Anti-hypertension protocol using shark cartilage and Cordyceps sinesis - herb in Chinese medicine

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Feb-March, 2002 by Nelson Kraucak

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

Because of these studies, Dr. Pang and his 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 many humans with high blood pressure.

An interesting characteristic of PHF is that it leads to sodium retention. This may partially explain why hypertensive patients with low-renin and rats with PHF retain sodium. PHF also leads to calcium retention, and is a likely explanation for the high intracellular calcium levels seen in many hypertensive patients.

The discovery of PHF, Dr. Pang believes, goes one step beyond renin. For 30 years, scientists have studied high renin levels and research indicates it is a definite cause of hypertension in about 15-20% of patients. And yet 40% of hypertensive patients are low in renin. High PHF levels correlate with this low-renin group of patients.

Shark Cartilage/Cordyceps

In any treatment regimen for hypertension, physicians are essentially groping in the dark because there is no way to determine the etiology of the hypertension. There is no easily accessible and affordable test to determine whether a patient's high blood pressure is the result of high renin, high PHF or some other factor. Consequently, standard pharmaceutical interventions involve a lot of guesswork. Physicians will test anti-hypertensive drugs one by one -- from beta blockers to calcium antagonists to a angiotensin-converter enzyme inhibitor -- until the physician finds the effective medication. Conversely, shark cartilage and Cordyceps in combination appear to work as broad spectrum anti-hypertensives, lowering the blood pressure of both high-PHF and high-renin patients.

Once Dr. Pang confirmed the connection between PHF and hypertension, he searched for natural substances that would lower PHF and control intracellular calcium levels. Dr. Pang's search led him to shark cartilage and Cordyceps sinensis.

In studying their effects on animals, Dr. Pang discovered these two substances are powerful PHF antagonists. Administration of shark cartilage, which contains a substance that may inhibit tumor angiogenesis and contains an anti-inflammatory component, decreased blood pressure and affected the intracellular calcium regulation in rats. Researchers believe the parathyroid hypertensive factor antagonist in shark cartilage binds to the parathyroid hypertensive factor site without activating the actual activity of PHF.