Blood Pressure -- Experiments and Stategies

[Zero]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R Yuck. I can't imagine eating a cup of rutabaga. Guess I'm not in any danger there.....

Maybe a warning sticker that says, " In most folks, rutabaga rarely reaches the digestive system."

[Nemo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zero I just purchased a tiny rutabaga that looked like a runt of the litter. Got it home and discovered that it was sealed in wax. How am I supposed to get that off of it? So I figure maybe the wax must be edible but will save it until the more enlightened one returns home.

Peel it, (Dear Henry, Dear Henry, well peel it)!

[Zero]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemo2 Peel it, (Dear Henry, Dear Henry, well peel it)!

So you're saying sesame seeds are the key?

I looked online and saw axes being used to remove the skin and wax. Yikes.

[Nemo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zero I looked online and saw axes being used to remove the skin and wax. Yikes.

A cleaver or chef's knife to cut it in half/remove the top/bottom, and then a regular peeling/boning knife to take off the wax.

(Sesame seeds? The "Dear Henry" referred to "There's a hole in the bucket, Dear Liza". )

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemo2 A cleaver or chef's knife to cut it in half/remove the top/bottom, and then a regular peeling/boning knife to take off the wax. (Sesame seeds? The "Dear Henry" referred to "There's a hole in the bucket, Dear Liza". )

There's a Hole in the Bucket (classic Sesame Street) - YouTube

[Nemo2]

Ah, Sesame Street..........being 'old' I remember the Harry Belafonte version.

[Zero]

I bought 10 each 6 oz bags of baby spinach $2/bag, and each bag has 1,260 mg K and only 130 mg Na, so 10 to 1. Eat 3 bags per day. Also bought organic chicken breasts.

Gonna shoot for daily intake of 3,500 mg K and 1,000 Na.

Starting BP was 136/78 at 9:30AM.

[RAE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl We use zero-sodium baking powder, and I buy soft drinks with no sodium, or make my own (e.g. lemonade). .

Al - you might want to try giving up all soft drinks for a while (and even the lemonade mix, which I assume you sweeten with something?), and replace them with water, and see if your BP starts to come down. Even if the soft drinks you consume have no sodium, and no sugar, they are likely to contain all sorts of other compounds that can influence blood pressure, from the reading I've done (artificial sweeteners, caffeine, etc). I gave up all soda/soft drinks years ago (both regular and diet)...........nasty stuff.

[TromboneAl]

That's a reasonable idea, but I've tried it and I don't like to give up flavor and sweetness. My favorite drink is the juice of half a lemon, 4 oz of water, 7 oz of seltzer water and sweetened with liquid splenda and stevia. I drink unsweetened decaf coffee with lots of heavy whipping cream.

My BP was 113/78 this morning. 145/85 to 113/78 doesn't seem possible, but the monitor is an objective measurement.

[JSadler]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RAE Even if the soft drinks you consume have no sodium, and no sugar, they are likely to contain all sorts of other compounds that can influence blood pressure, from the reading I've done (artificial sweeteners, caffeine, etc).

I have always read about such great health benefits that tea has, but my doctor has recommended that I go off of those. Because like many teas, most soda has caffeine, which causes BP to spike.


---
J. Sadler
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[TromboneAl]

It's now been four months:

BloodPressure.jpg

As you can see I've bounced off the lows. This may be some random fluctuation. I've slacked off the spinach a bit -- I was having several servings a day at the beginning.

There really are so many variables, and it's hard to keep things constant. Things still look good, I think it will take a year before I'll be totally convinced that I've found the answer.

[LOL!]

Did your weight drop? I usually get lighter in the summer due to lack of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter treats and lots more outdoor exercise. Also I sweat more when it's warmer.

[TromboneAl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOL! Did your weight drop? I usually get lighter in the summer due to lack of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter treats and lots more outdoor exercise. Also I sweat more when it's warmer.

No, I just checked, and it is exactly the same as it was on Jan 27 (156 pounds).

[haha]

Congratulations Al, this seems like a very meaningful improvement!

Ha

[BellBarbara]

Interesting thread. I am 55, was borderline for 20 years, and had terrible white coat. I went to get a tooth pulled and it was 200/100 - the doc was freaked out. I finally asked to go on the meds in the last year as I did not want to damage my body. I think I read that as we age the number of people needing bp medicine goes up until it is 75% at age 75.

I use an automatic cuff, and checked it at the docs office (it reads within 1 or 2 pts of the manual one). Since I recently retired, up'd my exercise and lost weight, it will be interesting to see if if goes down.

Pretty much everyone in my family has high bp - even the thin people. Perhaps it's genetic? No heart disease, and the only person who had strokes was my mom who was a super heavy smoker.

We eat so much better now, we have both lost weight just from better eating and exercise (no counting anything). My philosophy is to lower bp before any damage. Would I prefer not to take meds? Of course, but right now I take one of the lowest dose pills so I will live with that.

And there is no profit to the drug companies - it's a generic and costs me like $3 a month!

[TromboneAl]

The Moore book argues that medicine doesn't treat the root cause of the BP. That's why reducing BP to normal levels doesn't reduce cardiovascular risk to normal levels.

[borschelrh]

Yes, treating the symptom only alleviates the direct effect but not the underlying cause. Same for taking statins to reduce cholesterol levels. Actual long term survival hasn't changed.Small dose (81mg) aspiring actually does prolong life far better. Taking medications to lower BP is a good idea and the cheaper ones work as well or perhaps better than the expensive drugs based on long term survival rates. Diet is likely that main cause. Changing diet habits and increasing exercise are the easiest ways to counter the "normal" effects of aging. Several very interesting studies have examined the role of diet. One of the best looked at Kenyans. They compared those that stayed on local diets and those that adopted western diets. There were dramatic differences between the groups with the western diet group being obese, having hyper-cholesterolemia, diabetes, and elevated blood pressure. That was the most dramatic evidence for me that the Western diet is not healthy. The Pritikin diet seems to be the best one to correct for the bad effects of the Western diet and I try to stay more or less on it. The paleolithic diet idea is logical and has been proven to work but isn't easy to maintain. We were on a lot of drugs including statins and HBP medications and sisnce we moved to Hungary and eat a lot more in line with the Pritikin diet (not perfect though) we now take no medications and everything has normalized. I also exercise at least 2 hours a day. NOt regimented exercise per se as I do a lot of walking but usually I swim for an hour and/or go mountain biking for an hour or more. I try not to use the car for anything except major purchases and walk to the markets here. I purchase foods daily for the same day's cooking which means it is fresh and wholesome. I save a lot this way as I almost never throw out spoiled foods any more.

[TromboneAl]

If you take a daily low-dose aspirin, it may be best to take it at night, which is what I do:

A daily aspirin can control prehypertension, but only if it is taken at bedtime, a Spanish study shows. An aspirin taken every morning didn't lower the blood pressure of prehypertensive people, but the evening regimen did,

My BP was 122/78 yesterday and 117/75 today.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl If you take a daily low-dose aspirin, it may be best to take it at night, which is what I do: A daily aspirin can control prehypertension, but only if it is taken at bedtime, a Spanish study shows. An aspirin taken every morning didn't lower the blood pressure of prehypertensive people, but the evening regimen did, My BP was 122/78 yesterday and 117/75 today.

Great going Al!

Ha

[RAE]

There is also some evidence that Vitamin C intake may influence blood pressure. See this article, plus the link he includes to a recent study on Vitamin C and hypertension:

http://jonnybowdenblog.com/vitamin-c-blood-pressure/