Great High Blood Pressure Out Of No Where!

skycop00

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SO about 10 days ago I started getting headaches out of no where. At 52 and on TRT, I am not new to the ins and outs of the body, but never had an issue with BP. My Hemoglobin and Hematocrit are both in range as I donate regularly. As recently as February I had BP of 120/80. As I was searching to narrow down what may be causing the headaches, I finally pulled out the blood pressure cuff and BOOM 185/105. Over the next few days headaches have been steady and average BP is 145/100.

I am on a classic RP diet of coffee, OJ, NonFat Goats milk, oranges, apples, mango, occassional grass fed beef and liver etc. I did take fat down to about 30-40 grams daily to lose some fat.

I will head to the Doctor to check the plumbing out for sure, but don't want BP meds (unless the pain cannot be tolerated). The first month on RP eating my TGs skyrocketed. I have been tracking sugar and it seems pretty darn good. SO now this!

Any insight may be appreciated. I may try olive leaf to bring the levels down. And yes I have been using niacinimide, A D E K, 5mg DHEA and 30mg Pregnenalone daily for 4 months.
 

XPlus

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Few of the things you could do is evaluate your fruit, fluid and sodium intake.
See how acidic is your orange juice and oranges.
In case you're consuming frozen mangoes, I'd consider leaving them out of the diet as they usually have citric acid as a preservative.
When I started being diligent with my fat intake, I realised I was drinking more liquids. The extra liquid adds up to salt (and alkaline mineral) requirements in order to keep proper balance of liquids inside the body.

Yours could be due to protein deficiency, too.
We've been having some recent discussion on blood pressure here. Have a look. You might get some ideas.
 

What-a-Riot

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Maybe consider getting magnesium taurate, those two seem like a knockout combo for high blood pressure
 

Koveras

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30mg Pregnenalone daily for 4 months.

I started to get headaches, sleepiness, and very strong pulse after about two weeks of taking pregnenolone daily (90mg in divided doses in my case). Resolved quickly after I stopped. I seem to do fine/better with once weekly doses.

Could be related to conversion to allopregnanolone, and possibly aggravated by caffeine.

From Haidut:

"Finally, headaches are well known side effects of allopregnanolone so this is not surprising. Maybe taking smaller doses would be better. I think for most people trying to simply balance hormones, 30mg pregnenolone daily is plenty. So, try a lower dose for a week and let us know how it goes. The higher daily doses are used mostly for chronic diseases. If you have seen the studies posted so far, the conditions are schizophrenia, suicidal depression, dementia (AD), etc. I think those may warrant higher doses and the side effects would be considered minor compared to what the disease would cause if left untreated. Maybe that's the reason Ray recommends 300mg once a week - for non-seriously ill people that suffices."

"It's not testosterone, it is allopregnanolone into which pregnenolone quickly converts through the progesterone pathways. For a long time clinicians were puzzled how come low doses of progesterone (which tends to metabolize quickly into downstream steroids like allopregnanolone) worsens mood and social intercation while high dose makes people nice and mellow. It wasn't until allopregnanolone was discovered that this riddle got solved.

Allopregnanolone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"...Increased levels of allopregnanolone can produce paradoxical effects, including negative mood, anxiety, irritability, and aggression.[28][29][30] This appears to be because allopregnanolone possesses biphasic, U-shaped actions at the GABAA receptor – moderate level increases (in the range of 1.5–2 nM/L total allopregnanolone, which are approximately equivalent to luteal phase levels) inhibit the activity of the receptor, while lower and higher concentration increases stimulate it.[28][29] This seems to be a common effect of many GABAA receptor positive allosteric modulators.[25][30] In accordance, acute administration of low doses of micronized progesterone (which reliably elevates allopregnanolone levels), have been found to have negative effects on mood, while higher doses have a neutral effect.""

"Caffeine raises progesterone, allopregnanolone and pregnenolone as shown in this study.
Caffeine Increases Pregnenolone & Progesterone In The Brain
All of these can cause sleepiness when elevated, especially progesterone. This is usually a sign that caffeine is working for you rather than triggering a stress response like before."
 
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skycop00

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I started to get headaches, sleepiness, and very strong pulse after about two weeks of taking pregnenolone daily (90mg in divided doses in my case). Resolved quickly after I stopped. I seem to do fine/better with once weekly doses.

Could be related to conversion to allopregnanolone, and possibly aggravated by caffeine.

From Haidut:

"Finally, headaches are well known side effects of allopregnanolone so this is not surprising. Maybe taking smaller doses would be better. I think for most people trying to simply balance hormones, 30mg pregnenolone daily is plenty. So, try a lower dose for a week and let us know how it goes. The higher daily doses are used mostly for chronic diseases. If you have seen the studies posted so far, the conditions are schizophrenia, suicidal depression, dementia (AD), etc. I think those may warrant higher doses and the side effects would be considered minor compared to what the disease would cause if left untreated. Maybe that's the reason Ray recommends 300mg once a week - for non-seriously ill people that suffices."

"It's not testosterone, it is allopregnanolone into which pregnenolone quickly converts through the progesterone pathways. For a long time clinicians were puzzled how come low doses of progesterone (which tends to metabolize quickly into downstream steroids like allopregnanolone) worsens mood and social intercation while high dose makes people nice and mellow. It wasn't until allopregnanolone was discovered that this riddle got solved.

Allopregnanolone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"...Increased levels of allopregnanolone can produce paradoxical effects, including negative mood, anxiety, irritability, and aggression.[28][29][30] This appears to be because allopregnanolone possesses biphasic, U-shaped actions at the GABAA receptor – moderate level increases (in the range of 1.5–2 nM/L total allopregnanolone, which are approximately equivalent to luteal phase levels) inhibit the activity of the receptor, while lower and higher concentration increases stimulate it.[28][29] This seems to be a common effect of many GABAA receptor positive allosteric modulators.[25][30] In accordance, acute administration of low doses of micronized progesterone (which reliably elevates allopregnanolone levels), have been found to have negative effects on mood, while higher doses have a neutral effect.""

"Caffeine raises progesterone, allopregnanolone and pregnenolone as shown in this study.
Caffeine Increases Pregnenolone & Progesterone In The Brain
All of these can cause sleepiness when elevated, especially progesterone. This is usually a sign that caffeine is working for you rather than triggering a stress response like before."
Very good post Koveras! I was taking daily and sometimes as high as you at 90mg. I only took about 10mg this morning, and I will take a break for a few days and see how it goes. Thank much!! So many other things I was paying attention to and totally missed allopregnenolone!!!
 

meatbag

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If you listen to enough Peat interviews you'll notice he makes a big deal about SWEET oranges. Every store bought OJ I have tried has so much citric acid that my BP gets super high. I cannot find the studies in my notes but I'll add this quote from Peat "Excessive citric acid, for example, might activate dormant cancer cells (Havard, et al., 2011), and has been associated with malignancy (Blüml, et al., 2011)".

I think Koveras is right about Allopregnenolone. I just wanted to add this because it is something that caused me issues as well.

Have you tried Magnesium Bicarbonate to lower the BP?
Oral Magnesium Effective For Hypertension (from Haidut)

Also Mangos give me headaches :(

Hope you feel better Skycop!!!!
 
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I thought I read from Broda Barnes that blood pressure comes down with thyroid supplementation...
 

What-a-Riot

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Do you add salt to things? If not it may be worth experimenting It seems like you get a good amount of liquid and potassium, could maybe be an aldosterone issue at least in part.
 
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skycop00

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If you listen to enough Peat interviews you'll notice he makes a big deal about SWEET oranges. Every store bought OJ I have tried has so much citric acid that my BP gets super high. I cannot find the studies in my notes but I'll add this quote from Peat "Excessive citric acid, for example, might activate dormant cancer cells (Havard, et al., 2011), and has been associated with malignancy (Blüml, et al., 2011)".

I think Koveras is right about Allopregnenolone. I just wanted to add this because it is something that caused me issues as well.

Have you tried Magnesium Bicarbonate to lower the BP?
Oral Magnesium Effective For Hypertension (from Haidut)

Also Mangos give me headaches :(

Hope you feel better Skycop!!!!
I have had the mangos before and didn't seem to have issues. The ones in the past were frozen organic and this was a store bought mango, but the headaches started chronically before this. I will certainly monitor this next time I reach for some. I do use Mg Oxide, Chloride blend. I think there are 3 Mg in the blend at 500mg. But yes I do take that and monitor sodium and potassium on cronometer. I run normally about 5000-6000mg K+ and about 3000-4000mg sodium!
 
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skycop00

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Do you add salt to things? If not it may be worth experimenting It seems like you get a good amount of liquid and potassium, could maybe be an aldosterone issue at least in part.
For sure, as I don't usually salt any of my food, I will up the salt intake in my drinking water. For some reason I am not wanting to drink my Goat's milk as much as before. Not sure why, but I just don't have a desire like I use to!
 

tara

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Koveras

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Aspirin, niacinamide, frequent eating, and a high carb intake seems like a good way for many to store most of the fat you're eating and to avoid burning the fat you have.
 

tara

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skycop00

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My mistake - I just realized I was misreading it as vit-K, but you meant potassium.
Hah...good catch!!! YES. so against my better judgment I went to a personal friend MD and my BP in the office was 125/80. He offered a CT of my head and I politely declined. BUT, I will do an arterial vessel ultrasound instead. I upped my potassium by 1000mg and no headache so far..=))
 

jaakkima

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How does one determine the relative acidity/sweetness of OJ, apart from just taste, as it relates to BP? And I'd rather not have to go buy a dozen OJs to run a comparison.

I believe I know the two causes of the high BP I've dealt with (which aren't simple to resolve), but I hadn't heard about this possible cause. Years back, most of the store OJ I tried hurt my GI tract, but I found two or three brands that didn't and don't. I don't have the means to make my own OJ.
 

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