Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

High blood pressure runs in my family. My father died of an aneurysm because he wouldn't take blood pressure medicine and then bleed to death when he had the aneurysm because he had treated himself with garlic and other things from the health store and his blood was to thin to coagulate when they tried to fix the aneurysm. My sister has taken blood pressure medicine for 30 years.

I have been put on various high blood pressure medications for a number of years but end up not taking them mainly because I read the article in one of Dr. McDougall's newsletters that explained what the various classes of blood pressure medicine did inside the body to achieve their results of lower blood pressure. Also because Dr. McDougall had said that a good blood pressure for seniors was 157/80-90 because they need a higher blood pressure to pump blood to brain. I am 77 years old.

I am supposed to be taking 40 mg of Valsartan since Oct. 2021 but have not been because of the reasons listed above.

I can maintain the blood pressures of 157/80-90 mentioned above by not eating salt but it also diminishes the food choices one has which then causes weight loss. I am 5'61/2" and weighed 83 lbs.-93lbs until my family started screaming at me to gain weight. I have now gotten up to 104 lbs. which is very hard to maintain on a no salt diet.

My question is would it be better for a person like me, who comes from family in which high blood pressure runs, to take a small amount of blood pressure medicine- maybe lower than 40mg--so that I can eat more foods with salt in them and thereby gain more weight?

This is a complicated issue where the best advice will come from Dr McDougall himself.
Not sure if the private messages are working on this site. If they are you can use them.
Or may be somebody can provide a way to get his input?

Just trying to understand the no salt. Are you saying you add salt to your food when eating? I don’t understand when you say it diminishes your food choices.

To keep your weight up are you eating more calorie dense food?

I agree with pundit999 it would be good to get advice from Dr. McDougall or another plant based doctor.

Erin

pundit999 wrote:This is a complicated issue where the best advice will come from Dr McDougall himself.
Not sure if the private messages are working on this site. If they are you can use them.
Or may be somebody can provide a way to get his input?

He has been saying in recent interviews with Chef AJ that anyone can reach him by writing to him at [email protected]