Blood Pressure Question
I've been cleaning house during spring break and I found all these little PostIt notes with blood pressure readings I'd taken of myself, so I decided to put them on a chart. My blood pressure was found to be high last September and my doc put me on the smallest dosage of diuretic there is (12.5 mg). I take this once a day.
My blood pressure is now in the normal range.
As a result of doing the chart, I found something interesting but I don't know what it means. Maybe one of you can give me some ideas.
I had data for a five-month period and I put the figures on a table. This is when I saw that my blood pressure was high on the third week of each month. This would happen around the 20 or the 23.
I did a search under "blood pressure cycle" but I couldn't find anything.
I was wondering if the moon had anything to do with it, but I don't think so. One might think blood pressure would be higher during the full moon, but a moon phases chart didn't support that hypothesis.
I'm curious. Any ideas?
Cher
Sanity Claws
(22,053 posts)A quick google search indicates that it is highest around the middle of the second half of the cycle.
Kookaburra
(2,649 posts)Do you think maybe something happens at school in the 3rd week of each month that stresses you out -- some sort of deadline, activity, or report that you're not exactly comfortable doing yet?
PADemD
(4,482 posts)I don't know about the effect of the full moon on blood pressure, but there is a great book about the effect of the weather on our health. It's Under the Weather: How Weather and Climate Affect Our Health by Pat Thomas.
http://www.amazon.com/Under-Weather-Climate-Affect-Health/dp/1904132308/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332504192&sr=1-1
There is are a few paragraphs about the effect of the moon.
There is also a good book about the moon called Guided by the Moon by Johanna Paungger and Thomas Poppe.
http://www.amazon.com/Guided-Moon-Living-Harmony-Cycles/dp/1569245029/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332504955&sr=1-1
I'm glad I purchased it when I did because the price seems to be increasing weekly.
Their first book was Moon Time: The Art of Harmony with Nature and Lunar Cycles.
http://www.amazon.com/Moon-Time-Harmony-Nature-Cycles/dp/1844133001/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332504955&sr=1-2
Why Syzygy
(18,928 posts)I ordered that book last year. It is so weighty! Looks like you've got a gold mine in the book "Guided By the Moon"?!?
Have you seen this video?
Yes, I did see the video. Thanks.
You aren't kidding about a gold mine! The last time I checked, a used copy of Guided by the Moon was selling for $48. Now a used copy starts at $178. I think I paid $16 for the book new.
NJCher
(38,088 posts)A goldmine of things to check out here, and I'm so glad I brought this up for just that reason. I look forward to the interesting reading about the effects of weather on our health and the lunar cycle's effect, too.
However, I have figured my original question out! Here it is:
Biorhythm!
Yes, and to my fellow baby boomers, do you remember the biorhythm craze? I think it was in the 70s or early 80s. There was even biorhythm software.
The biorhythm theory says we have three cycles:
Most biorhythm models use three cycles: a 23-day "physical" cycle, a 28-day "emotional" cycle, and a 33-day "intellectual" cycle. Although the 28-day cycle is the same length as the average woman's menstrual cycle and was originally described as a "female" cycle (see below), the two are not necessarily in any particular synchronization. Each of these cycles varies between high and low extremes sinusoidally, with days where the cycle crosses the zero line described as "critical days" of greater risk or uncertainty. Article name: Biorhythm, from Wikipedia"
Wikipedia remarks that some consider it a pseudo-science. My threshold for belief is my own experience, so this is the answer that solves it for me.
Predictable: that's me. I hate to think that I am so predictable, but the longer I live, the more I realize I do the same stuff.
For example, yesterday I planted some garlic chives and in the plastic bag of seeds was a seed marker all made out "garlic chives, 3/24" . I commended myself for being so organized, thinking I had made out the tag and forgotten about it, yet I soon realized the tag was made last year. So I was planting garlic chives on the same day as last year.
Here's an example that's even more remarkable. I went to a client's to photograph some merchandise for their web site. When I got there, I realized I'd forgotten the camera card they gave me to use for such situations. So in order to get these large-size images to my own computer, I took the photos and put them on my Google account. When I went on to my Google account, I found some photographs for that very same day for that very same client, one year ago.
In other words, the previous year I had gone there to photograph, had forgotten my camera card, and had to do the very same thing--put them on my Google space for retrieval later.
I feel like a wind-up toy of my own making.
Cher
kentauros
(29,414 posts)And I've often wondered about something similar, called "biocircuits". I don't know if it's related to biorhythms, but it might be worth trying out, if you want to make your own. Here are some links for doing that, as well as just learning about them:
L.E. Eeman - Co-Operative Healing
BioCircuits
Biocircuits - EMR Labs