Low low blood pressure with Lyme!!

[Robyn072]

Does anyone get really low blood pressure with Lyme and Co?  Mine has been really low the last few days and this morning it was 72/43 with a pulse of 55. I have had back pain central on the right hand side for the last nine days that is worse in the middle of the night while I am sleeping (at least trying to).

I am so used to just chucking everything into the Lyme basket now that I guess I am concerned that I am becoming a bit  to laid back with my weird health symptoms.  My GP doesn't really know anything about Lyme and my LLMD is 2200km away.  Any suggestions????

[freefallin]

Yes, it just worried me when my BP readings started being that low because, while they're not low per say, they're low for me. In the past, my BP was generally around 140/90. and the first time I got a reading around there was around the time that my chronic exhaustion started. I never had fatigue as a symptom beforehand, and suddenly I found myself with barely enough energy to think let alone get up and do things, so I thought that maybe something was causing my BP to lower, which, in turn, made me tired. But it's all just guesswork.

[Robyn072]

Thanks for all your thoughts.  

My LLMD has me on a very strict diet and bananas, sugar, caffeine and chocolate are all part of my definite NO NO list, so looks like I am on the right path there already.  It would be interesting to know where my cortisol levels are now...I know that in 2006 they were really high.

I can certainly relate to feeling physically  sick with stress (even seemingly trivial amounts) and the endless sugar cravings

[mojogal]

True, I think when I got the diagnose in 98 they called it my name but now your name is the most common.
At any rate it's the same thing that Lyme does to us, I also had very high heart rate which was only controlled with my beta blocker, and it still is like that now,

[youvegottobekidding]

Hi folks,

I admit I havenìt read all the messages here as I am in a bit of a hurry, but I kjudt wanted to tell you I had very low BP (usually 70 / 45) for years. I also had tachcardia (average 150bpm) , which would sometimes turn into bradycardia (50bpm)

In lyme disease, It is all caused by having low cortisol levels. Lyme (like any other chronic infection) makes your adrenal glands work so hard that sooner or later, they run out of nutrients and hardly make any cortisol at all. Cortisol is one of the essential factors that controls blood pressure and heart rate.

I followed the advice of a really excellent book called Adrenal Fatigue by James Wilson and it got my very low cortisol level up to normal in about 3 months. He talks abotu herbs as well as nutrients and lifestyle cjhanges, I found the herbs too strong and I suggest, given you are in this for the long haul with lyme and probably already full of drugs, that you just use nutrients.)

Sorting this out got rid of various other symptoms I thought were lyme things, such as sleeping badly despite being exhausted, constantly needing a pee in the night, having irregular and funny periods, feeling physically ill when anything stressful happened, endless sugar cravings which gave me a pitifully brief energy boost, etc.

I advise reading the book, but the main tihngs you need to do are:
avoid potassium (in vit pills and even bananas)
every time you want a sugary snack, eat a salty one
no caffeine
no chocolate (very important!)
take vitamin c and vitamin B5 (there is a whole bunch of nutrients to take and magnesium adn calcium are important, btu these 2 are the main ones)

As far as heart problems go, heart pace is partly controlled by calcium, zinc and magnesium. They all work together. I have taken all of them for many years and still had heart probs (I did actualy need a heart op). What finally sorted out my hart rate was getting my cortisol level OK.

[Robyn072]

Yes Rico. Lyme before kids.  I was only 10 when bitten and am 40 now.  It was actually the realisation that all of our families weird symptoms were probably related that got me to pull my head out of the sand and get tested.  Because I was the sickest we decided to start testing with me, which would then add validity to everyone else's cases (particularly because the kids are probably congenial which is another can of worms in itself in a country/continent that supposedly doesn't even have Lyme).  Also because getting me treated will hopefully mean that I will be able to join the workforce to pay for everyone else to get diagnosed and treated.  We've been a one income family for 20 years (apart from a couple of stints in the workforce that knocked me off my feet each time for a couple of years).

My husband has disc degeneration in 2 discs that have ruptured and one has been surgically shaved. I have suffered with sciatic pain for 19 years - this pain does feel very different from that and what hubby goes through.

I am taking flaxseed oil capsules, fish oil capsules, aloe vera juice and evening primrose oil - all of which are supposed to help with inflammation.  I will look into the others that you have mentioned. Thanks for your thoughts all.

[Robyn072]

So will magnesium make low blood pressure lower if it reduces high blood pressure?