Blood pressure: "stop the tablets once BP is normal".
As forwarded
"Stop BP tablets once your BP is normal; garlic or lauki juice replaces them." One Instagram version: "This green juice can help you stop taking BP (blood pressure) medicine within seven days."
Instagram post fact-checked by Medical Dialogues in September 2026 [S1]. The same fact-checker has also examined "a clove of garlic a day cures high blood pressure" (not opened for this research). Reach figure: not available. Reach not available
Verdict
A normal reading on tablets usually means the tablets are working; stopping on your own lets pressure climb back, often with no symptoms. Garlic may lower blood pressure slightly but has no proof of preventing strokes, and bitter lauki juice has killed people. Change BP medicines only with your doctor.
What the evidence says
What is right. Diet does matter for blood pressure: less salt, regular exercise, weight loss, limiting alcohol and not smoking all help lower it. [S3] And doctors do sometimes reduce or stop BP medicines, under monitoring. [S4]
High blood pressure is silent. "Most people with hypertension don't feel any symptoms." An estimated 1.4 billion adults aged 30–79 had hypertension in 2024, and only about 23% had it controlled. "Reducing hypertension prevents heart attack, stroke and kidney damage", and WHO advises "Take medicines as prescribed by your health care professional". [S2] The NHS notes many people need more than one medicine to keep it under control. [S3]
What happens when tablets stop. A 2025 Cochrane review of six trials (1,073 adults aged 50 and over, mostly planned withdrawal, followed for 4 to 56 weeks) found stopping raised systolic pressure by about 9.75 mmHg and diastolic by 3.5 mmHg (low certainty). It found little to no difference in deaths, hospital stays and strokes over these short follow-ups, but the evidence was low to very low certainty and the authors say firm conclusions cannot be drawn. These were monitored withdrawals in selected people, not people stopping on their own. [S4]
Garlic. A Cochrane review found only two small placebo-controlled trials in people with hypertension (87 patients). Garlic may lower blood pressure by roughly 10–12 mmHg systolic and 6–9 mmHg diastolic, but the estimates are imprecise and neither trial reported deaths, heart attacks or strokes: "There is insufficient evidence to determine if garlic provides a therapeutic advantage versus placebo". [S5]
Lauki (bottle gourd) juice. An ICMR expert committee investigated three deaths and 26 hospital admissions after people drank freshly made bottle gourd juice. Patients had vomiting, vomiting of blood (73%), diarrhoea (69%), low blood pressure (over half) and extensive ulceration of the stomach and gut; all three who died were over 59 with long-standing diabetes and described the juice as extremely bitter. The toxicity was attributed to bitter compounds called cucurbitacins, with no known antidote. The committee advised avoiding bottle gourd juice that tastes bitter. [S6]
What to do instead
Face drooping, arm weakness or slurred speech: call 112 or 108 now. [S7] For chest pain, see heart attack warning signs.
Keep taking BP tablets as prescribed, even when readings are normal. [S2]
If you want to cut down, ask your doctor; any reduction should be planned, with blood pressure checks afterwards. [S4]
Lifestyle changes help alongside tablets: less salt, regular exercise, weight loss if needed, less alcohol, no smoking. [S3]
Never drink bottle gourd juice that tastes bitter. If you get vomiting or stomach pain, or vomit blood, after drinking it, go to hospital at once. [S6]
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Sources
- S1Medical Dialogues. Fact check: can green juice cure high BP and eliminate medication in 7 days?Circulation only; not evidence
medicaldialogues.in/fact-check/fact-check-can-green-juice-cure-high-bp-and-eliminate-medication-in-7-days-148392 - S2World Health Organization. Hypertension fact sheet.Tier 2
who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hypertension - S3NHS. High blood pressure: treatment.Tier 4
nhs.uk/conditions/high-blood-pressure-hypertension/treatment - S4Gnjidic D, Reeve E et al. Withdrawal of antihypertensive drugs in older people. Cochrane CD012572.Tier 1
cochrane.org/evidence/CD012572_withdrawal-antihypertensive-drugs-older-people - S5Stabler SN et al. Garlic for the prevention of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in hypertensive patients. Cochrane CD007653.Tier 1
cochrane.org/evidence/CD007653_garlic-hypertension - S6ICMR Expert Committee. Assessment of effects on health due to consumption of bitter bottle gourd juice. Indian Journal of Medical Research 2012;135:49–55.Tier 2 / Tier 3
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22382183 - S7
Tiers are as graded in the research file. "Circulation only" sources document that a claim circulates and are never cited as evidence. Where a primary paper could not be opened, the page says so in the Honest note.
Reviewed by
Every evidence sentence on this page traces to the sources listed above, but no registered physician has yet signed it off. When one has, their name, registration number and date of review will appear here. Until then, read this page as a sourced guide, not as medical advice: for any symptom, call 108 or 112, or see a doctor.
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