Coping: With the Odd Blood Pressure Question

A number of readers have asked questions like this one:

I noticed that you posted your BP results…I am presently sitting around 150 over 92 with 4mg of coversill.

May I ask what you did to get it down so nicely?  Brian

I could wax on all day about blood pressure, and I am NOT a doctor, so don’t do anything without talking to your healthcare professional.

Having said that…let me go into the long rap…

Data, Data, Data

The very first truth about blood pressure is that it changes all the time. I decided a couple of years ago when my doc put me on HZTZ that it was time to get serious about the problem.  In order to do that, I needed data.  So I picked up a couple of blood pressure cuffs (click on the link, they’re about $40 bucks).

Then I got to logging my personal blood pressure 4-6 times a day and noticing the changes in diet, nutrition, and vitamins and herbs and what-not that seem to make a difference for me.  Your results will differ.

First thing is weight.  If you are packing around an extra 20 pounds (or more) from ideal body weight, you will likely have higher than optimum blood pressure.  But that’s not true for everyone because I’m chunked up at 220+ and still had a reading this morning of 119/68 pulse 62 – that’s at age 65.9.

Hereditary effects matter greatly, too.  On my mother’s side there’s pure Danish blood and few Danes look anemic.  The Scottish side of me…a bit thinner…Dad was I think 185 at his high pointe, but you can get a decent idea of which side of your family you take after by looking at pictures.

Then consider getting an outfit to actually run your DNA and from that, you can begin to optimize your eating style.

Before you change anything, collect at least a week’s worth of data.  The more, the merrier.

The Diet Part

My DNA turns out to be northern European T-6 haplotype, so it’s less grains and more cold weather veggies because that’s what grows in that part of the world.  So I go very light on flour and breads.  Oh, sure, I will break down and gorge on cottage cheese pancakes, or nutmeg spiced French toast once a week, or so.  But mainly it’s meat and vegetables.

Worst stuff in the world on the diet side is sugars.  They seem to  have a negative impact on my next-day blood pressure, and so does alcohol.  The more you can eliminate sugar, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) the better off you’ll be.

Blood pressure (to me, and remember, I’m nuts and this ain’t medical advice) is a symptom of inflammation.  If your body is on the very of an allergic reaction to something, what happens?  You pump adrenalin and such.  Allergy awareness is therefore important.

If you feel “shaky or weird” after eating something (any time from 10-minutes to 10-hours, figure out what it is that triggers it.  Then eliminate it.

Stimulants are Terrible

I love coffee.  It’s like the Danish national drink and a nice Arabica, home-roasted is marvelous.  Just, not for me.  A seriously decaffeinated (water process, not chemical) is all I can handle with just one exception.

There’s a tea carried by Kroger’s under their Private Selection brand that’s Ginseng and Green tea with Lemon.  Two cups of that and sweetened with Stevia (no sugar, remember?) and I’m “up” for the day.

On the rare occasion when I have an incredible amount of (boring) work to do, there’s one pill of Revive+ Smooth Energy.  It’s a mix of green and black tea along with African mango and aloe Vera gel powder.  The energy comes on smoothly, holds well, and drops off without jitters, but that depends on your body chemistry.

Liquids and Salt

Other than too many pounds, the quickest way to high blood pressure is probably salt.  We used to use sea salt but turned out (for us, anyway) that we ended up needing iodine supplementation (various sea weed extracts) in order to really feel good.  (Elaine likes good Scotch, too, lol.)

The salt we are ridiculously happy with is the Morton Lite Salt. It’s a mix of the regular sodium chloride, but with potassium salt, as well, so you get less sodium.

In order to have decent health, you’ve got to drink good water, too.  I don’t go overboard on water purification systems, but we only drink the water that comes out of the refrigerator and that’s been through a filter that gets changed every three months, or so. 

Exercise Matters

Part of keeping blood pressure down is exercise.  I can’t overstate this one too much, I don’t believe:  If you are active and do real workouts, then you will likely be less prone to high blood pressure.

When I notice my own BP heading back up to the 130 range, I become something of a madman/detective.  Did I eat some salty food?  (This is usually it…)

If not, have I slipped back into lard-ass mode?  And, what, exactly is that?

This weekend, I got the railing on the small deck built.  About a five-hour project.  Sunday was spent on the tractor cleaning up 4+ acres and pushing up burn piles.  Driving a 4-by-4 tractor may not seem particularly strenuous, but it is terribly hard on your body.  Bouncing all over hell and gone isn’t the half of it.

Somehow, we managed to get some water in the diesel fuel, so the 5-hours was with rubber gloves on and during the first hour, I was on and off the tractor a dozen times, or more, to take the fuel oil filter off, drain out the water, reassemble, restart, and resume.  As if that wasn’t enough on and off tractoring, every half-hour, or so, the seeds off taller brush would clog up the intake screen, so that came out and was slapped around, reassembled, restart, and resume.

This morning, I was seriously thinking about taking heavy-duty pain pills, the lower back hurts that badly. There is still another 15+ acres to groom.  And if it doesn’t happen by the middle of March, the place will look like we don’t own a tractor.  Diesel is cheap and by summer, the reduced risk of wild fire is worth it…Where were we?

Supplements

I  mentioned I take Now Foods: Adam Superior Men’s Multiple Vitamin, 90 vcaps (2 pack) and Elaine takes (what else?)  Now Foods Eve, Women’s Multi Vitamin, Softgels, 180-Count.

In addition, I take the following:

• L-Carnosine
• Celery seed
• Blueberry extract
• Alpha lipoic acid
• 1 baby aspirin
• 20,000 IU Vitamin D3
• PQQ

There are others, depending on how I feel, but those are the highlights.

I’m not making any claims about any of this stuff other than it seems to work for me.  Work with your doctor, do a lot of reading and over time you should be able to come up with a plan that fits your unique needs.

Latest Anti-Gravity Research

Reader Gary contributes a link to research which is going in the direction of Edward Leedskalnin’s work down at Coral Castle, Florida.

Of course, there’s a small difference between small bits of plastic and giant rocks weighing 10-tons, or more.  At the present rate of research, we’ll finally achieve anti-gravity in…uh…900 centuries, or so.

True Tales of the Wild North

I can tell when the overnight data runs at the www.nostracodeus.com project are running light.  Canadian jokes start to show up from Grady:

After the North American Beer Festival, all the brewery presidents decided to go out for a beer. The guy from Corona sits down and says, ‘Hey Senor, I would like the world’s best beer, a Corona .’ The bartender dusts off a bottle from the shelf and gives it to him.

The guy from Budweiser says, ‘I’d like the best beer in the world, give me ‘The King Of Beers’, a Budweiser.’ The bartender gives him one..
The guy from Coors says, ‘I’d like the only beer made with Rocky Mountain spring water, give me a Coors.’ He gets it.

The guy from Molson Canadian sits down and says, ‘Give me a Coke.’ The bartender is a little taken aback, but gives him what he ordered.
The other brewery presidents look over at him and ask, ‘Why aren’t you drinking a Molson’s?’

The Molson Canadian president replies, ‘Well, I figured if you guys aren’t drinking beer, neither would I.’

(rim shot)

OK, more work and then more work…sheesh.

Write when you break-even

George  george@ure.net