High Blood pressure Anyone?

fixitguy · #1 12/01/14, 03:54 PM

My blood pressure has always been high, but manageable.
Well, about a month ago, I woke up with a nice lil headache. I got some meds, and took them for three days.
Last night she jumped again, Now I will be taking them everyday. No more playing around with this stuff, I'm only 42

Question, Is there anything I can do to help the situation out?

1. I don't smoke
2. Don't do fast food much
3. No added salt on food.

I do drink to much beer, and stress out on things (I'm self employed)

Rustaholic · #2 12/01/14, 04:07 PM

Mine was way too high and had the doctor and nurses all alarmed because I wouldn't take any meds.
Instead I just dropped the extra 60 pounds and my blood pressure is just fine.

mekasmom · #3 12/01/14, 04:33 PM

Have you been tested for sleep apnea?

fixitguy · #4 12/01/14, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rustaholic

Mine was way too high and had the doctor and nurses all alarmed because I wouldn't take any meds.
Instead I just dropped the extra 60 pounds and my blood pressure is just fine.

I should add, I'm 5'9, and 155. So the over weight shouldn't be a factor. Back in 07' I had a DOT card, only good for one year because of the BP

Quote:

Originally Posted by mekasmom

Have you been tested for sleep apnea?

No, That's we you quit breathing right?

mekasmom · #5 12/01/14, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fixitguy

No, That's we you quit breathing right?

Yes. Hypertension that appears for "no" reason is usually caused by either a narrow renal artery or sleep apnea. Apnea is just more common. They can check renal arteries with an echo just like a snonogram only of your kidney arteries.

Chixarecute · #6 12/01/14, 05:50 PM

Dh has high BP, and it did take several tries with different BP drugs to knock it back. He also has sleep apnea, and can wear a mask without any problem, but won't pursue that option. He does get some relief from the apnea with the nasl/no snore strips (we think his apnea is due to chronic congestion/food intolerances.)

He is also a type A personality, and it sounds like you might be one too, fixitguy. I'm glad you're going to monitor your BP and take your prescriptions. High BP really is a ticking time bomb.

Jlynnp · #7 12/01/14, 05:51 PM

My blood pressure has been so high the Docs in the ER freaked out. I would suggest the sleep apnea testing. It is a pain but might be your answer.

vicker · #8 12/01/14, 06:07 PM

I had a patient yesterday with end stage kidney disease and numerous other problems. He was in his 40s. All from not taking care of his high bp. If you can't get it down, take your meds.

DAVID In Wisconsin · #9 12/01/14, 06:17 PM

Fixit guy,
I have sleep apnea, had a massive heart attack last November and have hi BP. I control my BP now with minimum drugs and I have a sleep mask thingy and I Watch my diet very closely. Start reading labels. It is amazing the amount of salt a lot of foods have now days. Even preparing all of my meals at home, it is a challenge to keep the salt intake down. Good luck!
DAVID

**Terri** · #10 12/01/14, 06:26 PM

What is your blood work like?

High triglycerides can cause high b/p, and the way to reduce triglycerides is to control your blood sugar by eating less sugar and by not eating too much bread at one sitting. DH and I used to sometimes have a loaf of home made bread for dinner: no longer! Now it is grilled meat and vegetables and one roll!

my b/p and triglycerides are MUCH better! ( I have also been diagnosed with diabetes, and the pills I take also reduce my blood sugar, of course, which further reduces my triglycerides)

BlackFeather · #11 12/01/14, 07:06 PM

I have had high blood pressure in the past and have to watch it continually now. I was given a drug that opened up the blood vessels (vascular dilator) this I took and wanting to get off pharmaceutical medicines I took hawthorn and garlic. It took a while (2 years) but they managed to drop the need for the pharam-meds to once every 2 or 3 days. Now I can go months without any meds or herbs. I noticed when it got cold my pressure started to go up so now I take the occasional pharma-med and have started on herbs again at least for a few weeks till I see if I can get it down. I have a fight with my doctor about this, My thought is I would rather depend on natural medicine that is God given than medicine that someone made to make a profit on, which motive would you trust more? It is important to get the pressure down, my grandfather ended up bed ridden for a year when he lost his inner ear's ability to keep him balanced due to life long high blood pressure.

FarmboyBill · #12 12/01/14, 07:19 PM

I have HBP also. I take one pill of METOPROLOL, 25mgs, and 1 pill of LISINOPRIL 20MG A DAY.

fixitguy · #13 12/01/14, 07:45 PM

I knew, I came to the right place

Thanks for the responses.

I'm going to take the continue the meds that I was suppose to take last month, until Wednesday/Thursday then see my regular doctor.

It is strange how HBP can knock you to your knees so EZ. I never understood that before, I was reduced to quietly surfing the internet today, That's about all I felt like accomplishing.

Chixarecute: spot on, I'm typical type A personality.

I took most of last week off, I possibly have a EZ week,this week if it don't snow. In all honesty, I don't have much to stress about, but that's another thread in the preparedness forum. LOL

brosil · #14 12/02/14, 06:17 AM

I don't drink but understand that beer is especially bad for BP. If you're not going to give up drinking, try whiskey.
If you're eating fast food, stop. Fix your own and carry it. Burritos and fried chicken nearly got me. Get an aerobic form of exercise to work off stress. Fencing worked for me but boxing or bicycling may work for you.

Eagle-eye · #15 12/02/14, 06:19 AM

Try Hibiscus tea, it will lower your blood pressure naturally. Works for me.

7thswan · #16 12/02/14, 07:05 AM

I had low to normal BP -until I was switched from Cymbalta to the genaric. Have you changed something?

Callieslamb · #17 12/02/14, 09:31 AM

I almost wasn't allowed to play volleyball in HS due to HBP. Crazy. I was 16, 5' 7" and 12- lbs. I've been medicated since I was 26. TAKE your meds. They aren't designed to take intermittantly. Daily...at the same time if possible. I take a medication for a while, it quits working, try another, and another until we find one that will work....then it stops working and we repeat. Anti-anxiety meds help me also.

Danaus29 · #18 12/02/14, 12:50 PM

Dh has had it all his life, even when in high school. Herbals haven't helped, change in diet hasn't helped, sleep apnea was a result of the hbp but not the cause. He finally gave in and went back on bp meds and is doing well on Lisinopril. So far it's the only med we've found that he tolerates well.

Astrid · #19 12/02/14, 04:47 PM

Do you exercise?

It is so important that you get this under control to avoid complications such as kidney issues and heart issues.

Crisste · #20 12/02/14, 05:10 PM

Any doctor should tell you to STOP eating sugar (Fructose). Why doctors don't tell patients this stuff is beyond me, maybe they just figure it won't do any good because the patient won't listen, I don't know.

Sugar, specifically fructose, raises your blood pressure in part because it contributes to the formation of uric acid among a long list of other things.

Fructose alone causes all the metabolic problems that contribute to high blood pressure (hypertension), arteriosclerosis, elevated triglycerides and high LDL cholesterol, visceral (organ) fat accumulation, insulin resistance, etc etc. The list is long.

This isn't tin-foil-hat stuff. We've been grossly mislead by federal (FDA) health guidelines.

Read up on it. Check out Robert Lustig "Sugar, The bitter truth". It will change your life as it changed mine. (its also on Youtube)

I've had two heart attacks before I was 50. I had all the metabolic indicators from high cholesterol, high blood pressure, overweight, etc.

These days, I eat pork and red meat, nuts, seeds, whole milk, all the cheeses, etc etc. Lots of fat. Since I cut out all fructose, my blood pressure is down, cholesterol is down, HDL is up, and I'm still losing weight without even trying all the while I am eating a high fat diet.

Sugar is a toxic poison with long lasting chronic effects. 90% of all our nations health care issues are the result of sugar.

Everything else is nothing more than trying to patch and fix the symptoms rather than the root cause. Dont' get me wrong, if you have high blood pressure, you need to bring it down as fast as you can! Patch or not, you need to fix it. But once you cut the sugar, it will probably stay down on its own.

Watch that video. Its the healthiest 90 minutes you'll ever spend.