I’ve got some sort of resistant BP. I’m currently on an ACE inhibitor (arginine coversyl) and calcium channel blocker (lercanidipine) and really doing everything I can from a lifestyle point of view to get my BP down.
I basically looked for the strongest evidence on supplements and BP on examine.com and purchased aged garlic extract, olive leaf extract, green coffee bean extract (only 1 paper on this) and hibiscus leaves.
However, I don’t know if there are any potential interactions with their methods of action or where to check. I did ask my cardiologist but she hadn’t heard of most of these.
Right now I don’t take any of them as I have not checked the safety.
On a side, could there be anything else that might be causing hypertension or any ways to further reduce it even just a few points? I weight about 205 at 5’11 and approx 15-17% BF and do crossfit multiple times per week in addition to some running, competitive basketball and lifting.
I wonder if I dropped 15-20lbs (which would be about 10lbs above my bodybuilding stage weight) would it further reduce? I would be willing to do this.
I don’t have a go-to interaction checker for this, but I simply searched for supplement interaction checker and came up with a few results (Drug Interactions Checker - Medscape Drug Reference Database or https://johnshopkinshealthcare.staywellsolutionsonline.com/Library/DrugReference/ , for example).
Yes, there are many potential causes of hypertension (although you do not yet meet criteria for truly “resistant” hypertension). In a patient who is young, lean, active, and otherwise apparently healthy, I would initiate an extensive investigation into causes of secondary hypertension. These include things like primary hyperaldosteronism, obstructive sleep apnea, renovascular hypertension, stimulant use, and several additional less common causes. All of this assumes that your blood pressure measurements are accurate and reliable in the first place, of course.
Thank you, actually had a kidney and heart MRI and checked catecholamine levels in my urine (heart MRI was due to very minor chest pains/palpitations from time to time). None of which explained the high BP (although scarring on the heart was found). I think it’s going to be just ruled as genetic and personally I am under a lot of work-related stress too, which I hope to change soon.
Not to change topic too much, but the cardiologist said due to the secondary findings on the heart, I should not train for a marathon. I was due to do the Berlin one next year and I don’t get to see them again for many months.
Do you have any idea why this would be suggested? All I could really find is this: Cardiac Risks Associated With Marathon Running - PMC which showed higher cases of SADS in marathon runners.
It’s a real bummer and gets me down a bit.