Q: Since 1981 I’ve had 90/60 pulse 55 or 60. Since November 2011 haven’t felt good. Blood test shows everything good. Now I am 198/110 and then it can go down to 130/80. Drs don’t know why this is going on. I am a vegan and take supplements, work and I am 74 yr old female who takes no medication.
A: Supplements are drugs. You don’t think so but in reality you are taking medication. It is possible one of your supplements is causing your problem. You might want to check out this list at ConsumerReports.org to see if anything you take made the list.
(8 votes, average: 4.13 out of 5)
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Supements are NOT drugs. This is false data and is inappropriate to say. Certainly there are homeopathic remedies that could be considered precursors to drugs, but many supplements are whole food products and shouldn’t be lumped in and categorized as drugs
The link provided doesn’t work if you don’t subscribe to the Consumers Reports online site.
I was able to go through the link and I am not subscribed to CR
I got the list with no problem, and I’m not a subscriber to Consumer Reports. There must be some other problem associated with your failure to obtain the list.
Make sure you get treadmill testing with a sonogram of heart valve immediately following stepping off the treadmill, for either one done alone will not show the possible leaky heart valve.
I always wonder about a possible aortic aneurysm when I hear about erratic blood pressures….with no readily discernable cause….
Hard to imagine any standard vitamin supplement taken even close to a normal dosage that would drive up blood pressure that much. She is probably not taking yohimbine which is for male sex drive. Maybe large quantities of table salt would do it.
Supplements are drugs, except nearly all of them are not nearly as powerful as pharmaceuticals. Not even close. While its certainly possible that something you are taking is having this effect, I would also look to your vegan diet as well . I would certainly research to see if you are taking something that could raise your bp, but if you are taking standard supplements such as b, c and minerals etc, I would be surprised if they were causing such an extreme uptick. Personally, I don’t think the vegan dirt is suitable for most people. I would seriously consider looking into your diet- Food is also a drug, I found I was able to lower my bp enough to get off bp meds with diet and exercise.
I grew up eating most everthing my mother cooked. She used to use chicken fat. They fried steaks and onions and none of the family including me got sick,
I believe that many of these so called diets are causing much of the sickness today and the food drugs also do not help. They help the doctors and the pharacists but not the people. Vegans eat very poorly and as you can see from this article lack a lot of food that is good for the body. Eating plants is not enough to keep people healthy…If everyone stuck to a normal diet, cut out excessive sweets, fat, junkfood we and count the calories, we would have less fat people and healthier ones.
I wholeheartedly concurr!
Plant based diets are scientifically proven to be the healthiest. A normal or balanced diet is one designed for disease which is essentially the american diet. the standard american diet will catch up with everyone eventually. The disease rates in rural China are extremely low due to their plant based diet. These people are typically very poor but have low incidences of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, etc.
I have to strongly disagree with your comments about a plant-based diet. True, humans are omnivorous, and can subsist on a variety of foods, but my cardiologist touted the vegan diet as the healthiest, and most doctors agree that the less meat you eat, even if you’re not vegan, the healthier you’ll be. Vegan and vegetarian diets are nothing new, some fad, and have been practiced by segments of society throughout history. Of course, some vegetarians might not eat a healthful diet; after all, vegetarian implies you don’t eat meat, and in that vein, a person who ate only Twinkies and potato chips could be called a vegetarian, but no vegetarian I’ve ever known would consider that a healthful diet. I was born in the South and am familiar with the diet you spoke of, but it is well known that Southerners have a high ratio of heart disease because of their diets.
I just looked at the list of unsafe “supplements”that the Dr provided and with the exception of colloidal silver (which by the way,is absolutely safe in its modern mocro particle form and absolutely will not discolor the skin of anyone who takes it correctly -it was a lifesaver at the beginning of my Lyme treatment,) and aconite all are herbs.Certainly there is a history of herbs turning out to be carcinogenic or bad for ones liver, and science has sussed some of this out. However, often the studies involve administering copious amounts over long periods of time to laboratory rats. That being said, I certainly don’t use comfrey any more! There are no vitamin supplants on this list at all, and I seriously doubt the above person is ingesting yohimbe! My guess is your issue lies elsewhere. But I would encourage you to do your own research on what you’re taking (and diet ) to get to the bottom of this. There could be an underlying pathology twt has yet to be identified.
Dr. Buckles is correct in that supplements are not drugs. They are not regulated by the FDA, therefore they are not DRUGS. I take supplements in conjunction with diet and exercise and they work better than medication without side effects. Do not self medicate with these though. Seek out the professional advice of a Naturopathic doctor to ensure your safety. I can honestly say that an alternative doctor will provide you with BETTER results than a traditional doctor can. It’s a more natural approach instead of just writing a prescription for blood pressure medication.
More bad advice by the so called doctor. Vegans often are deficient in vitamin B 12, because of their diet. You may have to go on B 12 injections.
Drugs are unique ( bastardized ) chemicals that life has never had a chance to adapt to ( detoxify ) . They are made this way so Drug companies can enjoy monopolies and the exorbitant profits that come with monopolies. The uniqueness of drugs has nothing to do with effectiveness. As such, all drugs taken long enough poison peoples metabolisms. The medical industry glibly call these poisonings ” side effects”.
Since supplements are not biologically unique, people have a chance to benefit without the chronic poisoning, and this makes supplements distinct from drugs. Drugs are used to suppress symptoms, while supplements help remove the road blocks so the body can heal itself. To call supplements drugs shows real ignorance.
Remember, over one hundred thousand people a year die each year using pharmaceutical products, and the FDA does nothing.
An evermore shocking statistic when you consider only around 40,000 deaths a year from illegal street drugs!
I guess it depends on your definition of drugs. I consider a drug a chemical agent that produces some change in the person ingesting it. Thus, beer’s a drug, nicotine’s a drug, aspirin’s a drug, and so on. I do take supplements, but I don’t really see them as NOT a drug, and some supplements can have a bad effect with certain pharmaceuticals. Me, I hate my prescription meds, but have tried many times to get off them, and my BP just goes through the roof. The fact that the FDA doesn’t regulate supplements has nothing to do with whether they’re drugs or not. They bowed to public pressure NOT to regulate them as drugs. Personally, I’d like the FDA to guarantee the purity of the supplements I take.
Yes, a vegan would be deficient in that one vitamin, B-12, but you can provide that with a B-12 supplement pill, not just an injection. I had a serious cardiac event 12 years ago, and my cardiologist scared me into being a vegan for 5 years. I’m now a semi-vegetarian, but I eat only fish and white poultry meat, when I eat animal flesh at all. There’s really a tremendous variety of foods you can eat without eating dead cows as a mainstay. And I used to be the kind of carnivore that never met a steak he didn’t like. Now I know better.
I mentioned B 12 deficiency because many people on vegan diets are found to be B 12 deficient, and who needs that. I am 61, diabetic, get plenty of B 12, and am deficient because for some unknown reason I do not absorb B 12.
I agree that supplements can be used like drugs, but there is huge difference in taking something like Co enzyme Q 10 which the body manufactures, is critically needed,and may be in short supply for such reasons as aging or being poisoned by statin drugs, and taking drugs like statins which function by poisoning an enzyme critical to the production of cholesterol and co enzyme q 10. If you want to equate the two, that is your problem. I also realize that not all plant derived compounds are necessarily healthy, as hemlock tea springs to mind ! So plant derived compounds need to be evaluated on a case by case basis. What the FDA should be doing is monitoring the purity of supplements, but they don’t . I take ginger root powder for its anti inflammatory properties, but I don’t trust anything grown in China to be not contaminated with heavy metals. I choose a product produced in Indonesia that is represented as organic. My point is, what ever you take, learn as much as you can. I respect the opinions of Byron Richards of Wellness Resources, and Jon Barron of Baseline Nutritional Foundation.
Some final thoughts:
I wonder if the person with occasional high blood pressure is having a good case of white coat hypertension. Blood pressure readings are supposed to be a relaxed reading. My systolic is fifty points higher in the doctors office. I thing occasional muscle cramps is a serious symptom of mineral deficiency such as potassium that can be a significant factor in hypertension. Beware of low diastolic pressure. The risk of heart attack increases when diastolic pressure go below 70, and significantly increases below 60.
quote: “Beware of low diastolic pressure. The risk of heart attack increases when diastolic pressure go below 70, and significantly increases below 60.”……if it’s that low it’s Heart FAILURE, not heart attack….that is why they put in pacemakers. Most atheletes have low readings. Their is MANY, many variations of malfunctioning bodies…….best to know what is going on within your own & get the facts so you can compensate survival…………
It is not true that ‘vegans often are deficient in vitamin B12, because of their diet’, unless there is a mal-absorption of vitamin B12, which also can happen in meat eaters. There are many foods, that are actually fortified with B12 and that are also consumed by meat eaters. There are far more health hazards associated with eating meat, especially in large amounts, than there are with a vegan diet.
Whenever a ‘vegan’ dies as a result of a bad vegan diet, it is published in the newspaper. If every death associated with the rich Western diet were published the papers would be full of articles denouncing the diet. Overall, vegans and vegetarians are healthier and have less heart disease.
I have to say I find Dr Rs comments to. Be increasingly indicative of a hard line old school wat of thinking among allopaths. Even my old school dyed in the wool GP has grown beyond this kind of Knee jerk response to questions of this nature. I would bet anything this woman is not having the extreme symptom, ie very high bp, because of supplements she is taking. That being said, I just heard of a not too savvy woman who had heard she should be taking more vitamin D. Took 10,000 units a day(!) on top of all the other supplements she was taking that had more D in them. She wound up having heart palpitations, until her nutritionist daughter in law set her straight. You do have to know something about nutrition and that’s why it’s helpful to consult with a nutritionist or ND instead of trying to self treat, unless you are well educated in these matters.
I absolutely agree that people should not attempt to self medicate with supplements. Leave this up to a trained ND. I have been treated successfully with supplements by a ND for my HBP and have had exceptionally good results.
I too think that supplements are drugs. I believe the body can become dependent on certain supplements and I noticed on a magnesium supplement the warning ‘Do not take in large doses or for prolonged periods’. I get headaches from evening primrose oil and valerian knocks me out when others find it just relaxes them. Glucosamine/Chondritin, recommended by my doctor gives me terrible headaches. I do take a mulitvitamin every now and then (sometimes I wonder why though) and found that when I changed the brand the new brand caused stomach upsets. Either the old one did not do anything or the new one had something in it that I did not tolerate.
Sometimes I wonder whether supplements just add to a vitamin enriched sewage system and the best thing is to eat healthy, wholesome and unprocessed food.
I also had this problem and went to Mayo and it was caused by decreased blood flow to one or both of my kidneys. THEY Cleaned out the artery to left kidney and put a stint in artery to right kidney and my blood pressure is now stable. They discontinued all but 2 of my blood pressure meds and it is just a little high. being 128 -135 over 54 to 60.
Wow, you consider 128-135 over 54-60 “a little high?” What would you consider low? I get higher readings than that on a regular basis, and I’m on 3 BP meds, and exercise daily.
Had same issue. BP spiked occasionally to 200/100 range. Left renal artery 90% blocked. Stent placed and was able to quit most BP meds. If I keep up 30 min. a day cardio and weight close to healthy BMI, Systolic BP runs lower 140 to low 115-. Diastolic is almost always below 80.
LOL~ At “74yrs. OLD” you are just getting old……..Fact of Life …….your body is aging and breaking down……..bound to have some problems along the way as you get closer to the ‘Golden Years’……..we cannot live forever!! 😉
Yes, Sharon, I agree. I recently had a ‘health test’. There were things that could not be changed, due to the unfortunate fact that as one gets older, no matter how many medications you take to prevent heart attacks and strokes, the risk of death increases. I was told that I had a high risk of a hip fracture because my dad had one.
Dad tripped over a floor mat and fractured his hip. He was 89 and died half a year later as a result of the fracture, which was sad. The brutal reality is that at 89 he had passed his expected life-expectancy and to me the ‘high fracture risk due to a parent having osteoporosis’ was a bit of a joke. If I can live to 89 without a fracture I think I’d consider myself happy.
Loved this post Sharon! It made me smile instead of the very-worried frown I have when I read other contributions! Of course, you are right – it’s common sense really, but we lose sight of this sometimes. I feel like telling my GP that I do not expect to have the same BP as a healthy, younger, fit person, so why try to force it down into that range!?!?! I am almost 70, and cannot do much physical exercise as my knees have ‘gone! Oh dear!!!
Something I have not seen addressed here is the effect generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) can have on blood pressure. I have always been a highly functioning person but have GAD and gradually withdrew from low dose benzodiazepene over one year. When fully withdrawn, although I had no awareness of feeling “stressed,” I basically stopped sleeping and went into autonomic dysregulation, in which my breathing, blood pressure and heart rate bore no relationship to my activities. I could barely breathe, suffered severe tachycardia, and my blood pressure was extreme at both ends. After many medical tests, which turned out to be fine, my doctor insisted I take the medication for GAD again. I was almost instantly well again despite having been essentially disabled for over two months. Most people are not good at assessing their own stress levels and cannot predict how their bodies will respond at the autonomic level.