Posted by Clancy on August 17, 2004, at 14:33:00
In reply to Blood Pressure Raising Side Effects of Psych Meds, posted by Lonely on August 12, 2004, at 18:21:17
Couple of suggestions if I may. First and foremost. Acupunture is an effective treatment for high BP. Mass General( the great white mecca)in Boston recently did a study which by now should have hit the peer review journals. They showed that the protocol they used ( but would not share prior to publication) controlled high BP for 6 mos to a year WITHOUT ANY DRUGS. My acupunturist who I was seeing for two bone on bone knees just added a few extra spots that he knew about and walla - I went from highs of 180/110 back to more normal ranges (120/80) with highs held to 140/90 . Then the second piece I changed(and yes you need to check with your docs and others about this but be careful cause most docs know NOTHING re healthy alternatives) as odd as this sounds was adding BOTH calcium and magnesium supplements ( nothing high I always start with lowest possible dosage). While both are necessary (We are just now finding how important calcium is to everything our body does) the magnesium is the more important if you can only talk your doc into one. Beware of the Calcium blockers - long term they do as much or more damage to the heart as the thing they're supossedly treating. Dr.Whitaker(Whitaker Wellness center) is a good resource to read on some of this. He has all the right alleopathic (Western Medicine) credentials but realizes we need to pay attention to the whole system. My BP now is 116/65. We also used this combo to treat my Mom who had been on all the different BP medicines over the years and had suffered horrendous side effects one at a time from them. She just died recently (at 87) and for the last 2-3 years her BP was normal just using the calcium and magnesium supplements and the supps mentioned below.
You may also want to talk to your doctor about a couple other simple ideas. Re the depression Selium(never more than 200mcg!) and sun believe it not can make a big difference -BUT how these fit with the drugs your husband is on I don't know. Be careful ( tho if not working for him and he comes off of them at some point - this might be worth a try.)
Finally three other possiblities (both recomended to me by MD's many years ago and double checked with lots of research). The first falls into what I call the no harm no foul category. It is Rutin which is a bioflavanoid. At one time 60+ years ago it was a FDA approved drug but they turned it into an over the counter supplement 50+ years ago. Bioflavanoids since then have been shown to be strong antioxidants. What Rutin specifically does is strenghtens the wall of the blood vessels. When I was a kid I used to get hemorraghes in my eye and our family doc is the one that told me get Rutin. Took it for a year - never had problem again. We also used it over the last couple years for my mom who had a problem with Stasis ulcers in her legs. Once on Rutin and Arginine (next one I'll tell you about) we went three years w/o a stasis ulcer until last year when she was in rehab hospital for 2 months and they wouldn't give her the supplements. Ok - arginine - this one you really do have to check with your doc. Never more than 1000 mg a day AND ALWAYS should be starting much lower. Arginine is an amino acid ( building block of body). It strenghtens the cardiovascular system. It also affects the stickiness of your blood corpusels (sp) so reduces clotting (different mechanism from aspirin or warfin tho) The last useful substance is also an amino acid - carnitine. Again it strengthens the cardiovascular system. It is very good for diabetics cause it will help their liver process proteins and fats which are actually more of problem for them than sugar ( Dad & sister were severe diabetics). BUT PLEASE NOTE - carnitine can affect insulin levels AND affect the amount of insulin you take if you are a diabetic. PLEASE 1. check with your Doc and 2. check out the research to see if it would help or be appropriate for your situation. It is a very powerful amino acid even tho sold OTC - and medically had been used to treat quite a number of serious metabolic disorders.
Hope some of this helps. If nothing else -please try the acupunturist - it is not voodoo medicine there are a number of very rigourous scientific studies done over the last thirty years that shows it works. Good luck. I know how tough it is to always be putting out fires.
poster:Clancy
thread:376976
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/health/20040729/msgs/378767.html