Slightly elevated BP

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Tue May 24, 2011 9:54 am

My BP was slightly elevated at my last doctor visit - just before I got sick. I've been assuming that it was a symptom of the huge stress my body was under, just before the MC flare-up struck - and now that I'm feeling better, I've been trying to remember to check it more often. It's better, but it does get up to 135-ish over 85-90 on occasion.

I have mixed feelings - both my parents had hypertension (and both my parents, given my double DQ2 genes, were probably accumulating gluten-related issues for a long time). I feel as though I have time to get this back under control, before resorting to medication. But I don't want to ignore something as potentially consequential for too long.

Have others had blood pressure rise with MC, then settle back down with symptom control and/or remission?

I am hoping that I can add magnesium via oral supplements to my topical regime, and that this might be enough.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Hm - I haven't seen my PCP since I got sick, and perhaps I should ask for her thoughts as well ;)

--Sara

Deb · Post by **Deb** » Tue May 24, 2011 10:07 am

Sara, I am dealing with the same issue. At one point during the worst of my MC my BP was 110/70 but it's back up now to where it's been in recent times. During my earlier (and lighter weight) years my blood pressure was always low. My father had hypertension.
I am continuing to try alternative measures (RESPeRATE, hibiscus tea) but understand the risks of letting it go too high/too long and would be interested to hear the results here.

Edited to add: I am using magnesium oil topically as well.

sgm92704 · Post by **sgm92704** » Tue May 24, 2011 10:33 am

Hi Sara,

I am a regular reader of the board but rarely post. I felt compelled to respond to your post. I was diagnosed with CC about five years ago and have been in remission for the last three and a half. I consider it remission but I have suffered from an occasional loose stool and tummy pains and small flare during pregnancy. I am strictly GF, DF, and SF. My blood pressure has also been creeping up over the last year. 138-80 to 120/75. I am underweight and up until last week I did not take any medication. I do have a family history of hypertension. Anyhow, I started taking magnesium about 6 weeks ago for its reported benefits in lowering BP along with a host of other things. About three weeks ago I started having frequent loose stools and now I am in a full on flare. The only thing I can point to causing this is the magnesium. Luckily my GI Dr. called me in a script for Entocort in hopes that I can quell the inflammation quickly and get back on track. Perhaps, though, I am intolerant to something else and my body has slowly been responding over the last year resulting in increased BP and now a flare. Hard to say.

I know there have been other threads and posts on magnesium and alternative routes of administration. You may be just fine taking it. I just wanted to share my experience particularily since I have been doing so well for so long. My best to you.

Sharon

MBombardier · Post by **MBombardier** » Tue May 24, 2011 11:33 am

Ah....BP. I have a strong family history of high BP, including stroke on both sides. My grandmother, the only other lefty in my fam, had a stroke when she was 59 that paralyzed her left side.

After ignoring it for some years, a friend told me in no uncertain terms that I was not doing right by my family, so I got on meds. That is something I will be dealing with, when the smoke from current stuff dissipates a little. I told my GP that I wanted to wean off my beta blocker, and he is amenable.

The thing I appreciate about my beta blocker is that I haven't had a migraine to speak of since I've been on it, and the heavy, fast heartbeat after eating is virtually gone. However, I have noticed that sometimes when I am feeling weak and sick for no reason that my heartbeat will be in the low 50's, so I'm thinking that having my thyroid fairly well medicated and especially my vitamin D at a fairly good level is making my BP over-medicated.

I have been waiting for my thyroid to let me lose weight so that my BP would go down naturally and I could get off the beta blocker, but I read not too long ago that beta blockers can cause weight gain, or prevent weight loss. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to medicate...

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Tue May 24, 2011 2:08 pm

Deb,

Thanks for that reminder - I persuaded a neighbor to try Resperate for her BP problems (thyroid there, too, Marliss), but she didn't use it, so gave it to me. I *love* it, and will use it a little more regularly. My husband and I got a little competitive over who could lower their breathing rate more - but we have similar friendly games with the BP monitor. Or sometimes, we play Scrabble. It is amazing that such a benign tool can have such a positive effect. I like hibiscus tea... maybe I'll add that on occasion, too. A friend's mother had luck with turmeric, I have just remembered.

Sharon,

I'm sorry to hear that your long remission was interrupted. Magnesium can indeed have a laxative effect. I am reading Carolyn Dean's book now, and she mentions about different magnesium formulations. I am now using a liquid magnesium that's meant to be a dietary supplement, but I'm using it topically. Every few days I test a fraction of the daily dose in a glass of water, and have not had ill effects (but probably not a lot of positive health effects, either). I suppose I am getting less magnesium in foods, too (fewer leafy greens), which is why I thought I should try both routes - and it did seem to help with leg cramps.

I hope you're back on track soon, both with MC remission and BP. The Entocort should buy you some time to figure out whether there's another food you need to investigate, or the magnesium was the culprit (in which case, hopefully, you can find another formulation that works for BP control).

Ah, Marliss, what a tangled web indeed. I am trying to delay the merry-go-round of medications, side effects, more/different medications. Till MC, I figured I had another decade plus of Rx-free living, but now I'm less confident. But even more leery of the whole pharma program. I hope you can manage the various threads of meds & conditions in a way that leaves you feeling great. No migraines sounds good, and so does saying goodbye to the post-eating heart pounding.

(BTW I am finally working on providing an avatar, as you so graciously hinted a few weeks back.)

Love,
Sara

Deb · Post by **Deb** » Tue May 24, 2011 4:26 pm

Sara, I love my RESPeRATE too. I use it nearly daily and try to get at least in the 4's. If I get in the 3's I really get a sense of relaxation. For those of you unfamiliar with it that corresponds with the breaths per minute. According to their literature, anything under 10 breaths per minute will give you beneficial results. My diastolic seems better, oftentimes in the 70's but my systolic is pretty regularly in the 130's, sometimes higher than that. I SO don't want to start BP medications if at all possible.

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Tue May 24, 2011 4:31 pm

Deb,

I found it relatively easy to get down to those 3s and 4s, and I noticed that my friend who bought it originally started out with many more breaths per minute than I did. I wonder whether that contributed to her high blood pressure in the first place, or was related to other health issues... or just a coincidence, or personal habit...

I'm going to settle in with mine before cooking dinner - thanks re-reminding me ;)

S

Gloria · Post by **Gloria** » Tue May 24, 2011 8:07 pm

Sara,

Love your picture! It's nice to associate a face with the name.

Gloria

MBombardier · Post by **MBombardier** » Tue May 24, 2011 8:59 pm

SARA!!! YOU'RE SOOO CUTE!!! I love the pic!!!

I see I'm into trllogies tonight, lol.

I had never heard of RESPeRATE. I am going to spend some time on the website learning about it. Beta blockers have some nasty side effects (that's why you have to wean off them) so I would love to talk to my GP about that next time I see him.

My husband and I don't play Scrabble, and I refuse to play Monopoly with him because he's too competitive. But we play Trivial Pursuit, the original version, which frustrates our kids no end because all the questions are from the late 80's and prior. Poor babies, lol.

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Tue May 24, 2011 9:24 pm

Marliss,

I foolishly taught my husband Scrabble, and we have a FABULOUS alternative version called Wildwords (http://www.wildwords.us/ - buy it for all the words nut you know, it's much more fun)... and now he's absolutely brilliant at it. He plays the Facebook version with friends far and near (and with me). And he's a really good sport, and doesn't get crabby on those increasingly rare occasions when I actually kick his behind ;) (Always marry someone with a better temperament than yourself, is my motto... sadly, only half of us take my advice.)

I am much better at Boggle - I'm afraid that's because of my short attention span (3 minute timer). And we got Bananagrams last year, which worked really well for playing with our nieces/nephews of varying ages. Our then 12yo niece won the first game we played in a group (go Maggie!), and her 4yo brother did really well at making words, though he was completely impervious to spelling corrections.

If you lived closer, I'd lend you my Resperate to try. It's kind of like being a Tibetan monk, without all the rigors of their spiritual practices, and in 15 minutes a day ;)

I truly hope it helps you. I thought beta blockers were relatively benign. GOOD (and bad) TO KNOW.

The Resperate has had some sort of FDA blessing, so it *should* be able to be covered as a prescription device. You'd think the insurance companies would love to pay a few hundred bucks for that, instead of hundreds of dollars a year, for life, for a prescription medication.

I hope your kids don't find any 'updated' Trivial Pursuits decks ;) My college roommate and I once found ourselves in a ferocious Pictionary battle, and we completely slayed. We just knew each other well enough that our most pathetic scribbles had significance. My husband and *his* best friend were even better, and neither of 'em can draw a straight line with a ruler. We should all play more games!

Love,
Sara

Post by **tex** » Tue May 24, 2011 10:12 pm

Did you know that beta blockers have been documented to cause MC?

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=18528881

Tex

MBombardier · Post by **MBombardier** » Tue May 24, 2011 10:29 pm

*Triplets* not trilogies.

Oops, my Latin-loving friend.

I will have to check out Wildwords. That sounds like a fun game. I just started playing Jeopardy on Facebook. So far, only one other friend is playing. I love Pictionary!! And my son bought me Settlers of Catan for Mother's Day. That is a fun game that is different every time you play it. Occasionally we will have a homeschool moms' game night. That is a blast, all the moms getting to play games with each other and eat snacks instead of playing with the kiddos and serving them snacks.

I guess I show my age by saying that I'd much rather play a board, card, or dice game (no matter how it raises my blood pressure, lol) than games that are played on a playstation, or whatever gizmo. My husband is addicted to sudoku and poker on his phone, the anti-social fellow.

I am more and more interested in the RESPerRATE. It sounds like something I may very well be discussing with my GP!

MBombardier · Post by **MBombardier** » Tue May 24, 2011 10:43 pm

Whoa, for a moment I thought I was going to have to drag my French out of the nether regions of my brain... I used to be fairly fluent, but it has been years since I have had to do much of anything with it. I was relieved that the document was actually in English.

I don't see the connection with beta blockers, though. The way I read it, they're basically just saying that a slightly greater percentage of MC'ers took beta blockers than the control group. What am I missing?

I was destined for MC, did I but know it. Genes, SSRI, NSAIDs, beta blocker, other autoimmunue issues...

Post by **tex** » Wed May 25, 2011 7:20 am

Marliss wrote:I don't see the connection with beta blockers, though. The way I read it, they're basically just saying that a slightly greater percentage of MC'ers took beta blockers than the control group. What am I missing?

You're not missing anything. That's the way that all cases of drug-induced MC are attributed to the respective drugs that are suspected to be associated with the disease. Epidemiological-based evidence is the only method used for studies of this type, since it would be rather impractical, (and unethical), to do a random, double-blind trial to determine drug-induced disease. Also, since the incidence of MC in the general population is so low in the first place, it would be difficult to obtain reliable, statistically-significant data in such a trial, due to the low number of cases of MC that would present.

There are always a few case studies published, of course, but that evidence is really not significantly stronger than data gathered from epidemiological studies, because it's always virtually impossible to prove absolute cause and effect in those cases - the evidence is merely circumstantial, and as such, it won't meet the rigors of scientific testing. IOW, just because it might be apparent, (or even obvious), that a certain drug can trigger MC, doesn't mean that we can prove it.

Tex

MBombardier · Post by **MBombardier** » Wed May 25, 2011 11:36 am

Very interesting. Of course, it makes sense that no one would do a double-blind trial to see if a drug caused an illness, but I did not know that epidemiological studies were used instead.

I'm pretty sure I am going to talk to my GP about weaning off my beta blocker. I am very consistent about its use, which alleviates my fear of having a stroke because I forgot to take it (like Cindy McCain), but why live with that when there are feasible alternatives, especially now I know that it could be one of the causes of my MC?