"Medication here I come."

- - Medication treats the symptoms, not the cause.

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Cousin Elwood - Team Over-the-hill Racing
Brought to you by the good folks at Metamucil and Geritol...

This is true. I most certainly will cut back on eating out for lunch, though I usually ate fairly healthy (chicken wraps, etc.) I also never salted my food but I guess I'll need to cut down on foods with high sodium content. Believe me, I'm not crazy about taking medication and if I can get my BP down to norm without it, I'll gladly do so. However, much of it is hereditary and I may have no choice.

move to florida or cali and get a part-time job in a surf or bike shop. kick off your shoes and relax. you'll live much longer. they call it hyperTENSION for a reason.

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http://www.barefootrunning.org

I believe the cause was genetics. How do you treat that?

That's the funny thing. I'm pretty much a laid back person and don't have much job stress. The move to Florida part sounds pretty good though :)

Don't place too much stock in a single blood pressure testing. There are quite a few things that can cause an incorrectly high result (such as recent physical activity, anxiety, walking down the hall to the examination room, et cetera). Go back, make sure you're rested, and that you sit in the same spot for at least 5 minutes before they take your blood pressure (usually the nurse marches you down the hall, sits you down and asks questions, has you hop on the scale, sits you back down and then puts the cuff on you and takes your BP).

I have extremely high blood pressure also. While mine is genetic they did do a few test to check for other underlying causes. You might want to get a renal ultrasound to check for a narrowing artery in your kidneys, I can't remember the other tests but they drew blood and looked for markers.

yup...have to agree on this one. if i went by the reading my doc got once in the office i'd be on meds.

ask for a 24hr monitor. bit of an annoyance but it gives a much more accurate reading of what is going on.

when i returned to the clinic and they checked the readings (to be sure it worked properly) they were confused as my average bp is quite low, not high.

good luck

k

Good news that you discovered it now. Like the others have said, get confirmation before take meds.

I went to the Dr last year to get precription medicine to kick a case of poison ivy. They did the usual weight, HR and blood pressure, etc. The Dr. told me that since I had a very low resting HR and my blood pressure was in the normal range that I needed to be on blood pressure meds!

I overheard in the gym locker room an old *heart surgeon* who is a boxing fanatic giving advice to a young amateur boxer. The young boxer said he lifts weights 5x a week with 15'-20' aerobic warmup before the weights. The surgeon replied "You've got to cut out that aerobic shit, it'll kill you."

Unfortunately the cause appears to be a relative salt intolerance in some people. In those people high sodium foods over years changes vascular resistance. Reducing sodium will make a modest difference in BP. Lifestyle change-- weight loss, exercise, with salt restriction, does much more. However, if it is already very high, those things usually won't bring it down to safe levels, but they are, none the less, very beneficial and, will likely reduce the amount and/or number of medications required.

I assume that you are otherwise fit, since you are posting on this site. If not, you should do all of the above.

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Dick

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know nothing.

"I believe the cause was genetics. How do you treat that?"
- - There are so many things that could be involved that I wouldn't know where to start. Possibilities:
- Stored toxins in the liver or kidneys
This could be the case depending upon where you grew up, eating too much seafood, polluted drinking water, etc.
- Food Allergies
You wouldn't believe how many people are somewhat allergic to wheat, oats, iceburg lettuce and dairy.
- Dietary anomalies
If you come from a colder country (say Denmark) and you're now eating a "warm climate" diet, or vice versa, the foods you are getting may not be compatible or fully complementary to your genetic makeup.

Most things can be solved with a detox diet, but what to eliminate and how to do it would vary depending upon your genetic tendencies.

Find a good Naturopath.

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Cousin Elwood - Team Over-the-hill Racing
Brought to you by the good folks at Metamucil and Geritol...

My father did anti-hypertensive research for about 30 years. He was fairly motivated since we have a family history of heart disease and high blood pressure. As it turns out, he has been treated with some of the medicines that he helped to develop.

Anyway, by way of osmosis and the fact that I am at risk, I know a fair bit about high blood pressure. A lot of the cause is genetics. My pulse is a lot lower than my father's has ever been because I exercise a fair bit and he stopped at age 22 or so. But, despite this fact along with the facts that my weight is about 20 pounds less at his age, I have never smoked, I have limited salt intake for about ten years and I eat far healthier, my blood pressure is creeping up over time just like his did. It is probably a little lower than his is at age 39, but not that much lower.

My lifestyle will probably help, but it almost certainly will not prevent me from eventually needing to take medicine to treat the high blood pressure that is waiting for me in the future. Even if you do not have this risk, you should get your pressure tested at least annually by a physician (or, even better, a competent RN) because you will not know if you have this disease otherwise.

You seem fascinated with the idea that medicine holds the answer. See my advice above re Naturopath...

I know folks who have had the problem solved and don't require medication.

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Cousin Elwood - Team Over-the-hill Racing
Brought to you by the good folks at Metamucil and Geritol...

Yes move to Florida,NO ONE has any stress here,unless you want to count the 1000 new people moving here everyday

But I hope you realize that some people who have the wrong genetics will always have Hypertension no matter what lifestyle modifications they try. In fact most people with the genetic predisposition can only delay medications, but will probably eventally require them. I say this because I am one of those people, as I will probably need medications soon and dreading it.

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berndog
How did we all get sucked into this crazy sport anyway?!!

I guess I should have clarified a bit. Not only was my blood pressure way high, but an EKG and Ecocardiogram found my left ventrical larger than nornal, due to the high BP (that's what the doc said anyway). The nurse also asked if I got frequent headaches (yes!) and said it was a sign of hypertension as well. I am very active (at least I'd better be since I signed on for IMCDA in 05) and actually did two century rides and a metric century in the three weeks before my test. And while it's true some things can elevate your pressure and multiple readings are best, mine was something like 180/110—which I think most likely wasn't caused by anxiety. I did purchase a home BP machine tho so I can keep better tabs on it. Hopefully I'll eventually be able to do away with the meds.

That said, I appreciate all of the replies and just hope others will take high BP seriously.

Sounds like you will end up on meds so make sure yuour physician is aware of your hobby(tris etc) and uses a med that will not affect or minimally affect your ability to exercise.

sounds like randall is having blood pressure issues due to crowding.

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http://www.barefootrunning.org

I've had somewhat high blood pressure for a while now (140/100 ish) and have found that two things cause my pressure to jump. First is a particular multivitamin Twinlab Daily One, which if I take every day for 2 weeks my blood pressure jumps 15-20 points. The other is if I fail to stretch my legs properly. When my BP "feels" high it is frequently due to EXTREME tightness in my thighs...and doing a 5 minute stretch allows proper bloodflow again. My doc hasn't suggested any way for me to tell if I have an arterial blockage or something in my legs, but he seems to think the muscles when tight are just partially closing off the main arteries in my thighs.....hmmmmm......

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