HCl) to each meal. If you make these lifestyle changes, in two months you will likely no longer need your medicines for gastritis.

All the best!
Michael Cutler, M.D.

I would like to share a story with you that I recently read. It was a busy morning at the hospital when an elderly gentleman in his 80s arrived about 8:30 a.m. to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry because he had an appointment at 9:00 a.m. The nurse wasn’t busy with another patient so she evaluated his wound to keep him from having to wait. While removing his sutures, she asked the man if he was hurrying to another doctor’s appointment.

When the man said he was heading to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife, the nurse asked if him if she would be upset if he was late. He replied that his wife suffered from Alzheimer’s and hadn’t recognized him in five years. Surprised, the nurse asked him, “And you still go every morning, even though she doesn’t know who you are?” He smiled as he patted her hand and said, “She doesn’t know me, but I still know her.”

True love is an acceptance of all that is… has been… will be… and will not be. The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have. I hope you share this with someone you care about. I just did.

—Alma R.

Dear Alma,

Thank you. What more can I say? The message is inspiring for all of us who desire happiness and health.

All the best!
Michael Cutler, M.D.