I had "idiopathic" high blood pressure, around 160/80 when I went to the doc for a far-removed complaint a couple of years ago. He gave me drugs. They lowered it, but I also felt shaky from them; I took them for about 5 months and suddenly I got a physical depression. It was the kind where I liternally could not get out of bed. It took superhuman strength to get myself out of bed and haul myself off to the doc who didn't get this at all.
I got in touch with a caridologist who gave me permission to stop the damn things.
By now, though, the depression was so bad I could not eat and I was losing wieght so rapidly I looked like a scarecrow and was literally falling out of my clothes (I hope it doesn't happen to you, but it really does happen -- you fall OUT of them. So weird).
What happened was this natural fast (it seems nature did impose this on me) allowed my BP to drop within a month to 123/80. Weird.
Long story short: I emerged from this drug-induced, last straw depression and started living normally again. Next doc visit, gee, BP was rising again.
Finally, I put 2 2 together. Divine inspiration. It must be my diet! I was vegetarian. You would think this is a good thing. Apparently, not for me. Grains were killing me. The mainstay of my diet. But they were something I was not eathing while not eating (see above). I was only eating cartons and cartons of yogurt back then.
Sooooo, I quit grains (flours, pastas, rice the usual, also potatoes) and sugars (including honey, etc) cold turkey. Next doc visit, 3 months later (I swore I would get bp down "naturally") I clocked in at 110/70. No meds.
OK, I dumped the grains and I eat fish and poultry. But look at the change! And my gums no longer bleed when I floss.
I am 55, female, slender. Five foot, five and a half inches tall. Type O . I always had a good figure even at my 140 lb high (I still looked slender. Good muscles, I guess) but doing the no-grains, no-sugar has reduced me to 125, just like that. No pain. (In case you're wondering -- no booze! )
I am sorry as all heck that I can't be a vegetarian. But I simply cannot.
