A little research
Dec. 6th, 2025 10:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baroque_mongooseI'm not right yet. However, I noticed some light-headedness last night while I was lying in bed; so I took more care getting up this morning. Specifically I lay on my back and raised my knees for a while before attempting to surface. That meant I was able to get up without the room actually going round and round, but I still feel rubbish... and may do for a little while, because I think I know what may have triggered it.
I did a bit of research yesterday. I have been taking a calcium supplement for some time, because a) I'm a vegan; b) I can't eat dark green leafy vegetables, which are one of the best sources of calcium in a vegan diet (spinach is an exception, because although it is high in calcium, it's in a form which is not easily absorbed by the body) - the reason being that they tend to block Sibyl; and c) I don't want to end up with osteoporosis like my poor old mother. This calcium supplement also contains magnesium and zinc. Calcium and magnesium normally fight, but this is a "synergistic formula" so apparently they don't.
Well. It turns out that magnesium can lower your blood pressure... in fact, they even give it to people with high blood pressure. So if your blood pressure is chronically on the low side already, taking supplements with magnesium is a really bad idea. It is a necessary trace element, but you can get it from your diet and it's much safer to do that if you have low blood pressure. Needless to say, I ditched this supplement, went to eBay, and after considerable digging found a sensible vegan calcium supplement. (Calcium citrate powder. It's easily absorbed, relatively cheap because it's not made up into tablets or capsules, and you can just sprinkle it on your food. There are much fancier supplements available based on red Icelandic algae which also contain a slew of other helpful trace elements, but unfortunately one of them is magnesium, and right now that is out.)
It'll probably take a little while for my blood pressure to sort itself out properly, because I probably have magnesium stored up somewhere at the moment. In the meantime, I have one of those bed wedges, which I originally bought to help with the reflux before it was properly controlled, and which turned out to be really helpful when I came out of hospital in 2016, as I needed to sleep with my head raised for quite a long time so that I could breathe properly. These days, however, that's not a problem at all; and it occurs to me that I'd be much better served if I put the wedge at the other end of the bed, to raise my feet a little. I'm going to try that tonight.
So today's goal is "feel better enough to move the bed wedge"; going by yesterday, I should think I'll be able to manage that by about tea time. It's a strange irony that high blood pressure is potentially dangerous but usually has few or no symptoms, whereas low blood pressure is not... but it doesn't half make you feel rough!
I did a bit of research yesterday. I have been taking a calcium supplement for some time, because a) I'm a vegan; b) I can't eat dark green leafy vegetables, which are one of the best sources of calcium in a vegan diet (spinach is an exception, because although it is high in calcium, it's in a form which is not easily absorbed by the body) - the reason being that they tend to block Sibyl; and c) I don't want to end up with osteoporosis like my poor old mother. This calcium supplement also contains magnesium and zinc. Calcium and magnesium normally fight, but this is a "synergistic formula" so apparently they don't.
Well. It turns out that magnesium can lower your blood pressure... in fact, they even give it to people with high blood pressure. So if your blood pressure is chronically on the low side already, taking supplements with magnesium is a really bad idea. It is a necessary trace element, but you can get it from your diet and it's much safer to do that if you have low blood pressure. Needless to say, I ditched this supplement, went to eBay, and after considerable digging found a sensible vegan calcium supplement. (Calcium citrate powder. It's easily absorbed, relatively cheap because it's not made up into tablets or capsules, and you can just sprinkle it on your food. There are much fancier supplements available based on red Icelandic algae which also contain a slew of other helpful trace elements, but unfortunately one of them is magnesium, and right now that is out.)
It'll probably take a little while for my blood pressure to sort itself out properly, because I probably have magnesium stored up somewhere at the moment. In the meantime, I have one of those bed wedges, which I originally bought to help with the reflux before it was properly controlled, and which turned out to be really helpful when I came out of hospital in 2016, as I needed to sleep with my head raised for quite a long time so that I could breathe properly. These days, however, that's not a problem at all; and it occurs to me that I'd be much better served if I put the wedge at the other end of the bed, to raise my feet a little. I'm going to try that tonight.
So today's goal is "feel better enough to move the bed wedge"; going by yesterday, I should think I'll be able to manage that by about tea time. It's a strange irony that high blood pressure is potentially dangerous but usually has few or no symptoms, whereas low blood pressure is not... but it doesn't half make you feel rough!
