Hello all. As an athlete, I am kind of surprised, but I may have borderline hypertension and had a question for you all (seem to be some pretty bright folks on here). The last several times I have been to the docs, my bp has been kind of high, around 132/87. I am a pretty anxious person, so I thought it might be white-coat syndrome. I bought a cuff for my home and, at home, it averages lower, about 125/77. Better, but I would still think it would be lower for someone who spends 15 hours/week swimming, cylcing, running, and lifting. Other info on me: male late 30s, bmi=21, resting hr=45, very active, low cholesterol, decent diet but I am sure I get over the rda of sodium, 1 aunt with moderately high bp.
Any thoughts on these numbers, especially you medical types. Any reason to be concerned? Anything you’d recommend doing? Thanks in advance for any ideas, reassurance, or orders to rush to the ER (not quite).
I’m also active, quite lean, and pretty athletic. Look very healthy, but have a family history of hypertension. Despite my fitness and diet, I am on a diuretic to lower my bp to a safer level. With medication, I am close to your numbers. You may try lowering the sodium when possible, but it seems that when you are predisposed, there is not much you can do to lower it without medication. You don’t appear to be particularly high, but I’m sure some more knowledgable people will offer their thoughts.
Yes- reasons to be concerned is that your numbers do get higher than what was once (not long ago) thought to be OK. BP higher in the doc office IS normal…however, your weight might be a factor for YOUR body. This can sometimes be an easy fix to get the BP lower by losing fat weight…as well as daily meditation. What I am saying is that some people may need to have a lower fat weight to gain optimal health! Even for those who fall within US “normal standards”. I know I might get slammed for that one. Also, you did say you are a pretty anxious person and meditation or breathing exercising can have a profound and immediate influence on your health. I have also noticed in my yoga/holistic wellness practice that people who have HBP routinely (nearly everyone I have ever seen in over 15+ years of practice) hold their breath after the inhale—which will raise BP even in people with normal BP.
Ps… Dietary changes are a typical plan such as to lower sodium–which may be a very valid place to begin. Many packaged foods, and restaurant foods are quite high in sodium–not to mention electrolyte replacements.
I have been diagnosed with mild hypertension. I am also a athletic 42 yr old firefighter. Some of the things that I have changed in my lifestyle to help reduce my BP is to stop drinking coffee, reduced salt intake, stopped drinking alcohol and increased fruit and veggie intake. With all these changes I was able to bring my BP back to normal. Other factors such as sleep apnea , obesity, genetics did not apply to my situation. I agree that meditation can work, but athletic types already do deep breathing exercises daily as part of their cardio training (IMHO). All that being said your BP is hardly in the hypertension category but if you are concerned try long term changes to your diet first and log your BP readings on a daily basis. I think you’ll find your BP comes back to normal.
ny thoughts on these numbers, especially you medical types. Any reason to be concerned? Anything you’d recommend doing? Thanks in advance for any ideas, reassurance, or orders to rush to the ER (not quite).
I understand you are just asking for advice but since you are concerned have a talk with your doc. No need to run to the ER:)
You might want to have your blood pressure checked during exercise. If it is high, and you are doing lots of endurance training, this is something that should be watched.
Also, have you had an EKG recently? If not, would recommend it.
As others have suggested, diet is important. Lots of exercise does not necessarily eliminate the negatives of processed foods. It’s more than just watching salt intake.
Thanks to all for the helpful responses. I think I will have a convo with my doc just to hopefully put my mind at ease. Sounds like, at this level, some modest lifestyle changes might get things into a good range.
I do eat too much salt, so that is where I’ll start. I also meditate, but might do so more. Don’t think weight/fat is an issue (7% bodyfat). Never had an EKG but I’ll bring that up too.
Some random thoughts… some people have higher BP in spite of ideal body weight, being fit, etc… A good diet, being fit, ideal weight certainly reduce the risk but they don’t eliminate the risk, it can still happen. And when it does you get to suffer though the comments like “but you are so young and thin and you exercise, I can’t believe your blood pressure is high!”. At that point your blood pressure may climb a bit more as you try to resist the urge to punch them :).
I am not a doctor but work in health care and take some blood pressure readings on occasion, you would be shocked and stunned at how high some people’s blood pressure readings are. Those who are in the “normal” range tend to be the exception, at least in the population I see (generally unfit people with orthopedic type injuries). So don’t be surprised if your doctor doesn’t get too worked up about it. But nonetheless, it is something to try to manage and reduce.
You might try logging your foods for a few days, if you have an iPhone or Android phone there are some good apps like FatSecret you can use, or FatSecret also lets you enter your foods online. I add salt to nothing, try to avoid salty foods, and I am still amazed at how easy it is to get way too much sodium just through processed foods, etc… Upping your fruits and vegetables, eating more “natural” vs processed/packaged foods, etc may help.
Those numbers aren’t much to be concerned about, but BP will naturally increase over age if you don’t do anything about it. If you want to be proactive on that front, the advice my physician recently gave me was to google “dash diet” and follow that (it’s pretty darned common sense–reduce processed foods and animal products in favor of fresh fruits and vegetables) , plus reduce alcohol intake. The other risk factors are smoking, obesity and inactivity, none of which apply to many triathletes.
I have found it pretty easy to significantly reduce sodium intake just by taking a look at labels. Products that you would expect to have a similar level of sodium frequently do not. I just bought a bag of chips to have with my lunch. I looked at 3 bags all by the same manufacturer. Salt & Vinegar had 22% of the RDA of sodium, Jalapeno had 13% and Regular had 7%.
I’ve seen the same thing with canned soups, beans and tomatoes since I have started looking at it when my BP was diagnosed high a few weeks ago.
You are right about how easy it is to take in lots of sodium without trying. I never add salt to anything and when I added up my typical daily sodium, it was still around 3500mg/day. I recently went out and made some “easy” dietary changes and found that I am now down to about 2500mg. I’m sure I could go even lower but I figured in the first round I’d just do stuff that I won’t even notice. I’ll see if that helps.
You may be one of the few (like me and some others here) who have a genetic predisposition to hypertension. With me, none of the low-salt, low fat, losing weight stuff worked. I was diagnosed when I was 20yrs old. It was running around 140/100. Spent years of trial and error - finally about 10 yrs ago found that Diovan helped me - now it is about 120/70.
Very important to keep monitoring it and talking to your doc. Your home values are pretty good, but make sure you get it checked professionally. My doc requires checkups every 6 months.
There are medications that are much better for exercisers. Diuretics are not that great. Talk to your doctor about the best medications for an active life.