The reluctant blogger (blood pressure . . . again!)

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm still pretty bummed about my blood pressure results at the doctor's office yesterday. 150/100 was about the best reading I could manage (others were 160+ over 90+). And the readings were pretty much the same in both arms.

This pretty much confirms that the fairly normal reading I got at the doctor's office last Friday was either a mistake, an anomaly, or I misunderstood what the nurse said. Since she only spent about 10 seconds taking my blood pressure, I'm guessing it's the first of those three options. And it does start to look like I can pretty much trust the self-service blood pressure machine at the local pharmacy.

So, what do I do from here? One of the first orders of business is to get back on the hydrochlorothiazide (HZ), which I did yesterday. Looks like there's no other option for now. I've continued with the breathing exercises but I'm reconsidering whether to keep them up: either the medication is going to lower the blood pressure to where it should be or the exercises are. The latter appear thus far to not have been very effective.

There is some anecdotal evidence that can be gleaned from certain web forums that creatine can heighten blood pressure. I'll have to look more carefully into that. But my increased blood pressure does predate my creatine experimentation. By the look of things at present my blood pressure did no change much between the high reading I got some weeks ago (while off HZ) and this week (while also off HZ).

On a somewhat brighter note it seems there might not be such a conflict between creatine and HZ: we uncovered a fairly recent study (2002, if memory serves) that seemed to indicate that creatine is not a diuretic--as has been widely presumed for some time. I will thus see if I can continue the creatine even while taking HZ.

I will also experiment with decreasing the creatine dosage (to something less than 5 grams; maybe 2.5?). I get a kind of buzz from it, oddly enough. Makes me feel a bit jittery--to be expected for a vegetarian I suppose, since I read just today that the most dramatic effects of creatine are to be expected among vegetarians.

I actually have an update to give on creatine. But I'll save it from being overshadowed by the somber tone of this entry and will write about that another day; tomorrow, perhaps?

I've also begun wondering what, if anything, I can do in the way of physical activity in the winter months to bring down my blood pressure. Maybe an hours-long incredibly hard workout once a week--something approximating what I get during the cycling season (though then it's often more than once aweek)--would help? I'll be trying to scheme up a way to do this over the coming days/weeks.

So far I'm not sure how it could be accomplished. I can't see myself putting out that hard on a stationary bike for two or more hours. Anyway, more food for thought.

Until next time . . .