Drawing a Pint

I gave blood today so be nice to me!!

One of the recent topics at that [redacted] place was blood pressure reduction on a low carb diet.  After posting some (research-related) sites explaining how blood pressure can be reduced on a low carb diet, I never did get around to the topic on this here blog, so here it is.

This week marks my two-year anniversary of going on a lower carb diet.   One of the nice things about giving blood is that you get a mini-physical.  It gives me an opportunity to check up on a few things in between doctors visits.

Hmm, did I eat today?  Check
Feeling OK?  Good to go
Weight?  Yep, within 10 pounds of my goal weight after a year and a half in maintenance
Pulse?  Pretty low, especially since I have discontinued chronic cardio
Iron?  14, whatever that means.  Really, it means they smile and continue.  This is not like in the vegetarian days when half the time I would be sent packing.
Temp?  Hmmmm, the thingy beeps.  Could it be that my metabolism has been lowered and my T3 has tanked?  She looks unconcerned.
Blood Pressure?  Hmmm, the same pressures I had as a teen the first time I gave blood at a high school blood drive for an ailing teacher.
Track marks?  Nope

As I go through the questions, I am realizing how stationary I have been, and not just in the cardio way.  I haven't been to any of the long list of banned counties recently.  Then I remember what Coach [redacted] says about blood pressure.  A low carb diet doesn't do anything for blood pressure that simple weight loss doesn't do.  I remember when I saw that, thinking "hmmm, did she just admit that you can lose weight with the disastrous and dangerous diet?"

When I started on the lower carb plan and lost a bunch of weight, the blood pressure went down, too.  Not that it was all that high, but like many, over the years it started to inch up, along with my weight.  For a time, I even tried removing the salt from my diet., and had a tough time in the early weeks of lower carb until I added back the salt.  My blood pressure went down immediately, and it has been going down gradually ever since, even though I have been in maintenance for such a long time.

I love n=1'ing, another myth exposed.