OT beetroot juice

IIRC there was some discussion recently about the above re blood pressure. Having had some unpleasant experiences with the legal high known as beta blockers (and now also with amlodipine), I'm determined to get off medication altogether. I've got me a Nutri Ninja but I hate beetroot, so anyone got any alternatives? Not that keen on kale either as it happens :-)

Reply to
Stuart Noble
Loading thread data ...

Garlic?

"Pharmacotherapy. 1993 Jul-Aug;13(4):406-7. Can garlic lower blood pressure? A pilot study. McMahon FG1, Vargas R.

Abstract

A popular garlic preparation containing 1.3% allicin at a large dose (2400 mg) was evaluated in this open-label study in nine patients with rather severe hypertension (diastolic blood pressure > or = 115 mm Hg). Sitting blood pressure fell 7/16 (+/- 3/2 SD) mm Hg at peak effect approximately 5 hours after the dose, with a significant decrease in diastolic blood pressure (p < 0.05) from

5-14 hours after the dose. No significant side effects were reported. Our results indicate that this garlic preparation can reduce blood pressure. Further controlled studies are needed, particularly with more conventional doses (e.g., < or = 900 mg/day), in patients with mild to moderate hypertension and under placebo-controlled, double-blind conditions.

PMID: 8361870 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] "

Thomas Prufer

Reply to
Thomas Prufer

I was in the co-op and saw these packets of dried beetroot they had carrots and other things to, I tried the beetroot and carrot on special offer at £1. I do wonder whether they have added ingridients that negate any good the 's nack' might possible do me compard to a mars or 2 bags of crips, not sure I'll buy them again unless on specail offer.

Reply to
whisky-dave

Sorry to hear of your experiences with beta-blockers. It appears I'm among the lucky ones having never experienced any adverse side effects having been on them for over ten years.

A lot probably depends on how high your unmedicated blood pressure actually is, although that itself is a minefield - time of day - whitecoat effect - wide variations in readings etc. as to whether its advisable to abandon conventional medication under all but the most extreme circumstances.

Basically for people like me

"During the 4 weeks they were taking the juice, patients in the active supplement group (whose beetroot juice contained inorganic nitrate) experienced a reduction in blood pressure of 8/4 mmHg (millimeters of mercury) ."

formatting link

a reduction of 8mm sys and 4mm dia don't really do much and fall well with the normal range I get when taking my own readings.

The problem with alternative treatments, certainly with studies which the make headlines is that their effects are often limited to fairly specific groups, and often involve unusually large doses.

Of lifestyle in general, for many of us its the usual story. Lose a few pounds or stones, drink less, less sodium, no smoking.

There's no silver bullets, nutri or otherwise I'm afraid.

michael adams

...

Reply to
michael adams

I totally agree. Lifestyle changes will make some difference, as you say, such as giving up smoking, alcohol and added salt, eating fewer calories, taking exercise and losing weight, but IMO all the 'alternative medicine' remedies for blood pressure only make minor differences and are just excuses for not doing the lifestyle stuff. I'm on a diuretic and an ACE inhibitor, have been for about 20 years, and my BP bounces along at just below the level where something else needs to be added in. I'm sure the OP is quite capable of doing a web search for himself, but if he wants to go down the 'natural' route might read some of these links for starters.

formatting link

Reply to
Chris Hogg

Shooting yourself....

>
Reply to
David Lang

No silver bullets? Put it this way, I just spent 3 days in hospital with an ever increasing array of medication being applied to reduce my pulse rate from the dizzy heights of 125. Just wouldn't shift.

Being back at home for 2 days produced no change, so this morning I abandoned all medication, including stuff I'd be on for years, and had a beetroot smoothie instead. 15.00 hrs and my pulse is ranging between 60 and 70. No great believer in alternative mumbo jumbo but.....

Reply to
Stuart Noble

Well if it works, eat it or die. I'm sure you could acquire a taste if it was life or death.

Reply to
harry

I doubt there's anything which says you can't mask the taste with another ingredient. Although it would probably need to be something equally strongly flavoured. Tomato juice or puree are ones that immediately spring to mind. Additionally processed tomatoes are very beneficial as they contain lypocene.

When abandoning medication the problems often don't arise when you come off it, but when you finally concede that you're going to have to go back on it, and end up in a far worse position than you were before.

Whether that applies in this case, isn't for me to judge of course.

If this has cropped up all of a sudden, after a year or more of no problems then that strongly suggests that there's another factor at work which needs investigating. And isn't the result of the medication as such, at all.

Bad side effects of medication can include total hair loss, vomiting, nausea, insomnia, nightmares, being unable to stand for more than a few minutes unaided if at all etc etc but people put up with them when the only alternative is the old grim reaper.

michael adams

...

Reply to
michael adams

Whisky, absinthe, chartreuse, pernod, but not altogether ;-)

Reply to
whisky-dave

What was the cause of your high pulse rate?

Reply to
pamela

Let's just say two consultants plus me haven't a clue as to why it was high since BP wasn't too awful and ECG was normal in other respects.

Reply to
Stuart Noble

As the patient information leaflet tells you, don't stop taking beta blockers suddenly. That can cause serious problems. Instead, preferably in consultation with your doctor, reduce the dose slowly over time. This gives the body time to recover from its reliance upon the drug. You may also find that the side effects disappear at a lower dose level. I halved my dose over a couple of weeks and that got rid of the tiredness and numbness in my feet that I had identified as probably being side effects.

Reply to
Nightjar

I'd only been on bbs for a couple of days and, frankly, I wasn't prepared to put up with the side effects I was getting. In fact I'm beginning to wonder whether medication is appropriate at all in most cases.

Reply to
Stuart Noble

they made me need to go to the toilet 6 times every night

really debilitating

tim

Reply to
tim...

Mrs Noble?

Reply to
David Lang

In one of the areas of interest to me I see reports of people who have all combinations of high, normal and low blood pressure and pulse. The common factor is a thyroid issue.

Insufficient thyroid hormone can result in low OR high blood pressure.

Insufficient or excess thyroid hormone can result in high pulse.

Amlodipine can cause thyroid disorders.

formatting link

Beta-blockers can affect thyroid hormones.

My own experience was that I had relatively low blood pressure for many years and that changed into a fairly middling value when adequately treated.

So I recommend that you ask for a thyroid test. (That opens up cans of worms as a TSH test on its own is inadequate, in my view, to assess thyroid status. But that is all you will probably get.)

In my book the flavour of beetroot is OK but it is so sweet! A borscht in which the beetroot has been fermented helps with sourness and reduced sweetness. Our typical small-ish "salad" beetroot are best avoided and some larger, older, less sweet ones used. Even just making it with some vinegar and pepper helps!

Reply to
polygonum

check you are getting enough potassium as low potassium leads to raised BP.

Reply to
dennis

Perhaps you were taking a diuretic with it. BB alone shouldn't do that.

Reply to
Tim Streater

On 06/04/2016 16:02, Stuart Noble wrote: ...

Beetroot is a good source of potassium and, to a lesser extent, magnesium; electrolytes that were pumped into me when my heart rate hit

240 and brought it back down to a reasonable level.
Reply to
Nightjar

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.