If you are on blood pressure medications
it is crucial that you read this section.
Many of our competitors use natural ingredients that may be effective in lowering your blood pressure or your cholesterorl, but they do not tell you any of the cautions that go along with these ingredients. We as a company have chosen not to use these specific ingredients because they do not mix into water or the risk to you may be too great, especially if you are on specific cardiovascular drugs.
Hawthorn
While hawthorn is very powerful and generally considered safe to use, there are also some strong precautions that need to be considered. In short,
if you are taking hypertensives, beta blockers, ace inhibitors, nitroglycerine, sildenafil citrate (Viagra and others like it) you will need to adjust these medications, sometimes drastically.
Unfortunately, most people who go to their doctor to make these adjustments find that their doctors are ignorant about drug/herb interactions and will not know what to do.
Since a large percentage of our customers are already on medications, we consider it best to allow them to buy hawthorn separately if they want to.
Here are the cautions and drug interactions for hawthorn as listed on Whole Health MD:
General Interaction
- If you take prescription heart medications, consult your doctor before taking hawthorn. Dosages of prescription medications may need to be lowered or altered in some other way when taken along with hawthorn. Never stop taking a prescription heart medication (or alter the dosage) without consulting your doctor.
- The effect of the following classes of drugs may be dangerously increased by hawthorn:
antihypertensive; calcium channel blockers (including amlodipine, diltiazem, verapamil); beta blockers (including atenolol, metoprolol, propranolol); ACE inhibitors (including benazepril, enalapril, fosinopril); digitalis drugs and cardiac glycosides (including digitoxin, digoxin); and nitrates (including amyl nitrate, nitroglycerin, sildenafil citrate, isosorbide mononitrate, and dinitrate)
Cautions
- Because of hawthorn’s strength and its effects on such a vital organ as the heart, consult your doctor before taking this herb. It’s best not to take it if you already have low blood pressure. And don’t expect hawthorn to help stop an acute attack of angina; it isn’t capable of doing this.
- Hawthorn is generally recognized as safe, although such side effects as nausea, sweating, fatigue, and rashes do develop on occasion. The herb can also drastically lower blood pressure and cause such symptoms as dizziness and fainting, even in people who have normal blood pressure and do not suffer from heart disease. Stop taking hawthorn and consult your doctor if any of these reactions occur.
Potassium
Cautions
If you take a medication to control high blood pressure or heart disease, or if you have a kidney disorder, never take potassium supplements without medical supervision. Consuming potassium-rich foods is fine. Scientists have long known that potassium helps maintain blood pressure. According to the latest studies, people who regularly consume high-potassium foods, such as bananas, avocados, and yogurt, have lower blood pressure than those who don’t, however most people get enough in their diet.
Definitely avoid potassium supplements if you take drugs known as potassium-sparing diuretics, anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs – such as Aspirin, ibuprophen, Aleve, etc.), beta-blockers, or an ACE inhibitor for high blood pressure or Angina.
Because of the risk of various complications, consult your doctor before combining a digitalis drug (cardiac glycoside) with supplemental potassium.
Since many of our customers are on the drugs listed above, we do not include potassium in Tikva. The risks of taking potassium in supplement form are many and require a doctors supervision. It would be wise to read this information from WholeHealthMD – Click Here
Vitamin K
While Vitamin K2 “MK-7” would be a valuable addition to our product. We are unable to put enough of it into the formula to be beneficial and to keep our product affordable. Research shows in order to make a real difference, you need to take over 1,000 mcg daily.
Some of our competitors put in just enough of an ingredient to say that it is in there. We do not believe this is how things should be done.
We really searched hard for a source of Vitamin K2 “MK-7” that was affordable. The result was that we recently added it to our additional products on this website for those who want it.
Grape Skin Extract
As a dietary supplement, grape seed extract which is in Tikva is a very popular choice as it provides more benefits than grape skin extract. In addition to containing excellent levels of resveratrol, grape seed extract boasts flavonoids and other beneficial ingredients which help improve platelet function and provides a host of other benefits.
72 Trace Minerals
Any kind of seafood and fish contains all 72 trace minerals. Some of the trace minerals exist in our soil thus in our vegetables. It is rare for Americans to be deficient in this area.
Biotin
Biotin deficiency is almost unheard of; the only people who seem to be deficient are those on long-term anticonvulsant drugs (for seizures) or antibiotics over the long term, those that eat RAW egg whites regularly, and people in the hospital who get their nutrition through an IV. Cooked egg whites don’t cause any problems, since the part of the raw egg white that binds up the biotin is inactivated when the egg is cooked.
The government doesn’t even have a Recommended Daily Allowance set up for biotin, since we need so little of it and problems are so rare. Instead, they publish an “Adequate Intake, (AI)” which means that officials are fairly sure that the posted amount is going to be enough to cover nearly everyone’s nutrition needs. The AI for biotin is only 30 micrograms a day.
People generally don’t have any issue getting enough Biotin in their diets. It can be found in cheese, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, carrots, almonds, eggs, onions, cabbage, cucumber, cauliflower, goat’s milk, cow’s milk, raspberries, strawberries, halibut, oats, and walnuts.
If you’re eating, you’re getting enough. Those few people who have medical conditions that put them at risk of biotin deficiency will already be getting supplementation as part of their treatments, so unless you regularly consume raw egg whites you’re clear.
You really don’t need to worry so we didn’t want to include it and increase the cost of Tikva.
D-Ribose
D-Ribose is not in Tikva because, for it to have any meaningful benefit, you need several thousand milligrams. This would make Tikva unaffordable. We refuse to add an ingredient just to say “it’s in there” for sales and marketing purposes.
Sucralose
While sucralose (Splenda) is definately a very sweet no calorie sweetner, the down sides are well described on these two websites.
http://www.splendaexposed.com/
http://www.holisticmed.com/splenda/
Ginkgo Biloba
While Ginkgo Biloba certainly has memory benefits, those with cardiovascular issues should be aware of these cautions from the National Institutes of Health
Do NOT take these drugs and Ginkgo together without being monitored by your doctor:
Ibuprofen, aspirin, clopidogrel (Plavix), diuretic drugs and blood thinners such as Hydrochlorothiazide,
dalteparin (Fragmin), enoxaparin (Lovenox), heparin, indomethacin (Indocin), ticlopidine (Ticlid), warfarin (Coumadin), and others. In addition taking ginkgo with omeprazole (Prilosec) might decrease how well omeprazole (Prilosec) works.
Diabetes: Ginkgo might interfere with the management of diabetes. If you have diabetes, monitor your blood sugar closely.
Seizures: There is a concern that ginkgo might cause seizures. If you have ever had a seizure, don’t use ginkgo.
Ginseng
The American medical journals clearly chronicle case studies involving severe side effects from chronic ginseng users. Ginseng should not be used uninterruptedly for long periods of time. It is recommended that ginseng be taken for two months and then stopped for a full month, before it can be resumed again. This is not acceptable when it is part of a formula that needs to be taken daily.
The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) states that ginseng should not be taken by people with hypertension (high blood pressure) since it is likely that ginseng can have variable effects on blood pressure. Some patients experience hypertension and some experience hypotension.
Also, in patients with congestive heart failure, ginseng is known to react with digoxin, and exacerbate its effects.
In addition, ginseng is likely to interact with Coumadin, an anticoagulation drug. This caution should be clearly noted!
Red Yeast Rice
Caution:
The active ingredient that makes red yeast rice effective is lovastatin, which is a generic statin drug for cholesterol. Red yeast rice can be potentially dangerous because there is no way for you to know what level or quality of lovastatin might be in it. Lovastatin can interact with other medications you may take and harm your health. In addition, lovastatin can cause severe muscle problems and liver damage. We feel there are safer alternatives.
Cayenne
The evidence that this ingredient lowers blood pressure is weak at best and so we did not feel it was beneficial enough to add to the cost of Tikva. Also because it is a liquid it would make Tikva hard to drink.
Red Wine Extract
We use 95% OPC Grape Seed Extract instead. OPC (Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins) Grape Seed Extract is a set of bioflavonoid complexes (polyphenols and flavonoids) that perform as free radical scavengers in the human body. OPC bioflavonoids were first noticed in the laboratory because they have the uncanny ability to strengthen blood vessel walls within hours after taking them. Our OPC Grape Seed Extract is naturally extracted, so there are NO chemical or solvent residues and is a 120 seed per milligram extract (120:1), which is the highest in the industry, containing a full 95% Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins (OPCs).
Lemon Balm Extract
While lemon balm is good for you, we couldn’t add it to Tikva because it tastes so awful. We simply couldn’t sufficiently camouflage it with our natural sweeteners and flavorings.
Folate (Folic Acid)
Results published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggest dietary folate intake may be positively associated with postmenopausal breast cancer.
Unfortunately there is so much controversy surrounding Folic acid and breast cancer, that we chose to eliminate it and substitute the more potent ingredient TMG in its place.
Garlic
The only reason that garlic is not in our product is because no matter how much you deoderize it, as soon as you put it in water, it immediately smells and tastes like garlic. Obviously you wouldn’t want to go around smelling like garlic all day.