"Essential" Hypertension And Appreciating It For What It Really Is

[yerrag]

Thanks for taking the time to post your many ideas and experiences here Sheila.

Forgive me if I have missed something, but I am not entirely sure why you believe you had a lead problem as there is usually no escaping the dulling of brain function that goes with this poisoning - and your writing style is not that of a dullard. It is my experience that lead impacts wherever calcium can be found and that chelation is not that specific and requires much more calcium than might normally be deemed necessary as a replacement, otherwise other minerals of the 2+ squad get depleted also. My experiences with calcium supplementation suggest that inorganic forms can be gut irritating and where that is the case, it should be avoided. Any irritation of the gut mucosa increases the chances of further gut-to-blood barrier and I rather suspect now, any organ-to-blood barrier leakiness. I am beginning to think that adequate sulphur plays a part here in accepting and processing dairy-based calcium, but that for another time and place, when I have much more data.

I took a provoked challenge test that revealed I have lead toxicity. While it's good that my writing shows no signs of the effects of lead toxicity on the brain, could it be possible that the lead toxicity is limited to my kidneys only, since the lead that may have been chelated from my body tissues found its way to the kidneys only because the kidney is an organ of elimination and the lead instead of passing through the kidneys got deposited in the kidneys instead? And the possibility would have been increased if I were deficient in calcium as well as magnesium and potassium? It seems that until recently, what I ate normally has been deficient on all these minerals. I wasn't high on milk and cheese and green leaves, nor was I regular in drinking fruit juices. Lacking in these electrolytes, it would seem that I am a magnet for lead toxicity as lead would easily replace/displace these minerals due to a deficiency in them.

It's interesting also that you mention the role sulphur plays. I wonder if regularly using onions and garlic as condiments for what I eat would be adequate for my needs.

Further, my experiences with people with end-stage renal disease (not you) suggests that elevated blood pressure can be independent of their kidney disease, as some, on dialysis, have BP of 120/80 and only higher when under particular other strains (infections, work pressure, inappropriate medications) or if dialysis is delayed. This may just be a function of the ones I have studied and it is not unusual for these sorts to develop sub-clinical Grave's (auto-immune hyperthyroidism) which can present with within range TSH, T4, T3 etc but high levels of auto-antibodies - and that WILL elevate their blood pressure. I have seen improvement with a gut focused, rather than thyroid per se focused, plan, so I concur with Dr Peat when he says that 'thyroid auto-antibodies' aren't thyroid specific even as our understanding of what they truly represent is probably also wanting...ie. not self attack, more like the 'interrupted clean up crew'. My point is then that sometimes, unexplained high BP has a unobvious, thyroiditis aetiology, or as part of the problem. Not thinking this is particularly relevant here per se, but see later.

High blood pressure is very much in the province of the "known unknowns." I went through a checklist of causes, and methodically eliminated these causes. What I learned from it is that there are more causes that are not common knowledge. I'm all ears to the unobvious, thyroiditis aetiology. I'm testing my blood pressure many times daily, but it gets frustrating when I don't see a consistent gradual reduction in my blood pressure that I can extrapolate to a normal blood pressure at a certain point in the near future (I should probably take my blood pressure readings less often, as I lose weight more easily when I don't weigh myself as often )

In all the presentations of Cushings that I have been aware of, bowel toxicity seems to play a part. High blood sugar and blood pressure usually go hand in hand here as does a high degree of endotoxin recirculation. I have been wondering why the presentation in dogs has spiked markedly in the last few decades - given that they don't stress much (given reasonable conditions) and I rather suspect that it's the now common but much higher grain diets (commercial dog din) that may provide one element since endotoxin begets cortisol. If then there are higher cortisol levels in your picture, the additional potassium via KCl and lots of fruit (I also have Weber's book) would certainly be beneficial, at the very least for shovelling recalcitrant blood sugar into cells. Maybe that, in the appropriate context, is also how K+ reduces blood pressure in some. I have also used KCl via a rather older modality at 65mg 1-3x daily with food, and in that regard it works physiologically if not obviously biochemically as a kind of blood thinner/anti-inflam. When that happens, particularly if blood is over-glucose rich, and it is 'thicker than it should be' implying inflammation, then circulation definitely gets impaired. I have given it, over time, in this manner for keloid scaring (which was a sign for this old remedy - where there are any 'over-growths' present) with good results presuming there are sufficient calories - nothing works without sufficient fuel. Keloid formation is therefore a signature of lowered metabolism - at the time of injury and repair, not necessarily forever. As metabolism rises, it is not unusual for scars to re-heal properly. (Although it is unusual one might say for metabolism to rise in this culture, but when it can, such remediation is undertaken naturally by the body. All a function of available energy. I note you referred to this in your use of Vit C, but KCl was also in this loop too I think.)

I'm glad you have Weber's book. I have trouble understanding Chapter 12 on cortisol. I find his language very cryptic and hard to unpack. For example "Cortisol inversely conserves potassium." Does it mean the same thing as "Cortisol directly wastes potassium?" If so, why doesn't he use the latter expression? I don't recall any other author ever expressing the relationship of cortisol and potassium wrapped in this way. So Chapter 12 remains something I have to decipher. Seems the more I try to understand it, the more I get confused. Perhaps it is because I don't have the clinical perspective to be able to relate.

In my case, I have no high blood sugar. A fasting glucose test would show me to usually be at 85-95. As for my endotoxin levels, I have stopped eating food for its fiber content for at least half a year already. I have switched from brown to white rice. I have switched to drinking freshly juiced fruit juice instead of eating fruit. And to be sure, I also eat cooked bamboo shoots and carrot salad. And for good measure, I also take activated charcoal. My bowel movement has been regular and I have no issues with constipation, nor do I have more than the occasional case of flatulence. Outside of these, is there something else I need to look into that is gut-related?

I'm interested in your take on KCl. You use small amounts as compared to what I had used. Given that 4700mg is a suggested daily intake of elemental potassium, I meet those needs with 3 meals with pork or beef (around 1500 mg), 2 cups of fruit juice (1000 mg), 3 medium bananas (1500mg), and 1.4g of KCl (700mg ). Is there a reason you use such small quantities? The reason I ask is that my blood pressure monitor would show that I have arrhythmia. And this very much has to do with my supplementation of 4.8g of MgCl2 and the mentioned potassium supplementaton. This is only occasional, and when it happens, I would stop my MgCl2 and KCl supplementation for the day. I don't supplement sodium chloride, as I use enough to taste in food already. As for calcium, I may have slacked off in meeting my daily 1.6g of elemental calcium and am just getting about half of it daily. It seems to me there is plenty still I have to learn about these electrolytes, and the more I understand them, the closer I get to addressing my high blood pressure condition.

Your mention of keloid strikes a chord. I agree it is related to metabolism, or more specifically, a lack of energy. I believe my keloids were formed due to 2 significant factors. One was the lack of oxygen transport capability by my blood being intoxicated by mercury (which has been resolved already through chelation), and my going to the US Northeast, where sunlight is lacking, reducing my expsoure to red light. However, I am back in the tropics. My metabolism has been restored, although it can still be better, but I don't see my keloids reheal. I noticed they respond to my application of Tyromix (T3/T4), but regretably I cannot continue dosing because they increase my metabolism and makes my blood pressure go higher.

The kidneys seem very, very susceptible to bacterial load. Koch talks about it and that septic foci in the tonsils was his favourite source of system-wide poisoning over time, IIRC. If repeated vitamin C reduces this load, I could easily see (and have seen experientially) how kidney function can be improved. In repeated, powerful doses, it is capable of clearing out very nasty bowel pockets (including latent diverticuli) and resurrecting latent pockets of infection - hopefully for clearance - especially at teeth. Drip, drip, drip from latent septic foci in the teeth (or from the tonsils) - often without obvious pain - is a great way to annoy both thyroid (cf. Grave's) and stomach function over time. I have certainly seen a link in older people between kidney disease and early tonsil issues (fwiw), that was, once I knew to look for any connection. Joining the dots, as we have discussed, takes so much time.

My kidneys must have suffered a lot before. When I used to get my frequent bouts of fever and flu up until twenty years ago, my tonsils would be the start of my sickness. It was only when I removed my mercury fillings that my frail condition improved. 5 years ago, I had some teeth to make sure there weren't anaerobic bacterial colonies under those pockets of gum that have been breached. It was my hope then that my blood pressure would subside. It failed to subside, but I was happy to know that I eliminated a very toxic source of bacteria and their toxins. The colony was large enough that I thought the dentist had pulled out a piece of gum.

And whilst I remember, if you went to the dentist whilst under the influence of high vitamin C load, pain should have been much less; if I knew the mechanism I have forgotten it, sorry. I did read what Mr Travis wrote also. But some of my patients have Vit C via IV for such occasions and experience almost no pain, and limited bruising even during extractions. I have a feeling that Vit C and charcoal are a powerful combination in rotation for removal and resolution of septic foci (it is not unusual for a fever to turn up here either as the desired end point: burn up) but it's an idea that requires your level of observation since charcoal binding up toxins and recirculating them is not ideal, especially with kidney issues, and repeated irritation from vitamin C can also cause problems. There is also quite a difference between oral vitamin C used to bowel tolerance (usually considered as an anti-oxidant approach) than via IV at 50-100g whereupon its pro-oxidant effect takes priority I think. As always, dosing depends on what you want to do. And with any high dose, repeated use Vit C, I am sure you are aware that copper will ultimately become the rate determining step as copper is required for the metabolism of vitamin C.

Thanks for reminding me of copper. I shouldn't forget my weekly fill of seawater shrimp, liver, and oysters. I have slacked off for 2 weeks.

If you have any references for higher dose garlic reducing thiamine, potassium and mag, I would be grateful. I have seen high dose garlic cause quite a bit of atrial fibrillation in patients and any process that pushes that instability gives me pause for thought. I believe you used it as a chelator (?), whereas I have used it as a short term 'kill shot' as, over time, it's quite capable of inducing anaemia which, with the anaemia of chronic disease (not you), you definitely don't want. Some of the other pro-oxidants are in this category, like Artemisinin, they are essentially 'kind' chemotherapy if that makes sense.

I could have sworn Weber's book talked about garlic being a diuretic and causing thiamine and potassium to be lost through urine, but I must have my wires crossed. I'll see if I can retrace my steps and get back to you.

My final comment is that many people whom I initially encouraged to have gelatine before bed found that it acted as a diuretic. I am not sure there if it was a histamine response or the protein in the wrong place or...but no matter how I 'diced and sliced' this combination, it might help them get to sleep but it woke them for a pee also. Just an observation which may or may not be of use to you.

Thanks for sharing that. I have run out of milk lately and haven't restocked due to being sick. So I've been going to bed without the milk/collagen/coconut milk/sugar combo. I may be waking up less to pee. Will begin counting. I long for the days when I can sleep through the entire night and wake up with a full load to pee.

Thank you for letting me learn from your trials and tribulations, I admire your patience and fortitude and am delighted you are making such progress.
Best regards
Sheila

I owe you as much for sharing what you have learned over the years with your patients!

 

[yerrag]

Thank you for your log, yerrag, I've learned a lot. Even the minor details have been very helpful. Wish you all the best, please continue to keep us posted.

I am in a severe hypoxic condition, I hope to start a thread here shortly. I'm trying to read as much as I can before I start my thread.

You opened your thread with "essential hypertension and appreciating it for what it really is". I feel the same way with pain. I "appreciate it" for what it is and what it is saying to me. IMO, pain should never be fully relieved without 1st knowing what is causing it and resolving or having a plan to resolve what is causing it. Pain, imo, is an indicator something is wrong .. a warning signal .. take heed. Thanks again.

Thanks Lore. Hope you are finding improvements with your breathing issue.

 

[yerrag]

I got some good news from my blood tests. I didn't test CO2 anymore as I don't have problems with it. Except for LDH, all markers got better. I'm not too concerned about the LDH value for now, as I didn't really expect it to come down so quickly, as I would consider it to be more of a lagging indicator. The results are:

Uric Acid- from 379 to 339
Albumin - from 38.9 to 43.34
Urine Protein/Creatinine Ratio - from 25.65 to 11.45
LDH - from 201 to 221

I'm not surprised. For the past two months, I've been figuring out what works with different combos of supplements, and have narrowed down to using Vitamin C and magnesium chloride as main supplements in my protocol.

It helped a lot that I've learned about the use of the C-Flush Test to determine how much my daily intake of vitamin C, or l-ascorbic acid should be. From there, I had to figure out how to split the dosage for an entire day. For me, 6.75g dosage dissolved in 600 ml water, and drinking 2 portions of 100 ml solution between breakfast and lunch, and 4 portions between lunch and dinner works very well for me. The downside is that I don't have vitamin C after dinner, and I would wake up with a higher blood pressure, but then I'm trying not to urinate as much during my sleep hours, and vitamin C tends to make me pee a lot.

As for magnesium chloride, I've settled on just using it as my sole source of supplemental magnesium. I ditched calcium citrate, because it is said to cause calcium to be urinated out. And I didn't even get to use magnesium bicarbonate, which would still entail my making my own DIY carbonator (although except for the CO2 tank, I've got all the parts to make it with me.) I slowly increased my daily dosage to 4,800 mg. I dissolved the amount in 450 ml of water, and take 150 ml of it after each meal. I would take a piece of banana before I take a portion of it to provide about 500mg of potassium. Without the banana, the arrhythmia indicator in my electronic blood pressure monitor would occasionally flash. This indicates that perhaps the magnesium I'm taking needed to be balanced with another electrolyte or two. The potassium in the banana worked well for that purpose.

With the Vitamin C and the magnesium chloride, I can see my blood pressure going down to about 180/120. But it somehow reached a plateau. At first I thought since this would be a slow process of lowering my blood pressure further, I should just stick with this. But I felt something amiss. I was urinating a lot, and I remembered Peat mentioning that salt intake would help to lower blood pressure. I had tried taking salt before, and potassium as well, but both ended with disappointing results as I also kept urinating. And my blood pressure didn't budge. I thought this time I should try increasing also my potassium and salt intake. So, in addition to the 4800mg magnesium, I put in 4000mg of potasssium chloride, and 6000mg of salt, into the daily solution of 450ml, of which I would take a portion of 150ml after each meal. I've been on this for 3 days already, and my blood pressure has been more consistently going further down. I am also urinating less during the day, but during the night though, I am urinating a lot. Still disturbs my sleep, so I still have to tweak something to lessen my urination. Btw, I didn't add calcium anymore as I already take in enough calcium already with green leaves, milk, and egg shell powder. And I have to mention that when Peat talked about salt lowering blood pressure, he was saying it in the context of it increasing blood volume. I guess what he didn't mention was that magnesium and potassium would have to be in abudance as well, in order for the salt to have the blood volume incrasing and blood pressure lowering effect.

In addition to these, I'm taking one or two cloves of garlic, with my breakfast and lunch meals but consciously avoiding it for dinner, knowing it is a diuretic and would not hep my sleep. I learned from earlier that I can't take too much of it, as it will take away thiamine and potassium from me. But I would still take it because it also helps with chelating lead out from my body.

I'm also taking zinc, selenomethionine, P5P, and NAC to aid the liver in eliminating the chelated lead out from my system.

For now, I'm glad I'm out of the woods as far as being in stage 1 chronic kidney disease, with my urine protein-creatinine ratio getting now far below the threshold. This is verified by my improving serum blood albumin value, which indicates I'm losing a lot less albumin in my urine.

My uric acid levels are continuing to go down. For me, this goes hand in hand with the lowering of my blood pressure. I think this is more the effect of taking Vitamin C, which is an antioxidant just like uric acid is. The vitamin C is making the body need less uric acid, and this I think is allowing my blood vessels to be less constricted, as constriction creates hyproxia, which is a condition needed to increase uric acid production.

I think that Vitamin C and magnesium is a great combo cure for my hypertension. For one, both of these supplements chelate lead. Secondly, Vitamin C gives me the antioxidant protection that relieves my body of stresses that lessen its need to maladapt (in this case increasing blood pressure to produce uric acid). It is in a way a crutch, which alone isn't good because I might become too dependent on it. But as magnesium is slowly being taken in by my body, along with other electrolytes, this would increase blood volume and lead to a more permanent state of lowered blood pressure. When the source of stress is permanently relieved, there will be less need for vitamin C. And this will be hopefully indicated by me being free on dependence on a lot of vitamin C. At the certain endpoint, I would see myself needing only 1000mg of vitamin a day. This would mean th at I am very healthy already.

I reported that my blood pressure somehow plateaued at 180/120 on Dec. 1. On January, I reported lower blood pressure, but that was an anomaly since I had a slight case of diarrhea, and that condition makes my observation of lower blood pressure invalid, which I am only now correcting.

From January to mid-February, my blood pressure actually went up to a maximm of 205/132. Needless to say, I was dumbfounded. It was only after a disappointing koi show, wherein I entered my 6yr old 83cm xanke koi, that I made the connection. My koi didn't win the grand champion as I had hoped, and for good reason. Its skin had started to show signs of aging, and I was puzzled as to why it happened. It led me to think that there was lead contamination in the koi pond, and the effect is for my koi's skin condition to deteriorate. For years ago, I had accidentally dropped a lead weight that held down my koi pond's net cover, and I wasn't able to retrieve it as it had gone to the deep recess of the bottom drain. It was enough to contaminate the koi pond. I had also been using the water from the koi pond to irrigate the garden, and I had also been eating the green leaves from a local spinach called talinum. I realized that I had been eating lead-tainted green leaves, and this may be a reason that my blood pressure wasn't going down anymore, but going up instead. I then stopped eating the green leaves from the garden.

Since then, my blood pressure has slowly started going down, with not much of a change in my use of 4.8g magnesium chloride and 6.75g of ascorbic acid daily. However, I had not been taking the other supplements that aid detox for the time being - such as selenomethionine, NAC, zinc, P5P, and vitamin E. But I was still eating well to make sure I have no deficiencies in the FSV's and the b-vitamins, and that I was taking enough potassium and salt. I have lessened on calcium though, as I wasn't eating as much green vegetables anymore and not taking as much of eggshell powder.

I am glad to report that for the past month my blood pressure has continued to go down. It hasn't budged much for the systolic, but the diastolic has moved a lot:

Average 178/111
Max 188/127
Min 166/102

Note that all this time the vitamin C, or l-ascorbic powder powder that I've been using has been the China-made variety, for which there would likely be higher lead content. I'm going to receive 500g of Quali-C powder today or tomorrow, and I will start using these instead. Since my blood pressure is also on a downward trend, it would be hard to conclude anything from the switch to Quali-C. But it doesn't matter, it can't get any worse. If anything, it will work out for the better. I'm just hoping the rate by which my blood pressure is lowered will be accelerated with better quality l-ascorbic acid.

Sad though, knowing I can't eat the green leaves growing in my garden anymore. That soil is contaminated already. I can look forward to eating fruits though, since I believe that the tree trunks do a good job of filtering contaminants.

Btw, I'll be getting a 10m long endoscope so I can sneak a peek into the bottom drain of my pond to locate the lead weight. Hopefully, I can attach a hook to the endoscope so I can retrieve the lead weight from the pond. Nice I could use my smartphone and view what the endoscope is seeing using an app.

 

[yerrag]

I reported that my blood pressure somehow plateaued at 180/120 on Dec. 1. On January, I reported lower blood pressure, but that was an anomaly since I had a slight case of diarrhea, and that condition makes my observation of lower blood pressure invalid, which I am only now correcting.

From January to mid-February, my blood pressure actually went up to a maximm of 205/132. Needless to say, I was dumbfounded. It was only after a disappointing koi show, wherein I entered my 6yr old 83cm xanke koi, that I made the connection. My koi didn't win the grand champion as I had hoped, and for good reason. Its skin had started to show signs of aging, and I was puzzled as to why it happened. It led me to think that there was lead contamination in the koi pond, and the effect is for my koi's skin condition to deteriorate. For years ago, I had accidentally dropped a lead weight that held down my koi pond's net cover, and I wasn't able to retrieve it as it had gone to the deep recess of the bottom drain. It was enough to contaminate the koi pond. I had also been using the water from the koi pond to irrigate the garden, and I had also been eating the green leaves from a local spinach called talinum. I realized that I had been eating lead-tainted green leaves, and this may be a reason that my blood pressure wasn't going down anymore, but going up instead. I then stopped eating the green leaves from the garden.

Since then, my blood pressure has slowly started going down, with not much of a change in my use of 4.8g magnesium chloride and 6.75g of ascorbic acid daily. However, I had not been taking the other supplements that aid detox for the time being - such as selenomethionine, NAC, zinc, P5P, and vitamin E. But I was still eating well to make sure I have no deficiencies in the FSV's and the b-vitamins, and that I was taking enough potassium and salt. I have lessened on calcium though, as I wasn't eating as much green vegetables anymore and not taking as much of eggshell powder.

I am glad to report that for the past month my blood pressure has continued to go down. It hasn't budged much for the systolic, but the diastolic has moved a lot:

Average 178/111
Max 188/127
Min 166/102

Note that all this time the vitamin C, or l-ascorbic powder powder that I've been using has been the China-made variety, for which there would likely be higher lead content. I'm going to receive 500g of Quali-C powder today or tomorrow, and I will start using these instead. Since my blood pressure is also on a downward trend, it would be hard to conclude anything from the switch to Quali-C. But it doesn't matter, it can't get any worse. If anything, it will work out for the better. I'm just hoping the rate by which my blood pressure is lowered will be accelerated with better quality l-ascorbic acid.

Sad though, knowing I can't eat the green leaves growing in my garden anymore. That soil is contaminated already. I can look forward to eating fruits though, since I believe that the tree trunks do a good job of filtering contaminants.

Btw, I'll be getting a 10m long endoscope so I can sneak a peek into the bottom drain of my pond to locate the lead weight. Hopefully, I can attach a hook to the endoscope so I can retrieve the lead weight from the pond. Nice I could use my smartphone and view what the endoscope is seeing using an app.

I came across this from an article of Ray Peat's Calcium and Disease: Hypertension, organ calcification, & shock, vs. respiratory energy : Leafy vegetables are a very rich source of magnesium, but they are also a potential source of large amounts of lead and other toxins.

Since there is no way to check for lead content in leafy greens from the market, much less from your garden, I think that I should reduce the risk by not getting from one source, and I would prefer the leaves coming from trees, the larger the trunk the better, as I believe that water absorbed by a tree gets filtered and contaminants such as heavy metals get retained in the trunks and stems prior to going to the leaves. So I would see eating moringa leaves as better, from a lead contamination standpoint, to a carrot top. Cayenne pepper is a shrub, it has a small trunk, it is preferable over convolvus, spinach, carrot tops, alugbati ( a local Philippine plant), which only have soft stems and are ground cover plants. I have what is called korean moringa by the person who sold it to me, It is a larger shrub, and measures 4 feet high, and is developing a nice trunk, I would also go with this over the ground cover plant leaves.

 

[yerrag]

I noticed that over the past few days, I have b3gun to stand better, with both feet well planted firmly on the ground. This would be in contrast to my habit of putting more weight on my left leg, the left knee locked, with the right foot somehow dangling. It felt weird in that I wasn't consciously trying to stand up straight like I'm in a military drill. It just came naturally now with no effort on my part. The left knee is where I have been feeling pain I would consider arthritic, but the condition has been steadily improving such that I can walk up stairs or rise from a kneeling position without feeling any pain anymore. But pain still comes back when I'm climbing to the roof with a ladder.

I know that as I try to lower my blood pressure in addressing my lead toxicity, I would see some side benefits from it that I wasn't expecting. This is the first one I'm seeing. It is totally unexpected. Nearing 5 months on corrective magnesium supplementation mainly, but with increased potassium in food, as well as continuing with an increased intake on salt and calcium in accordance with Peat recommendations, my guess is that as I address my mineral deficiencies, my posture, starting with how I stand, can be impacted.

 

[yerrag]

I am glad to report that for the past month my blood pressure has continued to go down. It hasn't budged much for the systolic, but the diastolic has moved a lot:

Average 178/111
Max 188/127
Min 166/102

Today, Easter Snnday, I thought I should share another good news! I came home from a night out with my buddies, where we had sausages and wine. It was 1 am, and I took my blood pressure. It dropped down to 154/83. I thought maybe it was a fluke. When I woke up, I had a glass of water mixed with ACV and honey, as that was my habit. I took my blood pressure again, and it was 142/87. Normally, my morning wake up blood pressure would be higher, but this was so good to see.

Still, I'm not totally into it yet. My blood pressure could rise back to high level. So I need a week more of data to rule this out as an aberration. But it's still worthwhile to recount what has been happening to me for the past 5 weeks, after I came back from a 4 day 3 night trip to Taiwan with high school friends, in order to get a fuller picture of my journey to getting rid of my hypertension focused on eliminating my lead toxicity.

During the trip, I only took 2 1000mg packs of Emergen-C per day, deciding not to take my regular protocol of vitamin C (7g)and magnesium chloride(4.8g), out of convenience. There was no choice but to eat out, and it was Chinese food all that time. I came back home, and two days later my throat began to tickle, and I would feel under the weather since then. The tickle would get to my bronchial tubes, and I would cough with only little bits of phelgm coming out, if they do. It would be hard for me to talk without getting a cough that I can only describe as a whooping cough, but not quite. It was that there seemed to be these tiny bits of phlegm stuck in my nasal passages, enough to cause me to cough by day, but not so bad that it would interfere with my sleep. I felt all the time that this condition would go away the next day, but it never did. That would be the case until a month hence, when I went to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant one day and a Chinese lauriat the next. Then I started to feel the effects of an allergy developing. My nose was dripping, and my cough held on. The cold was making it harder for me to sleep, and I had to rely on Benadryl.

During this time, I became aware hat I wasn't getting enough sleep for quite some time already. I had been paying little attention to the fact that I had been waking up frequently at night to pee. It had become common for me to wake up four times in a night to sleep. I was also urinating a lot during the day. I was mad and frustrated, as I felt I had already overcome my allergies, as it has been a while since I had allergic rhinitis, and the colds and coughs that go along with it. I was bitching why suddenly my body was giving in to allergens. I had to think back and go over what I could be doing wrong. And it came to my conclusion that what was going on was a combination of the effects of a) my protocol of vitamin c and magnesium chloride, b) the effects of avoiding pro-metabolic substances in a singular focus to reduce my blood pressure, and c) the effects of a healing crisis.

First, the protocol of vitamin C and magnesium chloride was doing their job of detox of lead. In the process, there were waste by-products that were being eliminated by urination. This could explain the heavy urination levels both day and night. I didn't track how much water I was drinking, but I reckon in hindsight I was drinking from 12 to 16 cups a day. This was because the magnesium chloride and vitamin c solutions I was drinking was pretty strong, and it was natural for me to take more water after drinking them. The frequent urination at night was disturbing my sleep, and not having a good sleep continually is likely to have lead to lowered immunity, as well as lower glycogen stores. Lower glycogen stores could disrupt the regularity of my blood sugar levels, and this could affect my metabolism. It could also lead me into the direction of the hypothyroid state.

Secondly, avoiding pro-metabolic substances such as coffee and niacinamide could also lead me in the direction of hypothyroidism.

Thirdly, in the process of healing, the body could go back through its past conditions and expressing them. I had been allergic to pollens and to MSG, and in the process of healing, I could along the process of healing be once again allergic to pollens and MSG. This could explain why lately I've become sensitized again to them.

It doesn't help that I have consciously avoided substances that lowered my metabolism, that I've slept less, which would have affected my metabolism with a reduced glycogen store, and that I've been exposed to pollen (as it is now pollen season), and that I've eaten food that contains MSG. I've created a trifecta, or a perfect storm of sorts, that made me susceptible to allergens that I otherwise would have overcome.

With that, over the past two days, I limited by vitamin C intake by 80%, and stopped my magnesium chloride intake. I did it primarily to see if my heavy urination would return to normal. So far, urination by day has reduced, but I was still urinating a lot at night, at least as of last night. The other night I used cyproheptadine, and it did make me sleep better with less urination. I still have to look for ways and means to reduce my nightly urination frequency, without having to resort to cyproheptadine.

I don't know if my sudden drop of blood pressure to closer to normal levels had to do with the few tweaks I've done over the past few days or not. But I think it does. Perhaps it was high time for me to reduce the dosage for both vitamin C and magnesium chloride. Perhaps my body no longer needed as much magnesium stores as the body store of magnesium has already been restored to normal, and that my dosage had to change from therapeutic levels to maintenance levels. Ditto with vitamin C. Perhaps the tweaks kept the by now excessive intake of magnesium chloride and/or vitamin C from interfering with the final push to rid my kidney of lead that's stuck in the mitocondria. And perhaps also, I had begun to take pro-metabolic substances again, that it bossted my metabolism to the point where the needed energy to push the sturbborn lead toxins out of my kidneys became available.

I'm going to just observe and not tweak further for now so I can observe and decide what to do next. Meanwhile, I'm considering the options, which my mind is busy formulating.

And yes, I'm very happy for this.

 

[yerrag]

Today, Easter Snnday, I thought I should share another good news! I came home from a night out with my buddies, where we had sausages and wine. It was 1 am, and I took my blood pressure. It dropped down to 154/83. I thought maybe it was a fluke. When I woke up, I had a glass of water mixed with ACV and honey, as that was my habit. I took my blood pressure again, and it was 142/87. Normally, my morning wake up blood pressure would be higher, but this was so good to see.

I'm not sure what happened, but could it be the wine that caused my blood pressure to come down? I know that Ray Peat isn't a big fan of resveratrol, but I should buy a bottle of the red wine, an Argentinian Malbec, and try it again.

My blood pressure has gone back up, but it could be also because I drank two cups of coffee yesterday, which I have avoided for so long, and I've temporarily stopped my protocol of vitamin C and magnesium chloride, to remedy by high urination rate.

 

[yerrag]

First of all, the little stuff. I realized that red wine could lower blood pressure, although it's not something to cheer for. Red wine has resveratrol, and its increases nitric oxide, and NO2 has a vasodilatory effect. So that would explain my blood pressure dropping. It was a large drop that night and the next morning. I wasn't able to replicate the same results the next days, perhaps it had to do with the difference in varietals and the country. Nonetheless, it did not signify progress on my project to lower my blood pressure organically.

But I've realized that I was doing my vitamin C wrong all the 5 months I've been on my vit C and magnesium chloride protocol. The magnesium part seems fine, so my problem is with Vitamin C - in the form of ascorbic acid, which I had been taking daily for the past 5 months. I should be taking the sodium ascorbate form (or the calcium ascorbate or the magnesium ascorbate form). But because I could mix ascorbic acid and baking soda in a 1:1 volume ratio and mix it in water, and in the process get sodium ascorbate, I wouldn't be wasting the ascorbic acid powder I have left with me.

If I had taken a mineral ascorbate (sodium, calcium, magnesium) instead of ascorbic acid, I would be doing a better job in chelating lead, and would have better progress in lowering my blood pressure.

The daily intake of ascorbic acid has gradually increased the amount of acidity in my system. Gradually, my blood became acidic to a point where I slowly increased the volume and frequency of my urination. I also began to wonder why I was belching gas so often, thankfully it was odorless, and I was burping a lot, as if I have acid reflux. I had to stop my protocol and 5 days. And I got to lessen my urine volume and the frequency of urination. And I began to sleep better with less interruptions from peeing. I also stopped belching gas, and burping was only occasional.

I had the opportunity to run some blood tests, and found that in the short time I was without vitamin C and magnesium chloride (although I think this is more about vitamin C), my uric acid and LDH shot back up to its previous high levels. This shows that I still need vitamin C, and that my protocol needs to be continued, albeit modified.

So I'm resuming the protocol, with the same daily dose of magnesium chloride at 4.8 grams, but the vitamin C I'm using this time is sodium ascorbate. Sodium ascorbate would be the end product of ascorbic acid and baking soda mixed in water. I will mix ascorbic acid and baking soda in a 1:1 volume ratio, and each day I'll use 11g of this mixture. For convenience, I continue to put the magnesium chloride in a 100 ml water bottle filled with water, and take a third of it after every meal. I also dissolve the ascorbic acid/baking mix, 11g of it, in a 600ml water bottle, filled to the top with water, but I drink this water throughout the day.

I think it's important that this protocol does not cause my acid-base balance to get upset, that I don't urinate too much, and that it doesn't disturb my sleep. I have to make sure that I don't let this protocol lower my metabolism. With good metabolism, I get a good supply of energy, energy that is needed to remove the lead from the mitochondria in my kidney cells. The magnesium is needed, first to enable enzymatic reactions that enable ATP production, and secondly, to displace the lead from the mitochondria.

I've seen my metabolism go back to higher levels in the form of higher heart rates (I had no time to measure temperature as it takes too long without an ear thermometer) just by resetting myself by being away from the metabolism-robbing use of ascorbic acid. I'm glad for this because I was thinking of getting back to caffeine. But caffeine just raises my blood pressure too high, but drinking milk with coconut milk added, as well as some b1, b2, b3, and glycine, and GABA at night, is all I need so far to keep my metabolism at healthy and supportive levels, levels that will allow the lead to be kicked out, expelled, out from my kidney's mitochondria.

I've told you about how magnesium seemed to have helped relieve the arthritic pain from my knee. Let me repeat what I said before, that building up magnesium stores that had been deficient is crucial to getting rid of this pain. With enough magnesium stores, the body will be able to absorb potassium which otherwise would simply be excreted. With sufficient levels of magnesium and potassium, and with the energy a healthy metabolism provides, the mycobacteria that resides in the knee can be eliminated, and the pain will then subside.

The continuous formation of scales in some sections of my scalp had also been an incorrigible condition I have learned to accept, which meant I had given up hope on fixing it, and had moved on with. But I noticed during the time I improved my metabolism, that it had started to go away. But concurrently with my acid-alkaline imbalance and the sleep problems, I had seen the scales come back with a vengeance. I believe that with my new protocol, my metabolism will not be sacrificed and therefore, this scaly scalp condition will also subside.

I also got my allergies back during that time. Ever since I stopped my ascorbic acid these past days, the condition has also improved. I just couldn't shake off the remaining phlegm stuck in my windpipe that came about from my allergies (to pollen and to MSG). I was feeling sick for 5 weeks, and that has been frustrating given the downtime I was in. I'm just glad that episode is over. It is frustrating that I have become sick in the course of trying to get better. I'm pretty sure you all can relate to that.

 

[Sheila]

Dear Yerrag
Please forgive me for taking so long to respond to your questions of March 5 above and I hope what I write now will still be of some interest. I have also read your latest posts and am pleased that you are continuing to make progress, your experimentation is always worth reading about, thank you for detailing it.

As always, I am writing from my experience and perceptions, for what they are worth and I hope if there is anything of use here, you can tease it out of some 'round the houses' explanations!

I mentioned that I had seen 'auto-antibody' gland derangement of the thyroid (thyroiditis) play with heart function and blood pressure even though standard thyroid tests were not that remarkable, and indeed yours have been within range also. I have further found that the more gut function is optimised, the more thyroiditis and its associated hyperstimulation, returns to normal functioning. One would think that focusing on the gland in question would be key but latterly and more successfully this has not been my approach. To cut a long story short, reduction in animal protein putrefaction (initially by avoiding meat all together), the use of low doses of inorganic sulphates (which optimise detoxification, amongst other functions) and removal of other annoyances, in particular grains, has proved remarkably effective. This leads me to believe that putrefaction from mal-digested animal proteins might be a starting point from which other dysfunctions, seemingly unrelated, can spring. This is of course not a new idea (Koch, Gerson and Kellog to name a few) and I am indebted to Amazoniac's tireless posting and abstracted highlighting from these gentlemen's work.

This probably seems unrelated to your lead-based toxicity and I would concur up to a point, especially as you have elegantly stated, in response to my questions about endotoxin/cortisol/elevated blood sugar:

In my case, I have no high blood sugar. A fasting glucose test would show me to usually be at 85-95. As for my endotoxin levels, I have stopped eating food for its fiber content for at least half a year already. I have switched from brown to white rice. I have switched to drinking freshly juiced fruit juice instead of eating fruit. And to be sure, I also eat cooked bamboo shoots and carrot salad. And for good measure, I also take activated charcoal. My bowel movement has been regular and I have no issues with constipation, nor do I have more than the occasional case of flatulence. Outside of these, is there something else I need to look into that is gut-related?

So, it's more than a fair assumption on your part, that your gut is cleaner than most yet I have not seen a large colon that is optimal where septic foci have been present, in your case at the teeth. Once these pathogenic bacteria get into the system, they don't always get out easily, especially where meat remains in the diet and the lower colon is their playground. Sometimes they announce their presence with odorous flatulence or stool and sometimes they are silent but still deadly, if you remember the old SBD epithet! I am not, in any way, anti-animal protein, I am pro-digestive competence. And in the tricky cases, I have learned to look at the lowest levels for toxicity and that which is continually renewed as a source. I could of course be easily wrong here as well, but once again for those susceptible to 'allergies', if there is already an 'energy sink' in place, it's only a matter of time before the 'stars align' and symptoms reappear again when the bowel already has perhaps a toxic load dragging it down without fanfare. After all, we all 'break' slightly differently.

I have therefore been interested to see your robust use of Vitamin C and success therewith. That would, to my mind, make it hard for latent bacterial infections to hang around, especially when pursued with the discipline that you employ. No rest for the wicked pathogen with that approach! Once the stomach or follow on gut is over-irritated however, by whatever else is in the loop accidentally (in your case you think MSG), vitamin C can go from a friend to a foe like any potentially mechanically and chemically irritating substance. At that point, I have seen it prolong URT symptoms which I think was your conclusion recently. That does not mean it can not be reintroduced later of course to good effect once more. I am sure you are aware that mineral ascorbates are much more alkaline compared to ascorbic acid and this too can be beneficial/non-beneficial to some, and always depending on what one wants to do.

I have mentioned my findings regarding gut irritation, cortisol, fluctuations in blood sugar and nocturnal urination frequency. I have no experience with high levels of KCl remineralisation, excepting when it is used as a potassium replenisher (after certain diuretics, 400-600mg) but with KCl, mag chloride and sodium chloride, that's a lot of chloride daily to my mind and the effect of anions in the body always seems to get brushed over. Unless it's Iodine, and then it's slings and arrows from both sides if I am lucky. But no such devotion for the use, or not, of chloride!! Forgive me if I am wrong here, and you are fully aware of chloride's interactions, but I suspect at some level one passes from help to hindrance, as seems always is the case. That level is, of course, person specific. In my experience, the anions are very important, and using simple KCl at very low doses (a mineral salt therapy c.1940 which built on homeopathic tissue salt remedies of the same inorganic salt ilk c.1890?) it seems to nudge the body in ways that it can accommodate and utilise, but not as either a potassium or chloride replacement.

"Nudge", yes, an exceptionally unscientific statement I agree. So let me add more 'hand waving' to it and say at this level it has activity wrt keloids, lymphatic flow, excessive thin white mucous, inappropriate stomach acid production, hardened glands - anywhere there is the first level of inflammation, congestion and lack of appropriate flow occurs. Interesting that you had keloids and that at 20? x the dose I might use, no keloid change from your remineralisation is evident. I have no idea why, but can only say that at 3 x 65mg daily, I get results that I don't get at 6x daily. There's that 'nudging' thing again.

Again my apologies for the delay in responding. All the best to you.
Sheila

 

[yerrag]

First of all, the little stuff. I realized that red wine could lower blood pressure, although it's not something to cheer for. Red wine has resveratrol, and its increases nitric oxide, and NO2 has a vasodilatory effect. So that would explain my blood pressure dropping. It was a large drop that night and the next morning. I wasn't able to replicate the same results the next days, perhaps it had to do with the difference in varietals and the country. Nonetheless, it did not signify progress on my project to lower my blood pressure organically.

But I've realized that I was doing my vitamin C wrong all the 5 months I've been on my vit C and magnesium chloride protocol. The magnesium part seems fine, so my problem is with Vitamin C - in the form of ascorbic acid, which I had been taking daily for the past 5 months. I should be taking the sodium ascorbate form (or the calcium ascorbate or the magnesium ascorbate form). But because I could mix ascorbic acid and baking soda in a 1:1 volume ratio and mix it in water, and in the process get sodium ascorbate, I wouldn't be wasting the ascorbic acid powder I have left with me.

If I had taken a mineral ascorbate (sodium, calcium, magnesium) instead of ascorbic acid, I would be doing a better job in chelating lead, and would have better progress in lowering my blood pressure.

The daily intake of ascorbic acid has gradually increased the amount of acidity in my system. Gradually, my blood became acidic to a point where I slowly increased the volume and frequency of my urination. I also began to wonder why I was belching gas so often, thankfully it was odorless, and I was burping a lot, as if I have acid reflux. I had to stop my protocol and 5 days. And I got to lessen my urine volume and the frequency of urination. And I began to sleep better with less interruptions from peeing. I also stopped belching gas, and burping was only occasional.

I had the opportunity to run some blood tests, and found that in the short time I was without vitamin C and magnesium chloride (although I think this is more about vitamin C), my uric acid and LDH shot back up to its previous high levels. This shows that I still need vitamin C, and that my protocol needs to be continued, albeit modified.

So I'm resuming the protocol, with the same daily dose of magnesium chloride at 4.8 grams, but the vitamin C I'm using this time is sodium ascorbate. Sodium ascorbate would be the end product of ascorbic acid and baking soda mixed in water. I will mix ascorbic acid and baking soda in a 1:1 volume ratio, and each day I'll use 11g of this mixture. For convenience, I continue to put the magnesium chloride in a 100 ml water bottle filled with water, and take a third of it after every meal. I also dissolve the ascorbic acid/baking mix, 11g of it, in a 600ml water bottle, filled to the top with water, but I drink this water throughout the day.

I think it's important that this protocol does not cause my acid-base balance to get upset, that I don't urinate too much, and that it doesn't disturb my sleep. I have to make sure that I don't let this protocol lower my metabolism. With good metabolism, I get a good supply of energy, energy that is needed to remove the lead from the mitochondria in my kidney cells. The magnesium is needed, first to enable enzymatic reactions that enable ATP production, and secondly, to displace the lead from the mitochondria.

I've seen my metabolism go back to higher levels in the form of higher heart rates (I had no time to measure temperature as it takes too long without an ear thermometer) just by resetting myself by being away from the metabolism-robbing use of ascorbic acid. I'm glad for this because I was thinking of getting back to caffeine. But caffeine just raises my blood pressure too high, but drinking milk with coconut milk added, as well as some b1, b2, b3, and glycine, and GABA at night, is all I need so far to keep my metabolism at healthy and supportive levels, levels that will allow the lead to be kicked out, expelled, out from my kidney's mitochondria.

I've told you about how magnesium seemed to have helped relieve the arthritic pain from my knee. Let me repeat what I said before, that building up magnesium stores that had been deficient is crucial to getting rid of this pain. With enough magnesium stores, the body will be able to absorb potassium which otherwise would simply be excreted. With sufficient levels of magnesium and potassium, and with the energy a healthy metabolism provides, the mycobacteria that resides in the knee can be eliminated, and the pain will then subside.

The continuous formation of scales in some sections of my scalp had also been an incorrigible condition I have learned to accept, which meant I had given up hope on fixing it, and had moved on with. But I noticed during the time I improved my metabolism, that it had started to go away. But concurrently with my acid-alkaline imbalance and the sleep problems, I had seen the scales come back with a vengeance. I believe that with my new protocol, my metabolism will not be sacrificed and therefore, this scaly scalp condition will also subside.

I also got my allergies back during that time. Ever since I stopped my ascorbic acid these past days, the condition has also improved. I just couldn't shake off the remaining phlegm stuck in my windpipe that came about from my allergies (to pollen and to MSG). I was feeling sick for 5 weeks, and that has been frustrating given the downtime I was in. I'm just glad that episode is over. It is frustrating that I have become sick in the course of trying to get better. I'm pretty sure you all can relate to that.

It's been 6 months and I had to keep silent for 6 months on my log. I had to stop writing as I began to realize that I have been too hasty in jumping to conclusions and now I find myself having to walk back what I said.

You will recall that I've been on a daily dose of 4.8 grams of magnesium chloride and 7 grams of l-ascorbic acid. I would take these mixed at the start of the ay in 600 ml of water. After each meal, I would take 200 ml of this solution. I've taken these for approximately 5 months, and I got sick with a pernicious form of cough, and I got my allergic rhinitis back (as well as to MSG). I was urinating a lot also, and this made be lose plenty of sleep as well. Obviously, something was wrong. But I was too hasty in blaming it on the ascorbic acid.

It turns out that ascorbic acid isn't so acidic, as I found that its pKa value isn't that high at 4.17. After stopping my intake of magnesium chloride and continuing solely on ascorbic acid for a week, I found that I was sleeping much better, and over time my immunity improved, and my allergies were gone. I was to learn later on that magnesium chloride creates an acid load, and that at the large quantities I was taking, the acid load accumulated over the 5 months I was taking it.

I began to try different forms of magnesium, and it took me six months to finally come up with a protocol that is working. I didn't want to bore you with the trial and error process, which I felt I was doing. Six months have come and gone, but I'm back with a vengeance. There was that proverbial wall I had to overcome, and I believe I have scaled it and got my peak experience. I'm now consuming magnesium ascorbate, which is simply made by mixing mangesium carbonate with ascorbic acid. I'm taking them in between meals, and this has made the absorption into the cell much more effective. I also have some potassium ascorbate as well as potassium bicarbonate.

I hate to disappoint you though, to say that my blood pressure hasn't dropped so much. It's only a week since I finalized on my protocol. The thing is, the past 6 months have been very frustrating to me. Not only did my blood pressure stop going down, it was actually going up and down, taking me through a roller coaster ride that wasn't fun at all. I was getting a lot of false breakthroughs, and as each breakthrough was confirmed as false, I was beginning to feel if I was ever going to see the light. I am just happy now to see lower lows of my blood pressure. These lower lows are accompanied by lower highs as well.

I'll keep you posted as my blood pressure goes down further. Currently the lows I'm getting with my blood pressure is at 162/107. It hasn't budged much from 166/102 last March, but this comes with better values in my blood and urine tests:

Urine Protein Creatinine Ratio - 8.6 range < 22.80 (down form 20.98 last June);
Serum Albumin - 44.19 g/L range 35-50 (up from 42.57 last June); this was from a value of 37.4 two years ago

These two tests mean a lot. It means that I'm not excreting as much albumin into urine as I used to. This could mean that the lead in my kidneys is being chelated, and that as the lead toxicity is decreased, the kidneys are able to resorb more albumin back into the blood.

However, I still have high LDH values, 220 U/L range 135-225. I'm at high end of range, just squeaking out of danger territory. High LDH values is a sign of tissue destruction, which is likely the effect of lead toxicity on my kidneys.

I think it's fair to say that blood pressure improving would be a lagging indicator of my improved health. Seeing that my serum albumin is improving, as confirmed my the urine test, I can expect that my blood pressure will show improvement in due time.

There is much to work on, but much to look forward to as well.

 

[ecstatichamster]

Thank you. Have you tried buteyko breathing?

 

[yerrag]

Thank you. Have you tried buteyko breathing?

Yes I have. You may have forgotten that we touched on this before. My body currently resists efforts to improve tissue oxygenation by constricting my kidney arterioles. It does so to maintain a state of hypoxia in my kidneys, to favor the production of uric acid. This antioxidant is needed to counter the free radicals coming out of the lead embedded in the mitochondria. Slowly the lead in being chelated by magnesium and by ascorbic acid.

 

[ecstatichamster]

Yes I have. You may have forgotten that we touched on this before. My body current resists efforts to improve tissue oxygenation by constricting my kidney arterioles. It does so to maintain a state of hypoxia in my kidneys, to favor the production of uric acid. This antioxidant is needed to counter the free radicals coming out of the lead embedded in the mitochondria. Slowly the lead in being chelated by magnesium and by ascorbic acid.

Yes now I recall. Thank you.

 

[DaveFoster]

It's been 6 months and I had to keep silent for 6 months on my log. I had to stop writing as I began to realize that I have been too hasty in jumping to conclusions and now I find myself having to walk back what I said.

You will recall that I've been on a daily dose of 4.8 grams of magnesium chloride and 7 grams of l-ascorbic acid. I would take these mixed at the start of the ay in 600 ml of water. After each meal, I would take 200 ml of this solution. I've taken these for approximately 5 months, and I got sick with a pernicious form of cough, and I got my allergic rhinitis back (as well as to MSG). I was urinating a lot also, and this made be lose plenty of sleep as well. Obviously, something was wrong. But I was too hasty in blaming it on the ascorbic acid.

It turns out that ascorbic acid isn't so acidic, as I found that its pKa value isn't that high at 4.17. After stopping my intake of magnesium chloride and continuing solely on ascorbic acid for a week, I found that I was sleeping much better, and over time my immunity improved, and my allergies were gone. I was to learn later on that magnesium chloride creates an acid load, and that at the large quantities I was taking, the acid load accumulated over the 5 months I was taking it.

I began to try different forms of magnesium, and it took me six months to finally come up with a protocol that is working. I didn't want to bore you with the trial and error process, which I felt I was doing. Six months have come and gone, but I'm back with a vengeance. There was that proverbial wall I had to overcome, and I believe I have scaled it and got my peak experience. I'm now consuming magnesium ascorbate, which is simply made by mixing mangesium carbonate with ascorbic acid. I'm taking them in between meals, and this has made the absorption into the cell much more effective. I also have some potassium ascorbate as well as potassium bicarbonate.

I hate to disappoint you though, to say that my blood pressure hasn't dropped so much. It's only a week since I finalized on my protocol. The thing is, the past 6 months have been very frustrating to me. Not only did my blood pressure stop going down, it was actually going up and down, taking me through a roller coaster ride that wasn't fun at all. I was getting a lot of false breakthroughs, and as each breakthrough was confirmed as false, I was beginning to feel if I was ever going to see the light. I am just happy now to see lower lows of my blood pressure. These lower lows are accompanied by lower highs as well.

I'll keep you posted as my blood pressure goes down further. Currently the lows I'm getting with my blood pressure is at 162/107. It hasn't budged much from 166/102 last March, but this comes with better values in my blood and urine tests:

Urine Protein Creatinine Ratio - 8.6 range < 22.80 (down form 20.98 last June);
Serum Albumin - 44.19 g/L range 35-50 (up from 42.57 last June); this was from a value of 37.4 two years ago

These two tests mean a lot. It means that I'm not excreting as much albumin into urine as I used to. This could mean that the lead in my kidneys is being chelated, and that as the lead toxicity is decreased, the kidneys are able to resorb more albumin back into the blood.

However, I still have high LDH values, 220 U/L range 135-225. I'm at high end of range, just squeaking out of danger territory. High LDH values is a sign of tissue destruction, which is likely the effect of lead toxicity on my kidneys.

I think it's fair to say that blood pressure improving would be a lagging indicator of my improved health. Seeing that my serum albumin is improving, as confirmed my the urine test, I can expect that my blood pressure will show improvement in due time.

There is much to work on, but much to look forward to as well.

Thank you for documenting this so extensively. Your log's very interesting to read. How are you doing now four months later?

 

[yerrag]

Thank you for documenting this so extensively. Your log's very interesting to read. How are you doing now four months later?

Thanks for asking. I've been staying away from this log, only because I was hoping to get back and post here when I get some clarity. I felt there are some posts in this thread that would have to be deleted, in the interest of brevity, as there some real bad leads as well as some where I made too hasty conclusions. I should have sat on some developments, wait for my excitement to die down, before I posted. I would have saved readers some time from poring over the long thread.

Your asking forced me to search for an answer, and I should start by saying that I had based my high blood pressure condition on a wrong assumption of the mother of all causes. There may be many causes, but there is always one cause that makes all the difference. I had thought all along that it was lead toxicity. And so my solution was based on it: magnesium and vitamin C. But as much as they helped in lowering my blood pressure, they only managed to lower my blood pressure to an extent. My progress hit a wall, and I found myself stuck at a blood pressure level that hovers around the 180/120 mark. Still very high. And very much a concern.

My serum LDH hovers around 220, which skirts in and out of the high range. There is tissue destruction going on, and my urine ACR confirms that. My urine albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR) puts me at CKD stage 1. These values are staying unchanged. I was getting very frustrated, for this blog is already 2 years old. And my hypertension has been ongoing for 15+ years. All this time, I wasn't taking any prescription drugs, as believed more in the wisdom of the body ( a term I borrow from Gershom Zajicek much later on).

Last November, I had a breakthrough. A tooth problem brought me back to my dentist. A new dental scan (using x-ray, digitally pinpoint-focused, and thermography) revealed previously undetected periodontal issues. I had two teeth pulled out. While it was sad to lose two more teeth (I had 3 removed already), I was happy, for it meant that a likely cause for my hypertension had been fixed.

This may explain why I hit a wall lowering my high blood pressure. If I had been successful chelating the lead out of my system with magnesium and vitamin C, I was still dealing with a chronic periodontal infection. A month after the periodontal issues were resolved, I took a CBC (complete blood count) and it showed that my WBC neutrophils at 64%. It was down from 70%. Looking at Dr. Weatherby's (a functional medicine doctor) cheat sheet in interpreting bloodwork, a very high neutrophil count relates to chronic bacterial infection. I looked back at my blood test results over the years, and found that since my hypertensive condition began, the neutrophil count steady increased from 54% to 70%. The last test I took showed the first time my neutrophil count went down. This was a trend change. I have work to do. To such extent that the neutrophil count keeps going down to 54%.

This brings to mind Ray Peat talking about everything has to be coherent to make sense. And I find myself tying many loose ends together. This would explain how during that time when my blood pressure began to rise, my hair started to thin, my recurring left knee pain began, and my seborrheic dermatitis condition emerged. True, there may be some lead toxicity in my body. But I had imagined it to be in my kidneys, as it made sense to me that I was excreting albumin because lead had infiltrated my kidneys' mitochondria. But as I thought more about it, if I had lead toxicity, the toxicity may not be doing harm at all. The lead may be residing in my adipose tissues, safety tucked away just like iron is with high ferritin levels.

Speaking of ferritin, I tested at 220 for ferritin. This is within range, but still high even if my iron levels are not a cause for concern. It's high though when a level of 50, or even 20 would be better. I believe that my ferritin level is high because the body is keeping iron away from the bacteria being produced by the periodontal infection. This is to keep the bacteria from doing more harm. 3 months from when my periodontal issues were fixed, on mid-February, I hope to get much lowered ferritin readings.

Until now, I haven't figured out why my serum inflammation markers don't jive. While my LDH is high, other inflammatory markers hsCRP and ESR don't follow suit with high readings. I can't explain why the kidneys are suffering from the bacterial infection, but my guess is that bacteria is being phagocytized by neutrophils in the area of the kidney cortex, and in the process, the ROS generated by the neutrophils (to kill the bacteria) are creating some oxidative tissue damage, and this results in the high LDH readings. However, the damage is being minimized as the body is using its antioxidant stores to neutralize the ROS. This is where albumin and uric acid comes in. Albumin is oxidized in the process, and I would like to believe that it is the oxidized albumin that is being excreted in urine. This would explain why my serum albumin started out low at 38 two years ago, and while it has improved, at 42-44, still has some ways to go before hitting 47, which was what it was before my hypertension began.

My uric acid is within range. When I'm not taking vitamin C, it goes to around 385. With Vitamin C, it goes down to 325. It could be lower, but the level shows that the body needs it. And is adequately producing enough of it to fill that need. The need for it comes from its role as part of the body's primary antioxidant system. It is needed to neutralize the ROS generated by the bacteria-eating neutrophils, a task it shares with albumin (as well as other AOs). Yet, the body would have fallen short were it not for the hypoxic conditions that made it possible to produce a generous quantity of uric acid. This would explain why my blood vessels had to be constricted, and why my blood pressure had to be high.

This also explains why my LDH is high enough to be a warning to me, but not high enough to be a marker for worse conditions such as cancer. It also explains why my CRP and ESR values are low - all because my body's primary antioxidant system is working well enough to protect me, and inflammatory levels are under control such that CRP and ESR are low. To me, it is a vindication of my belief that blood-pressure lowering drugs can only do more damage. Imagine how much more damaged my kidney tissues would be had I been on hypertensive drugs. I may already be on dialysis.

This is turning out to be a long post. I'll continue with what I'm doing now, and what blood markers I'm going to monitor, and I'll also explain my reasoning for my planned actions. I think it will be at least as long, but I'll need to compose my thoughts for them.

 

[DaveFoster]

Thanks for asking. I've been staying away from this log, only because I was hoping to get back and post here when I get some clarity. I felt there are some posts in this thread that would have to be deleted, in the interest of brevity, as there some real bad leads as well as some where I made too hasty conclusions. I should have sat on some developments, wait for my excitement to die down, before I posted. I would have saved readers some time from poring over the long thread.

Your asking forced me to search for an answer, and I should start by saying that I had based my high blood pressure condition on a wrong assumption of the mother of all causes. There may be many causes, but there is always one cause that makes all the difference. I had thought all along that it was lead toxicity. And so my solution was based on it: magnesium and vitamin C. But as much as they helped in lowering my blood pressure, they only managed to lower my blood pressure to an extent. My progress hit a wall, and I found myself stuck at a blood pressure level that hovers around the 180/120 mark. Still very high. And very much a concern.

My serum LDH hovers around 220, which skirts in and out of the high range. There is tissue destruction going on, and my urine ACR confirms that. My urine albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR) puts me at CKD stage 1. These values are staying unchanged. I was getting very frustrated, for this blog is already 2 years old. And my hypertension has been ongoing for 15+ years. All this time, I wasn't taking any prescription drugs, as believed more in the wisdom of the body ( a term I borrow from Gershom Zajicek much later on).

Last November, I had a breakthrough. A tooth problem brought me back to my dentist. A new dental scan (using x-ray, digitally pinpoint-focused, and thermography) revealed previously undetected periodontal issues. I had two teeth pulled out. While it was sad to lose two more teeth (I had 3 removed already), I was happy, for it meant that a likely cause for my hypertension had been fixed.

This may explain why I hit a wall lowering my high blood pressure. If I had been successful chelating the lead out of my system with magnesium and vitamin C, I was still dealing with a chronic periodontal infection. A month after the periodontal issues were resolved, I took a CBC (complete blood count) and it showed that my WBC neutrophils at 64%. It was down from 70%. Looking at Dr. Weatherby's (a functional medicine doctor) cheat sheet in interpreting bloodwork, a very high neutrophil count relates to chronic bacterial infection. I looked back at my blood test results over the years, and found that since my hypertensive condition began, the neutrophil count steady increased from 54% to 70%. The last test I took showed the first time my neutrophil count went down. This was a trend change. I have work to do. To such extent that the neutrophil count keeps going down to 54%.

This brings to mind Ray Peat talking about everything has to be coherent to make sense. And I find myself tying many loose ends together. This would explain how during that time when my blood pressure began to rise, my hair started to thin, my recurring left knee pain began, and my seborrheic dermatitis condition emerged. True, there may be some lead toxicity in my body. But I had imagined it to be in my kidneys, as it made sense to me that I was excreting albumin because lead had infiltrated my kidneys' mitochondria. But as I thought more about it, if I had lead toxicity, the toxicity may not be doing harm at all. The lead may be residing in my adipose tissues, safety tucked away just like iron is with high ferritin levels.

Speaking of ferritin, I tested at 220 for ferritin. This is within range, but still high even if my iron levels are not a cause for concern. It's high though when a level of 50, or even 20 would be better. I believe that my ferritin level is high because the body is keeping iron away from the bacteria being produced by the periodontal infection. This is to keep the bacteria from doing more harm. 3 months from when my periodontal issues were fixed, on mid-February, I hope to get much lowered ferritin readings.

Until now, I haven't figured out why my serum inflammation markers don't jive. While my LDH is high, other inflammatory markers hsCRP and ESR don't follow suit with high readings. I can't explain why the kidneys are suffering from the bacterial infection, but my guess is that bacteria is being phagocytized by neutrophils in the area of the kidney cortex, and in the process, the ROS generated by the neutrophils (to kill the bacteria) are creating some oxidative tissue damage, and this results in the high LDH readings. However, the damage is being minimized as the body is using its antioxidant stores to neutralize the ROS. This is where albumin and uric acid comes in. Albumin is oxidized in the process, and I would like to believe that it is the oxidized albumin that is being excreted in urine. This would explain why my serum albumin started out low at 38 two years ago, and while it has improved, at 42-44, still has some ways to go before hitting 47, which was what it was before my hypertension began.

My uric acid is within range. When I'm not taking vitamin C, it goes to around 385. With Vitamin C, it goes down to 325. It could be lower, but the level shows that the body needs it. And is adequately producing enough of it to fill that need. The need for it comes from its role as part of the body's primary antioxidant system. It is needed to neutralize the ROS generated by the bacteria-eating neutrophils, a task it shares with albumin (as well as other AOs). Yet, the body would have fallen short were it not for the hypoxic conditions that made it possible to produce a generous quantity of uric acid. This would explain why my blood vessels had to be constricted, and why my blood pressure had to be high.

This also explains why my LDH is high enough to be a warning to me, but not high enough to be a marker for worse conditions such as cancer. It also explains why my CRP and ESR values are low - all because my body's primary antioxidant system is working well enough to protect me, and inflammatory levels are under control such that CRP and ESR are low. To me, it is a vindication of my belief that blood-pressure lowering drugs can only do more damage. Imagine how much more damaged my kidney tissues would be had I been on hypertensive drugs. I may already be on dialysis.

This is turning out to be a long post. I'll continue with what I'm doing now, and what blood markers I'm going to monitor, and I'll also explain my reasoning for my planned actions. I think it will be at least as long, but I'll need to compose my thoughts for them.

Have you considered a prescription for a drug like clonidine from your doctor and then a later blood draw with a uric acid measurement? You could then confirm or deny your hypothesis that hypoxia would be necessary for the production of uric acid, and if correct in your hypothesis, you could talk to your doctor about coming off of it. Even a blood pressure decrease to something around 140/90 would be an order of magnitude less damaging than 160/110.

 

[yerrag]

Have you considered a prescription for a drug like clonidine from your doctor and then a later blood draw with a uric acid measurement? You could then confirm or deny your hypothesis that hypoxia would be necessary for the production of uric acid, and if correct in your hypothesis, you could talk to your doctor about coming off of it. Even a blood pressure decrease to something around 140/90 would be an order of magnitude less damaging than 160/110.

I haven't considered any intervention at all before with any prescription drug except for aspirin. But it's worth a try. Is there a reason for clonidine and not an ACE inhibitor? I'm now more open to trying one of these as I understand that the risk would be very limited and that I could, as you say, test out my hypothesis.

By the way, I was thinking also that the hypertension may not really be confined to the kidneys but may just be a general state of my arteries, arterioles, and capillaries. It may just be a general inflexibility of the blood vessels from years of being exposed to chronic bacterial infection, by which neutrophil and oxidized albumin remnants line the endothelial walls. The plaque may also contain calcium in the biofilm formed by bacteria to protect itself. I see little reason to place the onus on my kidneys. The reason I focused on the kidneys is because it excretes more albumin than normal, and that my GFR is estimated (a numbers game) to be low. The low GFR may just be a reflection of the low volume of blood that is allowed by a general constriction of the arteries.

If the active source were contained, as I now assume, the neutrophils are no longer active in fighting the infection, and what remains are debris lining the arterial walls. But with this assumption, I should actually expect uric acid levels to go down, albumin levels go up, and LDH levels go down. But this happened yet. Maybe there is a delayed reaction, but I'm 6 weeks past the resolution of my periodontal issues. Unless my periodontal issues aren't really resolved yet, which is not definite as it really is dependent on the dentist's interpretation of my dental x-rays.

 

[DaveFoster]

I haven't considered any intervention at all before with any prescription drug except for aspirin. But it's worth a try. Is there a reason for clonidine and not an ACE inhibitor? I'm now more open to trying one of these as I understand that the risk would be very limited and that I could, as you say, test out my hypothesis.

By the way, I was thinking also that the hypertension may not really be confined to the kidneys but may just be a general state of my arteries, arterioles, and capillaries. It may just be a general inflexibility of the blood vessels from years of being exposed to chronic bacterial infection, by which neutrophil and oxidized albumin remnants line the endothelial walls. The plaque may also contain calcium in the biofilm formed by bacteria to protect itself. I see little reason to place the onus on my kidneys. The reason I focused on the kidneys is because it excretes more albumin than normal, and that my GFR is estimated (a numbers game) to be low. The low GFR may just be a reflection of the low volume of blood that is allowed by a general constriction of the arteries.

If the active source were contained, as I now assume, the neutrophils are no longer active in fighting the infection, and what remains are debris lining the arterial walls. But with this assumption, I should actually expect uric acid levels to go down, albumin levels go up, and LDH levels go down. But this happened yet. Maybe there is a delayed reaction, but I'm 6 weeks past the resolution of my periodontal issues. Unless my periodontal issues aren't really resolved yet, which is not definite as it really is dependent on the dentist's interpretation of my dental x-rays.

I haven't read anything particularly negative about the ACE inhibitors. @haidut has posted some studies regarding some of the positives of clonidine. The problem with beta-blockers like clonidine or propranolol would be the withdrawal, which can be very dangerous if you decide to take the drug without medical oversight and then discontinue it suddenly. Doctors prefer to prescribe the ACE inhibitors, possibly partly because of that reason.

Nevertheless, you need to weigh the risks associated with blood pressure well into the stage 2 hypertension range.

 

[yerrag]

I haven't read anything particularly negative about the ACE inhibitors. @haidut has posted some studies regarding some of the positives of clonidine. The problem with beta-blockers like clonidine or propranolol would be the withdrawal, which can be very dangerous if you decide to take the drug without medical oversight and then discontinue it suddenly. Doctors prefer to prescribe the ACE inhibitors, possibly partly because of that reason.

Nevertheless, you need to weigh the risks associated with blood pressure well into the stage 2 hypertension range.

Thanks Dave for making me consider the options and the gotchas involved. I'm setting a soft deadline for the end of this month. I'll see a doctor for either clonidine or ACE inhibitors when I don't get lowered blood pressure to stick.

In a recent post on haidut's Kuinone product thread (Kuinone - Liquid Vitamin K2 (MK-4)) I recounted a breakthrough on New Year where I used K2 and an infrared heating mat, and was surprised to an immediate and sudden drop in blood pressure. I was afraid that it seemed like a fluke when I wasn't able to the lowered readings stick. But I'm glad now to see that there was one factor that made the difference - meat. So, today I'm back to eating meat, and hopefully I could get my blood pressure to go down to 150/89. That was the reading I got 2am New Year's Day, and the previous reading at 5pm on New Year's Eve was 179/125.


I believe that the ducks are all in a row, and I could get my blood pressure reduction program to where it needs to go.

This is my current supplement protocol. This is continually changing as I see fit though:

 

[yerrag]

By the way, I was thinking also that the hypertension may not really be confined to the kidneys but may just be a general state of my arteries, arterioles, and capillaries. It may just be a general inflexibility of the blood vessels from years of being exposed to chronic bacterial infection, by which neutrophil and oxidized albumin remnants line the endothelial walls. The plaque may also contain calcium in the biofilm formed by bacteria to protect itself. I see little reason to place the onus on my kidneys. The reason I focused on the kidneys is because it excretes more albumin than normal, and that my GFR is estimated (a numbers game) to be low. The low GFR may just be a reflection of the low volume of blood that is allowed by a general constriction of the arteries.

This gives me reason, once again, to believe my persistent hypertensive condition originates from the kidneys-

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0085253815547972:

To examine whether hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α mediates the profibrotic effects of angiotension II, we treated cultured renal medullary interstitial cells with angiotensin II and found that it increased HIF-1α levels. ... A 2-week infusion of rats with angiotensin II increased the expression of HIF-1α and α-smooth muscle acting actin, another marker of transdifferentiation in renal medullary interstitial cells in vivo. Thus, our study suggests that HIF-1α mediates angiotensin II-induced profibrotic effects through activation of cell transdifferentiation.

From this, I'm led to believe that fibrous growth has formed in the renal medulla, and that even after angiotensin II is no longer signalling blood vessels to constrict, the renal blood vessels remain constricted because of the fibrous growth that has become entrenched over the 15+ years I was in a chronic hypertensive state.

The constriction of vessels, enabled by angiotensin II, was necessary to create a hypoxic state to favor the production of xanthine oxidase, a key enzyme needed for the production of uric acid-

https://ia902907.us.archive.org/15/items/pubmed-PMC4158321/PMC4158321-srep06307.pdf :

Xanthine oxidase (XOD) is an enzyme which plays a central role in purine catabolism by converting hypoxanthine into xanthine and then further into uric acid.

XOD activity has also been found to be increased under hypoxic conditions, which often form a physiological environment for myeloid cell responses. We also found that the pro-inflammatory upregulation of XOD activity in myeloid cells requires activation of the hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) transcription complex, which controls the adaptation of myeloid cells to signalling stress8–10.

Based on this, I'm inclined to solve my hypertensive condition by addressing the putative fibrotic state of my kidney medulla. I'm considering a few options:

• the use of anti-fibrotic drugs such as cyproheptadine and lisuride
• the intake of suitable oral enzymes to dissolve the fiber. Serrapeptase comes to mind, though I have to see if it is suitable
• employing a dry fasting regimen, in the hope that the fibrotic mass would be eaten up, given that it has no further use anymore
• CO2 bathing - have a unit from Steve of Carbogenetics, but haven't used it yet

If the active source were contained, as I now assume, the neutrophils are no longer active in fighting the infection, and what remains are debris lining the arterial walls. But with this assumption, I should actually expect uric acid levels to go down, albumin levels go up, and LDH levels go down.

At my current hypertensive state, I don't expect my serum uric acid level to go down, given that the hypoxic state still exists. I'm also not expecting my serum LDH level to go down either, as the constricted state of the tubules that go through the medulla produce a level of stress. This stress is magnified given the tubules are small and delicate structures. The hypoxic state also forces more LDH to be produced, as the enzyme is needed to drive the conversion of pyruvate into lactate, in anaerobic glycolysis. The tissue destruction from stress, makes it possible for LDH to leak through into the blood, and this shows up as an elevated serum LDH reading. I also don't expect serum albumin levels to improve, given that with tissue destruction ongoing, albumin will still be used as an antioxidant, and the resulting oxidized albumin will be likely to be excreted and that would be a continual reduction in serum albumin level.

I even think that the use of an ACE inhibitor wouldn't even have an effect on lowering my blood pressure, if indeed the cause now is the fibrotic constriction of the blood vessels in my kidneys. This would be something I need to confirm sooner than later.