High Blood Pressure

moneylover

without a doubt high blood pressure is a wake up call if overweight or eating lots of snacks and/or processedfood.
But my point as original poster is that I have a good dietdaughter and am not overweight. And I wondered if anyone else was in that situation
I am going to up the exercise and see if that helps as dont want pills if canbe avoided. I will report back in a couple of months. Has anyone heardthat more sleep is helpfful - presumably as it reduces stress.
Thanks

weeneldo

Hi,

If you are planning on taking any supplements, make sure you check with your pharmacist before using them. Some supplements and herbal medicines can interact with conventional medicines and can also make your clinical condition worse.

For high blood pressure its also important that you discuss with your GP the best way to manage it. If your blood pressure was high enough to warrant management with ramipril then it may well be important to take it. Obviously don't make any decisions with your body that you aren't happy with, but it would really make sense for you to discuss this in depth with your doctor or pharmacist. While you may not feel the effects of your BP just now, lowering it now and keeping it down is one of the most important things you could do with regard to avoiding nasty conditions in later life.

While I wouldn't particularly recommend any supplements based on what I have read of your post, if you do wish to go ahead then your pharmacist is the best person to ask. They will know better your clinical condition, will be able to find out what medication you currently take and will be able to advise you on what is most appropriate for yourself. The quality of supplements purchased from a pharmacy is also less risky, although the regulation of supplements is pretty lax at present in comparison to medicinal products. Your pharmacist will also be able to give good advice on other steps you can take to improve your general health and your blood pressure.

moneylover

Bronnie, I agree get BP checked regularly - what was yours as a matter of interest? I am older than you, 65, but had always been 120/70 - always! And so you think you always will be. My BMI lower than yours - I am 5ft 4ins tall and now 9 and a half stone but was always 8 stone 4lbs till last year or two. So am now going back to that (no snacks, cake, biscuit and puds and more exercise) then going back to GP but not before - think it will take me about 3 months. If that doesnt do it I will accept medication - am on opoids for pain so prob have some inflammation (its tendonosis which nothing can be done about) am on Butrans but I dont think that increases blood pressure.
Good luck to you, post and tell us.

Mojisola

You can buy accurate blood pressure monitors for home use which let you keep a check on your BP. They're not a replacement for seeing the GP but do let you monitor at home what's happening and reduce the risk of ending up on medication because of "white coat syndrome".

Gloomendoom

Mojisola wrote: »

You can buy accurate blood pressure monitors for home use which let you keep a check on your BP. They're not a replacement for seeing the GP but do let you monitor at home what's happening and reduce the risk of ending up on medication because of "white coat syndrome".

Good advice.

Before those home monitors were available, I knew somebody who was on medication for sky high blood pressure. Eventually, the doc worked out that there was nothing wrong with her and it was the drive to the surgery that was causing the high blood pressure. She had to cross a busy roundabout where she had had a bad crash the previous year.

System

My GP likes me to take home readings to the surgery every so often. My BP is sky high (sometimes unreadable) when i visit the surgery and he says its probably 'White Coat Syndrome'.

I did take my monitor for him to check and he said it was fine but advised me to get a wider cuff.

UKTigerlily

It's unlikely now that anyone would end up on medication for white coat syndrome because before being diagnosed you have a 24hr home test, I was diagnosed 7 months back & am on meds but it's under control & no side effects

Dawning

I agree with Bronnie's advice to those of us in middle age. My BP has always been fine, even though I've been quite overweight for at least 15 years. My weight hasn't changed - give or take a couple of pounds - for five years. That's when my BP was last tested and was fine. However I was recently called in for a routine check up run by the nurses at my surgery,and my BP has gone up a lot. Tested 3 times over a period of 3 weeks to be sure. The Practice Nurse has now advised me to go in and see my GP.
I'd just assumed that as was it ok 5 years ago it would still be ok now - I was wrong and didn't have a clue.

Mojisola

UKTigerlily wrote: »

It's unlikely now that anyone would end up on medication for white coat syndrome because before being diagnosed you have a 24hr home test, I was diagnosed 7 months back & am on meds but it's under control & no side effects

That may be what your GPs do but ours put you on tablets purely on the results of BP tests at the surgery.