andre2k

Hello. I'm a 33 yr black male. About a year ago, I started getting weird tingling sensations in my fingers and toes. At first I thought it was the beginnings of diabetes. I've always struggled with my weight. I can be as low as 220, but as high as 250. That's why I thought it was diabetes. A friend of mine has diabetes, and when he doesn't take care of himself, he passes out into a coma until medics revive him. It wasn't something I wanted to go through. At first the tingling was in my toes, especially the big ones. Not when I sat down, but when I was walking. It got to the point where the tingling was so painful that walking at times became a chore. I was hoping it was the boots I was wearing, and not something serious, until the tingling in the fingers began...then I knew I had a problem. After about 2 weeks of this, I went into the emergency ward of a hospital. Okay, give me the bad news, what it? Diabetes? They give me routine BP check while you're waiting for the doctor? And the guy says "your BP is high, that might be the problem".

You gotta understand that my mother had recently passed away, which was still bothering me psychologically, plus the job stress, and the pessure to complete a lottery system that has had small success (3 second prizes). I suspect that all that stress had finally caught up with me. The doctors had NO idea what was causing the tingling, but they prescribed BP medication.

The first medication was not working. In fact I statred getting NEW pin-***** sensations, this time in my CHEST area. I'd be laying down, and all of a sudden I'd get a very intense sharp pin-***** pain in my chest. Laying down became very scary. Sometimes I'd sleep sitting up. So I lost a lot of sleep in these days. On my first appointment with a regular doctor (of which I had never had), he prescibed a different medication. What happened then is, I would get "bubbling" sensations in my chest and sometimes arms. So the doctor gave me another medication, this one a water pill called AVALIDE. That's when the tingling and all the other crazy stuff started to subside. My pressure was still in the 145/90 range. The doc gave me a stronger dossage of the same medicine, and my BP came down to the 130/78 range. I still haven't gotten a concrete answer for the tingling, but I'll have to assume it was BP.

I started looking for a BP friendly diet. So I picked up the "DASH diet" book. It stresses less fat, less meat, more veggies, and a LOT of grains. I'm not selling the DASH diet . I'm just saying that I noticed something while I changed my diet...I started eating shreadded wheat with 2% or non-fat milk in the mornings, and going meatless some nights. Sometimes I would eat the shreaded wheat, and there would be stretches where I didn't have time to buy some. I've noticed a BIG difference in my BP at times. At times it can be as low as 119/70, and as high as 135/83. It's at it's lowest when I have that shreaded wheat in my diet! With the medication of course. Let's just put it this way, the medication works better when I include the shreaded wheat in my diet.

My pressure was 135/90. I had not eaten shreaded wheat in a while. I bought two boxes of bite size shreaded wheat, and by COINCIDENCE, my pressure is at 118/70!!! It's shocking when the day before it was 135/90! Might not work for everyone, but my BP responds to SHREADED WHEAT !

Anybody else take AVALIDE? is there any long term effects from this medication? I have no real side effects from it.