high blood pressure

[icedtea]

I have been mostly 120/60 all my life.
Now i went to the dr. for another reason, and it came out as 150/80.
I was shocked.
When my dad's nurse came by today, I had her take it, and it was 140/80.
How can this be?
I am 48, a normal weight, 5/11" and 148 lbs.
I have been taking a low dose pill for 3 years. never smoked, not overweight, not more stress than when I was married.
How bad is this? I am worried now.
Both my parents had it, my mom had a stroke in her 70's, my father had a heart attack at 92.
They just said eat less salt and to come back in 3/4 weeks.
Will it ever go back down?
Maybe I should lose weight? I was 135 til I started the pill, and was 115 when I got pregnant 15 years ago.
or do all older people get it?

 

[woobadooba]

I have been mostly 120/60 all my life.
Now i went to the dr. for another reason, and it came out as 150/80.
I was shocked.
When my dad's nurse came by today, I had her take it, and it was 140/80.
How can this be?
I am 48, a normal weight, 5/11" and 148 lbs.
I have been taking a low dose pill for 3 years. never smoked, not overweight, not more stress than when I was married.
How bad is this? I am worried now.
Both my parents had it, my mom had a stroke in her 70's, my father had a heart attack at 92.
They just said eat less salt and to come back in 3/4 weeks.
Will it ever go back down?
Maybe I should lose weight? I was 135 til I started the pill, and was 115 when I got pregnant 15 years ago.
or do all older people get it?

Have you had a blood test done to see if your thyroid is normal?

It is common for people to have hypothyroidism. This can cause high blood pressure. A simple blood test will determine if you have this problem.

Also, doing some cardio every day will help to bring your blood pressure down. If you have a treadmill you can spend about 20-30 minutes on it a day either jogging, walking at a high pace, or a combination of both, which is actually even more effective than just doing one of the two.

Get a blood pressure machine when you have a chance, so that you can check your blood pressure regularly to see if any improvements are being made. You should be able to identify what it is that you are doing to bring it down to a normal level by doing this. Once you determine what it is that you are doing to normalize it, you just simply need to keep doing that.

But getting a blood test is a very good idea. If it just so happens that you have hypothyroidism, it's not something to be alarmed about. As I had mentioned, it is common for people to have this, and it is treatable.

Some symptoms that one may experience as a result of having hypothyroidism are:

weight gain
hair loss
fatigue
high blood pressure
mild depression

I hope this information helps

 

[icedtea]

You are helpful! I will get that. I have had some of those symptoms.
But it does run in my family.
I was looking online and am going to start a workout and my son too, who had a high blood pressure reading last time he was in.

 

[QuiltAngel]

I know this thread is two months old. I just wanted to put in my two cents here. My BP and been slowly rising the last 4 or 5 years. My oncologist did not like where it was when I was in in June. He sent me to a specialist to be worked up for this (I have the family history also). Well . . . the hypertension clinic takes the BP way different than the average clinic. They use an automatic cuff, set it to record 6 readings over the following 8 minutes and then leave the room. When the doctor comes in, she takes the readings

The idea is that when a BP is usually taken, we have been walked down a hall, weighed and are not relaxed at all. The way this clinic does it, they get to see where the BP is when you came in as well as when you had a few minutes to relax. Mine always goes way down during this time period.

Diet and exercise are important in combatting the problem. Now, I need to go practice what I preach.

 

[JonMiller]

I have high blood pressure, One thing is, after I exercised (quite a bit, actually), and lost weight, it came down... and the medication I was on started being dangerous for me. Now I am on an Ace Inhibitor (instead of a Beta Blocker). I am hoping to get completely off within a year.

The key things for me were exercise and weight loss. I also cut down salt a bit, but honestly haven't been doing so lately. I dont' really use salt much at home, so my salt intake depends on how much prepared food I eat and howoften I go to restaurants. For others it is heavily dependent on salt intake and too much water in the blood vessels.

Anyways, good luck.

JM

 

[Kellylaine]

I know that if I don't take my blood pressure meds, I have high blood pressure, and strange thing, I had a dream that my blood pressure in the hospital in my dream was 50 over 300

 

[icedtea]

Went to a dr. in Oct. and he said it was 130/80.
So made an appointment with my regular dr. today and its 135/80 still.
He said this is nothing really and we could monitor and come back in a month and a half, or give me a mild diuretic.
I opted for that, it hasn't been filled yet.
He said thats really not so bad, but I don't know why it was good all my life and nothing has changed (few extra lbs) and now I worry.
He assured me it was almost no chance at all I could have a stroke.

 

[blondrebel]

I have high blood pressure and i take so many pills it could count as a meal. Anyway, i just thought i would let y'all know, if you are in my situation of not having a lot of extra cash, take a look into wal-marts 4$ prescriptions, a lot of your blood pressure pills are on the list and it really helps me out.

 

[Quasicentennial]

Google search helps us understand the miraculous healing power of food molecules from fruit and vegetables. It is not in the education system that nutritionology for good health is being taught
in schools to fight obesity and other modern western diseases such as AIDS. No one is perfect. Eating whole fruits and vegetables means many different chemicals instead of one powerful drug of one chemical to fight cancer or high blood pressure. Strong drugs can be misinterpreted by the immune system as an enemy bacteria, making the drugs unreliable.

 

[plmarquette]

usually they can use some medication to lower your pressure ....
you can reduce your salt intake (start looking at the end panels when you shop, look for "lowest" salt reading .... breads run from 80 milligrams to 2-300 milligrams of salt; avoid canned or frozen foods)....

 

[mrslinky]

I've been prescribed toprol xl which I have grudgingly been taking. My bp has been lowered and I wish to stop. I am very strict with salt intake. Some canned foods or frozen foods have around 450-500 mgs which is not so bad. In general I avoid them. I have found some frozen foods with as much as 2,000 mgs of salt.

 

[plmarquette]

1. do you smoke ... shrinks blood vessels ^^^ blood pressure
2. did stress in your life increase ( birth, death, divorce, lose job )
3. did you put on 20-30 #'s (can't see toes, let alone touch them)
4. did you stop exercising each week (out of shape)
5. is your job extremely physical (exhaustion)

.... do you have some one who will walk / execise / pray with you ?

 

[KMcDaniel7]

I had my 1st baby in June ~ I had to be induced at 38 weeks because of pregnancy induced hypertension. I thought my blood pressure would go back down to normal (which mine was around 110/50 or 60). At my 6 week postpartum checkup - it was still slightly elevated above 120/80 ~ So I went to the doctor yesterday (I've been procrastinating, ) & it was 136/86...So I'm borderline. Since I am only right around 3 months out from having my son, could my blood pressure still go down?

Before having my son, I was pretty active with my job. (Physical labor job) About 3-4 months into my pregnancy, I stopped my physical job & started a desk job. After giving birth, I have been a stay at home mom ~ which I feel very active...but it's not the same physical load. Could that contribute to my blood pressure being elevated?

I really want to start working out, & eating better (watching my sodium intake, etc.) Does this really help lower blood pressure? I've already lost all but 8 lbs of my pregnancy weight, so I'm not carrying a TON of extra weight...

I have also been having a few pains in my chest. The doctor did chest x-rays & an EKG, & they were fine. The doctor said it was probably from lifting my son...muscle strain. Does that sound wierd?

I'm going back to the doctor in 3 weeks to have my blood pressure checked again & a few more tests run. I'm hoping my blood pressure is back to my normal rate...

Has anyone else had this problem after giving birth?