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You may have what is called "White Coat Syndrome" which means the fear of the doctor or medical worker may trigger an increase in the blood pressure.
This is absolutely true, IMO. Purchase a BP monitor for at-home use to see if this is what you have.
I'm fortunate to have a husband that encourages my daily walking (only 2 miles but better than nothing). It is only a little more than an hour on a treadmill but this apparatus helps me control my heart rate and get my necessary exercise.
Yes, we're retired (but keep taking on work); however, it can be stressful - good stressers v. bad but, stress just the same.
Many posters have touched on the low salt diet. To me a low salt diet is to restrict processed foods and foods high in added sodium, like some frozen dinners, potato chips, soda pop, hot dogs, and processed meats, soups and sauces. If foods seem tasteless to you the best tastes to add to your diet are lemon juice, garlic, white wine, cilantro, cumin, and cayanne pepper or hot sauce. If you like asian flavors try switching to mushroom soy sauce. It is very dark, so you end up using less than half the amount you would usually use. Try substituting butter and margarine for olive oil. When you need that little butter flavor, use half butter and half olive oil.
There isn't anything in this list that you cannot prepare fresh for yourself and reduce the amount of sodium you are eating. In addition, many processed foods contain msg for flavor enhancement which has a negative emotional effect on a lot of people.
The closer you eat to nature, the more healthy you will be. That doesn't mean that sometimes you just have to have that double chili cheesburger and french fries or a slice of pepperoni pizza. Just eat it once a month instead of every day. Learn moderation in your eating habits and a lot of your health issues will improve.
Exercise is also important. Walking 10 miles a day? Congratulations on your discipline. You have given me a new goal. I currently walk up and down my 200 ft driveway that is on an incline. As I live in a rural area , I am aftaid to walk on the road which is 1 lane in each direction with a 4 ft ditch on either side, however the road does go all around the lake and the total distance is 6 miles. I just found out that there is a group of local ladies that walk the lake road every day accompanied by one of their husbands who rides a motorcycle behind them to move traffic around them and is there to rescue anyone who has a problem. I am going to start training to reach that goal and join the group.
Oprah did a show yesterday w/ Dr Oz showing what diet and supplements can do to help w/ lowering BP. Certain supplements (CaMg) and diet can drastically improve your BP as well as cholesterol. I'd visit her site for info. As a registered nurse, I wasn't aware that there was such a large effect from diet alone.
You also may be in good sahpe and just gettig older with the genes that can bring on high blood pressure. If your overweight and exercise little there is hope then.
Oprah did a show yesterday w/ Dr Oz showing what diet and supplements can do to help w/ lowering BP. Certain supplements (CaMg) and diet can drastically improve your BP as well as cholesterol. I'd visit her site for info. As a registered nurse, I wasn't aware that there was such a large effect from diet alone.
Potassium and Niacin (NOT niacinimide) are also good for blood pressure. Some people with high blood pressure seem to crave high potassium food/products such as tomatoes and bananas.
Niacin has been effective for blood pressure and in higher doses is also helpful for cholesterol.
Research these on the internet. You'll also find them on some 'official' drug sites which probably mean they have been tested adequately.
If you do decide on these things, which probably have fewer side effects than most drugs, they can all have side effects, so I would ALWAYS tell your doctor what you are taking and ask for regular liver and kidney testing.
Niacin has some of the adverse side effects as some drugs.
My doc gave me one med for high blood pressure. I complained of always feeling tired. He did not respond, but coupled that drug with a water pill. I was on one of my one hour walks and would have fainted right on the street if I had not just dropped to the ground right on the pavement, lowering my head. My legs would not support me and I could not make it to a bench or even curb.
My next doctor told me my sugar was high. I went on a diet, but ate very little sugar. Later I found out that the 'safe' water pill actually raised blood sugar as a side effect. Is it no wonder that people with high blood pressure often become diabetic when the meds they prescribe can cause this?
The next doctor I go to, if need arises, for these issues will be a cariologist. I do not trust a regular internist to know what he's doing to regulate these drugs.
My first blood pressure medication was zestril which also had a diuretic effect. My doctor did not tell me that so I didn't drink any water. After the fact, I figured out that I needed to drink more water to counter the effects of the diuretic. After one month I ended up with blurred vision, a 24/7 hacking cough, shooting pains in my head and my hands became so stiff that I couldn't reach out and pick anything up with them. As you never have time to discuss how you are feeling with most doctors covered by your health insurance, I typed a page and a half of my symptoms for him to put in my file. His response was, I either want to take you off this medication or triple it because your blood pressure has not gone down. HUH? At that moment I decided that I would not let him treat me any more and walked away to figure it out on my own. I figured if I was going to die I would prefer it to be by my own hand and not some stranger's. After about 3 weeks all the symptoms disappeared except the blurred vision which never returned to normal. Later, I had two more unsuccessful encounters with other blood pressure medications that did not produce sucessful results. In a previous post, I explained what I did to sucessfully address my condition.
Later on, I worked with a computer consultant who was suffering the same symptoms I had and she told me that she had recently started taking Zestril. I told her to go back to her doctor and start over because that was not the right drug for her.
I have nothing against this drug, and it probably works for a lot of people, but doctors need to pay more attention to their patients to make sure that the medication they prescribe is right for their particular condition and that their patients know how to care for themselves while on their medication.
My first blood pressure medication was zestril which also had a diuretic effect. My doctor did not tell me that so I didn't drink any water. After the fact, I figured out that I needed to drink more water to counter the effects of the diuretic. After one month I ended up with blurred vision, a 24/7 hacking cough, shooting pains in my head and my hands became so stiff that I couldn't reach out and pick anything up with them. As you never have time to discuss how you are feeling with most doctors covered by your health insurance, I typed a page and a half of my symptoms for him to put in my file. His response was, I either want to take you off this medication or triple it because your blood pressure has not gone down. HUH? At that moment I decided that I would not let him treat me any more and walked away to figure it out on my own. I figured if I was going to die I would prefer it to be by my own hand and not some stranger's. After about 3 weeks all the symptoms disappeared except the blurred vision which never returned to normal. Later, I had two more unsuccessful encounters with other blood pressure medications that did not produce sucessful results. In a previous post, I explained what I did to sucessfully address my condition.
Later on, I worked with a computer consultant who was suffering the same symptoms I had and she told me that she had recently started taking Zestril. I told her to go back to her doctor and start over because that was not the right drug for her.
I have nothing against this drug, and it probably works for a lot of people, but doctors need to pay more attention to their patients to make sure that the medication they prescribe is right for their particular condition and that their patients know how to care for themselves while on their medication.
This story is why I look up any drug prescribed for me. I have insisted on specific low risk, nearly no side effect drugs to treat my asthma and allergies - telling the doctor I will not take the steroids they wanted to push on me - let me try this first. Doctors tend to push what the drug companies advertise to them. They protest that they are not influenced but several studies show that they are heavily influenced by the ads and perks heaped upon them. Caveat emptor.
My 90 year old mother successfully treats her high blood pressure and the doctor is amazed at her ability to do so - for more than a decade now. I'm not sure what all she does. I know she takes some supplements for it which include CoQ10 and her diet is low in sodium, high in low carb vegetables and fruits. She can't do a lot of exercise so it isn't that. She also has a balanced fat, protein, and carb intake instead of the fat phobia the medical community is pushing on us to our detriment. She goes for real foods and not prepared foods. She also went thru some scary side effects from a couple of different blood pressure medications before she did what she is doing now.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and mention something that some of you might think is a bit strange. About six years ago I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. The doctor prescribed BP pills. They made me very sick. So she prescribed another brand and another. All of them disagreed with me.
I posted my problem on a message board to which I used to belong and got a reply from a woman who worked for a natropath. She recommended something called Mukta Vati. It consists of a combination of herbs from India and can be gotten only over the Internet. She said it worked remarkably well and no one her natropath prescribed it for ever had adverse reactions to it.
Skpetic that I am, I immediately thought "snake-oil." But then figured it was worth a try. Diet wasn't helping and the prescriptions made me ill so I thought I would give it a try. I ordered some and within three or four days my BP went to normal. As time went by I was able to reduce the dosage.
One thing I discovered is that BP is not stagnant. If I begin to feel a bit dizzy it means my BP is too low. During times of stress it may rise too high. I have a small machine to monitor my BP and can adjust the number of tablets I take accordingly. I like having that control.
I've been doing this for about six years now and it works like a charm. Everytime I get my BP taken in a doctor's office, they comment on how good it is. When I tell them what I take for it, they just shake their heads but one can't argue with success.
If anyone is interested in Mukta Vati you can just Google the name and you will find websites that talk about it and sell it. Some look like they are selling snake oil but believe me this stuff works for me and to everyone I've recommended it. One word of caution though, the FDA is trying to ban it's importation because they haven't studied it. Like that ever made a difference on a lot of the stuff they have approved. But there you are.
This story is why I look up any drug prescribed for me. I have insisted on specific low risk, nearly no side effect drugs to treat my asthma and allergies - telling the doctor I will not take the steroids they wanted to push on me - let me try this first. Doctors tend to push what the drug companies advertise to them. They protest that they are not influenced but several studies show that they are heavily influenced by the ads and perks heaped upon them. Caveat emptor.
My 90 year old mother successfully treats her high blood pressure and the doctor is amazed at her ability to do so - for more than a decade now. I'm not sure what all she does. I know she takes some supplements for it which include CoQ10 and her diet is low in sodium, high in low carb vegetables and fruits. She can't do a lot of exercise so it isn't that. She also has a balanced fat, protein, and carb intake instead of the fat phobia the medical community is pushing on us to our detriment. She goes for real foods and not prepared foods. She also went thru some scary side effects from a couple of different blood pressure medications before she did what she is doing now.
I went through the same thing. I lost 80 lbs, cut salt, soda pop. liquor, and sugar out of my diet. Then I left my high stress career as an accountant behind and took 2 years off to rest. Now my blood pressure is normal, and I will be going to back to work in about 10 months. However, I would rather be a greeter at Wal Mart than go back to my high stress job as an accountant. I don't care about being poor, just about the quiality of my life.
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