Blood Pressure

[pooks]

A few weeks ago I was at the dentist's office and they asked if I was being treated for my high blood pressure.

What? Me? Never had it in my life.

But suddenly, I did. Not off the charts high, but 137/109.

I went to my family doc and told her that I was scheduled for day surgery (gynecological) the next week, and wondered if the BP would be a problem. She handed me some samples, told me they'd bring it down for the surgery, and then to come back and see her when they were gone.

I am going back to see her today. I don't want to take the meds and am going to talk to her about bringing it down with diet and exercise. (This is why I bought the bike! Finally did something I'd been wanting to do for yonks -- BP went up and I thought, "Yay! I need to buy a bike!")

My gynecologist also rides -- she and her husband are training for the Hotter n Hell Hundred. Yikes. We talked about it briefly while the anesthesiologist (sp?) was trying to find a good vein Wednesday. (Ouch.) At least I have a doc who knows the cycling ropes if I have any questions, though.

So anyway, I'm just curious -- how many of you have had BP issues. Anybody bring them down with diet and exercise? How'd that go?

I'm not looking for a substitute for medical advice. Just wondering about some of the experiences here.

[Veronica]

I have 5 living siblings. Only two of us don't have high blood pressure. In my family it seems to be weight related. My mom also has high blood pressure. My mom and two of my sisters have joint problems too. Funny - most of my joint problems went away when I lost weight. They use problem knees as an excuse to NOT exercise. Whatever...

My father in law lost some weight to try to get off the blood pressure meds. He's not off them completely yet - I think at one time he was taking three. Just scary. Now he's down to one or two, can't remember which he said.

V.

[pooks]

Weight is probably part of mine, V -- I say probably because both my parents have/had weight probs and neither ever had high BP. My grandmother was overweight and never had high BP. All of them were at least as much overweight as I am, and sometimes more, so it's a little difficult to make that connection, but I definitely have the weight issue.

However, I'm also living with a lot of stress and have been for a few years, which could also be an issue.

But I'm inspired to see your skinny pics and know you once had to deal with weight! Congrats!

[MomOnBike]

It was my blood pressure that got me back on bikes. (stop me if you've heard this already) One day at work I asked a nurse to take by blood pressure just for grins. She didn't grin. She turned white and sent me home with instructions not to stroke out on her. :eek:

OK, a year and a half later, my BP is closer to normal, and I still have weight issues. BUT my O2 sats are up where they should be (upper 90%s) and my up-and-about (as opposed to resting) heart rate is down in the upper 60-lower 70 range. (I can check these easily at work) There has been progress.

One thing though, the BP meds come with a warning that they make you sun-sensitive. True. I'm learning to ride in long sleeves and use much sunscreen - or ride at night.

[Grog]

I am not a doctor, but I am very interested in health policy, and really concerned with the crazy numbers of people who are diagnosed with "high blood pressure" these days.

Over the past 20 years, the threshold for "high" in blood pressure measurement has gone down every time they revised the guidelines. There is very strong pressure on the part of the pharmaceutical industry to keep on lowering the numbers (and increasing the number of people on meds, hence the shareholder benefits). A lot of people are getting medication instead of a prescription for lifestyle change (diet, exercise, stress reduction...). Of course, it's easier to be compliant with taking pills than changing your lifestyle... Many of my doctor-friends are really concerned with the epidemics - of prescription, not of HBP. There is at least as much politics and economics behind those guidelines than actual medical knowledge...

So bottom line, for me, is: ride, make sure you eat well and probably loose some weight, reduce your stress (which will also help you eat, sleep better) and do that for a few months to see if it positively affect your blood pressure before going on medication.

And if you do go on medication, I'd suggest you make sure you ask your doctor about the REAL reduction in risk of heart problems. It's probably much less than some people would like us to think. You need this information to make an informed decision. And ask many questions about the specific med prescribed. Some cost nearly nothing, some (newer ones) are really really expensive, and not necessarily much more efficient.


And, by the way, last time I got my blood pressure measured, I had had a fast ride just 2 hours before. 150/110 was the reading. Nobody panicked, doctor just told me to check it again sometime when I walk in a pharmacy...

[Gray Gato]

When I saw this thread title, I jumped right in.

I'm 47, always been active... mostly running but some triathlons in my past.
Incredibly healthy with low resting pulse, low BP, cholesterol, etc.

In the past year, I've relied on cycling for my cardio workouts. 30 years of running has taken it's toll on my knees...

Two days ago I went to the doc and BP was 142/72. I freaked. All I can think about is I'm not getting as good a cardio as when I ran all the time?

(Also, I agree with Grog re pharmaceutical industry...)

[btchance]

Okay, I'm not a doctor yet, although I pretend to be :) (student, who definately doesn't know any where near everything). One bp reading, especially at what your's was, is not a major concern. A lot of people get nervous going to doctors and dentist offices (mine goes up by about 15, as does my HR). I would have it taken on multiple occasions, maybe at home if that's possible, and see if it stays elevated. If it does stay elevated, it is still in the mild HTN range, (> 140/90) which is normally treated with diet and exercise, and if it doesn't go down with that, then adding one medication usually. I would definately go and talk to your doctor, see if your bp is still high, and discuss other options than meds, which do have SE.

[pooks]

Thanks for all the feedback.

Here's what happened. I walked into her office and said, "I'm supposed to have day surgery but I just found out my BP is high, is this going to get in the way of my surgery?" She confirmed that my BP was high and handed me the pills.

That did bother me a little bit so I emailed my MIL's cardiologist (who is so super, he gave us his email address to stay in touch between visits) and told him what was going on. His response was that A) my doc's choice of treatment was well within the bounds of normal/acceptable, though B) if he'd been going to give me samples, he would have given me different ones because the ones she gave me are expensive to keep up, and if I ended up staying on them to check with him and he'd advise a better/less expensive drug, and C), if it were up to him, he'd advise diet and exercise for three months before going on meds at all.

All of which gave me pause.

So I stopped the meds (after only taking one of them) and called my gynecologist's office to let her know what was going on, and she said that she needed my BP under control to do the schedules procedure/surgery, but once we got past that she agreed that I should go the diet/exercise route. Like I said, it turns out she's even a cyclist, so that's really cool.

So I went into the family doc's office today to tell her I only have one pill left, that I want to stop taking them and do diet/exercise instead, and how is the best way to do that? She told me to cut back to 1/2 a pill for the next month, record my BP and send it to her, and by the end of a month I should be ready to stop the meds all together.

So, all is fine.

However, I will admit that she seemed surprised that I wanted to stop the meds and asked if they were bothering me. She was fine with me wanting to do diet/exercise, but never once brought that up on her own.

So I'm really glad I had the cardio to email or I might not have questioned any of this at all.

Thanks for all the feedback.

[Brandi]

A couple years ago my husband went into the Dr;s office for a smashed something or the other (he is the reason we have insurance) and he's blood pressure was sky high. Like 160/90. It freaked the Dr out. They put him on med's right away. That is also when my husband started exercising seriously. See we had both quite smoking about a year or two before that. I worked out, he did nothing! It caught up to him in a very scary way. He was only 44 at the time and not over weight at all just not active. He went off the meds a couple years ago on h'es own. We monitored he's pressure with our own cuff and when it started to get back down to like 117/ 40 he said that's it. We still keep an eye on it. But he's was so high the Dr didn't even say " let's try diet and exercise first". Yours sound like white coat syndrome to me. I have that so much I monitored my pressure for a week for my Dr and wrote down at least 5 pressures a day. And you could see I was in the normal range. Good luck!

[caligurl]

my blood pressure has always been 120 over something or other....

a couple weeks ago when i went in.... 110 over something or other...

both my parents have high blood pressure... so i've always been waiting for it to happen to me.... even my sister has high blood pressure!

also got blood work done.... my cholesterol is 143.... my HDL is 81! (guess that's all the oatmeal i eat! lol!) my triglycerides are 36.... so i'm quite pleased....

all the rest of the numbers in the report all within the "reference interval" column.... and they didn't call me about any of the numbers.... so i guess the rest are OK (I did wig over the 81 at first.. til i looked up on line and realized that was the GOOD stuff and you want that number to be high! it's actually above the reference interval!

i'm sure it has to do with all the exercise i do (morning workout EVERY workday morning.... NO excuses! and ride my bike MOST weeks 6 days a week... with the exception of jan/feb due to light and cold issues after work!)

i also try to eat healthy.... normally i'm quite anal about my eating monday-friday! i do cheat a bit too much on weekends.... i need to clean that up!

my vices: SALT i eat WAY too much salt! (but in the summer i NEED that salt! right!?) and ice cream (i eat the no sugar added, reduced fat kind, at least!)

i've gained 6 pounds over the last year... but i'm still well within healthy boundaries (and below if you go with what the average is for americans these days!)

add all those together... and i think that's what keeps me healthy

oh... and i haven't been sick in.... gosh... i can't remember the last time i was sick?????????????? i've had sinus headaches off and on due to allergies.. but those are even a lot less with my better eating habits over the last few years!

so what does this all mean to me? diet and exercise TOGETHER play a huge role in health....

[Crankin]

You could be the fittest person in the world, with normal weight, but if your family history is bad in terms of CV disease, no amount of eating right and exercise will mitigate all of it. My husband has been on bp meds for 3 years, after trying the eating healthy and exercise for quite awhile. Nothing brought it down. Both sides of his family have high bp. He takes a small dose and is thankful there is something to control it. It hasn't interferred with his cycling at all.

[Grog]

You could be the fittest person in the world, with normal weight, but if your family history is bad in terms of CV disease, no amount of eating right and exercise will mitigate all of it. My husband has been on bp meds for 3 years, after trying the eating healthy and exercise for quite awhile. Nothing brought it down. Both sides of his family have high bp. He takes a small dose and is thankful there is something to control it. It hasn't interferred with his cycling at all.

I agree with you that genetics play an important role.

It's just important to be aware that high blood pressure is not the be-all end-all of cardiovascular issues, and even someone with lowered blood pressure remains at risk of having problems.

Good luck :)

[Deanna]

I have HBP and my experience is much like Robyn's husband. No complaints about the meds. My cardio zones are generally a little lower than what you see listed for somebody my age, so it takes a little bit more calculating to determine my aerobic, cardio and max zone are. As a woman you will need to be very careful about which form of birth control you use (if it's a concern) as most of them will aggravate high blood pressure.

[Crankin]

Grog, my husband is the perfect example of knowing that bp isn't the end of cv problems. If he had only started the healthy eating, exercise and bp meds/statins 10 years ago, he might not have had the 2 stents put in last June! Again, all family history. Because he is a cyclist, he is very aware of his body and knew there was something going on. It took over a year of false negative tests (Myo-View and EKG) to the point of finally when I was going up hills faster than him because of symptoms, he told the doctor that if he didn't schedule an angioplasty, he would find another doctor. Guess what? Two 80% blockages. In this case, being very conservative didn't help. If he hadn't been an advocate for himself, something worse might have happened. The general feeling was that since he was so fit, how could he have any blockages.... I guess the moral of the story is, if you have a bad family history, start exercising and eating right at a young age!

[Geonz]

Unless you *do* have high blood pressure, or something else that salt specifically aggravates, it is not harmful in and of itself. (Well, chemically it is - sprinkle a little on your garden and see waht happens...)
I eat a lot of salt. When I cut back once in college, I started cramping. (That was before I read & heard that salt wasn't inherently evil, except in my soils class.) If it makes my blood pressure go up over 110, so be it. (It usually runs around 105/65.)
One bp reading is also not enough to make decisions about (unless it's very high), especially if doctor's offices make you nervous at all.

PS Just bought Eats, Shoots, and Leaves and after three pages I'm ready to go out with my Sharpie and make grammar corrections ;-)

[Grog]

The general feeling was that since he was so fit, how could he have any blockages.... I guess the moral of the story is, if you have a bad family history, start exercising and eating right at a young age!

You are totally right.

I know a man who ran about 80 marathons in his life, a sports med doctor, with perfect health. One day on his Sunday morning 20-miler (run) he starts having chest and left arm pain. He's in disbelief: how can this be happening to me? But nonetheless gets (runs??!!) to the hospital only to learn that he needed a quadruple bypass immediately. Congenital heart problems can happen even to the fittest. I'm pretty sure this guy also had low blood pressure and a resting pulse of 40!!

I hope your husband is better now! Nothing provides perfect protection, but a good lifestyle and some education takes us forward.

[EvilTwin]

I have been on BP meds for almost a year now. My numbers weren't sky high, but I have a high stress job, and a family hx (both parents with HBP and CV disease), so my family doc didn't want to take chances. I'm on a low-dose combo drug and admit, that since I've been riding, I've been tempted to cut back. However, I have no bad side effects from them, so I guess I'll keep taking them. Better to have control of my BP than risk the stroke alternatives. My BF also is on meds, but his control is more variable...he takes his meds faithfully, yet on the days he doesn't ride or exercise, his pressure is on the high side. weird. We both eat healthy diets, and exercise, so sometimes we just need a little extra help.

[shadon]

and I'm struggling with what to do about it. On the ALC, I spent a day in the medical tent with dehydration, and the doc who cleared me to ride talked to me about my "high blood pressure" (Hello??? You dumped two liters of saline solution into my arm this morning!). She (an internest) said if I were her patient, she'd put me on meds right away...so I'v been checking it at the pharmacy every so often, and while it's not as high as that day, it's definetly on the high end.

I hate the idea of meds (and getting roped to the pharmceutical industry), but I sure as hell don't need to have a stroke. I suppose, if it doesn't get much better I'll talk with my MD about it...sigh...this middle age thing rots!

[Crankin]

Hi Grog,
Yep, my hubby is fine. He was out walking 2 miles 2 days after the angioplasty and on his bike on a flat 13 mile ride 5 days later. The doc wasn't too happy, but said as long as he kept his HR under 130 it would be OK. Of course, about 10 days later, we were supposed to lead a 21 mile ride through some challenging climbs (in Harvard, MA for you New Englanders). He decided he would meet us after the biggest climb, by getting there another way. Of course, when we got to the top of the climb, he didn't tell me he had already climbed another really challenging hill... one of my friends on the ride (a guy) rode the rest of the way with him, to keep him under control! He was so happy he was not having symptoms anymore. Five weeks later, we were on our tour from Prague to Vienna. One of the good things about all of this is now he is much more mellow about riding. I've gotten faster and he has slowed down to smell the roses. He does his fast riding when he commutes to work once in awhile, but given what could have happened, everything is fine.

[newfsmith]

6 years ago, I was struggling with my weight and BP. I was doing a lot of stress eating, working long hours (>60/week), not exercising at all. I have a pretty strong "white coat" effect and was coming in at the start of an office call with a BP of 150/109 that would drop to 130/90. My primary was talking about starting me on medication, but about that time my work crashed and burned. I got a new job with week-ends off, only 40-50 hrs per week, and the possibility of bike commuting regularly. In spite of my family history of high BP, obesity, and stroke, that life style change has brought my weight down 30 lbs and I now have a BP of 124/78 without medication and my workload again back up at >60 hrs/week. Yes, lifestyle changes can change the measurements, but I don't kid myself that it actually changes my risk for stroke. Although I have fabulous HDL's (85) I also have alarming LDL's (174) and in spite of all the lifestyle changes, I will probably need to start Statins soon. Make the lifesyle changes so you have a chance of using cheaper, older drugs or lower doses of the new ones. It is also one thing you have control of and you can do for yourself.

[pooks]

The cardiologist I know said that they don't consider the "white coat" effect much any more. He said that if your BP is spiking into high territory because you're at a doc's office, then it's also spiking at other times, too.

He said while being able to sit still and calm down and have it come down is good, the fact is that none of us can spend our lives sitting down being calm all the time.

This is also the cardiologist who told me he wouldn't have put me on BP meds without trying diet and exercise for 3 months first, so it's not that he's quick to deal out pills. He's also Asst. Chief of Cardiology at one of the major hospitals in Dallas, and director of their noninvasive medical lab (noninvasive -- not surgery -- being the important thing there).

I just thought I'd toss that out there in case anybody finds in helpful.

[bentforlife]

I was put on BP meds not for high BP but for my kidney function. I'm a Type 2 diabetic and had some protein show up in a urine test. ( I'm also a nurse.) I tried to talk the doctor out of it but no use. I have not had a positive protein test since. But there are times I feel like the meds make me feel tired. Unfortunately I take several other meds for cholesterol(inherited from mom and dad), diabetes and asthma/allergies. It's sad when the pharmacists and techs know your name and the meds you take by heart.

My 2 cents worth. I would try the diet /exercise thnig but if you can't get it down then don't be afraid of the meds. Also, I don't trust the drugstore BP cuffs. It would be worth your money to buy a battery operated cuff. That way you can monitor your BP at different times of the day as well.

Donna:cool:

[pooks]

Thanks, Donna. (I'm the one who started the thread because I'm hoping to do without the meds.) I won't mind using them at all if I can't bring it down. It's just that since my family history doesn't have BP or heart issues (even though there are weight issues) it freaked me out to have my BP high. Even when pregnant with a lot of weight gain, I always had BP that was low. So I want to see if life changes will bring it down.

If they don't, bring on the meds!

[EvilTwin]

So, after my ride today, I took my BP.. 92/50. No wonder I was tired, but the other thought that my BF and I tumbled onto was that the meds I am on are a low dose combo HCTZ and diuretic. My legs have been aching lately. Duh. One of the signs of low potassium is leg pain. HCTZ makes people prone to low K+, as does the massive sweating I have been doing with my riding in the heat this past week. You'd think that 2 people actively working in the medical field would have thought of this sooner, but nooooo. So, off to the banana store, and then call to have labs drawn. Maybe I can stop the meds now though!!

[Pedal Wench]

I agree with you that genetics play an important role.

It's just important to be aware that high blood pressure is not the be-all end-all of cardiovascular issues, and even someone with lowered blood pressure remains at risk of having problems.

Good luck :)

My BF is very thin, very active, and still had slightly high blood pressure. The common advice to lose weight and exercise just doesn't apply to everyone.