Wednesday 13 October 2021

The Wringer

Blood pressure medication, which I take on a daily basis, is essentially a diuretic and wrings water out of you - people with high blood pressure and taking medication are notorious for the number of times they need to pee. Essentially the medication fools the body into thinking it's carrying too much water and causes it to be excreted to reduce the blood volume and thus reduce its pressure. The result, however, is increased pressure on the bladder.


Due to a very busy weekend, I didn't take any meds on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Prior to Friday, I'd been measuring my weight on an almost daily basis to gauge the effect of my exercise regime and had been a steady 85kg for about 3 days. 

On Monday, after skipping 3 days of medication, I discovered I'd shot up by 3kg since Friday morning and the inescapable conclusion was that I'd retained 3kg of water over those 3 days, as there's no way I could have put on 3kg of fat, despite a Chinese meal on the Saturday evening. I did feel rather bloated and breathless while we were away and the water retention must have been responsible..

I took my meds on Monday and, surprise surprise, by Tuesday morning, I was weighing in at just a tad under 85kg again. I spent all day Monday running to the loo every half hour or so...


No comments: