7 weeks ago I went from a sedentary omnivore (near carnivore) to 100% vegan exercising daily. I do see improvements in many areas but I’m surprised my blood pressure seems to have remained the same.
I’m guessing the main suggestion will be to “talk to your doctor”, which I will, but they’ll probably just tell me to continue taking my pills (which I am) or up my dose! My goal is to get off this chronic pill merry-go-round!
Thoughts?
If you talk to your doctor here, in Russia, and tell him that you've gone vegan for health reasons, he will just say that you're crazy and you will die of malnutrition. Doctors aren't the same everywhere, and i've met a lot of understanding and educated ones too, but my only advise would be: continue to do your thing, stick to a whole-food plant-based vegan diet, and you'll see the improvements gradually. The key word is "gradually". Just don't get desperate because your blood pressure isn't improving too quickly,- because as a rule, it's among the last things that you'll feel, and you'll have to be patient. The diet has to be ultimately whole-food plant-based to give you any positive results in the nearest future. Perhaps, even you are not 100% aware of how damaged (or not) your arteries are (no one can be sure about the extent of the damage of their own arteries). The only thing i know is that your blood pressure normalization will take more time than it'll take for another improvements to reveal themselves.
I can only speak for myself, and 18 yrs ago, i went vegan for this exact purpose (the same as yours): my blood pressure was horrible and it was bothering me a lot (tbh, i was scared to death, because i was a 19y.o. female teen with the blood pressure of an old fat guy, presumably). After i adopted a vegan diet, it came back to normal, but surprisingly, my family anamnesis (which is fairly awful) is taking its toll on me, and i have to be more strict than other vegans to maintain normal blood pressure throughout my life. For example, any oil is very harmful for me (its malicious influence includes increase of blood pressure), therefore it's totally prohibited. Also, when i eat less raw veggies and more cooked food, problems begin once again.
Also, i'm not asking you if you're taking any vitamins and medicines, but i have to touch this issue at least. Pls, just keep in mind that there are a lot of common medicines that can raise blood pressure. I'll give my own examples again: vitamin B1, which seems to be benign, causes undesirable reactions in me when taken excessively (from any sourses besides food). Iodine is the one that you shouldn't overdo with either (i experienced high blood pressure after small 100mcg pills once a day, and this thing is real, i mean, i'm not the only one). In both cases i mean artificial sources of these vitamins. They both make my blood pressure go through the roof (and they can hide in multivitamins, so pls be very careful). Btw, what about B1,- my neurologist confirmed the possibility of developing this condition after B1 consumption, though in my case, those were injections of B1). In general, multivitamins is not a very good idea. You may be lacking of some element and be already overdosed with another one, so by taking multivitamins you'll probably do yourself harm. E.g. such vitamins as artificial vit.A and vit.C can cause a severe poisoning (i encountered an artificial vit.C poisoning once, and that was not fun!)
There are a lot of other "benign" medicines (like cough syrup) that can cause severe reactions, if they contain guaifenesin! (When i was little, i had no bad reactions to guafenesin, and could take Ascoryl syrup any time, but a year ago i developed such a bad reaction and my blood pressure raised so terribly high, that i thought i would have died). There is another one thing that shouldn't be taken under any circumstances: it's Cytoflavin! (Vile stuff. It will make your head explode).
So, the summary of my message is this: be patient, follow whole-food plant-based diet, no oil, minimum substitutes, no multivitamins (at least temporarily), and, of course, try and find a reliable brand of B12 pills (it's better to be methylcobalamin). I guess you know about this whole B12 thing.
P.S. don't take iron (ferrum) pills unless you have severe anemia,- this kind of iron (in pills as well as in meat) will damage your brain vessels (that's what happens to some meat-eaters who get too much iron from their food, and this exactly what happened to my co-worker, no kiddin',- her arteries were like rusty pipes, she got stroke, and she's not working now). So instead, get non-heme iron from vegan sources and eat it with products high in vit.C simultaneously. I believe, you'll be ok.
Regards, Ungh-shu.