Hi all,
My s/o had a stroke 2 years ago, after which I put together a supplement regimen for him -
to specifically focus on his cardiovascular health. He won't take more than 3 grams of Vit. C a day.
Instead, he's taking lots of lecithin, pantethine, artichoke extract, vitamin e and tocotrienols
taken separately. Once he got off the warfarin I started him on Vitamin K2 - mk7. It's been
several months now for that - maybe 6 months.
The ACE inhibitors gave him a bad cough and made his voice too weak, so he stopped that.
The calcium channel blockers now give him horrid stomach pains, so he stopped that.
He's now on an ARB, (avapro), which seems to be the one giving him kidney problems.
He's now got mild stage 3 kidney failure. Great!
The doctor just started him on a beta blocker (10 mg bystolic), to replace the calcium channel
blocker, and the problem with that one is that it is causing him to have increased mental dullness,
and he doesn't see it, and doesn't believe me that he is having this issue. Great! Every day he
makes some mistake that he didn't before, like saying a black building is red, or saying that he
needs to see the printer software, when he really needed to see the printer box.
There was a period of about a month last summer, when the doctor took him off all calcium channel blockers,
and he was only taking the avapro (150 mg twice a day), plus the drugs for his benign prostrate hyperplasia.
Soon after that he was so much better - it was the first time I'd seem him be really mentally perky since the
stroke. And then his blood pressure went up - systolic was 160. And then the doc put him back
on the calcium blockers but even at a lower dose the mental dullness still came back. And now
it's even worse on the beta blocker.
So what else is there? The diuretics would be bad for his kidneys, plus some of them cause diabetes,
so what else is there?
If I can get him off the avapro, I'm hoping kidneys might normalize - at least I've read that might happen.
but in the meantime there's testing to be done and a specialist to be seen.
I guess I don't understand why his blood pressure is still so out of whack. There isn't much calcification left.
The last time he had an ultrasound, there was still some, but it was good enough that he was taken off of warfarin.
Does having a stroke permanently damage the body's ability to regulate blood pressure?
Could it be his BPH drugs for his prostrate?
He's taking 5 mg of Proscar and 0.4 mg of Tamulosin daily for that.
He's taking lots of other supplements, but those are the main ones he's taking for
cardiovascular health.
You know, I used to have high blood pressure at around 140 / 90 for along time,
and my high-dose vitamin C regimen seems to have put it under control, and I'm overweight.
Now it's normal, sometimes even slightly better. I take a lot of supplements too,
but it seems to me it's the vitamin C.
Frustrating, very frustrating this is.