I have got to be more careful.

I have been feeling really crappy the last few days, Sunday being the worst.  I may have gotten an inkling of why this morning.  Or part of why.

 I listen to CBC One in the morning via TV where they carry a lone hour of the show.   The health guy was talking about licorice this morning.  He spoke of a patient who was having headaches and whose blood pressure, despite meds, was out of control.  When asked what he ate or drank or did differently the patient said he had some herbal tea with licorice in it.  The guy was in hospital for two weeks getting things back in order.  The health guy discussed not just licorice, but also green tea and things that are more widely known, like grapefruit, that can be very harmful to people taking certain medications.  

I am not a natural medicine is better for you sort of person.  I am also not a western medicine is the only valid medicine sort of person.  I would lean to natural remedies more often if the people prescribing them were better trained and better regulated in their qualifications.  I would probably trust a person trained in China as a Chinese herbalist for instance.  I would NOT trust what the internet tells me just because it is on a website I like.

As it is, I take medications that helps to make my life.  It makes life not just livable, but I suspect that I would be gone now but for taking it.  

I do think about herbal remedies and how they may affect these meds.  I looked into CBD oil  for general pain and aches and have researched ginger, which I do take and really enjoy.  Mixing natural remedies and western medications has to be very carefully done.  I think about it because I know what I felt like in the time before my meds and I know what I feel like now, which is a lot better.  I really try not to upset the balance. I clearly missed the boat this time.  Green tea which I was aware of and licorice which I was not, are both bad, indeed very bad at small doses, with my meds.  

I have been trying to cut down my coffee consumption.  It too, is not a good companion with my meds.  I have been doing tea every second day, but because caffeine is what I am really trying to avoid by lowering my coffee intake, I have been using my favourite herbal tea of all time, Bengal Spice tea from Celestial Seasonings.  I decided to change things up on Saturday and Sunday and had one cup of coffee and then grabbed other tea in place of my usual Bengal Spice tea.  Unfortunately one of the teas  had a green tea component and the other had licorice root.  I alternated them and probably had four cups of tea on Sunday.  After lunch on Sunday, I really started feeling awful, headaches principally and every day since, I feel as if I am not taking my medications at all.  I went to town yesterday and the rest of the day was a wash.  I slept.  Not just napped slept, I mean.  I slept.  It feels almost like the time before my meds.  

So today, I am having my lone cup of coffee right now and then I am going to have hot water with a squeeze of lemon juice in it for any following hot beverage I have.  (I checked.  A bit of lemon juice ought to be okay.)  And then I am going to call on my doctor to check it all out in case I have done bad stuff to my well being.

There will be a knitting component to the day, though.  That always lowers my blood pressure.  Well, it makes me feel better so bright side, one, dark side one, but I am rooting for the bright side to win.