Can IBS Cause High Blood Pressure?




I took my blood pressure the other day. (The Princess had bought a new self-measuring device which I was testing.)

To my horror I found that my blood pressure was dangerously raised.

I couldn't understand why.

I'm not overweight. I don't smoke. I don't eat a lot of fatty food. I take gentle exercise.

And then I had a thought.

I had a lot of intestinal wind at the time (as I have explained previously, I suffer from that much underestimated problem Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and I wondered if the wind could be pressing upon arteries around my kidneys and elsewhere and forcing up my blood pressure. (On a previous occasion, wind in my intestines caused kidney bleeding which nearly led to my having a kidney ripped out.)

So I tried a simple experiment.

I sat up very straight and wriggled around to change position.

I then took my blood pressure again.

It was normal.

The medical profession won't accept this association, of course. It's far too simple.

But I now believe, quite firmly, that intestinal wind can cause high blood pressure.

If I hadn't wriggled around, changed my position and proved the link to my satisfaction I might now be taking potentially dangerous blood pressure medication.


Copyright Vernon Coleman August 2011

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