This is the eighth week of my attempt to hack my body to reduced blood pressure. With the number 8 top of mind, it’s tempting to head off on a tangent about the ways in which the number 8 represents many layers of complexity and symbolism. It is a wonderful number, whether mathematically or visually (and supported by phenomena from the natural world).  

Rather than going on a Number 8 Road Trip – or a predictable crossroads metaphor drawing on the way that the middle lines of the digit cross over themselves – I find myself more on something of a lay-by. My journey has involuntarily been paused.

I’ve come down with a cold, which rules out the high intensity exercise that I think is making a difference. A bigger issue, though, is that higher blood pressure is a consequence of having a cold. I’ve continued taking daily readings, but they are of limited value because my blood pressure will be elevated this week, possibly regardless of what actions I take.

Given the role of nose versus mouth breathing in reducing blood pressure, I’ve tried to continue breathing through my nose, but congestion has made this difficult.

This interruption gives me the opportunity of returning, as promised, to the subject of wine. Coincidentally, congestion also impacts on one’s ability to discern flavour, so whatever form my current wine drinking takes has also had to be put on pause.

A few weeks ago, I hit bit of a low when contemplating permanent abstinence from wine. I should add that I’ve had no difficulties shedding the everyday style of wine one may drink on a casual Tuesday night while knocking together and eating a simple pasta dinner. Being teetotal for part of the week is no issue at all.

What got to me was the prospect of giving up the wines that exist on a higher plane, those representing something more individual or complex, the products of unique growing conditions and single-minded artistry. What’s also relevant is that wine is a shared activity, so there is also a social component. In my case, the social element takes another dimension, because the sharing of wine knowledge with my adult children (dare I call that education) is also a part of the household’s wine drinking.

It was while I was weighing all this that I listened to Tim Ferriss’ podcast with Cal Fussman. Cal had me laughing out loud many times while telling his story of taking on the multiple world champion boxer, Julio César Chávez.

However, it was his wine story that particularly touched me. He enabled me to get a new perspective on the non-rational, ‘feeling’ basis that makes wine important to me.

Wine is from the world of feeling and sensuousness. Yes, food is its obvious partner, for similar reasons, although I would add music, art, the written word, and others.

Cal’s wine experience was formed because of research for an Esquire magazine piece that ultimately took him ten years to write. I should add that it wasn’t the wine part that made it hard for the words to take shape. Rather, it was his proximity to the attack on the World Trade Center. Wine was interwoven with this, as you’ll find when you read his article (and read it you must, because it is excellent).

Ultimately, it was the describing of a wine, drawing on a musical analogy, that enabled him to eventually start writing the article.

Wine has been a part of my professional and social life for so long that I had come to take it for granted. To some extent, I had lost touch with how it resonated with me, and why.

If I get nothing else from this process, I am grateful for this sense of greater awareness, whether it’s the functioning of my body or the things that are important to me. I think it’s valuable to tune into the meaning that things have in our lives.

I didn’t expect this process to go through a quasi-Buddhist cycle of becoming aware of attachments, in preparation for letting go of them (or certainly being more mindful of their roles in my life), but here we are. Perhaps this place of pause is a kind of inflection point in the octo-crossover, after all.

The etymology of the Turkish word for eight, sekiz (the apparent negation of ‘eki’, the word for two), suggests that its meaning is related to the subtraction of two from a full set of 10 fingers. In this context, eight is forever two short of what is complete, the universally recognised decimal system.

Numbers are supposed to be entirely rational, and yet there is almost something poetic in the etymology of sekiz. Wine is bound by basic parameters of science. If it doesn’t adhere to them, it will be a failed, spoiled liquid. And yet wine is so much more than its measurements of pH or total acidity or alcohol. We are immersed in a world of crossovers between science and ‘feeling’.

Like a wine’s pH, my systolic and diastolic measurements will eventually have an existential impact on my life. If this project hasn’t achieved those goals in four weeks, I’ll be knocking on my GP’s door for the pills.

I can’t say I’d see that as a failure, though.

Cal is a GREAT storyteller, who delivers riveting keynote speeches. One of his superpowers is asking questions that make deep connections. Find out more here.

The Week in Numbers

Sunday
BP: 149/87
Bike: 70 mins, mostly zones 2 and 3 (with a burst in zone 4)

Monday
BP: 161/93

Tuesday
BP: 144/91
Bike: nil

Wednesday
BP: 148/91

Thursday
BP: 152/95
Bike: nil

Friday
BP: 147/92

Saturday
BP: 159/85
Bike: nil

As I’ve discovered over the past weeks, there are several variables that affect blood pressure. I’ve attempted to control for individual potentially causative factors, at the same time as trying to maintain some constants. The first of these is to measure my blood pressure as I wake up every morning, before I’ve ‘got moving’ or consumed any beverages.

I didn’t have this opportunity on Monday. At some point after 4:15, as I was slowly waking up, I heard a loud noise in the roof area, followed by the sound of running water. I dashed out of bed to see if there was already water from the burst geyser pouring down (there wasn’t), and then remembered my blood pressure measurement. This was clearly not going to be an undisturbed reading, but if nothing else I’d get some data on the influence of stressors.

Thanks to this, I can tell you that the blood pressure associated with a burst geyser is 164 over 98. The reading for Monday alongside is therefore one that was taken some time later when the immediate crisis had passed. I pondered some metaphors related to fluids under pressure inside pipes/veins and what happens when things go wrong.

Again, on Friday, there was cause for surprise early morning activity. As I left the bedroom to let the dogs out, at around 5:20, I heard my mother-in-law, Pam, calling my name. In my defence, it was not the call of extreme distress. I returned to the bedroom to get some clothes on, and told Andrea that Pam was calling. She had something at hand to pull over her pyjamas and dashed down the passage.

As things turned out, this was not my finest hour. Seeing as Pam’s unknown, but apparently not urgent, need was being attended to, I stopped to spend 30 seconds taking my blood pressure.

I duly joined Andrea in Pam’s lounge, where she was lying on the floor, having been there since she fell at some point around 22:30 the night before. Not wanting to disturb the household, she hadn’t called out until she heard me something like seven hours later.

What a Trojan. She lay on a cold, hard floor for seven hours with a badly fractured femur, and multiple fractured ribs. I still get the shivers when I think about it (and, yes, I’m embarrassed that I paused to do something totally inconsequential).

She had surgery yesterday to have her femur put back together again. Recovery will be a lengthy and painful process, but Pam is tougher than any of us can imagine. For years, she has also stubbornly refused any suggestions that she do some exercise. Even now, when I raise the possibility of a personal trainer coming to the house for her and my mother, her sole response is, “We’ll hold that one in abeyance.”

All of us have a better shot at improved healthspan if we have a structured exercise programme. For more on this, read what I call The Gospel According to Peter (Outlive, by Peter Attia).

If you have a look at the numbers alongside, Saturday’s BP number is way outside the pattern that has been evolving. I’ll write more on that next week, but it was the known outcome of drinking several bottles (no-one’s counting) of sensational Pinot Noir with friends who have been with us in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.

I was on my bike for all the required sessions this week, including braving cold and wet conditions on Sunday.

I’m taking care to include at least five minutes of high intensity on each occasion. I’m also making a conscious effort to always breath through my nose.

There is something about this process, with its focus on particular physical activities, that is making me feel present in my body in the best possible way. This is a good place to be, even if the catalyst was a major risk factor.

The Week in Numbers

Sunday
BP: 158/82
Bike: 70 mins, evenly distributed, with 21 mins in zone 4

Monday
BP: 150/86

Tuesday
BP: 136/82
Bike: One hour in zone 2/3, with 10 mins in zone 4

Wednesday
BP: 145/81

Thursday
BP: 141/92
Bike: 70 mins on trails, half in zone 4 and the rest mostly in zone 3

Friday
BP: 152/83

Saturday
BP: 159/97
Bike: 90 mins on trails, with 16 mins in zone 4

The two numbers that make up blood pressure – systolic and diastolic – move together, but not necessarily in directly proportional increments. Systolic (when the heart contracts to eject blood) is the top number. Diastolic (when the heart is at rest between contractions) is the bottom number.

This has been the second week of the diastolic number edging towards the magical 80. The systolic number isn’t as regularly heading in the direction of the 130s, but it also hasn’t been doing a bunch of spiking. The movement of the numbers could be described as “crabbing”.

Well, at least there’s movement that feels in some way like progress.

My GP has applied for – and received – medical aid approval for the treatment of my hypertension as a chronic medication benefit. On the one hand, I know that I can call in the heavy artillery at any time. On the other, I am aware of the broom wagon following me, so I’m determined to keep pedalling.

I’ve learned that blood pressure has multiple moving parts. Here are a few correlations I’ve observed:

1. Poor sleep seems to elevate BP.
2. Immoderate consumption of wine (beyond a couple of glasses) elevates BP. Whether this is a function of diminished sleep or too much alcohol, I don’t know.
3. Coffee can cause BP to spike (although I haven’t measured the duration of that).
4. High intensity exercise seems to correlate with reduced BP.

I have not tried to reduce my salt intake, because I seldom add salt to prepared food (other than a pinch on my eggs in the morning).

I’m unable to say whether my consumption of cocoa has had any direct impact, given the other ongoing interventions. However, it’s facilitated the switch from coffee, which appears to have made a difference. Also, there are all kinds of feel-good effects from a high dose of good chocolate (i.e. low sugar and low/no alkalization). I’m keen to take this element to the next level, in due course, by taking part in a cacao ceremony.

I’m getting a second dose of feel-good from being fitter, specifically with increased VO2 max because of doing high intensity sessions. Interestingly, Discovery communicated this week that they will be rewarding members for improved cardio fitness, as measured by VO2 max.

It is to the field of fitness and training that I turn for reassurance in this project. It took many months of training for me to get fit enough to tackle multi-stage endurance events. This project could, similarly, take a few months, and there seem to be measurable gains.

So, while the numbers I’m watching may be crabbing, I’m certainly not crabby!

The Week in Numbers

Sunday
BP: 155/88
Bike: 73 mins in zone 2/3

Monday
BP: 149/88

Tuesday
BP: 155/90
Bike: One hour in zone 2/3, with 6 mins in zone 4

Wednesday
BP: 141/89

Thursday
BP: 154/94
Bike: 4 x 4 mins at 90% of max HR (zone 4)

Friday
BP: 152/81
Bike: One hour, mostly zone 2/3 with 5 mins in zone 4

Saturday
BP: 145/85
Bike: nil (stormy)

I was uncertain whether to title this report “Small Wins” or “In Familiar Territory”, so let’s kick off with my thinking behind the latter option. Doing regular interval training takes me back to the years of training for, and participating in, the Absa Cape Epic.

The foundation is that there is work to be done, and it must be done. Not negotiable. Over the past couple of weeks, this commitment got me out on my bike in truly horrible conditions. All of it is familiar territory that is weirdly comforting. In the column alongside, you’ll see reference to “4 x 4 at 90% of max HR”. The whole thing takes an hour, including warm up and warm down, but the magic happens in the middle section, which comprises four repeats – each lasting four minutes – of riding uphill at 90% (or slightly more) of maximum heart rate. You may think it’s torture, but somehow it isn’t. And it results in a special kind of fitness.

So, even though I’m harbouring a condition that could have potentially dire consequences if left unchecked, I’m feeling amazing.

The ‘small win’ is that on one day in the past week I’ve had a blood pressure reading that was within sniffing distance of 130 over 80. Also, the diastolic number has often been in the 80s.

Coffee has entirely been replaced with cocoa drinks, and wine is off the menu for most of the week. I had a very social evening on Friday, with seemingly inevitable consequential elevated blood pressure on Saturday morning. I should mention that it dropped significantly after relaxing on the couch with my morning cocoa drink.

My blood pressure was also elevated on Sunday morning. For that, I blame a tense Springbok versus Ireland game the evening before (with calming red wine!).

A friend who read last week’s report shared a link to the Netflix documentary, Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut. We clearly have loads to learn about the routes to health.

Blood pressure didn’t feature as one of the conditions being addressed through the gut health of the subjects being followed. Having said that, since switching to cocoa drinks, my gut seems to be telling me that I need to increase the amount of fibre in my diet, if you get my drift.

The next step would be to get the systolic number to head in the same direction as the diastolic. I hope this doesn’t end up being too much like herding cats.

The Week in Numbers

Sunday
BP: 164/93
Bike: 4 x 4 mins at 90% of max HR

Monday
BP: 152/87

Tuesday
BP: 150/90
Bike: One hour in zone 2, with a four-minute sprint

Wednesday
BP: 137/81

Thursday
BP: 153/90
Bike: 4 x 4 mins at 90% of max HR

Friday
BP: 152/84

Saturday
BP: 160/92
Bike: 2:13 on trail, mostly zone 2 and 3

Low expectations are a good starting point. This is kind of the default setting for Stoics, which strikes me as being a generally good life strategy.

I wonder if Stoics suffer from hypertension.

One of the variables that I have needed to address is alcohol, seeing as it was flagged by my GP. So, no wine from Sunday to Wednesday. While I didn’t experience any physical withdrawal, I was certainly triggered when seeing characters sipping glasses of red wine on whatever series I was watching.

From a BP perspective, the week was marked by a higher degree of consistency than previous. However, it was also the highest series of readings since I started this exercise. This was not what I was expecting. I really need to work harder at being a better Stoic.

Disappointed by this outcome, I joined the household in red wine from Thursday to Saturday (although obviously not in a solid multi-day binge!). I’ll give it another go this week. By “it” I mean abstinence.

Seeing as I didn’t get a result from sobriety (if anything, the opposite), I decided to go full metal jacket, by withdrawing coffee from Thursday. This also happened without any physical effects (i.e. no head ache etc).

What made the transition super easy is that I switched coffee for a cocoa drink (two heaped tablespoons mixed with a bit of hot water and a teaspoon of honey, topped with steamed milk from the coffee machine). I can’t say I’ve even craved coffee in this time.

There was no apparent drop in my blood pressure, although it did not increase post-cocoa as it does immediately post-coffee.

These days, no human activity is complete without AI, so I asked both ChatGPT and Perplexity if increased blood pressure could result from withdrawal of either alcohol or coffee. Apparently it is possible.

On the subject of AI, these answers strike me as being a little like the output of astrologers. They all toss such a large range of options into their answers that it’s possible to latch onto any part of it as a confirmation of something one wanted to believe was true.

Exercise was heavily rain affected. I forced myself out for just one interval session on Wednesday afternoon. I wonder if I can apply the Duckworth Lewis method to my week’s cycling?

I donated blood for the first time this week, partly as an experiment to see what it would do to my blood pressure (nothing, it turns out). Other than getting the admin done, as a first time donor, the whole experience was actually very pleasant. I’ll be back.

I have been given a list of natural supplements that could have an impact. One of these is Q10, which is presumably not the spray oil for dealing with squeaky hinges. If it comes down to a choice between a single pill prescribed by my GP, or a handful of capsules comprising lecithin, garlic, krill oil and Q10, I think I may lean in the direction of the single pill.

At the moment it’s looking very much like lifestyle adjustment isn’t the cure.

The Week in Numbers

Sunday
BP: 151/86
Bike: nil

Monday
BP: 153/94

Tuesday
BP: 151/94

Wednesday
BP: 156/94
Bike: 4 x 4 mins at 90% of max HR

Thursday
BP: 154/98
Bike: nil

Friday
BP: 159/92

Saturday
BP: 155/89
Bike: nil

Cacao vs cocoa tripped up my Wordle journey somewhere along the line. The latter, more obvious version, generally springs to mind first. I’m hoping that the former, denoting the natural powder derived from the unprocessed beans, will be a useful addition to my natural anti-hypertension remedies.

At this point I’m unable to draw any conclusions as to the therapeutic benefits of a daily 25g dose of cacao. What I can trumpet is the mood enhancing benefits of having a massive dose of ‘chocolate’ in the morning. Just the flavour is enough for the feel-good factor.

The specific elements that make the difference are the flavonols in unprocessed cacao. These are lost, to an increasing degree, the more the beans are alkalised, or ‘dutched’. This process makes the flavour more gentle, as well as making the cocoa more suitable for use in baking. However, it is possible to buy non-alkalised cacao.

Several studies have been done on the therapeutic benefits of chocolate. In summary, white chocolate is of no benefit and dark chocolate is better than milk.

I decided to go straight to source (i.e. cacao) by mixing roughly 25g with a little hot water, then adding a teaspoon or more of honey, completing the mixture with two tablespoons of plain yoghurt. This is an admittedly full-on hit of intense chocolate, but dark is my preference, so this a very happy space for me.

The specific therapeutic impact on high blood pressure is the resulting increase in nitric oxide.

In a few weeks time, if/when coffee is removed from my diet, this could be turned into an effective hot drink substitute, using milk instead of yoghurt.

My summary of the past week would have to be something along the lines of “I just don’t know”. Due to various factors, I was not able to fit in any intervals this week, but the cycling I did do had a good dose of high effort, not to mention volume.

The highest BP readings of the week were recorded after a night of nine hours’ sleep, which is unheard of for me. Perhaps I was suffering the effects of a long drive the day before, along with general fatigue.

One of the week’s discoveries is that the fatigue that results from over-training can increase blood pressure. Clearly a balance needs to be maintained!

This week’s plan is to do just one session of intervals, with a couple of zone 2 rides when weather permits. Cacao remains on the programme, and wine will be removed. If all the wagging fingers are correct, I’ll see changes within a week, or so.

In the absence of any decrease in my blood pressure this week, I’m looking for anything that can denote a step forward. The daily cacao regime I started has to count as an entirely guilt-free way of having chocolate. I’ll take my wins wherever I can get them!

The Week in Numbers

Sunday
BP: 156/88
Bike: 2:31 on tar, mostly zone 2 with 35% in zone 3

Monday
BP: 145/89

Tuesday
BP: 142/86

Wednesday
BP: 143/91

Thursday
BP: 149/93
Bike: 2:07 on tar and gravel, mostly zone 2, with about 40% shared between zones 3 and 4.

Friday
BP: 148/86

Saturday
BP: 148/86
Bike: 2:32 on tar and trail, roughly half in zone 2, balance shared between zones 3 & 4

The second week of my experiment kicked off with two mornings of lowish blood pressure readings, contributing to an early observation that there appears to be some correlation with high intensity exercise on previous days. Of course, satisfying the requirements for causation will take more investigation.

Regardless of the causality, it was nevertheless a little comforting to see numbers within spitting distance of what’s regarded as being ‘normal’.

In the context of several successive days of the systolic pressure having been under 140, Tuesday’s 153 was somewhat alarming, but I had additional information to parse:
– I had lamb chops for dinner on Monday night, having had fish on the previous three days.
– I had a stressful interaction just before going to bed.
– My sleep was interrupted and almost certainly affected by this.

Having had the leftover lamb chops for dinner the following night, I can probably rule them out as a causative factor. It’s hard to control for stress, so it was useful to have an identifiable instance to work with. At this point I’m agnostic about the role of ambient stress, but if it’s resulting in poor sleep quality, then I’ll certainly be paying more attention to how that can be managed.

Seeing as exercise is central to this phase of my experiment, I should dip into some basics. Since late 2023, most of my cycling has been in zone 2, of which Dr Iñigo San Millán is the most visible proponent. At this level of effort it is still possible (just) to speak in complete sentences, so it’s a relatively easy pace to maintain. The thesis is that this level of exercise builds mitochondria, which burns fat, and on multiple levels is also supportive of high performance. Watch this interview for more detail.

Before heading out for my ride on Sunday, I happened to watch this interview with another cycling coach, Olav Aleksander Bu. While not dismissing zone 2, he calls for greater nuance. He makes the point that one of the great benefits of zone 2 training is that it’s hard to mess up. On other hand, training at higher intensities requires more careful management to ensure it isn’t overdone. If an athlete is going to change the training mid-session, it should be to decrease – not increase – the load.

This is relevant to the state I found myself in on Sunday morning. I could feel that I was fatigued, so my intention was to have a chilled ride on the Missing Link trail. That went out of the window when I joined up with stronger riders as I started the trail (in other words, I broke his rule about upscaling effort mid-session). I managed to hang onto them until slightly beyond halfway, but then I blew. I’d put in so much effort – especially on the back of the week’s higher than usual workload – that my Garmin displayed a recovery time of 43 hours! Usually, this would under 24 hours.

This is why my Tuesday ride was at such a low level of effort. I felt that I needed to treat it as an easy recovery day. Normal service resumed on Thursday, with an interval session. These sessions involve four by four minute efforts, each at 90% of maximum heart rate.

As my schedule has worked out this week, by the end of Monday I would have ridden every day for five consecutive days. It will be interesting to see where this takes me.

The question I’m trying to answer is if there are identifiable lifestyle factors that have a predictable impact on my blood pressure. The ideal outcome is to find the ones that reduce it. At worst, to find the ones to absolutely avoid at all times.

The Week in Numbers

Sunday
BP: 135/78
Bike: 1:53 on trail, mostly zone 3 & 4

Monday
BP: 137/85

Tuesday
BP: 153/86
Bike: 1:10, mostly in zone 1

Wednesday
BP: 143/95

Thursday
BP: 153/90
Bike: 4 x 4 minutes at 90% of max HR, plus warm-up and cool-down

Friday
BP: 136/84
Bike: 00:53, equally split between zones 2 & 3

Saturday
BP: 144/83
Bike: 2:00 on trail, roughly half in zone 2, balance shared between zones 3 & 4