[Closed] High Blood Pressure

One thing worry remembering that you can lose weight and get fitter and still have high bp.

Basically it can be genetic and meds are the only option.

Try the weight loss/ fitter option first though!👍

If the ease and amount I bleed and always have suggests I may have always had more blood than my body really wanted.

I went swimming and managed to come out of the sea dripping blood to the point people thought shark attack. I had only a small scratch on my shoulder but the blood covered my upper body and was dripping onto my toes when I was 15.

^^ I think you might need an exorcism more than a doctor's appointment.

It all went wrong when they stopped using leeches

Lol, indeed.

Joking aside I think I'm a good example of the hereditary bp problem. Got as fit as I've been on many years last year, lost a lot of weight too...

Didn't alter my bp one jot.

Currently I've kicked the issue down the road as I've bigger fish to fry but I do need to get it sorted. As usual (for me) I read about the hereditary aspect of this on stw and it seems pretty common. Both my parents have/ are receiving treatment for it so I'm a bit buggered I suppose.

Getting fit, sorting out your diet will help as will reducing stress. However at that high a BP drugs are essential IMO

Learn to meditate and to do biofeedback?

It will come under control,all the above things will help.My entry in BP top trumps is that I was admitted to hospital with a small stroke 12 years ago,my BP then was 220/140.I've just checked it, and it's 138/78 this morning.

My BP top trumps same as jesmonddingo butbi was wandering around oblivious and felt tip top, unlike the Nurse who took my BP.

Drugs, weight loss did the trick for me, i am on maximum dose of lots of all the BP drugs and run around 135/90

Was in hospital (advised to got by GP) a few weeks back with a suspected blood clot post covid vaccine. BP 201/138. Wasn't overly surprised by that as I really don't like any kind of medical environment. Now on pills, has dropped it to 140/90 ish. Have a review Monday. Not overly surprised as i've been told since the age of 22 (now 41) that i'll need medication at some point. Always been active, drink a little bit and have a couple of smokes. Try not top worry about it but always on the back of my mind! Also awaiting a new bike, hopefully that'll help shed some of my 2nd lockdown kilos.

Wasn’t overly surprised by that as I really don’t like any kind of medical environment.

A friend of mine appears to have this syndrome. BP at the docs is sky high. He was advised to get a monitor and check at home. It was much lower.

I had high blood pressure diagnosis 13 years ago - think it was something like 155/105 - so not as high as you but not ideal for a 42 yo Family history of stroke and high BP so doc said strictly he should put me on meds, but gave me 6 months to try to sort out through diet and exercise. I got BP down enough to avoid meds and managed to stay off so far.

I've just submitted week or twice daily readings which averages 121/78 - in a period that coveted Euro semis and finals so I'm pretty pleased.

I think it was a lot of regular exercise rather than diet that fixed it for me - I didn't really lose any significant weight until years later. But diet was never that bad - just too much of it.

All this said I would go onto the meds immediately if the doctors told me I needed to. I've seen first hand the devastating impact of stroke on my father at the age on 53 (younger than me now) and I will do whatever I can to minimise that risk

I submit BP readings twice yearly and full bloods every year or so (pandemic allowing). Regular monitoring is key once your BP is stabilized at a safe level

If you are a liquorice allsort addict, as I was ~20 years ago, get it under control pronto.

https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/food-and-diet/can-eating-too-much-black-liquorice-be-bad-for-you/

Try lowering your carb intake to < 50g per day for three months and see what effect it has. Its been the only thing that's worked for my other half who was adamant she didn't want to go on meds although she was told she'd have to eventually. It was regularly around 180/100, but now it's well controlled (without meds) and not that much exercise at 44. I've tried it recently and also feel loads better, although felt awful for the first two weeks. Worth a try IMO but not easy.

im in the same boat. 47 and high bp. mum has had it for yrs despite being quite sporty and my dad had it. mine got picked up through an eye check! on meds for it but it seems high again but lack of exercise as plantar fasciitis, pool shut on post xmas lockdown, crap weather for cycling, 2 young kids at home on lockdown earlier in the yr and my dad passing away hasn't been great for bp I guess. need to get out more and sort it.

I've been on blood pressure tablets since the first Astrazeneca jab, like Autoelec mine also hit 200 at one point.

@caher nice to hear i'm not alone lol. Also posted about palpitations in another thread. Never had any before the Covid season! Anyone else noticed a trend?

Was on my last chance similar BP to you back in Nov 2019 GP wanted to medicate - that was last resort for me.

GP advised try the low carb 800 Blood Sugar Diet (Michael Mosley). Started it in January 2020. BP was down to acceptable levels within a week. Lost 3.5 stone, now successfully maintaining that weight and BP is good.

Weightloss, diet and exercise are your friends here.

Freester - Good to hear your success. Weightloss, diet and exercise is my basic plan but I was just going for a quick drop through drugs to kickstart the process.

Also discovered the benefits of a hot tub. These are the last 5 readings taken mid-morning and early evening each day. The last one was about an hour after I got out of the hot tub.

149/110
155/106
141/106
143/102
148/105
140/102
124/86

The last one was about an hour after I got out of the hot tub.

Is that a recognised way to safely reduce your blood pressure?

Being dehydrated will also reduce your blood pressure but it is not recommended.

Basically the blood is pushed out of the arteries and into the flesh to help cool you down. Also slightly dilates the arteries.

No, it is not a recommended treatment for high blood pressure.
No, it won't do much harm in moderation.

I only mentioned it as I was surprised to see the scale of the effect even an hour later. Dr was quite interested about it when he phoned this morning to discuss the trend over that last 20 measurements.

I shared a spreadsheet showing Min, Max and Average and also a Stocks and Shares type graph plotting the two readings over time. He seemed more interested in how I had done the spreadsheet than the results on it.

My bp was never stupidly high (140/150 over 100 ish)
I now do lots of cold water swimming and running etc and just checked my bp is currently 111/73

Things that help me in order of impact to BP:

Diet: Nothing fancy, basically meat and veg, reduced but not eliminate carbs. Biggest areas here that made impact reducing salt - mostly by cutting out ready meals 100% and eating out, inc cheap work lunches and making sure to stay hydrated during day.

Sleep: Stop all reasons to stay up past 00:00.

Drugs: Nothin fancy, standard generics handed out by Dr.

Exercise: Just be consistent with short workout everyday. 30 mins is fine, never to point of exhaustion. Failed early on trying to do too much and burning out. Be surprised how hard it is to keep within HR / power range and not pushing too hard if you have a good trainer. Don't get into weights too early if not used to it. I personally found it best to focus on movement, and staying away from things like CrossFit, HiiT & classes run by people that want to push everyone hard so they feel like they get value for money. They are all good if you are semi fit and in your 20's.

Daily sauna: Sadly this got wiped out with Covid. Helps when there is a gym right next to your office. Today inside it like a sauna though...

I put exercise down because if you're not doing the things above it's pointless to start going all in on exercise. Most important is consistency and not relying on drugs alone, They will only every give you 30% of what you need. By cheap BP reader and track

during "genetic" angina treatment ... they spotted 140/105 whilst i was recovering
on the ward from angiogram/angioplasty (a non-elective too !!!) and immediately
stuck me on ramipril.

Once home and checked 105/90 so I questioned the GP ... and was fobbed off with
you were seen to have high bp so MUST continue the meds !!

Got back to riding (after stents 2 thru 5 ...) and it's regularly 100 or 110 over 80 or 90
and no meds.

highly recommend the Omron m2 basic home bp monitor thingie

My basic plan is to adjust the diet by reducing carbs. Relatively easy at the moment as I like salad and not a fan of potatoes, even chips, but I will miss rice.

Staying hydrated is easy as I have a 1 litre glass of water on my desk which I refill during the day so probably drink 3-4 litres each day

Drugs will be limited to the amlodipine the Dr has prescribed plus the odd bottleof wine.

Sauna / hot tub I am fortunate to have both in my cabin behind the garage so continue to use those daily.

Sleep is easy and I rarely stay up beyond 11pm and my wife wakes me at about 8:45am for work.

Exercise is a bit of an issue at the moment as I can't run or walk far and the fused ankle makes swimming very splashy and slow. Once I get a working bike (end of August) I plan to do some slow and steady riding enjoying the Hampshire countryside rather then the adrenaline.

There will be one weekend in August where all this goes out the window and I drink excessively, walk until my ankle swells like a balloon and eat anything that comes to hand - have I mentioned that the Big Bike Bash is back on this year?

I rarely stay up beyond 11pm and my wife wakes me at about 8:45am for work.

Really? About 10 hours sleep a night??

I don't think that much sleep is very good for you.

I am not sure why 10 hours a night would be bad for me but I am not losing sleep over it.

I wake naturally when I wake but then rest and relax until my wife brings me coffee* at 8:45 and I rise for work.

*Yes , I know coffee might not be good for me, like the not tub and sleep you have already questioned but it is nice, I enjoy it and is now the only coffee I have for the day

I am not sure why 10 hours a night would be bad for me but I am not losing sleep over it.

Increased risk of stroke I believe but seek medical advice rather than the opinion of some unqualified geezer on a mtb forum.

Thanks for qualifying. I will check. I have always been happy sleeping 12-14 hours a day since a kid. I have the ability for fall asleep pretty much on demand.

On the flight from Southampton to Jersey (~30 minutes) I would sit down, put me belt on and fall asleep before the passengers had finished loading.

I find I sleep less now and am often awake when I am brought coffee but we both love the 'ceremony' as it reminds us of the strength and bond that was re-enforced when I was stuck in bed for 6 months after snapping my foot off and I was totally reliant on her to bring the coffee. Strange what habits last from horrible periods of life.

I so hope that we get similar nice things after the pandemic normalises, assuming it does.

I'm in the club.
I was diagnosed with essential hypertension when i was 17 after returning from a 7s rugby tournament with burst blood vessels in my eyelids. Mum sent me straight to the GP to get checked and he immediately put me on beta blockers 🙁
Specialist suggested I do more exercise and reduce the salt in my food!!! (two rugby matches a week, one football match and training and a really good diet).
... I was a heavy drinker for a teenager though and a social smoker.

AFAI remember my BP was never super high, but even with white coat syndrome there wasn't much faith in home measurements in those days (late 90s)

After three years at Uni doing a lot more of the above, including playing 1st team football, i got the med's changed to a s****y new ACE inhibitor ... that (Ramipril) gave me a horrific dry cough so got it changed again.

When i emigrated in my mid-20s i almost didn't get an Australian Visa as my BP was in the borderline 140+/90 area.

About 6 years ago i read an article in the BMJ (i think) saying there was little point medicating borderline high BP. I discussed with my GP and he got me to bring in all my records from previous investigations, etc. We compared alongside my current readings and identified that over a period of about 8 years nothing had really changed, so i came off the meds. Just recently after being fairly stressed out, i did a month or so testing twice a day (taking the lowest of three readings) and came up with pretty much the same readings again.

I have a fairly low resting HR (48-50bpm) and can't get over 165 max HR (i'm 42) but Drs haven't ever suggested there's a relationship.

I guess i'll just keep an eye on things and if it starts to increase go back to meds. Ideally i'd lose 1-2 stone, but i'm scared it wouldn't make enough difference to my riding to have been worth it 😉

mine was fine till I hit 50. in the space of literally 6 months my BP went from fine to 160 over 100 average. Turns out that both parents had high BP (they never told me) and so did my brother.

medicated with ramipril and indapamide. terrible hacking cough starts at 2pm in the afternoonn and lasts a couple of hours but put up with it. BP hovers around 120 / 90 now. Work always makes it higher.

Seriously @lowey just get the meds changed if it's making you cough.

Mine rises slightly but not significantly with work and drops towards the weekends

Both parents had it, Mum has a stroke in her 50s... my sister and I both have it, always been elevated/borderline high, despite in her case being far from overweight and neither of us smoking or drinking heavily. Both been thoroughly tested and nothing could be pinned down other than genetic tendency. We're both now on Ramipril, which had little effect on my BP until combined with Amlodipine fairly recently - my BP is now comfortably just over 120/80. No cough at all from the Ramipril, definitely luck of the draw on that side effect.

Seriously @lowey just get the meds changed if it’s making you cough.

I did. they put me on Amlodipine which made my ankles / lower legs swell up quite impressively. Was like walking around in wellies full of water, so went back on the Ramipril and just put up with the cough now.

I rarely stay up beyond 11pm and my wife wakes me at about 8:45am for work.

Jesus, very jealous, the older I get the worse I sleep!

There is a correlation between >8 hrs sleep and increased incidence of some illnesses, but that doesn't necessarily apply to any one individual, it's just seen across a population.

I did. they put me on Amlodipine which made my ankles / lower legs swell up

I have this now. Had to get new cycling shoes. Told it would go down in few weeks.

So… the Ramipril has dropped the systolic but diastolic is still high. Now on Amplodipine as well! Anyone else on the combo? It’s getting expensive lol.

Told it would go down in few weeks.

It won’t. Well mine haven’t anyway.

@maccyb. Sorry missed your post. You still finding the combo OK? My Dr seemed really keen on it. Getting old sucks!

@Autoelec - yes, still finding it OK but morning fatigue is common - seems to take several days to clear if I've had even a mild late night. I do get the puffy ankles so have taken to not wearing socks much when indoors. Reading back through the thread I wondered when I had said "I rarely stay up beyond 11pm and my wife wakes me at about 8:45am for work" because that sounds like me... though she usually wakes me around 8.15 if she's not working from home herself!

Since I'm on the Bisoprolol as well I should get a prepay prescription certificate really to save a bit - fortunately I get prescribed two months at a time so it's not too bad (and I don't really begrudge paying)

I've been on Ramipril for years - no obvious side effects - to start with I had the dry cough which is common but that went after a week or two
Now on Amlodipine as well - ankles are a bit swollen
No other issues with the meds after about 13 years of taking them
Fitness has improved at same time but not convinced that alone would get BP down
Family history of heart disease so I was pretty keen to get BP down asap once it was diagnosed

Just had my Ramipril upped t0 10mg and still on Indapamide as well.

I get the yearly pre paid voucher for the prescriptions. Saves a fortune.

Great information chaps, thanks for the input. Not looking forward to the swollen ankles though. Wish MTB monster and Nukeproof would hurry up with the new steed! Although I don't think any further exercise will drop it.

I got diagnosed about 18 months ago.

Started me off on amlodipine but had horrendous headaches, and now on 10mg of ramipril, which is better.

I made some good progress last year bringing it down, which has gone out the window now, but doing the following worked for me:

-Regular exercise, higher intensity cardio in particular
-Sorting diet, loads of fibre, loads of veg, cut as much sugar and bad fats as you can
-Watch salt intake, but found that needed to be balanced when doing longer rides to avoid cramps
-No caffeine after noon
-Get a proper nights sleep, which is easier said than done with young children

I ended up losing about 2 stone doing that and my BP went from stage 2 to stage 1 hypertension.

I've undone that hard work, and now need to start again.