Blood Pressure! - Steroids Source Talk

stillgoingstron · #1 (**permalink**) 03-07-2016, 11:30 AM

Blood pressure is simply a measure of how your heart is managing its movement of blood around the body.

It’s obvious isn’t it? What isn’t obvious is what the readings mean?

A few months ago I attended a medical for my work and yet again my blood pressure went up for the occasion leading to ‘the medical profession’ giving me advice on what to do to lower it etc. Since then I have spent loads of time researching blood pressure.

First off, it annoyed me that nobody seemed to listen when I said it wasn’t high and that it only went up during the period of my medical. I proved this by monitoring for three weeks afterwards during which time it fell and then watched it rocket again when I saw my doctor to have it taken. Yet again the doc didn’t listen and more or less insisted I wear a 24 hour monitor as that was the only way to know for sure whether it was raised or not. I politely told her to poke it.

And so I started to research blood pressure and specifically natural ways to lower it. This is what I learned.

Magnesium and potassium are vital. A lack of either of these will result in an elevation. It's likely that due to deficiencies in our diets and the food we are able to buy that most of us have a deficiency in both these.

I also started taking Co enzyme q10 as this is also a vital nutrient not just for every cell, but specifically for the heart. Taking statins destroys Co enzyme q10, so unless you supplement with Co enzyme q10 as well your life expectancy will almost certainly be decreased as a result of your deficiency.

Most of all, as a result of all this research I learned just how damaging sugar really is. Not just to your pancreas and the resulting insulin resistance and eventual diabetes but to just about every other health issue we are likely to suffer from. Trans fats and sugar are the most likely causes of arterial damage resulting in LDL cholesterol being used to repair the damage and therefore reducing the diameter of your arteries.

And so I cut out sugar and processed products that contain flour. I didn’t really eat too much processed food anyway or so I thought. I’m not weird. I have the occasional doughnut or pizza etc but only rarely now.

I reckon I’ve lowered my sugar and flour intake by about 80%. My average blood pressure (ignoring periods where it raised due to white coat syndrome) has gone from about 132 over 88 to around 123 over 82. I can't honestly say why it's gone down as I’ve cut out sugar and flour, taken magnesium, potassium and co enzyme q10, cacao powder and been very strictly intermittently fasting for around two months now. But from what I read it would seem that cutting out sugar should be the most beneficial.

I’ve also learned that blood pressure like cholesterol levels is only an indication of how your body is coping with other issues. Chronically high levels are obviously not good and will cause long term damage. However a better way than jumping on the lifetime medication route to resolve this problem is to find out why your blood pressure raised and manage that in as natural way as possible.

For example, if the liver is working inefficiently as a result of oral steroid use, then the heart needs to pump harder to push the same amount of blood through the liver. This means it will raise your blood pressure. Clever eh? When you stop taking orals and the liver sorts itself out there will no longer be a need for raised blood pressure and your body will self regulate. If it doesn’t then you need to find out why. Lowering your blood pressure through medication will not resolve the original problem and will therefore potentially lead to further, far worse health issues.

Bottom line. A temporary rise in blood pressure while on cycle is not necessarily a cause for concern. It’s your body doing what it needs to do to regulate what is sees as an issue. If it doesn’t drop soon after your cycle ends, then look into why. And sort out that problem. Don't just lower your blood pressure with medication.

I also recorded my average over the entire period and separately recorded my blood pressure after donating blood. Donating blood lowers your RBC count. Too many red blood corpuscles is supposed to thicken your blood and therefore reduce the flow. My blood pressure fell by about two points and is gradually rising back to how it was before. Three weeks afterwards it is about 1 point lower on both the diastolic and the systolic. Not exactly breathtakingly different. But still worth donating if you get the chance.