My B/P hit 118/68 today.
My respiration rate hit 58. How
did I do it? The answer is both simple
and surprising.
Many of you know that I had cataract surgery, July 11, 2012, and
that the results have been less than spectacular. The day after the surgery, I felt great and
my checkup went well. However, within a
week I developed Insidious Cystoid Macular Edema (Insidious CME: http://www.aao.org/publications/eyenet/200701/
retina.cfm) or retina swelling in my right eye. This left my vision severely clouded. Right eye dominance tricked my brain into
blurring out the left eye as well. If I
wanted to see anything, I had to close my right eye to turn off the bad signal. Consequently my research and writing slowed to
a crawl.
A few weeks later I was in Sam’s to pick up medications and buy
groceries. They were giving flu shots
that day, but I wasn’t paying much attention when I got in line. It turned out that I was in the line for the
Beyer health-monitor-demo, so I accepted the free tests. My B/P was 197, my BMI was less than perfect,
and my glucose level was pushing the limit.
In my typical happy-go-lucky way, I laughed it off, thought nothing of
it, and went to the next table to get my flu shot.
At my next eye exam, my right eye glaucoma pressure hit 48. My eye surgeon gave me some meds on the spot
that really knocked me for a loop, but she got my eye pressure within
acceptable limits, and sent me home with prescriptions for more new meds. One of these meds cost $137.77 for a 1.5 ml
dropper bottle. That’s more expensive
than gold (not really). Another cost
nearly $200, although the dropper bottle was larger.
This was starting to get my attention. Eventually, I figured out that maybe, possibly
a B/P of 197 had something to do with it, ya think, duh. So I started a program of research, diet, and
exercise and got my B/P into the 175 zone.
By this time I had met with a retina specialist. He observed that the special expensive eye
drops were working, my vision was improving, and if improvement continued I
would not need additional retina surgery.
He sent me back to my eye surgeon, and I went to work on my personal lifestyle
issues. I bought a B/P cuff at Sam’s to
measure progress.
My diet was no meat, no dairy, no fats, low glycemic index foods
only. This was basically a strict vegan
diet or a DASH diet with the top tiers of the pyramid cut completely off. Before long I discovered that salt was a huge
potential factor as well, so I started eliminating salt to below 1500 mg, a
very low level. Basically, I was eating
fresh fruit, Cheerios, frozen vegetables, baked white or sweet potatoes, and
coffee every day. I started to exercise
too; in fact, I reached nine-miles-a-day on my bicycle. My B/P was inching down slowly, but remained
at an aggravating 175-peak level. All my
research sources assured me that my B/P should be dropping like a rock, but it
just wasn’t. Also, I developed
headaches, I’m talking about four and five day headaches that brought me to my
knees and put me out of action. I was
also afraid to take too much aspirin because of the risk of hemorrhagic stroke,
I’d already had one stroke and didn’t need another one. I cut my bike rides back to two miles, on
those rare days when I could ride at all.
What did I learn. After
over six weeks of strict dieting, I learned that it is entirely possible to
suffer from dietary protein and fat deprivation. As soon as I added half an avocado (no salt) to
my daily diet the headaches came under control.
A few days later I started eating one egg a day, fried with one teaspoon
of olive oil (no salt). We’ll see if my
cholesterol stays below 200. Oh, and
yes, the results of my blood tests came in, and I went over ever item in
detail, looking up recommended limits on the internet, and identifying every
problem area. Within a week I ate some
Steelhead trout and cake at a birthday party.
Still there was progress, but with only modest results. I will never be able, practically, to reach a
protein and fat balance on a vegan diet, it will never bring my B/P down, it
tastes terrible to a meat-and-potatoes, salt-loving guy, and it’s boring.
Last night I stayed up to three thirty writing and posting on
the internet. My B/P this morning should
have gone ballistic, orbital. I got less
than 7 hours of sleep, not nearly enough for a seventy-five-year-old who doesn’t
see very well. I got out of bed,
answered the phone, stumbled around for a while, weighed myself, dressed, slid
on the B/P cuff, and pressed go. My B/P
averaged 127/68 over three readings with a pulse rate of 60. Here are the details behind the average 145/65/62,
118/68/58, 118/71/59.
What happened between the first and second readings? It’s really a simple application of mechanical
engineering principles. Brain and tissue
cells need oxygen, they demand minimum levels from the body’s
blood-oxygen-respiration system. The
available oxygen depends on the lung-oxygen transfer efficiency. If that efficiency is at 50% of normal, the
blood flow rate has to be twice as fast as it would at a normal lung-oxygen
transfer efficiency of 100%. To get double
the flow rate the heart has to kick the pumping pressure up big time. It’s simple mechanical engineering.
What did I do? Between
the first and second readings, I started taking really deep breaths: slow,
steady deep breaths, the kind that make your ribs hurt and your diaphragm
threaten to explode . My B/P dropped
over 20 points in seconds, just like a rock.
If you want or need to get your B/P down, my experience is that
the first thing you need to do is sit up straight, and teach yourself the habit
of correct deep breathing. You can do
this by forcing yourself to take several deep breaths every hour until the
practice becomes automatic. The deep
breathing gets oxygen to parts of the lungs that no longer remember what oxygen
is; it shakes out the lung capillaries and starts the blood flowing where it
hasn’t flowed in years. As a result, lung-oxygen
transfer efficiency jumps way up immediately and the B/P hits the basement
right now, seemingly instantly.
I’m not saying that the other stuff didn’t do any good, but I
didn’t realize big benefits until I took those deep breaths.
How to get your B/P under control?
·
First,
stand up and sit up straight. Learn to deep
breathe correctly. Slouching over a
computer all day long is destroying your lung efficiency and killing you. I didn’t buy an expensive gadget to learn to
breathe correctly again.
·
Next,
you can have a good exercise program, and realize all the benefits from that
hard work, which otherwise might not be so evident. The exercise should improve circulation, as
well as artery and vein flexibility, along with muscle strength, bone density,
general wellbeing, ability to sleep, and a bunch of other things. However, it won’t necessarily make your lungs
more efficient, not without deep breathing.
·
Finally,
you can go to work on getting your blood test into line. Zero meat, dairy, and fat probably won’t work
very well for you either. However, you
should now be able to reach comfortable protein and fat levels by working with
your doctor and watching your blood tests closely. This pretty much boils down to a recommendation
for the sensible DASH diet.
There is not a single word here about using medications to
control B/P. My bet is that this will fix
or prevent Type 2 Diabetes as well. Ten
to one says your cholesterol drops below 200.
I hope my eye gets much better now that my body can support the healing
process. Maybe I can get back to writing
more regularly too.... after I take a
nap.
Yours,
Herb
Herb
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