The good news

Over a period of four months on the supplement program I had designed for myself, my salivary testosterone rose from 23 pg/ml to 44 pg/ml. Now my testosterone is well within the normal range, especially for my age group.

The bad news

Despite the rise in testosterone, I wasn’t able to measure an appreciable dip in blood pressure. Nor did I notice any other specific beneficial health effects.

Nonetheless, in order to maintain the health gains I’ve achieved, I plan to continue with some aspects of my testosterone nutritional support protocol, and retest my system every few months. But to address blood pressure, I had to shift focus.

Back to the drawing board – gluten

My next plan was to explore if I had a gluten sensitivity issue. I never thought that I had a problem with wheat, but I’m aware that food sensitivities can have subtle effects that aren’t readily apparent. There are blood tests to determine if you’re sensitive to gluten, but there’s an alternative. I chose to follow a gluten-free diet for a period of two weeks to see if it would make a difference.

It didn’t. I needed yet another round of fresh ideas.

Back to the drawing board yet again – liver support

I remembered that a number of years back I had followed a three-week detox program, during which my blood pressure had dropped considerably.

I examined the details of the detox protocol to see which elements could have contributed to lowering blood pressure. One of the elements of the detox was “liver support,” which included supplemental digestive enzymes and therapeutic herbs that are thought to enhance liver function, including tinospora, boerhavia, eclipta, andrographis, picrorhiza, and barberry.

So, still with confidence I could find the path my body needed to improve its self-regulation, I went back to these elements of the detox program.