High Blood Pressure

[Psychler]

About 4 weeks ago I went to my Doc with a bout of sinusitus.  As I was there I asked her to check my blood pressure and it was sky high - 174/114.  It has been quite high for some years but never this high. 

She sent me off for blood tests and I saw her again yesterday.  The tests had come back with no problems and my cholesterol at 4.3, which considering that it was about 8 point something some years back I was pretty pleased with.  However, my bp was still high at 160/104.  Both my parents had high blood pressure.

The Doc wanted to put me straight onto pills but has given me 6 weeks to get the bp down by "lifestyle" changes.  This means losing at least a stone, cutting out salt from my diet, more excercise, eating healthily but obviously there are no guarantees of any of these changes working.

The Doc talkied about increasing my intake of potassium as this counteracts the effects of sodium and also instead of my "5 a day" [actually more like "5 a week" at the moment] I should aim for "7 to 9 a day".

Any of you healthy bods got any ideas for me?? 

[Maladict]

Bananas are a source of potassium.

Exercise should help.  Losing weight should help.  IMHO, Lifestyle changes are a better solution than pills, if it works.

[Wowbagger]

Losing weight, certainly.

I'm very fortunate. For someone who has been overweight all my life, my BP stays reassuringly normal. 120 / 70 last week, but I have lost a little over a stone this year and it has been noticeable that my BP has come down too.

By contrast, my super-fit skinny brother, who at a shade under 6' has never been over 12 stone in his life, has high BP. His resting pulse rate is below 50, though, so beta blockers (I don't personally know what a beta is, or how you block it) are not prescribed for him.

[hellymedic]

In an over-simplified nutshell: Adrenaline receptors include alpha and beta.
Beta blockers block adrenergic beta receptors, stimulation of which raises heart rate and blood pressure.

[nuttycyclist]

Does that mean that Apple iTunes stimulates my adrenergic beta receptor?   

I'm about to throw the computer out of the window, and think my blood pressure is high enough to support the roof should the council building regulations bloke come round and take all my walls away.

[Marmitegeoff]

Had similar problems and was put on to diuretics to lower bp they gave me headaches  sever hangover type that would not shift, and constipation OH G!!       

I bought a meter and found that my bp was well down for several days after a 200km bike ride ( I normally do 200km)  and so I always booke my bp sessions on the Tuesday after an audax week end.  on the first day it is up a bit more but then well down.  I am now off all pills and take bp 1 or 2 times per week so that I can take a print out up to the nurse on my now annual bp visit.

Geoff

[Maladict]

Mine has crept up a bit - was 140/90 at doc's in December when I was stressed and not cycling much.

Cue points chasing audax madness, and it's down and they're happy again.

In fact I measured it at home and got as low as 120/70 or so; white coat hypertension was part of it I think.