General worried about my BP with all my stupid intolerances.

[fooferdoggie]

I have posted many times how my body reacts to anything new. I have not bee able to eat anything new on a regular basis for 30 or more years now. my body only tolerates meat eggs cheese and unsweetendd almond milk and some basic supplements on a daily basis. carbs I think have been the root of it. but here is the strange thing. carbs made my esophagus hurt so bad endgame me what I thought was heartburn my whole life. well my esophagus went nuclear about 5 or so years ago upon the 4th of July no less. it was like the worst heartburn 24/7 for almost a year before it let up.
but here is the thing even with all my torn muscles and going to urgent care my BP was normal. but when I went in the next day because they thought I was having a heart attack my bp was up. I don't remember exactly what it was in the 150's and over nity I think. but that was like a turning point my BP went down a bit but its still in the hypertension stage one for the last 4 years. it would creep up in sage two sometimes but it has been creeping up in stage two more often. riding at least 30 miles a day would bring it down to stage 1. but anymore it =has just creeped into stage 2. my doc was ok of stage one because of my age. but its not going down anymore.
my diet does not help meat 3 times a day. though anymore I have cut back on fat as much as I can. I mean now instead of the 1/2 pound of bacon I had every breakfast I now have mostly ground pork or some fresh sausages and a little bacon off and on. Salt seems to taste way too slaty so I have been trying to not eat as much processed meat. so now I eat mostly fresh meat on a day;y basi. I can eat veggies 3 times a week but that seems about the extent.
so for all these years I have found nothing I could really digest on a daily basis besides what I was when this started. all the meds I tired (but for Tylenol and Benadryl ) have either bothered my esophagus or my body or both. if I eat anything that bothers me on a daily basis I get weaker and weaker and I may get a cold or flue like systems. I will loose muscle and be physically weak.
so I have spent so much effort controlling what I eat ad riding my bikes as much as possible. they make me feel better overall.
but my bp is not being nice and I am worried about taking meds for it.
so for me the worry is not so much my bp but taking meds for it. I have worried about spending time in the hospital and how that would actually work. I mean how many people do they deal with that cant tolerate any carbs Andean only eat what I can eat? its a bit crazy. I finally found a good GP she has helped me as much as she can gave me idea's that have helped. she said she thought my bp was ok for me being 59 years old. but its been creeping up since then. I check every day with a setup that checks three times and gives me a average.
thinking about the the meds I tired were all the tummy pills that are normal for people with GERD and one that was a mild mela pill that helped with esophageal l problems. the tummy pills caused issues because it was my esophagus and the esophageal hypersensitive I have. I had to suffer a day of having my stomach PH tested and it was fine. I finally worked it out its almost all just been my misbehaving esophagus and to the typical GERD most people have.

 

[AG_PhamD]

Sorry to hear about your situation. Having such a limited diet must be difficult.

One option for controlling BP without oral medication could be clonidine patches, where the medication is absorbed through your skin (similar concept to a nicotine patch). It’s not a typical way of treating hypertension these days, but could be an option. Taking oral medication with food is usually helpful too.

Also, how much exercise are you doing? Aerobic exercise can be a great way to reduce high blood pressure without needing to take any medications.

 

[fooferdoggie]

good idea on the patches. I will be going into my doctor after Christmas. I exercise every day if I am not sick at Elat a hour on weekdays and often 2 Horus if weather permits and 2 to 4 hours on weekends. it's about all I do is ride bikes. it helps keep my mind ff my problems. when my esophagus got so bad and I realized there was no help to be had it brought me around that I really had to control what I eat. its hard as hell but I control it really well. I have been able to eliminate a lot of fat from my diet and salt and nitrates. but I still eat meat 3 times a day at leasts its what I can eat.
one thing is my body does not work well with meds. I have not had a huge amount of them but the ones I have had never did much. when I was 13 I had that shot before an operation that wipes you out. I was in a room with other guys and watched how it made them me it did not affect me. morphine then I had a kidney stone just gave me a headache. same with alcohol. all the tummy meds did not work (but I think thats because it was my esophagus and not my stomach) and a few others. Tylenol works somewhat so thats another worry about taking meds. my body is so wacky and this may kill me but not directly.
here is this years riding stats.

 

[rdrr]

High BP individual here and I feel your pain, literally. High BP is a part of my genetics from my Mother's side and including high Cholesterol. I have been on BP meds and Statins for over 10 years now, and it sucks. A couple of problems I now have...

Avoiding grapefruit products has been a bear and one of my biggest issues is with craft beer makers putting in grapefruit juice to enhance IPAs. I have to try and figure it out myself and find it odd that they aren't mandated to list the ingredients. Is it real grapefruit juice and extracts or just flavoring? The craft beer companies need to understand a significant percentage of Americans are on statins and consuming grapefruit is a big issues while on them. I was drinking a lot (cut that out since August btw), of a certain beer. Found out when I started getting very ill that I had been consuming grapefruit and was having serious liver complications. Glad I caught it, but I believe I have done some permanent damage to my liver outside of the drinking.

The BP meds that were prescribed to me, has me now taking pills because I am taking pills. Due the effects of diuretic on the body, I now have to take a honking Potassium pill and Vitamin D supplements. My potassium levels are all over the place, and I am sure I am not doing my heart any favors, especially at 56. They also had me on a beta blocker called Atenonol, and I recently weaned myself off at my new doctors direction. It was causing me to have low heart rate <50, and doing nothing for my BP. The doctor said that they now have evidence that Atenonol really does nothing for the BP, and isn't recommended for high BP.

Overall my diet, weight, and physical activity probably contribute more to the answer than anything. I have cut out a lot of salt out of my diet, have been consuming more veggies and not as much carbs. I do not subscribe to a Keto diet, or cutting out meats (yet). I have been on a diet since I have been engaged and just counting calories. I don't believe in the fad diets, and prefer to loose weight slowly over time. I started at 247 in February, and just weighed in at 214 this morning. I still have a long weigh (pun intended) to go... My goal is at least 195 by May, but I will be happy to be 200 - 205. Unfortunately adding exercise into my plan is been a real issue. I have a sedentary job and minimal activity outside of it. My biggest roadblock in this area is a bad back and neck. Both have had surgery on them and both are still bothering me.

 

[AG_PhamD]

good idea on the patches. I will be going into my doctor after Christmas. I exercise every day if I am not sick at Elat a hour on weekdays and often 2 Horus if weather permits and 2 to 4 hours on weekends. it's about all I do is ride bikes. it helps keep my mind ff my problems. when my esophagus got so bad and I realized there was no help to be had it brought me around that I really had to control what I eat. its hard as hell but I control it really well. I have been able to eliminate a lot of fat from my diet and salt and nitrates. but I still eat meat 3 times a day at leasts its what I can eat.
one thing is my body does not work well with meds. I have not had a huge amount of them but the ones I have had never did much. when I was 13 I had that shot before an operation that wipes you out. I was in a room with other guys and watched how it made them me it did not affect me. morphine then I had a kidney stone just gave me a headache. same with alcohol. all the tummy meds did not work (but I think thats because it was my esophagus and not my stomach) and a few others. Tylenol works somewhat so thats another worry about taking meds. my body is so wacky and this may kill me but not directly.
here is this years riding stats.
View attachment 20223View attachment 20224

Good to see you’re exercising.

I wouldn’t write medications off completely. There are literally dozens of medications to treat hypertension and many different drug classes with completely different mechanisms of action to ultimately lower blood pressure. Also, if your stomach turns out to just be so sensitive to pills, there are also liquid options available that may be more tolerable. Your prescriber might just have to think outside the box of typical options.

In extreme situations medications can also be compounded into custom dosage forms (ie tablet to oral suspension/solution) if whatever form you want is not commercially available. This can be expensive though and requires a special compounding pharmacy, which may be tricky to find.

 

[fooferdoggie]

with me the only time I can loose weight is when I am really sick. then the weight drops off even though I eat the same. the last big one when my esophagus was so bad I lost more then 30 pounds and 4" I had to buy new clothes twice. I was fairly sick a few weeks ago and lost 7 pounds. but if I eat less I just run out of energy but I don't lose any weight. my energy levels have sucked this whole time and its a constant battle to have enough. one reason I want to cut fat is I get more energy from protein so I try to replace the fat with lean protein. of course all that protein is a little hard on my kidneys.
I have refined my diet so much and its so hard to eat this way. no splurges or special days and I can measure how food effects my energy with my bike. carbs are so bad and they effect me worse and worse. Now if I have maybe 100 calories of carbs in some easy to digest form it will hit me hard make me loopy and tired for hours. it used to take eating carbs all day to do that. 5 years ago I could eat one of those big tubs of popcorn at the movies and would feel ok now I cant even eat a whole York peppermint patty.

 

[fooferdoggie]

ok here is something. I talked to the nutritionist around September. he wanted to see if I could increase my carbs a bit. well more horn a bit. but I tired and in two days I was wiped out feeling tired. not enough to make me loopy but still. but I found I could increase it a little by socking on a few jawbreakers usually when I was riding. but Started just having it evening because I had gloves on and it was a pain to get them out of my pocket. it was maybe 100 calories not sure because a couple of them I only sucked them till I got to the center then spit them out. I also found after that attempt to really increase my carbs I became even more sensitive and it took less sugar to make me loopy and all it took was to eat maybe 100 calories in a easy to absorb form like from a York peppermint patty (not even a whole one) or al little milk chocolate in my hot unsweetted chocolate almond milk.
so I went back and looked at when my BP started going up and it was around 1 week after eating more carbs. it jumped around some but it tended to be higher and it just got a bit worse. so I wont see the doc for a month so I am going back to my regular carb intake and see what happens.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I have posted many times how my body reacts to anything new. I have not bee able to eat anything new on a regular basis for 30 or more years now. my body only tolerates meat eggs cheese and unsweetendd almond milk and some basic supplements on a daily basis. carbs I think have been the root of it. but here is the strange thing. carbs made my esophagus hurt so bad endgame me what I thought was heartburn my whole life. well my esophagus went nuclear about 5 or so years ago upon the 4th of July no less. it was like the worst heartburn 24/7 for almost a year before it let up.
but here is the thing even with all my torn muscles and going to urgent care my BP was normal. but when I went in the next day because they thought I was having a heart attack my bp was up. I don't remember exactly what it was in the 150's and over nity I think. but that was like a turning point my BP went down a bit but its still in the hypertension stage one for the last 4 years. it would creep up in sage two sometimes but it has been creeping up in stage two more often. riding at least 30 miles a day would bring it down to stage 1. but anymore it =has just creeped into stage 2. my doc was ok of stage one because of my age. but its not going down anymore.
my diet does not help meat 3 times a day. though anymore I have cut back on fat as much as I can. I mean now instead of the 1/2 pound of bacon I had every breakfast I now have mostly ground pork or some fresh sausages and a little bacon off and on. Salt seems to taste way too slaty so I have been trying to not eat as much processed meat. so now I eat mostly fresh meat on a day;y basi. I can eat veggies 3 times a week but that seems about the extent.
so for all these years I have found nothing I could really digest on a daily basis besides what I was when this started. all the meds I tired (but for Tylenol and Benadryl ) have either bothered my esophagus or my body or both. if I eat anything that bothers me on a daily basis I get weaker and weaker and I may get a cold or flue like systems. I will loose muscle and be physically weak.
so I have spent so much effort controlling what I eat ad riding my bikes as much as possible. they make me feel better overall.
but my bp is not being nice and I am worried about taking meds for it.
so for me the worry is not so much my bp but taking meds for it. I have worried about spending time in the hospital and how that would actually work. I mean how many people do they deal with that cant tolerate any carbs Andean only eat what I can eat? its a bit crazy. I finally found a good GP she has helped me as much as she can gave me idea's that have helped. she said she thought my bp was ok for me being 59 years old. but its been creeping up since then. I check every day with a setup that checks three times and gives me a average.
thinking about the the meds I tired were all the tummy pills that are normal for people with GERD and one that was a mild mela pill that helped with esophageal l problems. the tummy pills caused issues because it was my esophagus and the esophageal hypersensitive I have. I had to suffer a day of having my stomach PH tested and it was fine. I finally worked it out its almost all just been my misbehaving esophagus and to the typical GERD most people have.

Sorry to hear about this. Mrs AFB has similar issues. She can eat very little without consequences. She can’t eat diary or wheat. Most fruit. Small amount of vegetables. She mostly eats chicken and plain rice. No flavourings of any sort. A bit of broccoli or other vegetables, but that’s about it.
When she does try to eat anything else she either rejects the food (which is super unpleasant) or at the very least, swells up and feels like road kill (her words). Often she can’t face the Russian roulette of eating at all.
Pretty miserable existence.

 

[fooferdoggie]

I am seeing a small drop in my BP now that I am back to my normal carb level. I know now that carbs really can kill me. the more I eat the more my body becomes sensitive to them.the less I eat the more my body tries to hoard them and makes me loopy. it used to be my esophagus would tart warning me I had to many carbs then I would run out of energy and if I kept going I would get loopy. Now I don't even get to the body warning levels before I get loopy. maybe 100 calories like about 1/2 a yporks peppermint patty or maybe one oz of milk chocolate in my almond milk can make me loopy for a hour or so. I'm dammed if I do eat them and dammed if I don't. but I cant push it a more or I will stat having to cut out any carbs in any form and that would include my fibre and carrots and such.

 

[Clix Pix]

Frankly, my opinion is that you need serious and thoughtful medical attention from MDs, preferably specialists who may be able to help you work through this.... Participants on this tech-based forum (most of us are non-professionals in the medical field) are really not going to be able to provide the ongoing guidance and patience that you will need while sorting through everything in tracking down the underlying / root source of your problems. Obviously on this forum, most of us will not be trained in and knowledgeable about the appropriate current medical testing which clearly needs to be done. Something is clearly not working right with your digestive system and from your own comments, at this point it is apparently not getting better. You need professional help.

Please try to find someone medically trained that you feel you can trust to help you explore your digestive system issues. From your own reports this has already gone on for too long a time and really needs serious attention.

Your very life may depend upon working with someone you trust and also clinical evidence-based answers and solutions being found.

 

[AG_PhamD]

Frankly, my opinion is that you need serious and thoughtful medical attention from MDs, preferably specialists who may be able to help you work through this.... Participants on this tech-based forum (most of us are non-professionals in the medical field) are really not going to be able to provide the ongoing guidance and patience that you will need while sorting through everything in tracking down the underlying / root source of your problems. Obviously on this forum, most of us will not be trained in and knowledgeable about the appropriate current medical testing which clearly needs to be done. Something is clearly not working right with your digestive system and from your own comments, at this point it is apparently not getting better. You need professional help.

Please try to find someone medically trained that you feel you can trust to help you explore your digestive system issues. From your own reports this has already gone on for too long a time and really needs serious attention.

Your very life may depend upon working with someone you trust and also clinical evidence-based answers and solutions being found.

Exactly.

@fooferdoggie there’s way to many variables to assess an individuals needs and risks over a forum. Especially in complex cases, such as yourself. My earlier comments were merely to say there are a lot of options available.

I’m not sure if you’re seeing a GP/PCP/Family medicine doctor or a cardiologist, but perhaps it’s worth talking to an allergist that specializes in drug allergies (and perhaps food allergies as well) or working with a decent hospital or multi-speciality practice who might have these resources in some form. Your doctor should be able to refer you in the right direction. Or you can always seek a second opinion, that shouldn’t offend your current provider.

If you want a second opinion or a new primary care doctor, my suggestion is to talk with your local friends and family to see if they have a provider they are happy with.

If you haven’t already, you may want to speak with a gastroenterologist regarding your GERD issues as well.

It seems like there’s a number of probables you are reporting and having a team with the proper knowledge to address each one and collaborate with eachother would be ideal.

 

[fooferdoggie]

Don't worry I am going to the doc this month when I saw my BP going up. I found a really good GP that has helped me out. But I have had my guts looked at in every way and no one really has a clue or really has looked at why carbs are such a problem for me and food in general. I have learned to really listen to my body and control what I eat. it's really all I have available to me.
All I have is theories. I think the carb issue is generic as stomach problems have run through the male side of the family. I think I have always had a problem with carbs but it was very little at first and has slowly been getting worse throughout my life. the other food issues (mainly I can only eat protein on a daily basis. was because my guts got nuked with so many antibiotics when I was young because of respiratory infections and H pylori treated twice.
but what I found is no one has a clue and there does not seem to be anything to be done about it. My mochas helped with ideas but thats about it. I have had a couple of stress tests and passed just fine. I doubt there are any meds I can take because my body reacts to anything new if it is eaten on a regular basis.

 

[fooferdoggie]

BP is almost back to where it was by just cutting out 50 calories or so of sugar. how crazy is that. going to the doctor Monday.

 

[fooferdoggie]

well doc wants me on a bp med. figured that as my bp has been up for 3 years.so on a low dose of losartan and since it can help kidneys thats good with m,y all protein diet. hope it works with my body. so far I never had luck with meds working. pain meds and tummy meds have never really worked for me. I had two vaccinations I needed but I guess I needed three. so one in one arm two in the other. made me so tried. but my wife told me wait on the bp meds as they can make you dizzy and I use dont need that today.

 

[shadow puppet]

well doc wants me on a bp med. figured that as my bp has been up for 3 years.so on a low dose of losartan and since it can help kidneys thats good with m,y all protein diet. hope it works with my body. so far I never had luck with meds working. pain meds and tummy meds have never really worked for me. I had two vaccinations I needed but I guess I needed three. so one in one arm two in the other. made me so tried. but my wife told me wait on the bp meds as they can make you dizzy and I use dont need that today.

My BP was always low until a few years ago. I'm on Metoprolol extended release 3x a day. It doesn't make me dizzy & I only weigh 100lbs. So maybe, if yours makes you dizzy, you can speak to your doctor about trying a different BP med. Sending positive vibes you feel better soon.

 

[Clix Pix]

well doc wants me on a bp med. figured that as my bp has been up for 3 years.so on a low dose of losartan and since it can help kidneys thats good with m,y all protein diet. hope it works with my body. so far I never had luck with meds working. pain meds and tummy meds have never really worked for me. I had two vaccinations I needed but I guess I needed three. so one in one arm two in the other. made me so tried. but my wife told me wait on the bp meds as they can make you dizzy and I use dont need that today.

Have you considered getting a second opinion? (From a medical professional, not just your wife)...

 

[fooferdoggie]

Have you considered getting a second opinion? (From a medical professional, not just your wife)...

what about taking a new med that may make me dizzy after I had three vaccinations? why would I need professional it is a great idea. I was so tired today from the vaccinations. my BP had been the same for 3 years I doubt away is going to make much difference taking the meds.

 

[fooferdoggie]

My BP was always low until a few years ago. I'm on Metoprolol extended release 3x a day. It doesn't make me dizzy & I only weigh 100lbs. So maybe, if yours makes you dizzy, you can speak to your doctor about trying a different BP med. Sending positive vibes you feel better soon.

the BP does not make me feel anything. they don't call it the silent killer for nothing. Man my bp was high when I checked it after my 3 vaccinations. still a bit high. but I still don't feel as bad as when I got the shingles vaccine especially the second time that was so bad.

 

[Clix Pix]

Well, actually I was suggesting that you find and consult a different physician for a second opinion before purchasing and taking the new medication....and obviously that would not happen in a day or two in any event. I don't think many people fill a prescription for and start taking a new and unfamiliar med the very same day they've just received a vaccination or two or three....

 

[fooferdoggie]

Well, actually I was suggesting that you find and consult a different physician for a second opinion before purchasing and taking the new medication....and obviously that would not happen in a day or two in any event. I don't think many people fill a prescription for and start taking a new and unfamiliar med the very same day they've just received a vaccination or two or three....

ok I see what you mean. this isa really small dose o meds to try out. My doc is one of the few docs I have trusted that has actually listened to me. most of them would not believe me about what was going on. the gut specialist finally realized my problem was a super sensitive esophagus but thats been about it.