My doctor reported to me that the 24 hour bloodpressure monitor reveals I am marginally hypertensive. Even at night my bp was mostly over 135/85. I told him that this was probably because I lay awake waiting for the arm strangling. And when I slept through it my wife would wake me up thinking the morning alarm had jangled to leap us into breakfast mode. He also weighed me – 13 stone 13 pounds!! (195 in American money) but I was wearing my cycling overtrousers over my normal day trousers ( avec heavy wallet – hah), cycling shoes, and my hair still wet from the rain. At home this morning, I was 13 stone exactly – but I think our scales are Nelder-friendly in their bias. There’s no medication on offer for at least three months when the doctor wants me to throw all my effort into losing at least a stone. Will do – all I need to is to have the will-power to stop snacking in the evenings. But I will. I’m kicking off with only eating raw food next week – I’ve done it before for kick-starting a diet. It is quite easy for a vegan like me to get more than enough nutrients from nuts, seeds, raw salad & veg and fruit with the addition of vegan supplements for vitamin B12 and kelp for iodine & other traces. I’ll report my weight loss 
or gain 
on these pages.
I thought I had a great idea for a short thriller story yesterday. I was reading my blood donor’s magazine, which comes from the NHS vampires to us bloodletters to inspire us not to miss a session. Suppose I gave blood in the morning. Multiple pile up on a nearby motorway forces the local hospital to grab all the blood it can including mine. So my fairly fresh blood is tranfused into a guy as a caution because he had a laceration, but not too serious, so he leaves hospital. Later that day he commits a murder and in the fight his blood is left at the scene. Some of it is my donated blood along with my DNA! So I get a knock on the door in the next few days and arrested for murder. Hah! Sadly or gladly, I suppose, the DNA in blood is the white blood cells, which are removed in the blood processing for transfusions. Even if whole blood is used (very rarely indeed) the recipient’s body will reject the donor’s white blood cells and the DNA disintegrates. Damn, another fine idea is dashed… unless I find a way round it …
December 19, 2006 at 10:11 pm |
Geoff the easiest way to bring your blood pressure down is to cut out all added salt in your diet. If you eat a lot of ready meals, or crisps, anything with salt added in, cut down on those as well.
A good friend of mine is quite overweight (I’m being kind, but he runs a slimming group and cheerfully admits he’s fat!) and was having problems with his blood pressure. His doctor was threatening to put him on BP tablets. I told him to give up salt. He did, and after 4 weeks his BP had reduced substantially. He’s not on the tablets.
I promise you, it will work. You exercise regularly, which should keep your BP in line, so if it isn’t you need to look at your diet. Cut out salt and your BP will decrease.
December 19, 2006 at 10:31 pm |
Thanks Maxine. I’ve eaten no added salt to my meals for years. Of course some sneaks into bread and other processed foods and I always buy low or no salt versions of tinned foods like baked beans. But any other suggestions are very welcome!!