Does anyone else have blood pressure issues?  I am experiencing an elevated blood pressure more and more consistently, in spite of a diuretic.  I am resistant to moving up to more serious meds, but I may have to.   Of course, I am hoping that moving to vegetarianism will help.  Does anyone have any good results to share?

Hi Pampi,
The superhero plan may lower your pressure so quickly you have to discontinue your meds.

It begins to work in just a few weeks and is literally a cure for essential hypertension.

It even works for those patients that are unable to exercise due to co-morbidities.

You can adjust the recipes to limit the amount of salt they contain ( less shoyu and uma-boshi) but for most people salt is ok. 

Within a month or two you will usually see the benefits. Hope it works for you too!

Justin

I am 25 years old, and have had high blood pressure for 3 years (runs on both sides of the family).  3 weeks into my turn to veganism, I had an appointment, and for the first time in 3 years, my blood pressure was completely normal, and not even on the high end of normal!!  It definitely does make a huge difference!

My partner is having high blood pressure issues but he is not vegan.  He eats meat. I'd like to see him move towards the kind diet but I don't think he will. He is very thin and is afraid he won't get enough calories as well.

I have been feeling worn out and non functional at work for about a month now. Getting virtually nothing done at work. Paperwork is all over the place, bills not paid, and fell horrible. What is wrong here? By the way .

This changed about a week ago. I got my blood pressure  checked  at a pharmacy, and got a really low reading 90/ pulse 99, then 2 more readings identical. The 4th one was 101 / pulse 100.  Called my doctor went down to see him immediatly. Assistant checked pulse 2 more times, low. Then the Dr. checked again. He said I was overmedicated on the blood pressure meds. This was the lowest dosage thay have. I've been on BP meds for 7 yrs. The Dr. took me off Benzapril. Kept me on the diuretic, and will see if I go off that then.

 Why did this happen? Well... For the past 8 months I have gradually been eating vegan. I'm about 80% now.  Also for the past 2 years I have cut out a lot of my dairy usage In that time I have had my meds reduced twice, and now this is the 3rd time and I'm off BP meds.

I really think this has something to do with my diet. I am now exercising. Just started again this spast week. I have a personal trainer that I trade out workouts for advertizing. Works for me. So no excuse to not work out now. I really think that diet is one of the key essentuals for getting off some of the meds we take like Blood Pressure Meds, and Lipitor - for Cholesteral control. I told my Dr. that I believed that the aproach to food made a huge difference. This seems to be working for me. .(Been mostly Vegetarian since college that was a long time ago)

Best of luck to you

Hi, I wish I could say the same, never in my life did i have BP problems.  Im on 80 mg of Diovan and into being VEGAN for two and a half months now.  I am not off meds, BP has been 160/100.  I have lost weight (140lbs) , feel good, didnt even know my BP was topping out.  I think its because the pain in my neck and shoulders is so bad, along with job stress that im my own worst enemy. Im taking pain meds for it, which make me sick, and my BP meds and still feel like crap . I do enjoy cooking and eating all the great thins i have learned about in VEG mags. Any one have any ideas as to what i may have done to myself?  Funny thing is I aced the new employee physical for the hospital I work for 1 week before I developed high BP. that was (3) months ago, two months ago I went to "vegan" after giving up running from back problems and no time during a 4 hour commute each day. So to maintain weight with limited exercise , I changed my life and lifestyles.  just cant figure this out? any suggestions? its making me real depressed as my the BP meds make me dizzy, headaches and sick...thanks!!

 

Maureen, It took a little over 2 years to get to the point of discontinuing the BP med. My Dr. was monitoring what was going on, and the need for it decreased. I'm now to the point of losing 90 lbs, safely a bit at a time. I finally feel like exercising now.

Please check with your Dr. and see if they can give you the same dosage in another type of medication that doesn't give you the side effects you mentioned.   Check and see what kind of side effects that the meds  you are taking may have. (Blood pressure medicine making you dizzy, headaches and feeling sick is not  good.) This probably shouldn't be happening.  

On a personal side, the meds they gave my husband made him tired a lot, and his lobido was way down.  This was one of the side effects of taking it.  He has changed the medication, but took him 3 yrs to figure out this was a problem. He also felt "loopy", and when he changed meds he felt like he had woken up. I'm not in any way trying to diagnose this. But just giving you something to consider. Most of us just take the meds and go with the program, including me. 

Congratulations on the weight loss. I wish I was there now, with the excess weight gone.  You lost a whole person. 

Maureen, just found this website it has some of the side effects of diovan. There are more sites up like this, but I thought this might be of help to you.

http://blood-pressure.emedtv.com/diovan/diovan-side-effects.html

 

 

you are so kind, but forgive me for putting my whole weight at 140,  not a total loss of 140. :}  Wow, i must be loopy.  i lost 8lbs in the 3 months being vegan. I bough supplements yesterday thinking my body was missing something.  I still feel out of it today.  Thanks so much for the info, i am going to read it now.  appreciate what you did immensely. 

 

Pampi:  I have been on BP meds since I was in my 20's (in my 50's now).  I started the Vegan lifestyle about 9 months ago and I haven't taken BP meds for the last two months.  My dr. and I are monitoring my BP and it is staying consistently normal.  I had to go off  the meds because it was beginning to be too low.  I have never been overweight and no on could ever figure out why my BP was so high but veganism is the only thing that has ever made a difference (other meds which I hate taking).  I do, however, take lots of natural supplements which may have helped.

Maureen,  Best of luck with the bp.  Yes, the 140 looked impressive, but 8 lbs is good. For me it is a start. I have 90 to lose.  I post sometimes really late at night, and hope it somehow make some kind of sense. Hey 3:15pm California time should be ok.

Deb, congrat to you for the last 2 months off bp med, and the last 9 months of going vegan.  I take suppliments, but are there some that you think might be making the difference? I take calcium, b vit, multi, and move-free for joints.

 

We think of our blood vessels as tubes in our body that carry the blood. This is only partially true. The inside of our blood vessels is living tissue. It is epithelium and muscle and connective tissue.  When the heart contracts it sends blood very forcefully into these tubes In order to provide the pressure to send the blood into every nook and cranny of our body. There is a shock wave of pressure which rep resents the maximum amount of pressure created in the system and is the upper number of our blood pressure ( systolic). The blood vessels need to be supple and flexible in order to properly mitigate this wave of pressure.

 When the contraction has completed, a lower amount of pressure persists in the system. This is the lower number of our blood pressure ( diastolic). The difference between the two numbers tells us how well the blood vessels are accepting the shockwave. The upper number tells us how hard the heart has to contract and the lower number tells us how much pressure exists in the system as a minimum.

 The modern, Western diet is very rich in foods and ingredients that injure the epithelium of our blood vessels. Cholesterol, fat and the byproducts of excessive protein metabolism interact with the sensitive cells on the inner surface of our blood vessel and   irritate them. These dietary byproducts can enter the  wall of the vessel and cause a fatty streak or an inflammatory response. This hardens the arteries forcing blood pressure to rise in order to ensure the flow of blood throughout the body. This is the etiology of hypertension and is why the majority of Westerners will experience it at some point as they age.

 Another etiology of hypertension is the salt connection. Most modern and traditional societies have consumed large amounts of salt. It is estimated that 5-10% of a population are salt sensitive. Most of us don't absorb the extra salt we have eaten. If we do, it can make our blood slightly more salty which encourages it to have more volume. If we have more blood then our vessels can easily hold, pressure is increased. This sort of hypertension is quickly resolved when salt is eliminated. Unfortunately 90% of the salt that Americans eat already exists in their processed foods before they even think of adding any extra salt. If you tell the average person not to use salt they only cut 10% of their intake. Since the average person is consuming 2-300% of the amount of salt that is recommended, cutting 10% makes no appreciable difference.

 Some patients who moved to a macrobiotic dietary approach  find difficulty tolerating the amount of salt contained in some of the recipes. Most see their blood pressure reduced even as their salt intake is increased. There is controversy over the recommended amount of salt we should be consuming.

 Blood volume as a source of extra blood pressure is how most blood pressure medicines work. Often blood pressure medicine is a combination of three medicines. The main one is a diuretic. They encourage the kidneys to release extra water thereby reducing blood volume. Beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers are often combined with a diuretic to reduce the extent to which the heart and the blood vessels can contract. This is why some people feel wiped out from blood pressure medicine.

 Dietary change is the best way to resolve hypertension and I suggest the superhero plan.

Justin

This strange rise in blood pressure after going on a vegan/super hero diet happened to me, too.  After talking with Justin B. about it (thanks Justin!) I lowered my salt intake and my BP leveled right out at normal again.  Some people are sodium sensitive I think, and mine is partially just my age and hormone wackiness (I'm 51). 

Just a side note though... 10 years ago or so my doctor put me on Effexor and it didn't agree with me at all, and raised my blood pressure very dramatically.  Caveat:  if you are taking any new medicines get it checked out.  Effexor is an antidepressant and doesn't usually do that to people so it was a big surprise to the doctor, also.

Cholesterol meds raise blood sugar, blood sugar meds raise blood pressure, blood pressure meds raise cholesterol.

make sense to you?