August Blood Pressure Results: Magnesium

Before I get to my August blood pressure results, I want to give a little life update. Feel free to skip down to Habit for August if you wish to hear less about my life.

Life Update

While I started this blog with the intention of posting four times per month, my posts have gotten less regular lately. In May, a dear friend died of COVID-19 and our whole family reeled emotionally from that. In June, I sprained my ankle, which transformed and, for a while, delayed the way I worked out. In July, my youngest son was bit by a friend’s dog. We had a trip to a local water park planned the very next day, and my son couldn’t go because of the open wound. So my husband took my oldest son and my youngest son and I nursed our injuries at home. 

I assured my younger son that this was just a case of delayed gratification, and we purchased tickets for a few weeks later for the two of us to go to the water park.

When we initially planned the outing, Hot Vax Summer was in motion, and the case loads for COVID-19 were waning. My youngest was not vaccinated, but we surmised that an outdoor waterpark that used an abundance of chlorine to kill all the things was going to be safer than most outings. And we were very happy to be DOING something.

However, the delay in going to the park meant that the day the two of us went, things were starting to get out of hand, with caseloads rising faster than they had during the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The day after our trip to the water park, the news was filled with crazy. Florida’s caseload was overwhelming their hospitals and we made the decision to cancel our upcoming late-summer trip to Florida, in order to keep our baby safe. He’s 11 and is just one month away from being eligible for his first dose.

But we live in Texas, which was quickly on the tails of Florida as far as crazy caseloads go. And, sure enough, a few days after our trip to the water park, our baby started showing symptoms of COVID-19.

I can’t tell you the guilt and fear that settled into my skin when I got his positive test result back. There was a moment when I went numb, when I didn’t cry or feel scared or worried. It was a paralyzing acceptance. Because I had done this to him. And I would never forgive myself if it didn’t turn out well.

Let me assure you it did turn out well. He did struggle for a few days, but his case never progressed past the muscle inflammation stage. He had body aches, a sore throat, a small cough and a headache, but he never did go into the fever/losing taste and smell stage, or into the dreaded breathing struggle stage.

During those few days he had symptoms, I hit him with a barrage of vitamins. I called every medical professional I knew, in both eastern and western practice. My acupuncturist friend recommended dosages, my editor’s wife, who is a doula, recommended a routine, my friend who works in the ER recommended certain supplements, my friend who works at a research university recommended dosages based on what the university hospital had given her nephew when he’d had it. My cousin who is a nurse confirmed all of these dosages, as did a nurse I spoke to at a local children’s hospital. This is how I operate, I gather all the data and then I attack the problem.

The worst part, for my son, was the isolation of the ten day quarantine. Though, he did relish in the non-stop screen fest. He didn’t have to exercise, he didn’t have to do his chores. But he also couldn’t go outside or visit with his family or, more importantly, his cat.

The worst part for me was the guilt. Why hadn’t I reassessed before taking him that day? Why hadn’t I checked the case counts? Why hadn’t I kept him further away from people while we were there? We didn’t stand in many lines, but we did stand in SOME. And no one was wearing masks because of the water and WHY AM I SO DUMB?

These were my thoughts. My husband, at one point, scolded me for these feelings. For giving into the guilt. For me, I was taking responsibility for my actions. For him, I was indulging in unhelpful shame. He was tired of me blaming myself for the situation we were in. Because I was giving myself too much credit, he said. If he’d wanted to stop us from going, he would have. We were both responsible for not reassessing the case counts before the day of the trip. And guilt helps no one. And they needed me to be here with them. Not shutting down. Not just operating as a supplement-giving, pulse oxygen-checking, fever-monitoring robot. 

He also told me that I probably hadn’t posted on this blog in so long because deep down I’m still feeling upset about the whole situation. And that perhaps I should write it out, confess my feelings and the struggles we’ve been facing lately, and maybe that could help me move on.

And since I started crying as I wrote this, I’m betting he’s right about that too. That man can be very wise at times.

So, now that my emotional dump is out of the way, onto the results.

Habit for August: Magnesium supplements

The intention for August was to start taking Magnesium supplements.

We added this on top of the January  goal to practice yoga, the February goal to eliminate added sugar from our diet, the March goal to meditate, the April goal to drink tea, the May goal to eat salmon and the July goal to workout more. (We rested in June, under strict orders from the universe.)

Why Magnesium?

Every cell in your body needs Magnesium to function. It helps convert food into energy and repair RNA and DNA, and helps regulate brain function and mood.

Magnesium plays a vital role in numerous diverse cellular processes, including cardiovascular pathways, according to a study from the Journal of the American Heart Association. 

While – for the function of this blog – Magnesium can help lower blood pressure, it also can help ease ADHD symptoms (which my kids deal with daily) and prevent Type 2 Diabetes (which my husband is up against), and has anti-inflammatory benefits that we ALL need right now, as the COVID-19 virus hurts our bodies through inflammation.

Magnesium is important for not just heart function, but also, if you are taking vitamin D supplements, you should know that a lack of magnesium contributes to your body not being able to USE that vitamin D.

I should note that a lot of food sources contain magnesium, such as spinach, pumpkin seeds, dark chocolate, cashews, avocados, salmon and almonds. So you might actually be getting enough through your diet.

Results

The most noticeable result is the quality of sleep I’ve seen since taking the Magnesium supplement. I take 200 mg of Magnesium at night before bed, three days a week. And since the very first time I did this, I noticed I slept harder, and woke up fewer times during the night.

I generally toss a lot at night, back and forth, side to side. I wake myself up in this process. But this past month, my sleep has been miraculous. I don’t wake up at all until about 6 am. It’s incredible.

Why not take it every day? This is a personal choice. I do take other vitamin supplements every day, in the morning. (I take a multivitamin, plus extra vitamin C, vitamin D and NAC, as part of our family’s preventative COVID-19 protocol.) But for some reason, I’ve noticed any habit I try to implement in this experiment is best on a 3 days/week basis, instead of an everyday basis. Is this because I’m commitment-phobic? Perhaps. Is it because I’m lazy and/or rebellious? Perhaps. Either way, I know myself, and I will feel resentful of something I’m forced to do every day of the week.

This is the same reason diets don’t work for me. I am not a huge fan of cake, but if you tell me I can’t have it, I will do everything in my power to prove you wrong. If I’m going to incorporate habits into my lifestyle, I have to take this inevitable childish reaction of mine into account.

My blood pressure did come down this month, but not by much. Honestly, with all the life events that have happened these past few months, I’m surprised it came down at all. In fact, I expected it would increase.

Thankfully, all the health habits we’ve worked into our lives have helped keep my blood pressure low, even in the face of crazy stress, and interruption of those habits.

That’s the ultimate goal here, to lower my blood pressure level until it is within “normal” range, and then to maintain it, despite life’s stress. There will always be something in our lives that is going to challenge us in the stress department. The key is to create the foundation that allows us to handle it when it does.

My average blood pressure for August was 130/84 with a resting heart rate of 68.

My Systolic pressure (the amount of pressure in the arteries during the contraction of your heart muscle) came down by 4 millimetre of mercury (mm Hg) during the month of August, and is down a whopping 24 mm Hg since December 2020.

My Diastolic pressure (the amount of pressure in the arteries when the heart rests between beats) also came down by 4 mm Hg in August, and is down by 21 mm Hg since the start of the experiment. 

My heart rate (the number of times the heart beats per minute while at rest) came down by 2 beats per minute (bpm) in July, and is a total 11 bpm under the December 2020 average. 

While I haven’t met any new goals, I am still in Stage 1 Hypertension, according to the American Heart Association recommendations. When I started this experiment, I was in Stage 2. My goal is to get to Normal by the end of the year.