Millions Take This Blood Pressure Pill. Nobody Told Them About the Cough.

Find out why Lisinopril gives you a cough and what to do about it. Learn why a Lisinopril cough isn’t caused by a problem with your lungs but by a buildup of certain chemicals in your airway.

Why does lisinopril give you that Excuse me. Cough. >> [music] >> And what you can actually do about it. If you’re on this medication and you get this cough and you want to get rid of it and unfortunately maybe your doctor says there’s no way you can get rid of it. You’re going to have to just live with it.

What I’m going to share with you today will then cause you to have a completely different conversation when you meet with your doctor next time. Because this cough does not have anything to do with your lungs. It’s caused by a chemical buildup in your airway. One that normally clears in seconds if everything is working correctly and I’m going to share with you what goes wrong and I’m also going to share with you a couple different solutions that actually ask a different question. Why do you have high blood pressure in the first place and what can you do about addressing that?

Lisinopril is an ACE inhibitor. What it does is it blocks the ACE enzyme. What does an ACE enzyme do? It does two things. It raises blood pressure and number two, it sweeps away an irritating chemical from your throat.

So this is the problem with a lot of medications. It comes with a package. When we talk about ACE inhibitors, you’re talking about one of the most prescribed drugs in the world. Over a hundred million prescriptions a year are sold in the US alone. There is something you can do and it’s not just about lowering your medication.

But the big question is why do some people react to this drug yet others don’t? Part of the answer is in the cofactor called zinc. And a lot of people are deficient in zinc making this enzyme have more of an effect on this irritating chemical because you can’t actually get rid of it. And the other problem is the longer you’re on the medication, the more zinc is lost through the body. So zinc is really important in number two, okay, allowing you to release this chemical quickly.

Now, there was a small clinical trial in 2002 that gave people with this cough from the medication just 25 mg of zinc every single day. Their cough severely dropped by 53% versus the 8% on the placebo. So, there’s some good evidence to show you that taking zinc could be the thing that gets rid of that side effect. Another thing that helps zinc work a little bit better is vitamin C. So, you might want to make sure you consume more vitamin C foods.

Just so you know, the foods that are high in zinc are red meat, shellfish, or you could just take a zinc supplement. Make sure you take between 25 and 30, maybe even up to 50 mg per day. You don’t want to take one trace mineral over a long period of time without the other minerals that are involved because all these minerals work together in a perfect balance. For example, zinc works with copper, sodium works with potassium. So, if you were to take zinc in a trace mineral blend, that would be better, especially if you’re going to try to take it long-term.

Harold was one of my patients. He was going to three doctors, he had two chest X-rays, one referral to a pulmonologist, and he was on this medication lisinopril, and he still coughed. Okay, nothing worked. And his wife then gave him some zinc lozenges. You know those things that people suck on to help their immune system.

Well, what was interesting is 3 days later, no coughing at all. He then stopped the zinc lozenges, and he noticed the cough came back. Little did we know at the time it was the zinc that was helping that side effect that he had from the medication. It was the only variable that was involved. He didn’t change his diet, there were no other changes.

So, zinc was the most obvious remedy at that time. So, that’s one solution right here. Take zinc, or ask your doctor to switch your medication. The one drug that you may want to suggest is a drug that ends in sartan, as in low sartan or valsartan. These two medications work differently on the blood pressure, and they don’t cause the cough.

They do create other side effects, but not the coughing. And also, realize that when people are switched to this, sometimes it takes 1 to 4 weeks before that coughing goes away. Or, a third option, which answers the bigger question, what caused high blood pressure in the first place? You will see that the most popular type of hypertension, like 90% of all the different types of hypertension, is called essential hypertension. Sounds pretty scientific, doesn’t it?

Until you understand what this word essential means. It means unknown cause. 90% of hypertension has an unknown cause. Yet, a person is given medication for the rest of their life. Well, I want to share some additional data that has been studied.

I will put the links down below. It’s super credible. There is a cause of hypertension, and one of the biggest drivers is high insulin. The research on this is super credible, and it’s significant, and you definitely want to read it. I will put the link down below.

But, here’s what happens when you have high insulin. It causes the kidneys to hold sodium and water. Thus, the increased blood pressure. So, high insulin is behind a lot of cases of hypertension. Yet, a lot of doctors don’t really talk about it, because they usually never test insulin.

They usually test blood sugar. So, this is really the missing test that should have been done a lot earlier to be able to detect what’s going on. Higher insulin also makes the arteries hardened. And of course, you may or may not know what causes high insulin. It’s the refined carbs and sugars, and also the frequency of eating snacks.

All right, low potassium. You need a tremendous amount of potassium. You need 4,700 mg of potassium every single day. The average person is heavier on the sodium, but they’re very low in the potassium. What if you beefed up your potassium and just didn’t even worry about your sodium?

You probably would be much better off, especially when dealing with high blood pressure. Because the data with just restricting sodium is not very powerful. It’s not very credible in relationship to having influence over your blood pressure. In fact, a lot of people that go low on sodium, they start getting muscle weakness. They start having increased stress.

They have problems with sleeping. They don’t feel quite right. So, there is data that shows that potassium helps to lower blood pressure. Also protects the kidneys, unless you have advanced stage kidney disease. So, I’m going to put that link down below.

If you have low magnesium, you can also have high blood pressure. Also, potassium won’t work without magnesium. So, a lot of times what’s causing high blood pressure is too much calcium. Calcium causes contraction. So, what causes the artery to relax?

With the help of a pump that is dependent on magnesium. So, that’s how it works, and a lot of people have blood pressure problems because of low magnesium, low potassium, and also high amounts of insulin because their diet is too high in carbohydrates. But, all of these relate because the higher the diet is in refined carbohydrates, the more it depletes potassium, the more it also depletes magnesium. I have a free download that I want to give to you. This free download is my daily routine in a checklist.

This is a routine that I use every day to feel like I’m 18 years old, even though I’m 60 years old, and I want to give it to you for free. And so, there’s a little link down below. Click it, and definitely download that. You may have had this problem for a long time. You may be at the point where there’s permanent damage and you’re going to have to live on medication, unfortunately, because there is a point of no return.

But, why not at least try some of these lifestyle factors if it is