Hi, Traveler!
I'm having trouble figuring out the correct way to quote you, but I'm interested in your statement here:
"Then at the end of the week a problem arose: My blood pressure rose, I don't know how much exactly but I can definitely feel it in my head. It isn't giving me a headache (I seem to be invulnerable to that) but I can feel an unpleasant pressure on my eyes and when I take a bow, the pressure in my head is building up immensely.
I'm thinking towards the idea that Silene Capensis is a MAO Inhibitor.
This seems to be supported by the fact that the blood pressure was rising after eating pepperoni, a food source containing large amounts of tyramine and after drinking lots of coffee."
Here's the Wikipedia entry that describes the active compnent of SC, triterpenoid saponins:
en.wikipedia.org
"Triterpenes are assembled from a C5 isoprene unit through the cytosolic mevalonate pathway to make a C30 compound and are steroidal in nature."
I have a sort of a steroid sensitivity that leads to very high blood pressure, so I'm very interested in your theory. I'm evidently sensitive to aldosterone, or something my body thinks is aldosterone. That's a mineralocorticoid the body produces to make us retain salt. If we have too much of it and retain too much sodium--abundantly found in pepperoni--we develop hypervolemia (too much fluid in the blood), which leads to extremely high blood pressure. With high blood pressure we may not notice many symptoms, but some with aldosteronism complain of hearing their pulses in their ears, excessive thirst, a pounding pulse throughout the body, slight constipation as the gut reabsorbs water in response to increased sodium retention, etc.
One thing we who are sensitive to aldosterone have to watch for is anything that tastes like licorice. My kidney doctor has warned me about this. Here's why:
perhaps the glycyrrhizinic acids present in licorice are chemically similar/part of a reaction with the active glycocides found in SC? I'm not enough of a chemist to say yes or no, but I'm enough of a hypertension patient to be cautious. Licorice, or other herbs that taste like it, have a sweet flavor, explained by their molecular composition:
". . .saponin glycosides which refers to the attachment of various sugar molecules to the triterpene unit. . ."
When I had full-fledged untreated "pseudohyeraldosteronism," I had the same symptoms you did
on consistent SC use. One other thing--I often had vivid lucid dreams. Just about all the time. I am now taking an aldosterone blocker, which might be the cause of my lack of lucid dreams.
But if SC can make a permanent change, I won't have to take dangerous doses over time. I can stop taking it and still have benefits. That's what interests me about it. I'd love to have your thoughts.
Best,
OneofTwo
I'm having trouble figuring out the correct way to quote you, but I'm interested in your statement here:
"Then at the end of the week a problem arose: My blood pressure rose, I don't know how much exactly but I can definitely feel it in my head. It isn't giving me a headache (I seem to be invulnerable to that) but I can feel an unpleasant pressure on my eyes and when I take a bow, the pressure in my head is building up immensely.
I'm thinking towards the idea that Silene Capensis is a MAO Inhibitor.
This seems to be supported by the fact that the blood pressure was rising after eating pepperoni, a food source containing large amounts of tyramine and after drinking lots of coffee."
Here's the Wikipedia entry that describes the active compnent of SC, triterpenoid saponins:
Saponin - Wikipedia
"Triterpenes are assembled from a C5 isoprene unit through the cytosolic mevalonate pathway to make a C30 compound and are steroidal in nature."
I have a sort of a steroid sensitivity that leads to very high blood pressure, so I'm very interested in your theory. I'm evidently sensitive to aldosterone, or something my body thinks is aldosterone. That's a mineralocorticoid the body produces to make us retain salt. If we have too much of it and retain too much sodium--abundantly found in pepperoni--we develop hypervolemia (too much fluid in the blood), which leads to extremely high blood pressure. With high blood pressure we may not notice many symptoms, but some with aldosteronism complain of hearing their pulses in their ears, excessive thirst, a pounding pulse throughout the body, slight constipation as the gut reabsorbs water in response to increased sodium retention, etc.
One thing we who are sensitive to aldosterone have to watch for is anything that tastes like licorice. My kidney doctor has warned me about this. Here's why:
perhaps the glycyrrhizinic acids present in licorice are chemically similar/part of a reaction with the active glycocides found in SC? I'm not enough of a chemist to say yes or no, but I'm enough of a hypertension patient to be cautious. Licorice, or other herbs that taste like it, have a sweet flavor, explained by their molecular composition:
". . .saponin glycosides which refers to the attachment of various sugar molecules to the triterpene unit. . ."
When I had full-fledged untreated "pseudohyeraldosteronism," I had the same symptoms you did
on consistent SC use. One other thing--I often had vivid lucid dreams. Just about all the time. I am now taking an aldosterone blocker, which might be the cause of my lack of lucid dreams.
But if SC can make a permanent change, I won't have to take dangerous doses over time. I can stop taking it and still have benefits. That's what interests me about it. I'd love to have your thoughts.
Best,
OneofTwo
