Re: help--ignored my hypertensive for too long..told dr no to meds what can help me

>At doctor today, I think the blood pressure was 170 or 175 over 86-90 (sorry I forgot). It often is 85-90 on bottom number and once was 100 which was the highest on the bottom. The top runs about 160-175 or so. Maybe occasionally goes higher. I am not wanting to take the diuretic and ace inhibitor she wants me to take. I said I would check out drugs but knew I would not take them but did check them out--side effect wise-- and decided I am not feeling comfortable with taking those drugs. My kids worry cause I won't take drugs for that or diabetes.

I'm sorry you have a hard time walking. It messes up lots of things. (How well I know that!) If you're really insecure walking, though, you might consider whether you might fall trying to cross the slippery pool surrounding area. So you might try getting a rollator to get to the pool steps/railing. I have a rollator I got from Amazon that I'd recommend. It's the Rollator Junior by Drive.

The general trend for diabetics is to have the systolic pressure more out of bounds than the diastolic. When mine is at its worst, the difference between the two pressures could go up to around 150 points or even more. Aim for a systolic reading at 130 or lower, even if the diastolic ends up being on the slightly too low side to get there.

You can try Mukta Vati. I first found out about this amazing blend of herbs from Dr. Andrew Weil's website. He didn't stipulate which of the two possible brands (two different formulations of herbs) to take. I've tried both, and the one from Ivy's is the one that has the greater impact on my blood pressure. It does have a powerful impact if you take enough of it. In the US, you can get it here:

https://www.herbs2healyou.com/mukta-vati.html


They have information and directions on the website. If you end up scheduling surgery sometime, be sure to pay attention to their warning that it can function as a blood thinner on some people. Indications are that it does function that way on me.

I've suffered fewer side effects from Mukta Vati than from ACE inhibitors, Angiotensin II blockers, Beta Blockers, and Calcium Channel blockers. My problem is bad enough that I've been on maximized doses of all those, including 3 of them at the same time and my systolic was still sky high. (Think: 245 and on up to 270 for a systolic.) I'm a highly allergic person (tested allergic to 66 foods) and believe I actually developed an allergy to at least one of the drugs; the more I took, the more I needed because my body was responding by upping the blood pressure, not the reverse. Anyway, I quit them all with sky high readings over a period of a few days, working Mukta Vati in gradually to the maximum dose there (according to the website) = 6 tablets daily. I don't swear that Mukta Vati has no side effects; if you tend toward allergies anything that you take in on a daily basis can begin to produce allergic side effects. But I can at least swear that the tablets don't make my blood pressure go up--quite the reverse.


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The one caution I'd add is that with a diabetic problem too, you have to worry some about possibly having another risk factor, i.e., kidney disease, in your future. That's a big deal. I have that problem. If I could still be on the prescription stuff, I would be, simply because of my kidney disease and the potential greater benefit from the prescriptions on kidney disease. Research has shown that of all the blood pressure possibilites, ACE inhibitors actually extend life span for diabetics, and are the drug of choice for diabetics.

The ACE inhibitors and to a somewhat lesser extent the Angiotensin II blockers, and to a noticeably lesser extent the half-loop diuretic HCTZ do something not understood in terms of the mechanism of action, but the kidney-benefitting result was well documented in a respected study several years back: they function to help protect the kidneys from the deteriorating effects of high blood pressure on them. Knowing that, I'd still be on my ACE inhibitor and the Angiotensin II blocker too, if I hadn't had such alarming reactions to them.

I'm not a doctor and my advice doesn't mean much, but I'd suggest that in your spot, weighing all the factors, you'd be better off going on an ACE inhibitor and if that doesn't do the trick fully, going on an Angiotensin II blocker too. You might at least give them a try and see whether you could tolerate them. You don't want to wind up with kidney disease and look back, wondering whether you might have given them a try and postponed your kidney disease to sometime on further down the road.

Of course, I don't know for sure that Mukta Vati doesn't have some kidney protection too--I doubt that it has been studied, so there's no way to know for sure. But I'd guess not. My kidney disease has gradually gotten worse over the past year of keeping my blood pressure within decent bounds via Mukta Vati. Adding back in HCTZ did appear to have a small benefit, according to the protein readings. The kind of diuretic HCTZ is is a half-loop kind. I believe that has a milder effect on pulling minerals out of the body than a full loop like fuerosemide. Anyway, I take a lot of supplements to make up for the loss, and it probably is worth it to help the kidneys even a little bit.

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If you want to buy a blood pressure monitor for use at home, an Omron is the kind my kidney specialist researched and bought for his wife to use.

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I seriously doubt that you can take care of your blood pressure problem without going one route or the other--your doctor's prescriptions or Mukta Vati--though there are people who have. What you might do would be to begin treatment and try to bring it down further through everything you can think of to try extra--and if it comes down enough cut back and talk to your doctor about trying it cold turkey off prescription meds (or off Mukta Vati) for awhile, just using your alternate methods. Here are some ideas for extra things you might do to add in on top of normal prescription meds/Mukta Vati:

Magnesium Citrate. I take 200 mg once daily at bedtime, preferably not close in time to taking or eating much calcium. According to the book I read on calcium, 400 mg isn't too much if you want to take a big dose.

Celery. I can't eat enough reliably often enough to do anything there. But you don't have to worry about the sodium content; it's only the sodium CLORIDE form that causes an increase in blood pressure, not other forms of sodium. (A large study was published and reported in the newspaper about 16 years ago to that effect. I've no idea why that news didn't get passed around.)

Grape Seed extract. No side effects that I can notice.

Hawthorne. No side effects that I can notice.

Vitamin C. No serious side effects that I can notice.

Pycnogenol. I've taken this haphazardly but it might help some.

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The following supplements are for diabetes, especially, but hypertension is tied to diabetes too, so try hard to get your diabetes under good control. For a host of reasons, I'd suggest that if you can't do the job without meds that you elect to go on to insulin injections, and not subject yourself to the oral meds for diabetes. (I won't repeat everything that happened to me with the oral meds, but I knew for sure that two of them had no business whatsoever ever being marketed. One, or perhaps both, were eventually removed from the market, after lots of people suffered serious side effects--like heart attacks.) It's critical to keep the blood Sugar levels as close to normal as you can manage, because you don't want to get kidney disease, heart trouble, serious vision loss, worse high blood pressure, stroke, loss of a limb, and a host of other problems. The probability that you'll have chronic yeast infections is just about equal to the probability that you're chronically not keeping your blood Sugar within normal parameters.

Here are some suggestions for what to do for diabetes:

Any kind of exercise works to increase the cells' ability to take up insulin and that protective effect works about 24 hours. You might like a heavy cardio-workout and if so, that's great, especially for the heart. But any exercise that gets muscles to working will help with diabetes blood Sugar control.
Go heavy on the foods with the most fiber. Prefer raw foods when you can.
Cinnamon, take several spoonfuls a day.
Green tea.
Cayenne. I don't do this one except sometimes in certain dishes. It tends to speed up my heart, of which I already have plenty of.
Ginseng.
Garlic & onions. For sure this isn't a cure, but it might help some.

Alpha Lipoic Acid. I've taken this daily for the past year and it's supposed to benefit many different problems. I can't tell whether it's helping or not, but I see no bad side effects. The book "Solve It With Supplements" has nothing but praise for this one and considers it very safe.

Chromium Picolinate. This didn't agree with my stomach, but I've intended to figure out a better regimen for taking it.

Biotin. It might lower the risk of heart disease for diabetics if used in combination with chromium picolinate. Kidney patients have lower supplies of this one, but also might have a problem on using whatever biotin does exist in their system.

Coenzyme Q10.

Zinc. I've been meaning to try this one.

Fenugreek. I just recently got started on this one and I might have actually seen an effect that was good.


Well, that's all I can think of right now. I'm sorry about your bad news and hope you can get things under better control.

Best wishes,
Mary Tweet