My daughter went to see a neurologist today for her spine pain. We found nothing, but he and his PA were both very Lyme friendly.
HOWEVER...my daughter's blood pressure was 78/48
Very low. She has been feeling dizzy and very ill. She feels she is having a major relapse.
What to do about the low BP? Should we be worried?
Posted by Geneal (Member # 10375) on :
Hi Kelmo. Sorry your daughter isn't feeling well.
My blood pressure one day in LLMD's office was in the 60's/40's.
I was diagnosed with Neurally Mediated Hypotension and then later with POTs.
Initially took very low dose cortef which helped a lot.
Your daughter could be having dysutonomia issues.
Hope she gets to feeling better soon.
Hugs,
Geneal
Posted by disturbedme (Member # 12346) on :
I too have low blood pressure.
It's usually 80/40 or 90/50.
Annoyingly, whenever I see the doc, it's usually 100/60, so they never think anything of it. Posted by Lymejul25 (Member # 9564) on :
I am sorry she is having extremely low blood pressure, and isn't feeling very well. )-:
My blood pressure is always very low, and I was diagnosed with orthostatic hypotension by my LLMD, as well as my naturopathic doctor.
What helps a lot is a diet high in salt--although not so much table salt, but just sprinkle your food with sea salt frequently, and when your daughter arises, have her drink a glass of water with a teaspoon of salt mixed in it. This tends to raise the blood pressure a bit. If she doesn't want to do this, Thermotabs are a good option.
I can't tolerate Cortef or Florinef, two of the most prescribed meds. for orthostatic hypotension, so I am just putting this out there as another option.
I hope your daughter feels better soon! :-)
--Julie
Posted by micul (Member # 6314) on :
Sounds like a Babs relapse. Has Dr F checked her blood lately?
Posted by kelmo (Member # 8797) on :
I was thinking a babs relapse, too. We were going to get more bloodwork done, she went off her mino for two weeks. Then circumstances caused a delay, turning into three. By then, symptoms started coming back pretty strong, so she went back on the mino.
Since we already know she has babesia, I wonder if it's worth the expense of getting rechecked. We have mepron at home. I'm going to ask him if we can combine it with mino and start the treatment ourselves.
Will have her eat pretzels and powerade, I guess.
Posted by shoney (Member # 9925) on :
Licorice root raises blood pressure-I took it instaed of florinef-my blood pressure was 80/40- now it's usually 100/70
Posted by micul (Member # 6314) on :
Actually, salt IS a bad idea. Babs uses it, and it also uses phosphates, which milk products are rich in. This doesn't mean that you have to stay away from them completely, but it would be a good idea to keep intakes low.
Salt probably would help for a while, but it's a "catch 22 just like taking mag supps are. You do get some initial benefits from them, but in the long run they just make your Bart and Babs infections worse and more resistant.
Using weak (as well as monotherapy)protocols to minimize herxing, and also stopping and starting abx for relief contributes to the problem.
"Malaria's taste for salt" Thursday, 28 September 2006 Australian National University New research on how the malaria parasite survives inside the cells of humans could potentially lead to better treatments for the worldwide disease.
Published in Nature today, a team based at The Australian National University revealed why the malaria parasite - Plasmodium falciparum - increases the sodium, or salt, content inside its host's red blood cells.
``Once they've infiltrated their human host, malaria parasites hide inside the red blood cells to avoid being detected by the immune system,'' explained Dr Kevin Saliba, a Medical School lecturer based in the School of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BaMBi) at ANU.
``Scientists have known for some time that once inside the red blood cell, the parasite alters the balance of ions in their host cell, increasing the amount of sodium. Until now it has not been clear whether this is something that is actually important for the parasite. What we've shown is that the increased sodium plays a crucial role in the mechanism by which the parasite takes up a key nutrient'', Dr Saliba said.
Dr Rowena Martin, another member of the BaMBi team, described how they have discovered a protein that enables the parasite to exploit the increased sodium levels inside the red blood cell, using the sodium to fuel the uptake of phosphate, a substance required by the parasite for a whole range of biochemical processes.
``The parasite needs phosphate to survive. The protein we have described binds to sodium and phosphate in the host blood cell and transports them, together, into the parasite'' Dr Martin said.
``This research has revealed yet again just how cunning this parasite is. It manipulates the salt content of its host blood cell and then uses what is essentially a salt-powered vacuum cleaner to steal a key nutrient from its host,'' BaMBi head Professor Kiaran Kirk said. ``If we could block this system we could starve the parasite to death, and this could well be the basis for a new antimalarial therapy,'' Professor Kirk said.
Professor Kirk and Associate Professor Stefan Broer were senior authors on the Nature paper, which also included input from scientists at the University of Melbourne. The research team received funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Medical Health Research Council. "
Posted by micul (Member # 6314) on :
I. Natural foods for fast growing animals or plants:
The phosphate content is very high in all natural foods that are designed to nourish a fast growing animal or plant. Many animals and most edible plants require only weeks or a few months to a year to become fully grown, whereas a human being needs 15 to 20 years to achieve full maturity.
Clearly, a growing human being requires far less daily phosphate than a calf - all dairy products derived from cow's milk are high in phosphate: the calf of course needs the high phosphate content for rapid growth. Hence, cow's milk should be avoided!
The point is, not every growing human being's metabolism is capable of successfully dealing with the elevated levels of phosphates contained in many of the natural foods.
Examples of natural foods that are designed to nourish growing animals or plants are:
* Egg yolk (egg yolks contain lecithin, a high source of phosphate).
* All dairy products derived from cow's milk, except the heavy (whipping) cream.
* All seeds such as peas, lentils, dried beans, cocoa beans, carob, nuts (peanuts, walnuts, almonds, etc.) and their derivatives (peanut butter, marzipan, chocolate, etc.), as well as soya beans and all soya bean products.
* All whole grains - since these are seeds - (such as wheat, rye, oats, corn, etc.).
* Natural emulsifiers such as lecithins which are extracted from egg yolks, almonds, soya beans or other seeds.
* Some natural foods high in citric acid may also cause relapses.
Pages 91- 116 in The Hidden Drug: Dietary Phosphate explain in great detail how the phosphates and acids of the citric acid cycle affect a sensitive person's metabolism.
II. Processed Foods: Many processed foods are extremely high in added phosphate. Phosphate compounds are popular and highly versatile food additives, produced daily by the tonne and used widely by the food industry to:
* Extend the shelf life of their products. * Improve the taste of foods, especially soft and soda drinks (Coke has up to 570 mg/kg). * Act as free-flowing agents to prevent the clumping of instant food products (e.g. instant coffee).
* Act as an emulsifying agent which prevents any emulsion containing oil/fat and liquids from separating in food products, examples are processed cheeses (30g/kg), cheese spread, mayonnaise, margarine.
* Speed up the thickening and stabilizing of instant products (e.g. puddings and gravies).
* Help retain water in processed meat products.
* Improve the baking process by the addition of baking powder which makes the process more flexible and improves the texture of the baked products.
The above are the most prevalent reasons for using phosphate compounds and an example of the products that you need to look out for. Clearly the food industry has many other uses for phosphate additives, we just can't list every available substance on this site.
If you would like to learn more, please refer to The Hidden Drug: Dietary Phosphate for more detail. It lists several pages of 'safe' and 'danger' foods.
III.Citric acid: Citric acid is found in many processed foods. Its effect on the body's metabolism compounds the effects of the phosphates.
It is added to foodstuff to assist in the flavouring of jams, jellies, soft drinks, sweets, candies, gummibears and jelly snakes to name a few.
IV. Alcohol: Alcohol, whilst not containing phosphate itself, greatly exacerbates the effect of excess phosphate and therefore should be avoided.
V. Sugar: High consumption of foods containing sugar may intensify the body's response to phosphate-rich foods. Sugar interferes with the absorption of calcium and magnesium causing further vital mineral deficiencies.
Posted by cottonbrain (Member # 13769) on :
YIKES! Posted by Lymejul25 (Member # 9564) on :
Hmm..ok, if salt is a bad idea, then why is the Vitamin C/Salt protocol used for Chronic Lyme sufferers? I'm just wondering..
Posted by tailz (Member # 10014) on :
You just listed every food that you'd find in every person's diet. What's left?
Maybe chemicals are to be avoided, but I don't believe foods are dangerous. If a food has somehow become dangerous to the human anatomy, then it's time to look beyond chemicals.
These bugs don't have brains, so why are they so 'cunning' and infecting ours?
Because their life cycle is commanded by the earth's and sun's electromagnetic and microwave/radiowave fields, and then humans invented cell phones........
Why am I the only one on here who sees the urgency of this?
Posted by lymednva (Member # 9098) on :
i have dysautonomia which has gone back and forth from NMH to POTS several times. in the beginning my bp was as low as your daughter's.
i take florinef, midodrine and inderal la for it. between that and my treatment for lyme and co. it is improving.
i've been able to lower my doses of florinef and prior to my recent surgery my bp was pretty stable most of the time.
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