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Hard to believe people refuse to take blood pressure medications when needed. Best to take the medication and then work on correcting what could be the cause(s). You can always go off the meds briefly once you have (as long as your doctor approves and your blood pressure is carefully monitored) to see if they’re still needed.
Below are common causes of high blood pressure:
Smoking
Being overweight or obese
Lack of physical activity
Too much salt in the diet
Too much alcohol consumption (more than 1 to 2 drinks per day)
Stress
Older age
Genetics
Family history of high blood pressure
Chronic kidney disease
Adrenal and thyroid disorders
Sleep apnea
Hard to believe people refuse to take blood pressure medications when needed. Best to take the medication and then work on correcting what could be the cause(s). You can always go off the meds briefly once you have (as long as your doctor approves and your blood pressure is carefully monitored) to see if they’re still needed.
Below are common causes of high blood pressure:
Smoking
Being overweight or obese
Lack of physical activity
Too much salt in the diet
Too much alcohol consumption (more than 1 to 2 drinks per day)
Stress
Older age
Genetics
Family history of high blood pressure
Chronic kidney disease
Adrenal and thyroid disorders
Sleep apnea
Most of the causes, aside from a genetic defect, can be fixed.
Also, you didn't mention metabolic syndrome, probably the most common cause these days. And caused by the typical modern lifestyle.
Also, consider that high blood pressure is often a RESULT of artery disease. That means high BP might not typically be the cause of heart attacks and strokes. It is associated with them, but artery disease is the cause.
No, we will say that you might have high blood pressure for a reason, and it probably is not entirely genetically determined. If you have not even thought about nutrition and exercise, then starting a drug is a big mistake.
This has been addressed, but I will add that for the majority of people with what is termed essential hypertension there is no known "reason". The physiology is complex and involves the kidney and water and sodium balance and multiple physiologic systems.
"Essential hypertension (also called idiopathic hypertension) may be attributed to multiple factors, including genetic predisposition, excess dietary salt intake, and adrenergic tone, that may interact to produce hypertension. Essential hypertension accounts for 90% of human hypertension and can evolve into secondary hypertension, as renal function decreases. Thus, the distinction between primary and secondary forms of hypertension is not always clear in patients who have had uncontrolled hypertension for many years."
" ... it is believed that genetic factors may account for up to 30- 50% of BP variance."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Good4Nothin
Yes, try some obvious things before taking pills. Doctors like to give pills, it's easier than trying to figure out the cause. Also, taking pills will lead to other pills, and so on. More money for the doctor and the drug companies.
With regard to hypertension, doctors give pills because they usually work quickly, safely, and with few side effects. Side effects can be managed by changing to a different class of medication. Doctors really do not like for their patients to have strokes, heart attacks, and kidney failure. As noted above, the physiology of essential hypertension is known, even if the cause is not.
I take prescription meds for high blood pressure. I have no side effects from them and pay nothing out of pocket for them. They are cheap and they work. I really do not care what the "cause" is as long as my BP is normal.
It would be foolish not to treat a significant blood pressure elevation while doing "some obvious things" to bring it down. The "obvious things" may or may not work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Good4Nothin
Also, consider that high blood pressure is often a RESULT of artery disease. That means high BP might not typically be the cause of heart attacks and strokes. It is associated with them, but artery disease is the cause.
Please see the link above. Your understanding of hypertension is flawed. Ongoing hypertension causes vascular disease that makes the hypertension worse.
"Patients who develop hypertension are known to develop a systemic hypertensive response secondary to vasoconstrictive stimuli. Alterations in structural and physical properties of resistance arteries, as well as changes in endothelial function, are probably responsible for this abnormal behavior of the vasculature. Furthermore, vascular remodeling occurs over the years as hypertension evolves, thereby maintaining increased vascular resistance irrespective of the initial hemodynamic pattern.
Changes in vascular wall thickness affect the amplification of peripheral vascular resistance in hypertensive patients and result in the reflection of waves back to the aorta, increasing systolic BP."
Most of the causes, aside from a genetic defect, can be fixed.
Also, you didn't mention metabolic syndrome, probably the most common cause these days. And caused by the typical modern lifestyle.
Yes, some can be fixed with time. And some like older age, genetics, family history of high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease, adrenal/thyroid disorders and sleep apnea are outside ones control.
The point is to take the medication to lower BP while concurrently working on correcting the risk factors within your control so you may be able to stop the medication. Given the life threatening issues that can arise from high blood pressure, I would take the meds. I would encourage anyone I love to do the same.
BTW, high blood pressure is a possible sign of Metabolic Syndrome not the other way around. Although, you can have HBP without having metabolic syndrome or can have metabolic syndrome without having HBP.
What are the signs of metabolic syndrome?
A person with metabolic syndrome has three or more of the following:
Obesity: a waistline of 40 inches or more for men and 35 inches or more for women
Blood pressure: 130/85 or higher
Triglyceride (part of "bad" cholesterol) levels: 150 mg/dl or above
HDL cholesterol ("good" cholesterol) levels: 40mg/dl or lower in men and 50mg/dl or lower in women
Fasting blood glucose (blood sugar) levels: 110 mg/dl or above
I take prescription meds for high blood pressure. I have no side effects from them and pay nothing out of pocket for them. They are cheap and they work. I really do not care what the "cause" is as long as my BP is normal.
So you have not considered that your lifestyle might be causing it? You find it simpler to take a drug?
Please try to understand that drugs interfere with intricate and poorly understood natural processes. They should not be used instead of lifestyle modifications. They should only be used if urgently needed.
If your BP is dangerously high in spite of a good lifestyle, and your doctors have not been able to find any reason for it, then you should take drugs. Otherwise, you could be damaging your health for no reason.
As someone who's probably looking at high blood pressure medications in the near future, how well do these really work at lowering blood pressure? Does it take a while before any results are seen?
They work great and they work almost instantly.
Here's something that works as good as or better than medication.
Reduce your sodium intake by a lot. Read all the labels. Don't buy anything with more than 5% or 10% sodium content and combine that with fruits and vegetables that have no sodium. My BP dropped considerably within a week.
I was on 5mg of Lisinopril for several months and within a week after going on a low sodium diet I was able to reduce my med to 2.5mg. Now all I need to do is lose some weight and I hope to be off the med in a few months.
"Essential hypertension (also called idiopathic hypertension) may be attributed to multiple factors, including genetic predisposition, excess dietary salt intake, and adrenergic tone, that may interact to produce hypertension. Essential hypertension accounts for 90% of human hypertension and can evolve into secondary hypertension, as renal function decreases. Thus, the distinction between primary and secondary forms of hypertension is not always clear in patients who have had uncontrolled hypertension for many years."
Most of the time hypertension is related to insulin resistance. The reason hypertension is so common now is because the typical lifestyle leads to metabolic syndrome (insulin resistance, etc.).
You are trying to make it sound like it's a big mystery, idiopathic, no idea why it happens, must resort to drugs.
When in fact it is very well known that metabolic syndrome is involved, and most likely somehow causes hypertension. None of this is completely understood. But it's not simply not known, that is just not true.
Again, it is primarily lifestyle. You will deny it and say it's genetic. But just because genetics is involved (it's involved in just about any disease) doesn't mean drugs are the answer.
Genetics can make one person more vulnerable than another. In rare cases, a person can do everything right and still have hypertension. Most of the time, lifestyle is the major contributer.
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