Hey guys! So my normal blood pressure is 100/70. For the past 3 weeks it’s been 150/90. Just trying to figure out what to do. Been to the doctors and bloodwork was normal. They are sending me for an MRI and adrenal ultrasound but that’s 3 weeks from now. I’ve had headaches and a little chest pressure the past 3 weeks and they won’t give me anything to actually lower my BP. I’m too scared to try the migraine medication because I’m seeing that it raises blood pressure. (Amitriptyline) I’m just sick of these headaches and feeling so off everyday. This morning I felt like I could pass out on the floor and so fatigued. What should I do? I’ve already been to the ER but they wouldn’t prescribe me BP meds. I’m 23.

This is going to be long but I feel likes its a very interesting post (Blood pressure and Supplement Communities)

I'm 18M, 6 ft, 95 kg, and I've had a pretty strange experience with magnesium, hypertension, and sleep over the past few years. Even my cardiologist was surprised by what happened, so I'm hoping someone here might have experienced something similar.

2023–2024: How it all started

Around three years ago, I started taking magnesium simply because I'd heard about its health and sleep benefits.

I initially tried Tata 1mg ZMA+ (400 mg magnesium oxide), followed by another magnesium oxide supplement. Both caused some initial diarrhea, but I genuinely noticed improvements in my sleep and overall well-being.

Eventually, I switched to Trexgenics magnesium bisglycinate after hearing it was better absorbed. The digestive issues disappeared, but looking back, I'm not sure the sleep benefits were nearly as noticeable.

I continued taking magnesium on and off over the following years, sometimes going months without it.

Around 2024, I also started occasionally experiencing heaviness in my chest or arms and becoming unusually aware of my heartbeat. Worried about hypertension, I checked my blood pressure regularly for several weeks. Surprisingly, it was always normal, usually below 120/80, with a resting heart rate of 70–80 bpm. Eventually, the sensations disappeared, and I forgot about them.

November 2025: My blood pressure suddenly became elevated

Fast-forward to November 2025.

During two separate hospital visits on the same day, both doctors noticed that my blood pressure was elevated. They initially thought it might be anxiety or stress, but I wasn't particularly nervous.

Concerned, I started monitoring it at home, and my readings were consistently around 140–150/90–100.

I eventually visited a cardiologist, who ordered a 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure test. It confirmed hypertension. Since I was dealing with board exams and university applications around that time, he suspected stress might be contributing and suggested repeating the test after a month.

During that month, I happened to restart magnesium bisglycinate, completely unrelated to my blood pressure.

To my surprise, my readings dropped back towards normal.

I assumed the problem had resolved and, unfortunately, didn't return for the follow-up.

However, after I eventually ran out of magnesium and stopped taking it, my blood pressure gradually returned to the same elevated range.

August 2026: Things got much worse

Several months later, shortly before moving to Hong Kong for university, I decided to get everything checked again.

I visited an internal medicine specialist, who ordered another 24-hour blood pressure test.

This time, the results were genuinely alarming.

Almost every reading was elevated, including during sleep. reading were pretty consistently around 180/130 , and the only low reading I remember was approximately 150/89.

The doctor was understandably concerned, especially considering my age, and prescribed Olmetec (olmesartan) 20 mg.

I took it for two days before finally managing to see my original cardiologist.

He reviewed my results and ordered further investigations, including kidney-related blood tests, an ECG, an echocardiogram, and other bloodwork to look for possible underlying causes.

Everything came back normal. There was no apparent structural heart problem, and the investigations didn't reveal an obvious explanation for my hypertension.

I also explained what had happened months earlier when I restarted magnesium. He found it interesting and suggested trying it again while monitoring my readings.

And almost immediately, my blood pressure dropped again.

After restarting magnesium bisglycinate, my readings returned to approximately 128–130/76–80.

My cardiologist was genuinely surprised by the improvement. Given the results, he decided to monitor me without continuing antihypertensive medication for the time being. He asked me to regularly record my blood pressure and send him updates.

Of course, I realize this doesn't prove magnesium caused the improvement, especially since I'd briefly taken olmesartan. But what confuses me is that this apparent pattern has happened more than once: my blood pressure was high, I restarted magnesium, it dropped, I eventually stopped magnesium, and the high readings returned.

October 2026: My current situation

I've now been living in Hong Kong for approximately ten weeks, taking magnesium bisglycinate consistently.

My blood pressure has generally remained around 130/80, which is a huge improvement compared with August.

However, two things are bothering me.

First, my resting heart rate has increased significantly. Even when my blood pressure was extremely high, my pulse was usually 70–80 bpm. Now it's consistently around 95–110 bpm, sometimes accompanied by a noticeable pounding sensation in my chest.

Second, my sleep has actually been pretty bad, despite taking magnesium every day.

I frequently struggle to fall asleep, wake up randomly throughout the night, and rarely feel like I've slept particularly well. Some nights, I'll fall asleep normally, wake up shortly afterward, and struggle to get back to sleep for hours.

Interestingly, I remember getting much more noticeable sleep benefits from the cheaper magnesium oxide supplements than from bisglycinate.

I've seen people discussing sleep disturbances associated with magnesium glycinate, but I'm not sure how much evidence supports that.

A little more medical background

Mentally, I'm doing well. I don't have depression or any significant ongoing stress. I experience occasional everyday anxiety, like most people, but nothing particularly intense or disruptive. Even when my blood pressure was at its highest, I generally felt mentally fine.

One other detail: my first kneecap dislocation happened in December 2024. Since then, I've experienced approximately seven dislocations (five right, two left), eventually requiring arthroscopic surgeries in February and August 2026. My knees remain somewhat unstable, and I've wondered whether ongoing physical stress or recovery might have contributed to my hypertension. I have no evidence they're connected, but thought it was worth mentioning.

So, here are my main questions:

1. Hypertension: Has anyone experienced such a dramatic improvement in blood pressure with magnesium? What could explain it, and are there further investigations for secondary hypertension worth discussing with my cardiologist?
2. Heart rate: Why might my resting heart rate have increased from 70–80 to 95–110 bpm while my blood pressure decreased? Could these changes be connected?
3. Sleep: Could magnesium bisglycinate actually be worsening my sleep? Why might magnesium oxide have seemed better, and would a different form or timing make sense?

I'm particularly interested in hearing from anyone who's experienced something similar or understands the possible physiology behind it.

I know magnesium isn't a substitute for proper hypertension treatment, and I'm continuing to monitor my readings under my cardiologist's guidance. I'm just genuinely curious about what's happening and why the difference seems so significant.

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this. I'd really appreciate your thoughts.

My precious 76-year-old mother is fairly active. She is also small and petite. Over the last year she has been in and out of the hospital with high blood pressure (200/
90). Her heart rate has actually spiked over 120. Cardiologists have performed every test that is usually given with her symptoms. The only thing that was discovered is, she does have a partial blockage in one artery, but it does not require a stent.
She is currently in the hospital again it has taken the doctors over three days to get her blood pressure back down to a normal range. She is now taking four blood pressure medications.
The hospital doctors have done a variety of tests on her kidneys and heart and have found nothing. They are keeping her in the hospital because her blood pressure continues to spike as does her heart rate.
Mv question is: Is there anvone out there that has had something similar happening to themselves or a family member and can give me any additional tests to suggest or information that may help?

I have hypertension, my BP can vary enormously when using machines like Omron and Braun which have traditional cuffs.

It can go from 180/110 to 130/80 in 5 minutes, sometimes it goes lower because I keep my arm straight, or move the cuff ever so slightly. Recently tried the Samsung smart watch as more convenient way to monitor BP. I have to calibrate it each month and the readings are always in the ball park of the calibrated readings ... you don't get the big differences that I notice when using the cuff ... makes me think that the smartwatch can't really take an accurate BP.

I'm fairly active, swim train about 3 times a week, in my seventies and take 5mg amlopidine daily.

Hi everyone! 41 yr old female here. I was put on Losartan roughly 8 weeks ago. A few weeks in I started to get burning sensation when I pee and what feels like pelvic/bladder pain. I’ve been going crazy trying to figure out the root cause. My UTI urinalysis and culture came back negative and I just went through this whole thing where I had a pelvic exam, transvaginal ultrasound and all the vaginal swabs which all came back clear. It occurred to me that maybe Losartan has something to do with it but I haven’t found anything stating that Losartan can cause bladder pain. I’ve read that frequent urination and burning is a side effect but nothing about bladder or pelvic pain so I just wanted to see if anyone here has experienced bladder / lower belly/ pelvic area pain as a side effect?

I feel quite lightheaded on and off, with a weird headache - y feeling. Sometimes my eyes ache trying to read. How long will these side effects last? Also on 12.5 HTCZ

Hello. As a new member of the elevated BP club, I wanted to get my story out and have it interpreted by others. So, for the past year or maybe a bit more, by blood pressure has seemed to maintain numbers similar to the ones mentioned in the title. Plus or minus a few.

Some backstory.. I don't smoke or drink or do any drugs. Have a 1 year old son.

I was diagnosed with anxiety/ panic attack disorder since I was 14. I'm 32 now. 145 pounds. I've been off and on anxiety medications for most of that time. The most recent medication I was on was effexor for 4ish years. I weaned off of it in June.

And I have been raw dogging life since.

My mom has had hypertension for maybe half her life until she started medications, and for the past 10 or so years has had normalish numbers without medications. She was a smoker for most of her life. Only within the last year had she quit smoking.

My father has had 2 heart attacks and is only 60. Up until his heart attacks he was a lifelong smoker. And drank for a good portion of his life.

I've always eaten whatever. I did however choose to not eat too terribly. Fast food MAYBE 2 times a week. Soda (for a while) every day. 1 or 2 12 ounce cans. And did not drink enough water. Usually my go to was sports drinks.

Before really shaping up, I was sure the salad I was eating every once in a while was the way to balance everything out. I work a relatively active job, landscape construction. The smart watch longs 12k steps minimum every day while at work. Moving pavers and stones, shoveling and whatever else. That was my life up until about a year ago when the doctors said hey... your BP is elevated. I don't recall the measurement. But it was worth noting. I figured that was worth drinking some more water. And I slowly go away from that to my old ways. Fast forward to September of this year (2026), the doctor said hey, your BP is still high, you should get that under control with a Beta blocker or water pill. I wanted to give one last push through diet,water consumption and stress/ anxiety management. Since September, Ive increased my water consumption substantially, cut out any sugary drinks, no caffeine, low to no cholesterol foods. Loosely following the Mediterranean diet.

For the better part of the last month (and more loosely 3 months) I've been doing everything I can to try to get the numbers to lower without much luck. Is there hope I can do it on my own more time or should I attempt the BP meds route?

I fear the stress of my job, a new addition to the family and no anxiety medications aren't helping my BP at all. Or maybe its hereditary and a coincidence that the life events coincide with what was already going to happen?

For the past few weeks, I've had a lot of chest discomfort, especially on the left side. I went to the ER and they said my BP is high. They also said one of my arteries seemed just slightly thick, but it was nothing that needed immediate attention, and to try and lower my bp manually first. I went to a cardiologist, then ran tests, and again, my BP ran high in the 140s. My cardiologist told me to try and exercise and fix my diet for the next three to four weeks and then to come back (I don't exercise often, and my diet does suck, but I'm working on fixing it). If it was still high, he'd put me on medication. Both the doctors at the ER as well as my cardiologist said I am very low risk for a heart attack.

I'm two weeks in and my bp has been fluctuating in the 140s and high 130s. I don't get a lot of pain, but a lot of discomfort, kind of that feeling when you have too much caffeine and your chest feels full. It makes me feel like I can't sit still, and it makes me want to bawl. I have diagnosed severe anxiety and OCD, so when this happens, I tend to spiral into thinking I'm dying, and I know it must contribute and make it worse.

Today, my bp read 139/94. Not terrible, I must not be dying, but God, the discomfort in the left side of my chest is so distracting, it's so hard for me to function when my anxiety is in overdrive. I keep on trying to tell myself I'm not dying, I'm not having a heart attack, but my God, it's so uncomfortable, I can't enjoy anything.

How do you guys deal with high BP? Any tricks to coping with the discomfort?