Back to the Basics
I have sat down at the keyboard several times the past few days, intending to write something to post, but I have been interrupted each time. Now I am sitting here yawning at this hour on a Sunday morning, thinking that no one will interrupt me, but with a clearer head than I have had in a while.
The girls are sleeping soundly as darkness surrounds the windows outside our home. This is the darkest time of the night, right before dawn. I expect the newspaper is lying in its usual spot, waiting for me to stroll down the front walk and pick it up. Maybe I will leave it there for a bit, wondering where I am, perhaps impatient to deliver its news to me. More likely, though, it just wants to shift its burden of store ads and flyers to me.
I was greeted with the words, Papa, I need to talk with you, as soon as I arrived home from the office yesterday. But Cici gave me a pass because Mama was also calling for me. When I got back with Cici, she was sitting on the love seat with her laptop on the ottoman. I sat on the ottoman next to the laptop, facing Cici. She had a serious look on her face.
Papa, she began, I have noticed that you look very tired sometimes because you stay up late to help me with my homework, and then you get up early the next morning to take me to band practice. I have talked with Mama, and we have an idea. We think you should sleep later when you stay up late to help me with my homework. Mama can drive Lina and me to school on those mornings, and you can drive to the office later. Then on days when you don't stay up late, you can drive us to school, and Mama can sleep later before going to the office.
Ping has been working on me about the same idea, but the girls had obviously teamed up on me now. Their concern was prompted by a vertigo attack that hit me last Wednesday evening after I took a nap so I could stay up later to help Cici with her homework. Ping was standing next to the bed when I sat up, so she saw how violently the vertigo slammed me back onto the bed. Since then, I have had to be careful when sitting up or turning over in bed. Ping checked my blood pressure and it was low. It was still low the next day, and the vertigo was still there, so Ping and I went to see the doctor on Friday. The doctor examined me and there is no apparent reason for the vertigo, but I believe I know its source.
I have been living with a heavy fog on my brain for some time now, it seems, and it has gotten steadily worse. That has made it difficult to concentrate; difficult to remember things; difficult to even start working on things. I believe the same source is responsible for the severe muscle and joint aches and pains that I have been experiencing. A half hour walk leaves me feeling like I worked out in the gym for an hour or so. I told the doctor that I believe it is the blood pressure medicine, and told her that I want to wean myself off of it by using natural remedies to control it. You can start by just taking half the prescribed dosage, she told me, because your blood pressure is lower than usual. Then let's see what happens.
So yesterday morning I "accidentally" forgot to take the medicine when I saw that my blood pressure was still low. Ping was alarmed when I told her in the afternoon, but she monitored my blood pressure and saw that it had remained low even without the medicine. It is still that way this morning, 48 hours after I last took the medicine. In the meantime, my head has cleared for the first time in a good while. The girls and I went for a walk through the neighborhood last evening and the muscle and joint pain is not as severe.
A little research on the internet revealed that many people who have taken the same medicine have suffered the same side effects that I have experienced. This includes the aches and pains and the foggy mind, as well as the atrial fibrillation and the vertigo. This is the only medicine I take, so that narrows the list of suspects considerably.
At the same time, I have been following the macrobiotic diet. This means basically 50% whole grains, legumes instead of meat, fresh green vegetables, little fruit, no dairy products or eggs, and no sugar or sweets of any kind. It also means no coffee, which put me through the typical withdrawal symptoms on Friday, but by yesterday it was better. Today it isn't noticeable at all.
A macrobiotic diet is not an unknown concept to the Chinese. It follows to a large degree the balancing principles of yin and yang, and was apparently followed by the Chinese during the long Han Dynasty. Ping has had difficulty accepting the idea that 50% of what I eat will be brown rice or other whole grains, but she is getting there. She discovered that brown rice in a bowl of beans is quite delicious, so we are both getting back to the basics.
The girls are sleeping soundly as darkness surrounds the windows outside our home. This is the darkest time of the night, right before dawn. I expect the newspaper is lying in its usual spot, waiting for me to stroll down the front walk and pick it up. Maybe I will leave it there for a bit, wondering where I am, perhaps impatient to deliver its news to me. More likely, though, it just wants to shift its burden of store ads and flyers to me.
I was greeted with the words, Papa, I need to talk with you, as soon as I arrived home from the office yesterday. But Cici gave me a pass because Mama was also calling for me. When I got back with Cici, she was sitting on the love seat with her laptop on the ottoman. I sat on the ottoman next to the laptop, facing Cici. She had a serious look on her face.
Papa, she began, I have noticed that you look very tired sometimes because you stay up late to help me with my homework, and then you get up early the next morning to take me to band practice. I have talked with Mama, and we have an idea. We think you should sleep later when you stay up late to help me with my homework. Mama can drive Lina and me to school on those mornings, and you can drive to the office later. Then on days when you don't stay up late, you can drive us to school, and Mama can sleep later before going to the office.
Ping has been working on me about the same idea, but the girls had obviously teamed up on me now. Their concern was prompted by a vertigo attack that hit me last Wednesday evening after I took a nap so I could stay up later to help Cici with her homework. Ping was standing next to the bed when I sat up, so she saw how violently the vertigo slammed me back onto the bed. Since then, I have had to be careful when sitting up or turning over in bed. Ping checked my blood pressure and it was low. It was still low the next day, and the vertigo was still there, so Ping and I went to see the doctor on Friday. The doctor examined me and there is no apparent reason for the vertigo, but I believe I know its source.
I have been living with a heavy fog on my brain for some time now, it seems, and it has gotten steadily worse. That has made it difficult to concentrate; difficult to remember things; difficult to even start working on things. I believe the same source is responsible for the severe muscle and joint aches and pains that I have been experiencing. A half hour walk leaves me feeling like I worked out in the gym for an hour or so. I told the doctor that I believe it is the blood pressure medicine, and told her that I want to wean myself off of it by using natural remedies to control it. You can start by just taking half the prescribed dosage, she told me, because your blood pressure is lower than usual. Then let's see what happens.
So yesterday morning I "accidentally" forgot to take the medicine when I saw that my blood pressure was still low. Ping was alarmed when I told her in the afternoon, but she monitored my blood pressure and saw that it had remained low even without the medicine. It is still that way this morning, 48 hours after I last took the medicine. In the meantime, my head has cleared for the first time in a good while. The girls and I went for a walk through the neighborhood last evening and the muscle and joint pain is not as severe.
A little research on the internet revealed that many people who have taken the same medicine have suffered the same side effects that I have experienced. This includes the aches and pains and the foggy mind, as well as the atrial fibrillation and the vertigo. This is the only medicine I take, so that narrows the list of suspects considerably.
At the same time, I have been following the macrobiotic diet. This means basically 50% whole grains, legumes instead of meat, fresh green vegetables, little fruit, no dairy products or eggs, and no sugar or sweets of any kind. It also means no coffee, which put me through the typical withdrawal symptoms on Friday, but by yesterday it was better. Today it isn't noticeable at all.
A macrobiotic diet is not an unknown concept to the Chinese. It follows to a large degree the balancing principles of yin and yang, and was apparently followed by the Chinese during the long Han Dynasty. Ping has had difficulty accepting the idea that 50% of what I eat will be brown rice or other whole grains, but she is getting there. She discovered that brown rice in a bowl of beans is quite delicious, so we are both getting back to the basics.
Goodness Lee! Take care of yourself! I don't like the iDea of the end of the first book coming for some time!
I found a business/entrepreneurial blog by Derek Sivers( http://sivers.org/ ) when I was looking for something or other, and after spending a bit of time I checked his book list and saw mention of _The China Study_ which is supposed to be the biggest study on diet ever. Here is the link to Siver's notes about the book(rather than an Amazon direct link, although there is one on his page):
http://sivers.org/book/ChinaStudy
This information may already be second hat to you and Ping, or maybe it's not, so I figured I would share it.
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Thanks Smitty. I will check out the book. In the meantime, here I am in my third day with no medication and my blood pressure is still normal.
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So, I'm wondering - Would you consider taking a dose once a week to keep your blood pressure in range, or are you gonna try and dump it completely and try to use diet to control the pressure?
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Smitty, it has been four full days and nights since I last took the medication. My blood pressure this morning is 120/79, and it has consistently been in the normal range throughout these four days.
Just as important, if not more so, is the fact that I have rediscovered the ability to turn my head without staying in slow motion because the back of my brain followed my eyes so slowly that it felt heavy and painful to turn my head quickly. And I told Ping and Cici yesterday evening that I had forgotten what it was like to feel good.
So to answer your question, my intentions are to never put that poison in my body again. One of the guiding principles of the macrobiotic diet is that what you eat determines your health, and if you follow the diet, you can stay healthy without resorting to pharmaceutical drugs. Controlling ones blood pressure this way also requires exercise, but walking is enough to meet that requirement.
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Sounds good Lee! Take care of yourself!
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