**UPDATE** Can’t Wait to Talk to My Doctor

 NOTE: Let me say right here and now that I am not giving or even suggesting medical advice. I don't want anyone to do what I am doing without talking to a doctor. Be responsible and sensible with your health!

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UPDATE: It's been 6 weeks since I wrote the original post. When I checked my BP just now, it was:

I really can't wait to show this 
at my upcoming appt!

Just thinking back to the days when that top number was in or very close to 200+ is astonishing. I am still taking the supplements (magnesium glycinate and nitric oxide) daily. The magnesium helps with sleep so I take it at bedtime. I'm not as faithful with the nitric oxide but I take at least 1 capsule a day with my morning medications. I am still drinking plenty of water as I have been for the past few years (at least 70 ounces a day and as much as 85 ounces). My diet has not changed. I eat pretty much the same foods every day: pizza on homemade dough with a lot of EVOO, black olives, pepperoni, mozzarella, sauce, and aioli. If not pizza, I will make a flatbread from the dough, season it and eat it with EVOO and maybe aioli. I basically buy the same groceries every other week and do it all over again. I am not especially watching my salt intake and I am not getting any more or less exercise. 

So, yeah, I am definitely intrigued by the idea of people finding out what causes their particular HBP. 

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I have an appointment coming up with one of my doctors and I cannot wait to ask this question: Why don't doctors talk more with patients about supplements?

I think I mentioned here already that I use a magnesium oil spray to help with sleep and anxiety.  I tried Ambien for sleep once in the hospital and... no thanks. 

The only things doctors have mentioned when I've asked about non-prescription meds for sleep are melatonin and St. John's Wort. I hate both of those. One takes hours to kick in and then makes me groggy for hours after waking and the other just makes me feel weird. I already have enough groggy and "weird" to share with a few people.

When I started using magnesium oil sprays and told my doctors and nurses, they seemed to never have heard of it. Or at least not using it for sleep and anxiety.

Recently, I learned that many people - especially in my age group - are low on basic vitamins and nutrients. That didn't surprise me and for years, I have taken vitamins daily. However, I was very surprised to hear about a couple nutrients that could be helpful for me. Apparently, magnesium glycinate can help with (high) blood pressure and nitric oxide helps with blood flow to the kidneys. 

What?????

I checked with one of my doctors about the magnesium glycinate and when I started taking a tablet every evening about 1 or 2 hours before bedtime, I realized what I'd been missing out on. I would go to bed at about 10:30 and sleep like I have not slept in years. I'd wake up feeling very rested and better than I usually do. That energy generally wears off about 4 hours into the day (or, depending on my health, 4 hours in) but that's not surprising and it's still good. I usually wake up ready to lie back down.

After taking the magnesium for a couple of weeks, I had an appointment with my nephrologist. My blood pressure reading was shockingly normal: 116/80. 

Again, WHAT????

The doctor was, of course, very pleased. My normal readings look like 140+ or 135 -  not bad, but could be better, right? The doctor praised me like I was a good little girl for eating better and getting more exercise. I hated to admit it but I did tell him that I hadn't changed anything except for taking the magnesium. He seemed to poo-poo the idea that the supplement could have any noticeable effect. I'm really sensitive and I felt like my hopeful observation had been politely dismissed.

~sigh~

To understand why that blood pressure reading was so significant, you have to know what my readings used to look like.  It wasn't until I was around 35 (young, active, and skinny) that I was diagnosed with HBP. My readings looked like the highest speeds on a car's display - once before finding a combo of prescriptions that worked, the top number was 210. I can't remember the bottom number. That 210 scared my doctor so much that I was sent to the ER to be given treatment. I was advised not to go home until the numbers came down. The thing is, that high number was so normal for me that I didn't feel any different before or after it stabilized to a better reading.

Anyway. That's why a number like 116 was a stunner. So, to continue...

Very recently, I heard about nitric oxide supplements. I searched around on some medical sites (ugh!) for more information. After straining my brain to sort of understand the doctor-ese, I had someone online help me decipher the basics. It turns out that the supplement could help boost blood flow to the kidneys. 

I am a CKD Stage 3b patient - like I didn't have enough to deal with healthwise... Why has a doctor never discussed nitric oxide with me? Why will I have to be the one to bring it up at my next appointment?

The last blood pressure check that I did at home - after I'd been taking both supplements - was once again shockingly good: 112/59.  Even if there is a reason that I should not use these supplements, they should both be something I knew about from doctors.

I really don't want to be ugly about it but I've lost family members to problems with their blood pressure. 

For years, people with high blood pressure were told to lose weight, stop smoking, eat better, exercise more, etc. My sister and my mother tried those things and it changed nothing. Maybe it has something to do with ethnicity or generational bloodlines because high blood pressure has always been a dominant health issue for many black people.  And remember that I said I have not changed what I eat or upped my exercise - and my blood pressure is down. 

 This makes me feel a bit distrustful of the medical profession. Also, I now agree so much more than I did with that silly Chris Rock when he says:

This is the kind of thing that makes me wonder if there really is no cure for the sarcoidosis I have. Maybe there is a cure for diabetes and cancer and many other deadly diseases. But if people get cured, there's no "comeback".

Peace

--Free