Working_Class
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2019
- Messages
- 513
So I've been aware of this for a fair bit of time and I was made aware of it by watching some of Stan Efferding 10-minute walks, in particular there was one where he talks about managing high blood pressure in strength athletes.
I've had pretty out of control blood pressure for my entire life. Pre ADHD medication, during the time I had been checking it when I was not on any anabolics, and every other time I can remember even being aware of what my blood pressure was like in my life. Constantly out of control and never had any medical professional give me any useful guidance on how to control it outside of medication. I have been on medication for it, which didn't seem to produce any tangible results whatsoever, outside of making it impossible to get or maintain an erection.
So bring potassium into the equation about two years ago. Regular dietary potassium from mostly orange juice and spinach. No other intervention whatsoever. Maybe add a daily potato, and some other fruit and vegetable sources (assorted broccoli etc etc.)
250 ml of orange juice with pulp has around 470 mg of potassium, among other nutrients. The main reason I include it in the diet is for the potassium specifically.
75 grams spinach has right around 225 mg of potassium and 125 milligrams of calcium and then there is also some iron in there among other nutrients.
The RDI of potassium is about 4,500 mg for an average adult and the average adult gets under 2 grams a day. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to connect some dots and figure out that a deficit of potassium causes a huge imbalance in the ions required to maintain a healthy hemodynamic profile, maintain renal function and of course fuel nervous impulse propagation. The nervous system utilizes intramembranous sodium-potassium pumps, which use sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium in order to maintain a resting membrane potential, and these ions are absolutely required in correct proportion, or at least adequate proportion in order to properly send impulses through the nervous system. Every cell in the body requires these ions to function, but of particular interest for us in this thread, is going to be the role of potassium in the relaxation of the endothelial layer.
I will link a couple scientific articles detailing the correlation between low potassium and low diastolic and the implications of that situation physiologically, but I'll share with you an experience that just played out in my body not 3 hours ago.
A little bit of backstory, I've been doing the potassium thing for quite a while and I've had great success with it and since haven't really been worried about my blood pressure. It has been an issue for years and since implementing this I haven't really been checking it too much and I've been feeling great. Way less sensation of strain in the chest, (less pounding), and more particularly a non subjective measure is my pulse pressure came right down from being well into the 60s, to being consistently in the mid-forties, which is an incredible change by any account. So where I fell off from this was shopping at Costco. Costco doesn't seem to sell frozen spinach and I can't find orange juice at the store I typically go to. So I haven't been consuming my correct proportion of potassium daily and generally over the last week and a half I've been feeling worse and worse daily and I have been sort of turning to using some measurable metrics to see if there was anything physiologically wrong with me and lo and behold my blood pressure is back to being completely fucked without adequate potassium in my diet.
Here are some measurements I took today and a timeline when they were taken. I've been experiencing dizzy spells, pounding heart, noticeably slow heart rate in the 50 beats per minute range generally feeling unwell weak, shakey, brainfog, anxiety and insomnia. Just completely twisted and I haven't been doing any drugs and I've been trying to eat well aside from the potassium equation. Going to the gym, doing 10 min walks. The whole 9 yards sans OJ and spinach.
If you're unfamiliar with pulse pressure, pulse pressure is the difference between the systolic blood pressure and the diastolic blood pressure. You arrive at the pulse pressure by subtracting the diastolic from the systolic, the number in between is how hard the heart has to squeeze in order to make up the difference between these two pressures - Ergo - pulse pressure. This also doesn't take a rocket scientist to flesh out and see why a wide pulse pressure would be detrimental to your overall cardiac longevity and health in general. The harder it has to work, the greater chances of deleterious outcomes you will incur. Also it is worth noting that the lower your diastolic blood pressure, typically the higher your arterial stiffness and the lower the compliance of the aorta, also there is a correlation between aortic stiffness arterial stiffness and systolic blood pressure but the details of that I'll let you figure out in your own research. For now it's important to note that the presence of adequate potassium greatly affects the arterial compliance and overall endothelial elasticity. Potassium allows the heart to better relax between contractions also allowing more blood to fill the ventricles.
Aaaanyways...
Pretty much no sleep last night, headache, tired but no ability to sleep, yadda yadda. Maybe 4 hrs of poor quality sleep. Down at midnight, up at 4 AM.
6 AM; 124\58 RHR 55 - pulse pressure 66.
This isn't necessarily recognized as an emergency by medical professionals but trust me pulse pressure over 40 gets more detrimental the wider it gets. 40 is optimal and 60 is about as wide as you're going to want to see it. You want to keep it more like in the 40s. The sensation of the heart working very hard is quite palpable as it is pounding to do its job.
8 AM; 117 \62 RHR 62 - Pulse pressure 55. This reading is quite a bit better and to get here I took some vitamin C some N-acetylcysteine and did some breathwork to try and relax. It helped a little bit but 55 is still and unacceptable number. At this point I'm still feeling like garbage, nauseous, dizzy weak, etc. I checked just before going to physiotherapy, because I just wanted to double-check and see if it was still giving me a poor reading. 10-4 things are still looking ugly.
2 PM; 121\66 RHR 67 - Pulse pressure still 55, but higher BP across the board. I had just gotten home from Physiotherapy and grocery shopping, physio was really pleasant, I quite enjoy sessions with that particular therapist. Starting to feel better but still haven't consumed my typical foods to balance the issue. This is getting more and more reminiscent of an acceptable number that you might be almost kind of looking forward to seeing. At this point I'm starting to feel quite a bit better but still not feeling myself. Still weak still generally lethargic and the hammering is still going on. The pulse pressure at 55 is 15 millimeters of mercury over, even if the numbers are starting to fall a little bit more into recognizable territory. Still 37.5% above ideal.
After this reading, I put the groceries away and I am preparing some food. I consumed about 750 mL of orange juice with about 200 g of spinach with 600 grams of beef a cup of rice and 300 grams of green beans. Not accounting for the potassium that would be found in the green beans that is 2010 mg of potassium. So less than half of my daily recommended intake.
I laid on the couch for about 2 and 1/2 hours.
4:30 PM; 117\73 RHR 97 - Pulse pressure 44.
I mean it's pretty incredible, I know doctors that would be scratching their heads and they would never suggest increasing potassium, they would suggest exercise, reduction of sodium, reduction of red meat, saturated fats and medication, but I've never heard one family doctors suggest increasing potassium intake as a method of managing wide pulse pressure and or high systolic. And or low diastolic. It just is not a common medical practice but my experience speaks well enough for me. I know there's people on here who struggle with health issues and if this helps just one person get a better grip on one method they can use to improve their health, I feel like this last 55 minutes detailing my experience was well worth documenting.
This is a massive change in easy to measure health metrics in literally two and a half hours. Something that a doctor might suggest would take weeks or months to even get a few points of difference on typically, and throw meds at you that you might not even need. I mean take it for what it is, but I highly suggest if you are struggling with high blood pressure across the board, low diastolic or wide pulse pressure, to experiment with in taking more dietary potassium and measuring your blood pressure regularly to see if you can produce a positive shift in your physiology through some very simple and cheap methods.
Potassium depletion and diastolic blood pressure. Low diastolic pressure IS a predictor of deleterious coronary events. The coronary vasculature is the the vasculature of the heart, which provides oxygenated blood to the heart muscle itself, which occurs during diastole. A deficient diastolic pressure means deficient coronary blood flow, this is becoming more and more common knowledge moving forwards in the medical literature.
Some potassium facts
ods.od.nih.gov
I've had pretty out of control blood pressure for my entire life. Pre ADHD medication, during the time I had been checking it when I was not on any anabolics, and every other time I can remember even being aware of what my blood pressure was like in my life. Constantly out of control and never had any medical professional give me any useful guidance on how to control it outside of medication. I have been on medication for it, which didn't seem to produce any tangible results whatsoever, outside of making it impossible to get or maintain an erection.
So bring potassium into the equation about two years ago. Regular dietary potassium from mostly orange juice and spinach. No other intervention whatsoever. Maybe add a daily potato, and some other fruit and vegetable sources (assorted broccoli etc etc.)
250 ml of orange juice with pulp has around 470 mg of potassium, among other nutrients. The main reason I include it in the diet is for the potassium specifically.
75 grams spinach has right around 225 mg of potassium and 125 milligrams of calcium and then there is also some iron in there among other nutrients.
The RDI of potassium is about 4,500 mg for an average adult and the average adult gets under 2 grams a day. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to connect some dots and figure out that a deficit of potassium causes a huge imbalance in the ions required to maintain a healthy hemodynamic profile, maintain renal function and of course fuel nervous impulse propagation. The nervous system utilizes intramembranous sodium-potassium pumps, which use sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium in order to maintain a resting membrane potential, and these ions are absolutely required in correct proportion, or at least adequate proportion in order to properly send impulses through the nervous system. Every cell in the body requires these ions to function, but of particular interest for us in this thread, is going to be the role of potassium in the relaxation of the endothelial layer.
I will link a couple scientific articles detailing the correlation between low potassium and low diastolic and the implications of that situation physiologically, but I'll share with you an experience that just played out in my body not 3 hours ago.
A little bit of backstory, I've been doing the potassium thing for quite a while and I've had great success with it and since haven't really been worried about my blood pressure. It has been an issue for years and since implementing this I haven't really been checking it too much and I've been feeling great. Way less sensation of strain in the chest, (less pounding), and more particularly a non subjective measure is my pulse pressure came right down from being well into the 60s, to being consistently in the mid-forties, which is an incredible change by any account. So where I fell off from this was shopping at Costco. Costco doesn't seem to sell frozen spinach and I can't find orange juice at the store I typically go to. So I haven't been consuming my correct proportion of potassium daily and generally over the last week and a half I've been feeling worse and worse daily and I have been sort of turning to using some measurable metrics to see if there was anything physiologically wrong with me and lo and behold my blood pressure is back to being completely fucked without adequate potassium in my diet.
Here are some measurements I took today and a timeline when they were taken. I've been experiencing dizzy spells, pounding heart, noticeably slow heart rate in the 50 beats per minute range generally feeling unwell weak, shakey, brainfog, anxiety and insomnia. Just completely twisted and I haven't been doing any drugs and I've been trying to eat well aside from the potassium equation. Going to the gym, doing 10 min walks. The whole 9 yards sans OJ and spinach.
If you're unfamiliar with pulse pressure, pulse pressure is the difference between the systolic blood pressure and the diastolic blood pressure. You arrive at the pulse pressure by subtracting the diastolic from the systolic, the number in between is how hard the heart has to squeeze in order to make up the difference between these two pressures - Ergo - pulse pressure. This also doesn't take a rocket scientist to flesh out and see why a wide pulse pressure would be detrimental to your overall cardiac longevity and health in general. The harder it has to work, the greater chances of deleterious outcomes you will incur. Also it is worth noting that the lower your diastolic blood pressure, typically the higher your arterial stiffness and the lower the compliance of the aorta, also there is a correlation between aortic stiffness arterial stiffness and systolic blood pressure but the details of that I'll let you figure out in your own research. For now it's important to note that the presence of adequate potassium greatly affects the arterial compliance and overall endothelial elasticity. Potassium allows the heart to better relax between contractions also allowing more blood to fill the ventricles.
Aaaanyways...
Pretty much no sleep last night, headache, tired but no ability to sleep, yadda yadda. Maybe 4 hrs of poor quality sleep. Down at midnight, up at 4 AM.
6 AM; 124\58 RHR 55 - pulse pressure 66.
This isn't necessarily recognized as an emergency by medical professionals but trust me pulse pressure over 40 gets more detrimental the wider it gets. 40 is optimal and 60 is about as wide as you're going to want to see it. You want to keep it more like in the 40s. The sensation of the heart working very hard is quite palpable as it is pounding to do its job.
8 AM; 117 \62 RHR 62 - Pulse pressure 55. This reading is quite a bit better and to get here I took some vitamin C some N-acetylcysteine and did some breathwork to try and relax. It helped a little bit but 55 is still and unacceptable number. At this point I'm still feeling like garbage, nauseous, dizzy weak, etc. I checked just before going to physiotherapy, because I just wanted to double-check and see if it was still giving me a poor reading. 10-4 things are still looking ugly.
2 PM; 121\66 RHR 67 - Pulse pressure still 55, but higher BP across the board. I had just gotten home from Physiotherapy and grocery shopping, physio was really pleasant, I quite enjoy sessions with that particular therapist. Starting to feel better but still haven't consumed my typical foods to balance the issue. This is getting more and more reminiscent of an acceptable number that you might be almost kind of looking forward to seeing. At this point I'm starting to feel quite a bit better but still not feeling myself. Still weak still generally lethargic and the hammering is still going on. The pulse pressure at 55 is 15 millimeters of mercury over, even if the numbers are starting to fall a little bit more into recognizable territory. Still 37.5% above ideal.
After this reading, I put the groceries away and I am preparing some food. I consumed about 750 mL of orange juice with about 200 g of spinach with 600 grams of beef a cup of rice and 300 grams of green beans. Not accounting for the potassium that would be found in the green beans that is 2010 mg of potassium. So less than half of my daily recommended intake.
I laid on the couch for about 2 and 1/2 hours.
4:30 PM; 117\73 RHR 97 - Pulse pressure 44.
I mean it's pretty incredible, I know doctors that would be scratching their heads and they would never suggest increasing potassium, they would suggest exercise, reduction of sodium, reduction of red meat, saturated fats and medication, but I've never heard one family doctors suggest increasing potassium intake as a method of managing wide pulse pressure and or high systolic. And or low diastolic. It just is not a common medical practice but my experience speaks well enough for me. I know there's people on here who struggle with health issues and if this helps just one person get a better grip on one method they can use to improve their health, I feel like this last 55 minutes detailing my experience was well worth documenting.
This is a massive change in easy to measure health metrics in literally two and a half hours. Something that a doctor might suggest would take weeks or months to even get a few points of difference on typically, and throw meds at you that you might not even need. I mean take it for what it is, but I highly suggest if you are struggling with high blood pressure across the board, low diastolic or wide pulse pressure, to experiment with in taking more dietary potassium and measuring your blood pressure regularly to see if you can produce a positive shift in your physiology through some very simple and cheap methods.
Potassium depletion and diastolic blood pressure. Low diastolic pressure IS a predictor of deleterious coronary events. The coronary vasculature is the the vasculature of the heart, which provides oxygenated blood to the heart muscle itself, which occurs during diastole. A deficient diastolic pressure means deficient coronary blood flow, this is becoming more and more common knowledge moving forwards in the medical literature.
Some potassium facts
Office of Dietary Supplements - Potassium
Potassium overview for health professionals. Research health effects, dosing, sources, deficiency symptoms, side effects, and interactions here.
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