Friday, 30 January 2009

A list of foods I have found that cause my blood pressure to be high

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In my first post in this category I detailed how High blood pressure came to be a part of my life.  Being a man of science, and ever curious about cause and effect in life, I've noticed some foods and/or food additives cause my blood pressure to rise, some dangerously so.  This entry is the first in an ongoing series that will detail exactly what I eat that has caused an episode of hypertension.  I hope this list helps others out there who have to deal with high blood pressure also.  I check my BP with a home Blood Pressure Monitoring device which I recommend anyone with HPN purchase. 

Salt is the first item on my list.  It is well known in the medical community that salt (or sodium as its listed on most food packaging) has a direct effect on one's blood pressure.  I've personally endeavored to stop using salt.  I don't cook with it, I don't sprinkle it on any food I eat, ever.  I even buy salt free bread, salt free butter and in most part salt free everything.  I've found that when i add salt to any food I'm cooking my BP usually ends up around 145 over 90 within an hour.  My normal every day BP is and has been for all of my life around 120/80 (+/- 2)

Keep in mind that food packagers/producers/processors list salt in prepared foods as "mg of sodium" ( read as 'milligrams of sodium' ).  So if you see a food label with 2400 mg of sodium (2.4 grams) that is the equivalent of 1 teaspoon of salt!

Sodium compounds to avoid:

  • Salt (sodium chloride): Used in cooking or at the table; used in canning and preserving foods.
  • Monosodium glutamate (also called MSG): A seasoning used in home, restaurant and hotel cooking and in many packaged, canned and frozen foods.  A very dangerous compound for humans to consume.  Never ever use MSG!
  • Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate): Sometimes used to leaven breads and cakes; sometimes added to vegetables in cooking; used as alkalizer for indigestion. 1 teaspoon of baking soda contains 1,000 mg (1 gram) of sodium!
  • Baking powder: Used to leaven quick breads and cakes.

Other sodium compounds include:

  • Disodium phosphate: Found in some quick-cooking cereals and processed cheeses.
  • Sodium alginate: Used in many chocolate milks and ice creams to make a smooth mixture.
  • Sodium benzoate: Used as a preservative in many condiments such as relishes, sauces and salad dressings.
  • Sodium hydroxide: Used in food processing to soften and loosen skins of ripe olives and certain fruits and vegetables.
  • Sodium nitrite: Used in cured meats and sausages.
  • Sodium propionate: Used in pasteurized cheese and in some breads and cakes to inhibit growth of molds.
  • Sodium sulfite: Used to bleach certain fruits such as maraschino cherries and glazed or crystallized fruits that are to be artificially colored; also used as a preservative in some dried fruits such as prunes.

So now that I have listed the main culprit in my hypertensive culinary life, listed here are some others:
  • Subway sandwiches

    • The salt here is in the bread and the meat slices.  I always ask for the spices, pepper, vinegar and olive oil on my sandwiches.  And no salt.  And even though they don't put salt on the sandwich, my BP sky rockets to 146/95 within an hour of eating the sub.
  • Mozzarella cheese
    • I mention this one alone because it has a lot of salt.
  • Cheeses
    • I really like cheese, buying shredded cheddar for my chef salads.  You just have to look carefully at the sodium content of each.  Sharp cheddar is usually ok.
  • Bread
    • Look around for a ma and pa custom bakery, ask them to bake you some salt free bread.  They can make some pretty tasty bread if they know their trade.
  • all processed or prepared convenience foods
    • this is in most part due to the addition of sodium for flavor enhancement.  I really dislike pre-prepared foods, preferring instead to cook fresh veggies and meats.
  • Blended Salad dressing, ie: blue cheese, italian, etc.
    • This is a bad one.  These companies put a lot of sodium in their products to "enhance" the flavor.
  • Turkey
    • I realise this one is a surprise, but the turkey packaging plants inject sodium solutions into the turkey meat to "enhance" flavor.  Deli sliced roast beef and turkey breast are often cooked with salt rubs.
  • soups
  • pasta sauces
    • especially your white cheese sauces. 
  • canned or dry dinner mixes
  • frozen meals
  • packaged cookies
    • I guess they add salt to the cookies to make the sugar more flavorful?  Would not surprise me.
  • salted crackers
  • bouillon
    • very high in salt content 
  • sauces and condiments
    • like ketchup, BBQ, smoke flavor, etc.
  • dessert mixes.
  • canned vegetables are also seasoned with salt.
  • Pickled foods such as sauerkraut, olives, relishes, dills and gherkins are packed in vinegar and/or brine (heavily salted water), making them exceptionally high in sodium.
  • Smoked or canned meats
  • canned fish products such as tuna, sardines, anchovies
  • vacuum sealed meats like ham, bacon, cold cuts, corned beef and sausage are well seasoned with salt.

This is just a beginning list.  I plan to sample certain foods over the coming year and then take my blood pressure readings after eating said foods and detailing the results of my BP monitoring.

Please feel free to add to my list thru comments below.  You can also check out my other website, PrescriptionCard.Org, wherein I discuss the effects of pharmaceuticals upon the body and also an extensive article library of healthy eating and health resources to combat the affects of drugs upon the body.

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Posted by sentiant at 9:32 PM in Foods that cause High Blood Pressure
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How High Blood Pressure happened to me

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This malady affects around 25% of the American population.  Also known as Hypertension, it is a medical condition in which the blood pressure is chronically elevated.

My problems with High Blood Pressure, also denoted as HTN or HPN, began after an outpatient surgery I had during which time my house mate created extreme conditions of stress for all who lived here.  I'll call my house mate; RD.  I had been having trouble with RD for longer than 2 years over substance abuse, having caught him twice using "Crack cocaine" and several times having caught him abusing his physician prescribed Oxycontin (He was supposed to take 2 a day, he took 4 to 6).  The second time I caught him doing crack was when I had laid down for a nap and when i awoke my mouth and lips were numb and so I knew something was amiss, and after walking around the house I opened the garage door and actually caught him taking a hit on a craftsman socket stuffed with brillo (classy heh...).  After being confronted, he turned himself in and went to drug rehab.

Please understand, that I and other neighbors tried to help RD.  He told us many times it was his life, he was an adult and he was doing nothing wrong.  We did try to help RD.  I also want to state that I have never done crack cocaine nor did I condone at any time its use within my home.

However, his problems were not solved by this intervention because he still had the legal painkillers and so it became a vicious cycle for him.

My high blood pressure came to surface after the surgery when the surgeon arranged for a home health care nurse to visit me twice a day for wound cleansing and bandage removal and replacement.  Over the 30 to 45 days that she visited me, my blood pressure was normal for the first 25 days.  And then the following events came to pass.

Even though RD denied still using crack cocaine and abusing his meds, I was still waking from my naps with numb lips and mouth and sick to my stomach, which at first the nurse and doctor thought were simply side effects of the surgery.  It later turned out to be from RD and his new wife smoking crack cocaine in the garage or in their room whilst I slept.  Even though RD knew that I was on to him again, he vehemently denied using crack.  And at the same time he refused to show me his bottles of oxycontin because he had taken the whole months dosage by the 15th. 

Backing up to about a month or two before my surgery.  It was during this time that RD met a woman from his teen years and they hooked back up.  Also during this time RD's drug use escalated and I was getting violently sick from the crack fumes and the stress of worry.  I told him around this time that he would have to move out and that he did not have a choice in the matter, because of drug abuse.

RD rented a truck and moved all her possessions from Alabama back here to Illinois.  I guess it was sometime during this road trip that RD and her even got married on the sly so as to hide certain information from friends, family and other persons.  Keep in mind RD is doing this with disability income, which is not possible.  He basically sold all his meds to other people I later found out, which even then would not be enough money to account for all he spent.

Any way, when he moved her back to Illinois, they were supposed to have found an apartment of their own and move out within a day of getting back to Illinois.  The way it was supposed to work was that when she had first visited they were to find an apartment, which instead of doing that, they stayed in his room, drinking heavily, smoking crack and having noisy sex for the entire 3 weeks. 

I know this because of how sick the crack smoke made me and again the feeling of numbness in my mouth, nose and tongue.  Each time this happened I confronted them both and it usually turned into a shouting match.  Each time I also reminded RD that I had a new house mate moving in and that they would have to be gone when he moved in.  Each time RD assured me that they would be gone.

Well, they got back from moving her stuff and RD promptly let me know they had not found another place to stay.  On top of that they had her 5 year old daughter with them!  And my new house mate had moved in while they were driving back from Alabama!  I had moved all of my possession out of my room and let the new house mate have my old room, with the intention of moving into RD's old room when he got back and moved out.  I was taking his old room because it was much larger and would allow me to have my desk and computer stuff in the room along with my bed and personal items.

So basically, RD not doing as he was supposed to, as in finding another place to live, forced me to have to sleep on a very uncomfortable couch, while suffering from, quite literally, the worst back and leg pain in my life after the surgery for an infection on my butt... hehe, literally a pain in the butt!

It was during this time when RD and her were staying here with the young daughter that RD began causing a lot of stress, as it turns out not only for me but himself as I can be a pretty stressful person if you jerk me around.  RD stole my license plates and used them on his new truck, he stole so many packs of cigarettes I lost count, he stole half of my pain medicine which forced me to buy a safe to store them and the cigarettes in and they stole as much food as they could cook and eat while i was sleeping. 

RD then went to the Housing Authority and tried to have me thrown out claiming that since he had a wife and child they were entitled to the home.  As it turns out, the landlord sided with me because of RD's drug issues and also because he lied to the landlord.  It also helped greatly that I was the one who made the initial deposit.  So, RD faced with being homeless because he chose to spend his time and money in furtherance of his and his new wife's crack addiction decided to stay and fight.

It was during this time that the nurse who came twice a day started to notice my blood pressure was sky high as my normal blood pressure for most of my life was exactly 120 over 80.  During the extremely emotional time with RD and his crazy antics my blood pressure soared to 160 over 95 and I was having chest pains and trouble breathing!  I knew then that to save my own life I had to resort to drastic measure to get this nutjob outta my life.  So every time I found food missing, I called the police.  Every time I found cigarettes missing I called the police.  Everytime I awoke from a nap with numb lips and mouth I called the police.  I did this for about 3 days straight when finally RD's new wife begged me to stop because the police frightened her and her child.  I told her that I would not until they honored their word and moved out.

They both declared they would not leave voluntarily and then left to go meet up with what I assume is RD's drug dealer.  Shortly after they left i found he had taken my car plates which were stored in my filing cabinet as I had just sold my car and was getting ready to buy another.  I called the county sheriff and reported this, the sheriff's police showed up about an hour later and as it turns out had already caught him but only by pure chance when his new SUV caught fire!  They questioned me at length thinking I had just given him the plates which I had not. 

My wound care nurse was in the house when the police arrived and I asked her to stay and let the police know what this was doing to my health which she did.  I had also called housing and the landlord to let them know what RD had done and the landlord came right over, housing pretty much said too bad.  The police needless to say were very upset with RD.  They asked me if I wanted to press charges, I basically said I would not if RD and her would move out within the hour and not ever return other than to bring a truck and get their possessions and only then if accompanied by a policeman.  The landlord was pretty much in agreement with me as he had his fill of RD's lies and antics.

Now get this, RD and her said they wanted to discuss it!  So they go upstairs and in about 5 minutes came back down declaring that they would leave and not return except to get their possessions as they were tired of having the police called on them constantly.  In retrospect, I think they wanted to go upstairs to get any hidden drugs out with them.

The nurse was happy that the stress in my life was now gone, however, my blood pressure did not return to normal as expected.  I ended up having to take medicine for the hypertension with my personal internist starting a regimen of Metoprolol.  I'm now taking Atenolol because of the current recall of the other.

There are several reasons I believe my blood pressure did not return to normal.  The top two reasons are definitely the stress created by RD and the smoke from RD's crack use while I napped or slept.  Secondly, I'm overweight which heretofore had not shown efficacy toward HPN, but under the right conditions, which I believe existed during the stressful events described herein, would have lent itself to this.  I have also wondered if perhaps the spinal I received during my surgery didn't somehow chemically alter my blood chemistry or in some way change temporarily my central nervous system's chemical balance such that the confluence of stressful events, compounded with exposure to RD's drug use and my being overweight all came together to give me hypertension.

I nor my doctors will probably ever know the reason, but I hold out hope that thru good dietary efforts and a rehab workout regimen I will get it back to normal.  Until then I have to take these pills twice a day, which thankfully they do work.

So thats my story of how I came to have high blood pressure.  Kinda sad really, RD was a nice guy.  I say "was" because I knew him before the drugs took over his life and eventually killed him.  You see, RD died 3 months later from an overdose of crack cocaine.  The coroner found his blood cocaine levels to be 10 times a normal addicts, whatever that means!  Perhaps the saddest part of this is the young child whom RD and his new wife exposed to this drama and drug use.

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Posted by sentiant at 8:26 PM in Foods that cause High Blood Pressure
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