20221204u-1331-AustinTX
This morning I measured my bp and found it to be slightly elevated at 145/95. Two days ago it had been 165/115 and I decided to take a half pill of Lisinopril 20mg (so 10mg) to see what effect that had. The Lisinopril just happened to be in a multiyear old prescription bottle on my dresser. I haven’t taken bp meds in many years. The 10mg of Lisinopril didn’t lower my bp that night, but in the morning my bp was 135/85, which for me feels quite good as I have rarely measured the classic 120/80 or below, which would likely have me faint if I exercised. In fact, I stopped taking Lisinopril before because it would make me light headed after exercise. That, and I also blamed it for contributing to my tinnitus that developed after I started taking it 10 yrs ago. It seems that the initial 10mg I took 2 days ago is still active a bit in my body. This morning I found the half-pill I bit and bit it again to give myself a 5mg dose. I’m curious to see if this is effective. Lisinopril acts a a diuretic. I’ve been wondering the last two days what else would naturally act as a diuretic.
D is for Aspartic Acid (ASP). Sometimes in sequences it is indistinguishable from Asparagine (ASN) and is given the one letter code B to code for the ambiguous amino acid (ASP/ASN). Aspartic Acid is non-essential in humans and is important in the synthesis of other amino acids, including Isoleucine, Lysine, Methionine, Arginine, and it’s sometimes substituter Asparagine. I happened to have pubchem open on Asparagine (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Asparagine) and was just reading that Asparagine (a beta-amido derivative of Aspartic Acid) is a “nontoxic carrier of residual ammonia to be eliminated from the body” and acts as a diuretic.
A quick google search finds the “duh” vegetable with Asparagine … Asparagus! Webmd says:
Asparagus can increase urine production and is also a good source of dietary fiber, folic acid, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin B6, and several minerals.
People use asparagus for high blood pressure, obesity, kidney stones, constipation, and many other purposes, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses.
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-286/asparagus
An interesting fact about Asparagine:
Asparagine was the first amino acid to be discovered when it was isolated from asparagus nutrition by French chemists Louis Nicolas Vauquelin and Pierre Jean Robiquet in 1806.
https://draxe.com/nutrition/essential-amino-acids/
While I can’t find any information on Aspartic Acid’s role as a diuretic, it seems as a precursor to Asparagine, it would be important as well. When I learned the amino acids with a song I wrote, I referred to Aspartic Acid by it’s conjugate base form Aspartate because it rhymed better 🙂 I’ll use Aspartate and Glutamate for the rest of this post.
Aspartate is encoded by the codons GAC and GAU. The other two codons beginning with GA (GAA and GAG) encode Glutamate, which is structurally and chemically similar to Aspartate. The Aspartate codons GAC and GAU are also a single mutation of the first nucleotide (G to A) to codons AAC and AAU which encode previously mentioned Asparagine, which is often substituted for Aspartate.
Aspartate and Glutamate are both neurotransmitters that stimulate NMDA receptors.
Aspartate, along with Phenylalanine, are used in the sweetener aspartame.
Food sources of Aspartate are asparagus, avocado, molasses, sausage meat, oysters, and wild game. I have an avocado in the fridge that needs to be eaten. I wonder what it taste like with molasses… pretty good!
surfing the universe 