Anti-Hypertension Protocol Using Shark Cartilage and Cordyceps Sinesis

Nelson Kraucak, MD, ABFP


It’s an unsolved mystery physicians learn in medical school: if high levels of the enzyme renin cause hypertension than why are 40 percent of low-renin patients also hypertensive?

I have discovered the work of a researcher that may explain the mystery of why low-renin people can still suffer from hypertension. This researcher, Dr. Peter Pang, has found two natural, anti-hypertensive substances, which I’ve used to significantly lower my patients’ blood pressure.

Kidney cells produce the enzyme renin, which causes a cascade that eventually results in hypertension. In the blood, renin splits a large peptide into a smaller peptide that’s then cleaved by another enzyme called the angiotensin-converting enzyme. This converting enzyme breaks down into an even smaller peptide called angiotensin 2, which causes blood pressure to rise in high-renin patients. In fact, many hypertensive drugs block this enzyme, preventing the conversion of angiotensin 1 into 2 that results in hypertension.

Clinical Experience
Before addressing Dr. Pang’s research and the principals behind why Cordyceps sinesis and shark cartilage improve blood pressure, I will discuss my clinical perspectives. Over the years, I’d tried various blood-pressure-lowering substances and achieved positive results. I was, however, searching for more consistent and dramatic improvement.

I first treat with 500 mg of magnesium, 3 times per day up to bowel tolerance, which sometimes is enough to stabilize blood pressure. More often, I’ll need to add L-carnitine (250 - 500 mg. once or twice per day) and CoQ10 (30 milligrams once or twice per day).

Next, I began to incorporate into my treatment regimens usually 1 capsule three times per day of Pressure-FX®, which includes Cordyceps sinesis and shark cartilage. Approximately 65 percent of my patients who use the Cordyceps sinesis/shark cartilage combination experience a significant improvement in blood pressure—and that’s a conservative estimate. Most times, Pressure-FX with magnesium and CoQ10 produces a significant improvement in blood pressure. Occasionally, a patient must also be maintained on blood pressure medication, but in these instances the drug dosage can be reduced considerably after using Pressure-FX.

Younger patients seem to respond better and faster to Pressure-FX. In addition, patients with longstanding hypertension seem to have a delayed response that can take up to two months. Neither my patients nor I have observed any side effects with Pressure-FX.

I will present two case studies to paint a clearer picture of the improvement seen with shark cartilage and Cordyceps sinesis.

Case Study Number One
A 64-year-old male pilot had excessively high blood pressure: 180/110. I started him immediately on magnesium, carnitine and Pressure-FX because his blood pressure was so high I worried about his stroke risk.

On subsequent visits his blood pressure dropped to 150s or 160s over 80s or 90s. The best readings occurred when he was compliant with the protocol. The patient remarked that often he’d forget to take the shark cartilage/Cordyceps combination because he felt so good. When he consistently adds magnesium with the Pressure-FX and CoQ10, his blood pressure usually remains in the 130s over 70s—a significant drop from his pre-treatment readings.

Case Study Number Two
A 57-year-old male first presented with blood pressure in the 180s/90s. Treatment included Pressure-FX (1 cap twice per day), magnesium and chelation therapy. The slightly lower Pressure-FX dose was to facilitate patient compliance, as he found it difficult to remember to take the third dose. The patient’s blood pressure dropped to 120/70.

The Calcium-PHF Connection
As I mentioned earlier, the discovery that shark cartilage and Cordyceps may support healthy blood pressure levels occurred as a result of research by Dr. Peter Pang, a Yale-trained pharmacologist and a University of Alberta professor emeritus. Dr. Pang set out to provide a preliminary answer to whether another factor besides high renin levels could cause hypertension. He was aware that certain circulating factors in both hypertensive rats and hypertensive humans increase intracellular calcium. Studies indicated that these circulating factors and the resulting rise in intracellular calcium may result in hypertension.

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) is a calcium-regulating hormone. Thirty percent or more of essential hypertension patients have increased immunoreactive parathyroid hormone levels. In fact, hyperparathyroid patients often experience hypertension, which is reduced after parathyroidectomy. Consequently, researchers have hypothesized that PTH is responsible for hypertension. But if PTH is indeed the culprit behind high blood pressure, why does PTH administration reduce blood pressure in mammals and other vertebrates? This could be because PTH also inhibits calcium entry into vascular smooth muscle.

Dr. Pang studied this contradiction and searched for a hypertensive-circulating factor in the blood of spontaneously hypertensive rats. After his research team injected or infused the plasma from hypertensive rats into normal rats, the normal rats’ blood pressure increased. In another experiment, by taking plasma from hypertensive human subjects and infusing it into rats with normal blood pressure, the researchers produced hypertension in the animals. When plasma from normal subjects was used, the animals experienced no blood pressure increase. Furthermore, plasma from the hypertensive humans also caused an increase in the calcium uptake of rat tail arteries in vitro.1

Clearly, the agent responsible for the hypertension resided in the blood. Although the precise nature of this circulating factor remained a mystery, clues to its identity could be found in reports that parathyroid hormone was elevated in hypertensive rats, indicating the circulating factor originated in the parathyroid gland. In fact, parathyroidectomies of hypertensive rats reduced blood pressure in the animals. In addition, plasma from parathyroidectomized hypertensive rats did not cause blood pressure elevation in rats with normal blood pressure. When researchers transplanted parathyroid glands from hypertensive rats into rats with normal blood pressure, the normotensive rats experienced blood pressure increase.2,4

Dr. Pang and colleagues determined that the circulating factor responsible for hypertension originated in the parathyroid gland. They named this circulating factor Parathyroid Hypertensive Factor (PHF). Since then, the researchers have isolated PHF in hypertensive rats and in humans with high blood pressure.3-5

Research indicates high renin is a definite cause of hypertension in about 15 – 20 percent of patients. Yet 40 percent of hypertensive patients are low in renin. High PHF levels correlate with this low-renin group of patients.

Shark Cartilage/Cordyceps
In any anti-hypertension regimen, physicians are groping in the dark because there’s no easily accessible and affordable test to determine whether a patient’s hypertension is the result of high renin, high PHF or some other factor. Consequently, physicians will test anti-hypertensive drugs one by one—from beta blockers to calcium antagonists to angiotensin-converter enzyme inhibitors—until they find the effective medication. Conversely, shark cartilage and Cordyceps in combination work as broad spectrum anti-hypertensives, supporting healthy blood pressure of both high-PHF and high-renin patients.

In studying their effects on animals, Dr. Pang discovered these two substances are powerful PHF antagonists. Researchers believe the parathyroid hypertensive factor antagonist in shark cartilage binds to the parathyroid hypertensive factor site without activating actual PHF activity. Furthermore, shark cartilage administration decreased blood pressure and affected intracellular calcium regulation in rats.6

Based on reports that Cordyceps sinensis also could lower blood pressure in anesthetized dogs, that it possessed calcium antagonist activity in vitro, and that it could benefit PHF-related diseases, Dr. Pang explored Cordyceps’ hypotensive effects. He found that in rats, Cordyceps resulted in a dose-dependent blood pressure reduction. All three Cordyceps preparations used also triggered a dose-dependent relaxation of extracellular calcium dependent contractions. The results confirmed that Cordyceps is hypotensive, that it could influence muscular contractility force and that it’s a vasorelaxant in rats.7

A group of physicians used Dr. Pang’s research to build a clinical study of 102 hypertensive humans using Pressure-FX, a proprietary formula of shark cartilage and Cordyceps.8 Seventy-four patients had mild hypertension and 28 patients moderate hypertension. The researchers studied the subjects for 3 to 12 months.

In addition to using one to three capsules of Pressure-FX per day, all the subjects increased consumption of vegetables, legumes and fruits, avoided foods linked to lipid peroxidation and supplemented with calcium, magnesium, potassium and vitamin C. Eighty-seven of the patients also received 10 to 20 intravenous EDTA sessions.

The study results revealed a dramatic blood pressure drop in patients using Pressure-FX. Before the study, mean blood pressure was 171.42+ 18.08 mm Hg (systolic) and 107.95+ 6.75 mm Hg (diastolic). After using Pressure-FX, blood pressure dropped to 126.13 + 13.48 (systolic) and 83.36 + 10.23 mm Hg (diastolic).

In the absence of the shark cartilage/Cordyceps combination, 50 to 60 percent of the subjects responded to the mineral supplementation and lifestyle modifications. Once Pressure-FX was added, 88 percent responded with significantly reduced blood pressure. With Pressure-FX, 63 of 84 patients were able to stop their blood pressure medication and maintain normal blood pressure. Twenty-one patients needed to use both an anti-hypertensive drug and Pressure-FX in order to maintain normal blood pressure.

At first, researchers speculated that shark cartilage and Cordyceps’ anti-hypertensive effect was due exclusively to its PHF-inhibiting ability. Recently, however, Dr. Pang discovered that these two natural substances may lower hypertension in both high-renin patients and high-PHF patients. If shark cartilage and Cordyceps worked only by inhibiting high PHF, then Pang wouldn’t have expected to see more than 40 percent of patients respond to these two substances. Yet, physicians and researchers consistently have noted a response rate far more than 40 percent. However, Dr. Pang says, individuals with high-PHF have a much greater chance of responding.

Beyond Hypertension
PHF has been implicated in other diseases relating to intracellular calcium levels. In diabetics, intracellular calcium is elevated in insulin’s target cells, preventing the cells’ receptors from responding to insulin. Dr. Pang and colleagues conducted a study of 400 diabetic patients, which showed PHF is correlated with type 2 diabetes.9 High PHF levels also have been connected to breast and colon cancer.

Conclusion
A little-recognized circulating factor, PHF, may play a role in a variety of diseases. By locating PHF-inhibiting substances, Dr. Pang may have solved an interesting medical mystery.

My patients’ success using the PHF-lowering extracts contained in Pressure-FX confirms Dr. Pang’s research in a clinical setting and indicates these two natural substances may be part of an anti-hypertension protocol.

References
1. Pang PKT, Yang MCM, Shew R, Tenner TE Jr. The vasorelaxant action of parathyroid hormone fragments on isolated rat tail artery. Blood Vessels. 1985; 22: 57-64.

2. Pang PKT, Lewanczuk RZ. Parathyroid origin of a new circulating hypertensive factor in spontaneously hypertensive rats. Am J. Hypertension. 1989; 2:898-902.

3. Lewanczuk RZ, Resnick LM, Blumenfeld JD. Laragh JH, Pang PKT. A new circulating hypertensive factor in the plasma of essential hypertensive subjects. J Hypertens. 1990;8:105-108.

4. Pernot F, Burkhard C, Gairard. Parathyroid cross-transplantation and development of high blood pressure in rats. J Cardiovasc Pharmacol. 1994;23(2): S18-S22.

5. Pang PKT, Benishin CG, Shan J, Lewanczuk RZ. Parathyroid Hypertensive Factor: A new vasoactive substance from the parathyroid gland. In "Calcium Regulating Hormones and Cardiovascular Function," MF Crass and LV Avioloi (eds.), CRC Press Inc., Boca Raton, Florida, 111-130, 1995.

6. Communication with Peter Pang, Ph.D., professor emeritus, University of Alberta, December 2001.

7. Pang PKT, Shan JJ, Chiu KW. The Cardiovascular Effects of Cordyceps Sinensis in Normotensive Rats. Journal of Chinese Medicine. 1996; 7(2): 153-167.

8. Malina O, Malina M, Kotsifas G, Moraes IP, Manzochi BH. Treatment of Mild to Moderate Arterial Hypertension with Pressure-FX®. Unpublished research. Instituto de Medicina Ortomolecular, Parana, Brazil.

9. Ho MS, Lewanczuk RZ, The BH, Lee SC, Pang PKT. Parathyroid hypertensive factor and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. J Cardiovasc Pharmacol. 1994; 23(Suppl. 2): S31-S34.