High blood pressure/hypertension

[USVirgin]

So unkind...

 

Whoa...coming from you?

 

I know SD has a 'thick face', as they might say in the PI, but no one has taken more abuse here than you have. Maybe I'd better cool my jets.

 

You must be a very nice fellow at heart, TB.

[Torneyboy]

You are to kind

[USVirgin]

Aw fuck, then while I'm at it I might as well tell you that you're a prolific poster.

[Torneyboy]

Aw thanks

[panadolsandwich]

I bought an electronic blood pressure device once when I failed a medical. I'm 33 and I was nervous about the job. The fuckers put me through six weeks of tests, about 12 vials of blood, including collecting all my piss for two days, then ferrying it to their laboratory.

 

Turned out no problem at all. White coat hypertension. Healthy as an Ox.

 

I kept the machine, and I often drink much more then the Surgeon General might recommend. I measure my blood pressure and it is always textbook, even gives me a pulse, which compares on thier accompanying book manual for a highly training athlete.

 

Now sometimes I kick the fucking thing around the living room. I despise it...

[cardinalblue]

I think it is more important to focus on what is abnormal than the normal.

 

Recent studies suggest that the goal of 120/80 doesn't mean one is heart disease free. Case by case is the better way to go...

 

I do like BMI as a guide for weight management. But it all gets down to diet, exercise, stress management, and a clean lifestyle (ample sleep, no drugs or cigarettes, moderate calif red wine) to improve one chances of diesese prevention.

 

But isn't it so easier though to take the low road instead with built-in excuses?

 

CB

[keith doug]

dont forget!! when your at a doctors or hospital ones blood pressure does increase a bit due to anxiety!!

[Heim_Hung]

CDN,

 

I used to have hypertension, my reading was 148/115! I had frequent headaches and heart palpitations! The last straw was after Lasik Surgery, my doctor wouldn't discharge me because of my hypertension. I did see my Cardiologist and initally he wanted to put me on medication but I told him to give me 3 months to lower it myself or I will take the antihypertensive medications as prescribed! I didn't want to take antihypertension medication because of ED problems! I'm 5' 10" tall and weigh 192 pounds. So I started to exercise more at 24 Hr Fitness, reduce salt intake, watch my diet and lose weight. After three months, my weight reduced from 192 to 178 and increase gym workout to 6 days a week and working out 2 - 2.5 hours a day! I do eat meat and fish occasionally but mostly consume cereals, nuts, vegetables, fruits and protein powder. Also, I completely eliminated softdrinks, candies and dessert from my diet! It was hard but I didn't want to take medications for rest of my life. So everyone, you can also reduce your blood pressure naturally by losing weight, increasing exercise, reduce salt intake and watching what you eat! Good Luck!

 

Oh, my current weight is 180 pounds but I still have normal blood pressure because of becoming a gym rat and diet. Also, I stopped drinking coffee!

[CDN]

An update:

 

All this started because I measured my BP on a machine in the lobby of a hospital I frequently visit for work. I made sure that my sleeve was rolled up properly and to sit in the correct position.

 

The reading the machine gave me was shockingly high. I took another measurement right after taking the first measurement (a mistake, I was later told by an MD friend of mine, for I had not allowed my body enough time to go back to a baseline state between readings), and it, too, was shockingly high.

 

Armed with the BP machine's little printouts, I checked the Internet later that night to see what a BP reading of 190/140 really meant. Needless to say, I was floored.

 

The next day I called up my MD friend and asked him for to interpret the numbers. He told me that I'd best get to the hospital and get a proper check-up, for a topside BP reading of 200+ could mean a stroke, and I was dangerously close to that threshold.

 

Anyway, I got checked out. Turns out the machine was not reading my BP correctly. At the GP's office a nurse measured my BP, then the GP herself measured my BP, and because the two numbers were so radically off, my MD friend measured my BP two more times over a span of 20 minutes and finally got what he thinks is a more accurate reading (he's a cardiac surgeon, so his expertise trumps the nurse's and the GP's).

 

After my bloodwork was done and we'd discussed lifestyle, diet, and booze, the GP gave me this advice: Begin losing weight ASAP to lower your BP and to extend your lifespan If you don't slim down you're gonna die early, so here's an appetite suppressant to take for a short time only while you begin dropping kilos and commit to making lifestyle changes. Start keeping a food log and cut back on the f*ing booze!

[Mentors]

stop smoking helps to reduce the blood pressure too. The effect starts after about 10 days. :thumbup: