Re: Re: [bloodpressureline] frustration and anxiety

[Guest guest]

Neil:Has your doctor tested you for PA and if so has he put you on spiro or inspra? If you have PA, It takes time for all the aldosterone to leave your body. Years of licorice in your body may take more than 2 weeks of cleansing yourself of the aldosterone. Meanwhile you can dash and try to relax. Spiro really helped me to quiet down my anxiety last year but only at higher doses. So my advise to you is if you are on spiro take about 100 mg until you feel much much better then temper off slowly down to a lower dose. Takes a good 3 weeks before you notice the difference.

Dave, last year when I was hospitalized with high bp, the cardiologist massaged my carotid arthery and you could just watch the bp drop from 200 to 120 as he was slowly rubbing on the artery, perhaps he had just read the same article as you mentioned and wanted to experience it first hand. But problem was as soon as he stoped it would go right back up. He was telling me I could do this when the bp is just way up. Later on I found out that this is a very good way of giving yourself a stroke as you are getting your bp up and down and up again and down again.

Hyperventilation style of breathing does the same thing to lower the bp. Alas as soon as you start breating normal it goes up again putting you in the up down up down stroke mode.

At least thats what I understood.

Farah

On 6/15/06, Dave <dave@...> wrote:

Two things showed promising results to stop anxiety or " panic attacks " in trials at University of Az Tuscon :

1) alternately (first one, then the other - never at the same time) rubyour cartoid and corotid arteries (big ones coming down your neck fromyour ear) about 8 times, medium pressure, up and down from collarbone

to ear, drink some icewater, and walk briskly for 5 minutes. When youbreathe out, purse your lips and blow a little harder, letting the airout a little more slowly than usual as you walk. Like pinching the

garden hose a little.2) Using the pursed-lips breathing-out mentioned above, sit with yourback straight, put your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behindyour front teeth.Empty your lungs, then breathe in to a count of 7 thru your nose. Hold

to a count of 8. Pursed-lip breathe-out to a count of 6 thru yourmouth. Repeat 5 times (the counting should be about 1 second for eachdigit - watch a clock with a second hand).Both these activities lower BP somewhat, albeit temporarily.

Of course you could take a fast-acting benzodiazepine tranquilizer(like one of the sublinguals) for quick relief, but those are oddlyaddictive for many - start to " rebound " or make you more anxious in the

end. For most, they are just plain addictive - hard to stop.This is my own area of research/reporting (psych tech), so I can tellyou not to worry ABOUT the worrying. It has " psychological " aspects,

but what doesn't? Which comes first, fear or the body response?Chicken or egg? They are starting to think it is the body first. Itis known that there is a discreet tissue abnormality (PETscan) in thearea of the limbic brain called the " parahippocampal gyrus " associated

with most, if not all " panic disorder. " For awhile at Stanford,researchers were trying to get it re-named " parahippocampaldysautonomia, " or " PHD. " You can see why that didn't fly.

;^)Other biological items are a little less well-documented, but verycommon. Like family Hx - very common. Soon, it will probably bethought of as a small birth defect of the limbic system, or genetic

markers will be found, or both. Then, a cure may be possible viagenome retro-engineering or something else that is new. Mainly, it isat least half biological, and probably more than half.Dave

On Jun 15, 2006, at 11:09 AM, neil margetson wrote:>> well...color me frustrated! after figuring out that> i'd poisoned myself with licorice root and stopping> two weeks ago...and getting really good BP readings at

> home, i went into my doctors office today and had a> total anxiety attack. and, of course my BP was> 180/90! me...sweating, shaking, heart thudding... i> was going to try and get him to back off the meds, but

> now he thinks either i'm a candidate for psych meds or> my BP machine sucks. either way its not what i hoped> for. i'm just now starting to calm down an hour> later. is anyone else out there having this kind of

> experience? what have you done about it? now that> this cycle of fear has gotten going how do i ever> break it??> - neil

[Guest guest]

On Jun 15, 2006, at 1:25 PM, Farah Rahbar wrote:

> Dave, last year when I was hospitalized with high bp, the cardiologist

> massaged my carotid arthery and you could just watch the bp drop from

> 200 to 120 as he was slowly rubbing on the artery, perhaps he had just

> read the same article as you mentioned and wanted to experience it

> first hand. But problem was as soon as he stoped it would go right

> back up. He was telling me I could do this when the bp is just way up.

> Later on I found out that this is a very good way of giving yourself a

> stroke as you are getting your bp up and down and up again and down

> again.

> Hyperventilation style of breathing does the same thing to lower the

> bp. Alas as soon as you start breating normal it goes up again putting

> you in the up down up down stroke mode.

> At least thats what I understood.

Yes, BP-drop was a " side effect " of calming the anxiety. Very

temporary (usually). DR Grim's warning is important - check first to

see if you have rust or other problems. The subjects at U of A were

thoroughly checked first. But the pressure doesn't have to be much to

relieve anxiety or panic attacks. Only about 6 rubs on each side -

separately of course. Then the ice water shrinks oral, GI and

secondary hypervasculation - present during attacks - and walking

recirculates new chem balance. The pursed-lips breathing improves O2.

Dave

>  

> Farah