[AnnieBL]

Has any one any observations on the possible effect of PM on blood pressure? Having had a long but recently almost too successful campaign to achieve reduced levels of BP, I monitor it fairly assiduously. Since I restarted PM 20 weeks ago, I have observed somewhat increased blood pressure levels (although still within the most recent guidelines set by my cardiologist). I have been varying PM dosage on a four week cycle but have not been able to identify any consistently correlated variation in my blood pressure levels. I have found that my weight has trended upwardly since I restarted PM at a rate greater than can be accounted for solely by slippage in my diet. My tentative conclusion is that PM results in increased water retention (hence the increase in weight), and that this results in an increase in blood volume that modestly increases BP. We do have one of those body composition indicating weighing machines, but its water and fat content readings are so erratic that they are not much help. Any significant increase in indicated water content is accompanied by a much larger and more improbable decrease in indicated body fat percentage! The BP increase isn't big enough to be of concern, but I am curious as to whether this is known effect of PM.